I was trying to explain that the abstract of a lab report was a really brief summary of everything in the report.
One of my students said, “Oh, so it’s like spoilers.”
And they were right.
If you didn’t know, spoilers are little bits of information that give away the plot. While you don’t want any spoilers if you have not seen the movie, in a lab report you what to give away the plot because since it’s a short, concise summary, it’s what most people will read.
So now my middle-schoolers are submitting lab reports with a section called “Spoilers” on the cover page.