Schedule is tentative.
The laboratory grade that will factor into your overall grade (out of 200 points) will be calculated by taking your final percentage grade from the lab and doubling it.
Written Assignment - Abstracts
Your writing assignments for this course are abstracts, which are summary paragraphs about articles. Abstracts are routinely written for science journal articles - that way, someone searching for particular material can quickly tell if an article is something they need to read. Abstracts give the theme and "high points" of an article without the details. You are going to abstract two biology-oriented articles and two biology-oriented internet websites, being as brief as possible while still covering all of the sources’ subjects. You will read an article or check out a website concerning some aspect of living things (pick something you can understand!), then reduce it to a simple paragraph. The trick here is to be brief - try to keep your abstract under 100 words, and definitely hold it under 200 words. The article you pick must fit the following FOUR CRITERIA: 1) it must be about some aspect of biology; 2) it must be from a reputable source - hard news or science magazine or newspaper - if you’re not sure about a source, ASK!!!; 3) the article must be more than one full page of text (or half a page of text for newspaper articles); 4) it must have been published this year. When you pick a website, it must fit criteria 1 & 2; for 3, it must have at least 10 subsidiary web pages; and for 4, it must have been updated sometime this year. The format of your abstract will consist of: 1) your name; 2) the title of the article/ website your abstracting, written as stated in the next paragraph; 3) the actual written part of your abstract (handwritten - neatly - is okay; if typed, double spaced!), checked for spelling and grammar; 4) a photocopy of the entire article, or the entire magazine it came from - torn-out pages are not acceptable! (Printouts are not necessary for websites) THE TITLE for the ARTICLE ABSTRACTS will be written in a format like those found in science journals - make sure you follow these directions! Use the following order: 1) the author(s), last name first - all authors must be listed; 2) the year that the article was published (that should be this year); 3) the title of the article, capitalized like a regular sentence would be; 4) the title of the magazine or newspaper the article was in; 5) the volume and issue numbers of the magazine (dates are all right only for newspapers); 6) the pages that the article was on. The title for the website abstracts will use this order: 1) the website name (this often will appear across the top of the screen at the "home" website, but it may just be on the screen at that site); 2) the date that the site was last updated; 3)the author, if there is one; 4) the support site, if this website is part of a yet larger site: 5) the full web address ( this is in the long white box and starts "http..." - it's very important to get this exactly right!!); 4) the date that you accessed the site last.
ABSTRACT CHECKLIST: ________________ Your NAME is on it. ________________ Your article / website concerns some aspect of BIOLOGY. ________________ Your article / website comes from an APPROPRIATE SOURCE. ________________ Your article contains MORE THAN ONE FULL PAGE OF TEXT (If newspaper, more than half a page of text), or your website has more than one webpage.________________ Your article was PUBLISHED THIS YEAR, or your website has been updated this year.________________ You’ve written the TITLE ACCORDING TO THE PROPER FORMAT (see list on first handout sheet).________________ Your abstract is completely CHECKED FOR SPELLING AND GRAMMAR.________________ Your abstract is BRIEF but COVERS THE THEME AND MAIN POINTS of the article.________________ You’ve INCLUDED A PHOTOCOPY of the article, or the whole publication it’s from, or the COMPLETELY ACCURATE WEB ADDRESS.
ABSTRACTS - MARKING DEDUCTIONS: DEDUCTIONS 1st 2nd 3rd 4th ARTICLE TITLE: Format Errors, each . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -1 . . . . . . . . -1 . . . . . . . . -2 . . . . . . . -2 Format Completely Wrong . . . . . . . . . . . -6 . . . . . . . . -8 . . . . . . . . -10 . . . . . . -15 CHOSEN ARTICLE / WEBSITE: Not on Biology Topic. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -10 . . . . . . . . -12 . . . . . . . . -15 . . . . . . -20 Inappropriate Source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -5 . . . . . . . . . -8 . . . . . . . . -10 . . . . . . -10 Source is TOO SHORT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -4 . . . . . . . . . -8 . . . . . . . . . -15 . . . . . . -20 Less than page of text, down to ¾ page . -6 . . . . . . . . -10 . . . . . . . . -20 . . . . . . -22 Less than ¾ page of text. . . . . . . . . . . . . -8 to -10 . . . -10 to -12 . . . . . -22 . . . . . -30 ABSTRACT: Main Theme is Wrong . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -4 . . . . . . . . . -7 . . . . . . . . . -10 . . . . . . -12 Points not covered, each. . . . . . . . . . . . . -1 to -2 . . . . . -1 to -3 . . . . -3 to -4 . . . -3 to -4 Format Errors, each . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -1 . . . . . . . . . -1 . . . . . . . . . -2 . . . . . . . . -2 It isn’t quite an abstract. . . . . . . . . . . . . -1 to -4. . . . . -4 to -6 . . . . -5 to -7 . . . -5 to -9 Not even close to being an abstract. . . . . -6 . . . . . . . . . -10 . . . . . . . . -15 . . . . . . -20 Almost Random Statements . . . . . . . . . . . -8 . . . . . . . . . -12 . . . . . . . . -18 . . . . . . -24 Spelling and grammar errors, each . . . . . -1 . . . . . . . . . -1 . . . . . . . . . -2 . . . . . . . -2 PHOTOCOPY / ACCURATE WEB ADDRESS: Missing or Incomplete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -4 . . . . . . . . . -8 . . . . . . . . -12 . . . . . . -18 Pages Ripped from Source. . . . . . . . . . . . . -4 . . . . . . . . . -10 . . . . . . . -15 . . . . . . -20 OTHERS: Plagiarism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -12 to all Points Falsified Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -6 to all Points Other Dishonesty. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -6 to all Points Other Form Errors, Each. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -1 to -10
Questions and Helpful Hints: Question - What sort of article, exactly, am I looking for? Answer - First, make sure that you are looking in the right place. Science magazines are good sources, but may be much more technical than you're ready to handle. You want something that you'll be able to understand. "Hard news" magazines or newspapers can be good, too. Once you have a source, make sure that any article you might pick is long enough - it's got to have at least one full page of text - and that it is about biology in some way - in other words, it deals with the workings of living things.
Question - So this is like, some sort of report? Answer - No, it's not like anything you've probably written - the closest assignment to an abstract would be the first part of a book report, where you're telling what the book is about. An abstract is about article content and coverage, not a report about the subject of the article. You also don't get to editorialize - your opinions about the article are irrelevant in an abstract.
Question - How much do I need to tell? Answer - Not much. It's as if someone looked over your shoulder as you were reading and asked, "What kind of article is that?" Your answer would be brief, but a good answer would let the person know the basic theme of the article and all of the major points it covers, so they could tell if it was something they might want to read. Keep it short - you don't need to really explain things, just mention them.
Question - Are there any "tricks" to writing a good abstract? Answer - There are many different tricks. What you want to do is break the article down to "the bare bones," and that can be done by outlining, or by making notes on a photocopy, or by reading and then waiting before you write (that last one is tricky). One definite trick is to use the checklist on the first handout page - if you can check everything off, you'll get a good mark.
ABSTRACTS - EXAMPLES. Small, Meredith F. 1997. Our babies, ourselves. Natural History, 106(9), pp 42-51. This article is about how caregiving for infants varies among cultures. Many contrasts between hunter-gatherer cultures and western cultures are given. A brief retrospective of how anthropological studies in this area have changed in focus appears. All of this is integrated into the biology of newborns, in such areas as nutrition and bond development. The suggestion is made that western rearing techniques may be ignoring the cues that come from the babies themselves. Several sidebar articles by other authors accompany the main article - subjects in the sidebars: practices among the Gusii people of Kenya; the rest-centered approach of the Dutch; teaching pediatricians to deal nonjudgmentally with varied approaches in different ethnic groups; effects of different approaches on crying; how long to breast-feed; and effects of parents sleeping with babies.
Rome, Lawrence C. 1997. Testing a muscle's design. American Scientist, 85(4), pp 356-363. This article reviews the research done by the author connecting the design of a muscle system with the system's particular function. After a brief introduction to muscle mechanics, examples from frog jumping, fish swimming, and toadfish vocalizing are examined in some detail.
Nick's Spiders of Britain and Europe.
1998. Loven, Nick. No support site. As the title suggests, this site is devoted to spiders. It's a collection of photos taken by Nick Loven in and around his house in the United Kingdom. The photos are organized by spider Family on their own page, and each example has its own independent page with more information. There is also a page, Nick's Insects, which has general information about a few types of insects, a page of basic spider information, a page of information about Nick (spiders are a hobby - he is not an expert by profession), a short list of links of other spider-related websites, a guestbook for giving comments, a couple of book reviews, and a gallery of large photos.
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