Learning to write detailed lab reports is important for high school students who want to go onto college science classes. There are many parents who are completely comfortable teaching their kids how to do this on their own, but, a non-science minded parent like me often needs a little help. Enter the Student Lab Report Handbook from Novare Science and Math. Written by John D. Mays, it offers nine chapters that guide your student through the steps of creating a thorough lab report, with examples.

One of the best thing about this handbook is that it can be applied to any science course your high schooler is already taking. So, you can use it alongside your regular science course, and then once you complete it, your child can use the same format for their lab reports for the rest of their courses. Mr. Mays does stress the importance of having your child create a lab journal where they will take notes on each experiment they complete, but all you need for that is a notebook.

The text itself is written mainly to the student and it does not include a suggested schedule or teacher’s notes or anything, but I didn’t feel like you really needed it. I read through each chapter myself, then had my son read the chapter as well. We discussed each section, and then I would have him “show” me what he was supposed to do. So, for the section on verb tense, I had him write sentences related to our science course in the correct verb tense, when we read the section on formatting or creating graphs on the computer, I had him get on the computer and format a paper and make some graphs.

I really liked how detailed the Lab Report Handbook is while still being very clear and easy to follow for someone with a non-science background. Often, I feel like many books of this nature seem to assume the parent or student is very comfortable with all things science, and that really isn’t always the case. My son was able to read and follow the directions in the handbook mostly on his own, and I saw steady improvement in his lab reports as he went through the course. I also like that he was creating his own lab reports from scratch, rather than just filling in a pre-printed form. I feel like this will better prepare him for college science classes.

The Student Lab Report Handbook is a great reference for any high school student. It is very reasonably priced and can easily be used repeatedly with multiple students, and, once your child masters writing the labs, they can use that skill for the rest of high school. I would absolutely recommend adding this to your high school curriculum.

-Product review by Brandy Brockhausen, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, January, 2018