Writing a Lab Abstract Whats the point It

Writing a Lab Abstract

What’s the point? It is used in science A Summary of Fifteen Years of Breeding Bird Survey Data at Apostle Islands National Lakeshore Peggy Burkman*, National Park Service, Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, Route 1, Box 4, Bayfield, WI 54814 (peggy_burkman@nps. gov) Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, located in northwestern Wisconsin, includes 21 islands and a mainland unit. The islands range in size from 1 to 4, 000 ha (3 to 10, 000 acres). The park contains a diverse mosaic of habitats that are important for nesting resident birds as well as neotropical migrants. Apostle Islands NL established a long-term breeding bird survey in 1990 to gain a better understanding of the importance of the archipelago to breeding birds and to identify important nesting habitats. Surveys are conducted annually along 10 transects on seven islands and the mainland unit. Point locations have been permanently marked and are stratified by habitat type. This paper will present the results of 15 years of monitoring. Comparisons will be made between islands, habitats and years. In addition, trends recorded in the Lakeshore will be compared with state and region-wide trends.

What is an Abstract? A abstract is a brief summary of a scientific paper, generally stating: • An introductory statement of the purpose for the lab • A couple sentences of a brief description of the methods used. • May include your predictions/ expectations • A few sentences that state and interpret the results • A brief thoughtful conclusion

Why is an abstract used? • Allows the reader to easily understand a science paper • Allow you as the writer to express a long lab briefly

Example-from a science fair Advertisers are always touting more powerful and longer lasting batteries, but which batteries really do last longer, and is battery life impacted by the speed of the current drain? This projects looks at which AA battery maintains its voltage for the longest period of time in low, medium, and high current drain devices. The batteries were tested in a CD player (low drain device), a flashlight (medium drain device), and a camera flash (high drain device) by measuring the battery voltage (dependent variable) at different time intervals (independent variable) for each of the battery types in each of the devices. My hypothesis was that Energizer would last the longest in all of the devices tested. The experimental results supported my hypothesis by showing that the Energizer performs with increasing superiority, the higher the current drain of the device. The experiment also showed that the heavyduty non-alkaline batteries do not maintain their voltage as long as either alkaline battery at any level of current drain.

Example-from Class In a class lab I measured the effect that positioning my body in different postures and stress levels had on my blood pressure. Blood pressure (BP) is the measure of the force blood exerts on the walls of the arteries as a result of contractions by the heart. A sphygmomanometer was used to measure BP as I sat, stood, laid down and walked stairs. I expected that more relaxing postures would reduce my BP while stressful activities would increase my BP. Results from the lab showed that relaxing postures, such as sitting and lying down, lowered BP a little. However, stressful activities, such as walking stairs, had a more significant effect on BP. This was most evident was in my systolic pressure which increased from 110 mm Hg to 145 mm Hg. This lab demonstrates that stress has the most significant effect on BP.