What format should the Methods & Materials section of a thesis be in?
Thesis writers generally have much more freedom to format them as they please. The only real requirement is that it follows any guidelines of the department and institution to which it is submitted, and receives the approval of the writers' thesis committees.

That said, I believe that these days, space should not really be a limiting consideration for a thesis writer. The methods section should be as long as needed to convey the necessary information. In addition, since this is not normally a journal publication, there is much more room to explain things in detail—which can be very useful for future members of the lab group who might follow up the same project.