Dr. Heidegger's Lab Report
to accompany "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment" by Nathaniel Hawthorne


  • The final report must be written legibly in blue or black ink; you may type or wordprocess if you prefer.
  • Use one side of the paper only. Single space and leave a blank line between each section.
  • Make sure you have a one-inch margin on all four sides of the paper if you type.
  • If you wordprocess, use a standard, 12-point font such as Times New Roman, Arial, Courier, Helvetica, or Palatino.
  • Spelling, punctuation, and capitalization ALWAYS count.
  • When is this due? ______________________________________

Here is the format for this report.


Your Name
American Literature
Period
Date

Lab title (Your title should reflect the actual concept being investigated and should avoid being just a clever play on words.)

1. Hypothesis: If . . ., then . . ..
Write Dr. Heidegger's hypothesis in this format. What idea was he testing? What did he expect to see?

2. Rationale
This is the logic behind the hypothesis. Refer to #1 above and explain WHY he expected to see certain results.

3. Procedure
How did Dr. Heidegger perform his experiment? You may write the instructions in list or paragraph form, or you may write a list with explanatory notes. Part of your goal here is for someone else to be able to perform the same experiment.

4. Data/Observations
This should be strictly limited to the actual collection of data. Do not try to explain what Dr. Heidegger observed or recorded.

5. Analysis
How might Dr. Heidegger have explained what happened to his friends during this experiment?

6. Conclusion
The conclusion must contain a reference to the hypothesis. Would Dr. Heidegger conclude that his hypothesis was correct? Why or why not? What has Dr. Heidegger learned from this experiment?