BIOLOGY 1210 F10

PROJECT DETAILS 25 POINTS

a. 25 QUESTIONS see posted schedule for your section for due date + 24 hour grace period. You need to get topic approval from TA before you start your project. At the beginning of the class I told you to keep a list of questions. I hope that you have become curious about various topics that we did not discuss in enough detail. For this project, I want you chose the best 25 from your extensive questions list. - Turn in a list of well worded, specific questions. Email to your homework TA (where you send articles) - Indicate which questions are your top three choices for topic. TA will email you with topic approval. - It is OK if it was a topic that we talked about in class but you would like to know more details i.e. "How are introns spliced out of the pre-RNA?" In this survey class we barely scratched the surface of what is known. Even if questions were answered in class, it was only an oversimplified answer. - We WILL NOT accept questions like "What is DNA? What is a cell? What is a protein?" Make an effort! This is for your brain. b. GOALS/PURPOSE OF PROJECT: I want you to ask questions, articulate what you learn, and refine your question. None of us have good questions on the first try and nothing is figured out in isolation. Knowledge is something that you build with effort. c. PROJECT DUE: see posted schedule for your section for due date + 24 hour grace period for all excuses; after that not accepted (zero) as we have to get the grades in. d. TURN IN: All write ups can be turned in via email to your assigned homework TA (where you send your articles). Put Project and your section # in subject line, make sure your name is on document, save the document as a ".doc"(MS word) or ".rtf" Not active X .docx ALSO YOU MUST cut and paste the document into the body of email e. LENGTH: Minimum 4 pages of project double spaced, reasonable font (10 or 12 pt). Points will be taken off if it is too short or if a sincere effort was not invested. Page count does not include 25 questions. f. CITATION: A citation must include author and complete web site (posting date if listed), for journals (author, date, title, journal, issues, pages) for books (author, date, title, page), for TV (network, show, title, date aired), for conversation you just write (personal communication). If something is not cited you are claiming as your own thought. g. EXPLORATION, NOT A RESEARCH REPORT: Choose one of your questions to explore further. This assignment will encourage curiosity and help you learn to explore a topic. Writing a research reportwith the most current data and analysis by the experts and cited referencesis one way to explore a topic. Another way to learn about a topic is an "exploration". This may not seem as scientific as a research report. You may think science is only about gathering information and solving problems, but TO SOLVE PROBLEMS WE MUST FIRST LEARN TO POSE QUESTIONS. Asking questions helps you to make connections, to retain information, to participate actively in the learning of the material, and to refine the problems you address. "Wow" you say, "that means I don't need to come up with answer! But what do I do?" h. WHAT IS AN EXPLORATION? I realize that this is not the format that you are comfortable with but I think that this exploration should be the first step to any formal research paper you need to write. Luckily you get to do this fun step but dont have to write the paper! - This exploration can include a bulleted list of enlightening, interesting, important facts and points that you gathered (you don't have to use full sentences). - Do not cut and paste things off the web, paraphrase into your own words and cite the source. - Scattered through your lists of info include additional questions, discussion, connections etc. i. SOURCES: Go to at least 5 sources, present opposite view points if relevant. The web is the fastest easiest way to learn something fast but as you know there is a huge variation in the quality and the validity of what is posted. I do the following: 1) www. biology-pages.info for framework 2) Google, or your favorite search engine, make your search words as specific as possible. Refine the search if you aren't hitting good information 3) Briefly skim the site before you decide to skip it or bookmark it. If you can tell it is a great site. Take notes now as it may help refine your search/question. 4) Surf around see what is out there but scribble a few notes to stay focused. 4) Record what you learned, thought, and wondered. Remember to cite information. (OVER)

j. TIME: Everyone's concern, especially at this point in the semester. Of course you could spend your life exploring most good questions. For this assignment I want you to dedicate at least three hours of quality focused attention. - You should already have your list of questions complete. Time to think of them and type them up is not included in this time estimate. k. A RALLYING CHEER: - I want you to thoroughly EXPLORE the question. This should lead to even more questions. Write out your thought processes as record of how you developed these ideas - I want you to ENGAGE your question by thinking deeply and critically, by discussing it and researching it. Your can gather information from books, the web, PBS, journal articles, etc - I want you to EXPAND your way of thinking about this question by becoming aware of its complexity, its connections to other concepts questions, to your personal experience. - I want you to EXPLORE any ethical considerations of your question and consider different perspectives on the issue (view points of different individuals). - I want you to see that asking questions is the first step to learning. And that learning is fun! l. FORMAT: Write your exploration in the format of the SCIENTIFIC METHOD. Don't panic! I want to encourage you to ask questions that you know nothing about. Don't be inhibited by the hypothesis and test with controls parts. We know that it takes practice and this might be your first attempt. Give all steps a sincere effort but in grading we will focus on steps #1, 2, 6 and 7 - For some questions, fitting your project into the scientific method may seem very awkward. We are not grading on the quality of your original question, your hypothesis, test. Just follow the directions, try this process, relax and enjoy learning something.

SCIENTIFIC METHOD #1 MAKE OBSERVATIONS:

Briefly, what did you read, hear or see to make you ask this question.

#2 ASK QUESTIONS
Write your question here. #3 Create possible explanations (hypotheses) Take some wild guesses based on what you know. Think of a few and don't worry at this point if they are right #4 Make predictions based on these models. Just give this a try. If ___then____. #5 Test with controls Proposing experiments here may be premature if it is a topic that you don't know much about. Just say "Maybe you could" and don't stress. Then do step #6 There are two overlapping types of science: observational and experimental. Usually the observational has to come first. Scientist are still actively asking questions while they observe to understand more about their subjects.

#6 OBSERVE RESULTS
DO YOUR EXPLORATION AND DOCUMENT YOUR FINDINGS HERE.

#7 REPEAT (MODIFY, EXTEND OR REJECT)

Refine, reword, expand your original question based on what you have learned. (next you would go back to step #3 but we will stop here. whew ) m. GRADING: 25 questions Exploration

8 pts #1 1 pts #2 1 pt #3-5 3 pts (made an attempt) #6 10 pts followed directions (or loose points) at least 3.5 pages for this part (-5 pts if 2 pages etc) at least 5 citations (-2 points if 4 citations etc) #7 2 pts refined question

plagiarism from web or projects of former students : no points for project, a note in your records and a potential for E in class