Instead of writing typical cook-book lab reports with many questions asking you the same things indifferent ways, you will be writing a research report using a simple device called a Vee. The Vee was first developed as an aid to help students understand the nature and the purpose of laboratory work in sciences.

Using the Vee will help you see the connection between what you already know and the new knowledge you learn during a lab investigation or science fair investigation.

When you receive your Vee form, or if you make one yourself, you will fill out the left side and center portions as a prelab or research activity. the right side of the Vee is completed after your investigation is complete.

Before You Begin Your Lab/Research

TOP CENTER OF VEE

First, write your Focus Question. when using the Vee Form, you will begin by writing a Focus Question which is the main question that your experiment seeks to answer. For example, suppose you are going to perform a lab experiment in which you investigate the effects of heat on the temperature of ice. Your focus question might ask, "What happens to the temperature of ice when heat is added?"

LEFT SIDE OF VEE

Next, complete the KNOWING SIDE of the Vee. After you have written your focus question, you will perform a laboratory experiment to answer your focus question. But before you can do this, you will need to gather and organize the information you know before beginning the experiment. The Knowing Side of the Vee will help you do this. The Knowing Side of the Vee begins with Subject Area, which identifies the one or more broad, comprehensive subject areas covered by your investigation. For example, the subject area for the sample focus question in the above paragraph might be "Temperature".
Below Subject Area, the Vee Form provides spaces for writing Concepts and Vocabulary. concepts are the ideas you need to understand before you can expect to figure out whatever is going on in the lab. In the ice experiment, for example, your concepts might include "water","ice", temperature," "heat," "boiling, "bubbles," and "thermometer." Vocabulary , to the right of Concepts, lists any new terms used in the investigation. For example, in your ice experiment, the Vocabulary section might include the terms "exergonic" and "endergonic."

After looking over your list of concepts, you look for significant relationships between two or more of them. These relationships can be summarized in statements called Concept Statements. These statements demonstrate your understanding of a fundamental idea on which the investigation is based. Here are some concept statements that could be made using the concepts and vocabulary listed in your ice experiment:
Water freezes at 0 degrees C.
Water boils at 100 degrees C.
Bubbles form when water boils.
Ice loses its solid form when it melts.
Exergonic reactions release energy.
Endergonic reactions absorb more energy than they release.

Next, you complete the Materials and Procedure Sections of the Vee form. In the Materials section at the bottom point of the Vee, you will list all the materials to be used in your experiment. In the Procedure section which follows the materials section you briefly summarize the procedures that you follow. For example, in the ice experiment, your materials would be ice, a beaker, a heat source, and a thermometer. Your procedure would be to heat the ice and take records of its temperature change over time. Completing the Materials and Procedure sections of the Vee Form will help you understand the key events that happened during an investigation and recognize the materials that made these outcomes possible. Your lab /research instructions in books will always identify the materials and procedures for you. If you come up with your own ideas, you will have to list the things you need and design the procedure as well.

RIGHT SIDE OF VEE

Complete the Doing Side of the Vee. Begin by filling out the section labeled Records, just above and to the right of the Materials and Procedure sections of the Vee. The Records portion of the Vee form will contain the data that you collected during the investigation. A record is any piece of information that will enable others to understand what happened during the lab/research. For example, a record could be the weight of a specimen, the length of a tadpole's tail, or the height of a bean seedling. The records of the ice experiment would include the temperatures that you recorded during the lab. Remember that your data must be presented in an organized fashion. Data should be presented in tables, charts, and graphs so it makes sense to a person seeing it for the first time.

Now complete the Knowledge Claims section of the Vee. It is the place where you will make statements- claims - about what you learned during the lab/research. It must answer your Focus Question. In other science classes, you may have used the word "conclusion" to describe what you learned during the lab. A Knowledge Claim in your ice experiment might state that ice will take 50 minutes to reach 0 degrees C and melt with a heat source.

Knowledge claims can suggest new questions that can lead to new focus questions for new experiments or investigations. The knowledge claim from your ice experiment could become a concept statement for a new focus question.

Ultimately, your knowledge claims can lead you to draw up a Value Claim. This is a claim that describes the significance of the knowledge gained in the experiment--in other words, so what? What good is knowing this? To whom is this valuable information? In the ice experiment, a value claim can be: Knowing how long it takes to change the state of water at certain temperatures can enable one to adjust a heat source to evaporate water at different temperatures. The Value Claim goes above the Knowledge Claim on the Vee.

MID CENTER VEE

At this point on your Vee you should be thinking about such a New Focus Question which would lead you to a new experiment. This is how scientific knowledge is made, by asking questions, coming up with experimental procedures which lead to knowledge claims about those questions. Then , those claims lead you to think of new questions which lead to new experiments, and so on. This is how science happens. Your NFQ should appear in the center of the vee below the Focus Question.

HOW SCIENTISTS DO THEIR WORK

The parts of the Vee show you how scientists do their work. When asking a question, they begin by examining all the things that need to be known before the question can be answered. They will look at the materials they need and review the procedures they want to take place. After their lab work is completed, they transform their records into meaningful tables or graphs. Based on what they already know (as stated in the Concepts and the Concept Statements), they answer their focus question with the new information. The answer to their focus question becomes a new knowledge claim, supported by the evidence obtained during the experiment. This knowledge claim can be used a new piece of information to help answer another focus question during another investigation. Using the Vee enables you to work in a similar way, linking what you know with the events that take place in the lab.