And just for fun, look at this copy of an actual lab report . Here's something I wrote recently Science as Process for Living Science. Long equations, beakers full of bubbling liquid, difficult Latin names. If you're not a scientist, you probably think it's not. Science has been hyped up as a difficult and mysterious vocation, both through the media and through the schools.
Science is taught as an assembly of facts.
If you can't remember the facts, or you can't do the math, you can't do the science. The process of science is just as important as facts, and training in scientific methods is integral to helping people make their way through the world. I asked one of the students why they chose to make an electromagnet - a wire wrapped around an iron bar will create a magnetic field. She couldn't answer me. The book said that the more coils there are, the stronger the magnetic field, and she set out to verify this.