USER GUIDE
Redi to teach.
Laboratory Reports user guide
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USER GUIDE
Who’s Redi?
The 17th century Italian scientist Francesco Redi was hardly the first to
conduct an experiment, but his famous investigation into spontaneous
generation was the first recorded instance of using controls.
Being ready for an experiment means more than just knowing what to
do. It means understanding what others have done before you. It means
having a strong hypothesis, and a knowledge of what to look for, and a
way to avoid being fooled by your eyes and reasoning. In science, it’s
important to be ready.
Welcome to Redi Lab Reports
Whether you’re a seasoned scientist or a curious eleven year old, science can at times be rather dull.
There’s the waiting, the repetition, the note-taking, the calculating, and the repetition. Not every moment
in an experiment can be explosions and rainbows.
But the dull bits of science are as vital as they are challenging to learn. By streamlining the process, we
believe students of science will be free to think creatively and critically about science.
So we at IntoScience have developed Redi Lab Reports. This toolkit for the classroom laboratory aims to
take the pain out of reporting and assessing experiments, research reports, and observations.
Redi is essentially a modifiable template based on the scientific method. By scaffolding the reporting
process, teachers can guide their students through an experiment and its write-up. Students fill in the
fields, answering questions and filling in the template, and then submit their assignment for marking. It’s
that simple. Helpful hints assist students in knowing more about each section, teaching them the finer
points in communicating their research.
For teachers, Redi is a way to develop an archive of practical science activities. Every section of the
lab template has a default description which can be modified to suit a teacher’s preferred terms, to
differentiate for individual student abilities, or to create a tailored exercise.
Redi yet?
From April until August, 2016, Redi Lab Reports will be available to IntoScience users as beta.
What’s a beta?
A beta is a version of a product made available for the purpose of testing, refining, and improving.
We’re confident Redi will make teaching science easier. However, we know the experts are those who
stand in front of a classroom every day. So we need your help!
In this guide you will find hints on how to use Redi, as well as current suggestions on how we intend to
improve and build on the template.
Have your own suggestions, ideas, or concerns? Please
get in touch at [email protected] and let us know!
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Getting started
Getting started is easy. First, you’ll need your IntoScience username and password.
Enter it on the log-in screen, and jump onto the dashboard.
Dashboard
Select Dashboard, Classes, or
Activities to open that page.
Select the question mark icon
to open the help page.
Select the word balloon to
open the feedback page.
Sign out
immediately
returns you to
the log-in page.
Use the feedback
page to get in touch
and send us your
thoughts. Your ideas
will help Redi be even
better.
The dashboard is the town square of Redi. It’s where you’ll access the five main sections.
Create an activity: Open a blank template and fill it in to create a task for your class.
View your classes: Here are your student lists, where you can assign your activities
View your activities: Already written an amazing experiment? It will be saved in here.
Need some help?: We all do. This guide is here to remind you of what Redi does.
Give us your feedback: Love us? Think we can do better? Got a great idea? Get in touch!
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Create an activity
Redi’s laboratory report templates can be fully modified. That means you can create a
research report, a reflection on a class demonstration, or a complete investigation.
First things first. Give your activity a name.
Make it memorable or make it descriptive,
you can edit it later if you change your mind.
Introduction
Preview shows
you what your
students will see.
Toggle through
the sections of the
scientific method.
Redi
automatically
saves regularly.
Feel free to select
save anyway.
Introduce your report with a few words, a
reflection task, or some research.
Duplicate this
report, set it to
complete, or throw
it in the bin.
Behold the green eye! Select this icon to hide an entire section. Don’t
want your students to see a question? Don’t need an entire section?
One click and it’s gone.
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Purpose
Not all classroom practical exercises are
investigations. You can pre-fill the answer
fields to describe the problem or the aim
for students.
How can we help?
We’re creating activities for students to
complete to help them better understand how
the scientific method works.
Let us know what else would help!
Hints explain simply what major steps in
the scientific method mean. They can be
changed to reflect your own classroom’s
understanding of a scientific term.
Hypothesis
Introduce your report with a few words, a
reflection task, or some research.
Locking answers means students can’t edit
the text you provide in the answer fields.
If you want to start them off, or provide a
sample answer, enter a few sentences and
press the lock answer button.
Scroll down to see the three types of
variables in an activity. The major sections
of the template can be moved about, or
hidden completely.
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Materials and method
Materials can be filled in to reflect
the amount of a material, the units (if
applicable), and the type of material or
equipment needed. If you don’t need a row,
press the red X to delete it.
Use the arrows to move a row up and down
the list as you need.
Would a print-out list for your laboratory
assistant be a useful addition to your lesson
planning?
What about pictures in the method? Don’t
worry, we’re looking into ways of doing just
that.
Write out the steps of the method.
If you have any other ideas, send us an
email and let us know!
Need more space? Select Add row.
Safety
Safety is important in school laboratories.
While schools usually have their own
risk analysis procedures, we encourage
students to consider their own steps in
risk management.
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Results
Results come in two varieties - qualitative
and quantitative. We’ve provided a way to
record both.
To save effort, we’ve copied the materials and
method into the results section for students to
refer to as they report their observations.
Qualitative observations can be
expressed using descriptive text in the
box provided.
Quantitative observations can be recorded in the table provided, and converted into a graph
to represent simple trends and correlations. Change the table’s fields, and they’ll be transferred
directly onto the graph.
We know sometimes words aren’t enough. So we’re developing ways to upload
pictures, diagrams, videos, and audio. Soon, a quick snapshot will say so much
more than a paragraph of writing!
Have other requirements when it comes to writing results? Let us know.
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Discussion
Sometimes students need some explicit
questions to guide them through the
process of analysing their results and
evaluating their meaning. Other times
they just need some simple scaffolds.
There’s room for either approach - use our
questions or write your own.
Conclusion
Students can summarise their evaluation
in a sentence or two here, or you can get
them started by giving them your own
scaffolded paragraph.
To save effort, we’ve copied the hypothesis
for easy reflection.
A confidence bar gives students a way to
communicate how much they trust their
results.
References
Writing references is never simple.
Students can get a simple reminder by
clicking on the hint button, or you can
change the heading to use your own
preferred style. They can also record the
date and time they accessed a site.
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Assigning a report
Now that you’ve completed the perfect outline for an investigation, you’ve got to put it in
front of your students. Select a class, decide who will receive which template, and give
them a deadline.
Class selection
Maybe you’ve only got one class. Maybe
you’ve got five. Here is where you’ll find
them. You can start by selecting the class,
or by picking the activity first and then
allocating it to one or more classes.
Class view
Select an
activity you’ve
published.
Can’t assign an
activity? Make
sure it has been
set to published.
Click a student
to view their
details.
Modify the due
date, unassign
students, or look
at the activity.
Your class view allows you to see all of
your students, with tags telling you who
has submitted a report and who hasn’t.
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Student view
Once the students have an assignment, it’s time for them to fill it in and send it back for
marking. They can submit more than once - you’ll always see their latest submission.
Assignments view
Students can view the assignments they
have to complete and those they have
submitted.
Report writing
When students are
finished, a simple
click on submit
report will allow you
to see it and mark it.
Students can
model their
answers on text
you provide.
Students can fill out the fields left by the
teacher, and submit when completed.
We’re working on easy ways to mark submissions with
clear rubrics and feedback forms.
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Notes
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Distribution Partner
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