Final Biology Project

For your final project, you will research a biological question of your own choosing.  After conducting your research, you will make an oral presentation to your teacher and two of your peers.  The research and presentation will take the place of a final exam. An example of a good topic and question might be this.

Most people that live at high latitude have pale skin. But in Inuit don't. Is there a relationship between latitude and skin pigmentation? If so why do the inuit have dark skin?

There will be 3 workdays in which you can bring materials to class to show your teacher, carry out research, and ask questions.

	A Block	D Block
Workday 1	April 24 A201	April 24 A201
Workday 2	May 9 A201	May 12 A201
Workday 3	May 21 A201	May 21 A201

Preparation steps

Step 1: Develop a question about a topic that you are interested in.  You should make sure your question meets the following criteria:

            1.  Does this question really interest you?
            2.  Does your question have a firm, factual answer?  If yes, it is not an appropriate question?
            3.  Can you find primary research that is relevant to some aspect of your question?  Can you find data (not                  just ‘information’/facts) to support your hypothesis or answer your research question?
            4.   Does your question link to material we have covered in class?
            5.    Does your question generate more questions?  Is there enough substance to your question?

The project is not about collecting of list of facts.  Rather, you are meant to investigate the work of scientists and analyze the studies they have conducted in order to develop a response to your research question.  While your presentation will of course include relevant background information and a description of appropriate biological concepts/processes, a significant portion of the presentation should consist of your description of relevant studies and data collected.

            If you are not sure where to begin, consider referring to the following resources:

• Textbook:  The table of contents will remind you of the major themes in biology.  You may also be                prompted to think about topics that were not fully addressed in the biology curriculum.

• Websites: Nature and Science both produce podcasts in which research of interest and recently published          studies are highlighted.  Scanning their archives will expose you to a wide range of topics to consider; listening to the podcasts (or reading the transcripts) will give you a sense of the nature of the topics and their degree of complexity.  Science Friday, an NPR program, also highlights current issues in science; these programs are archived as well.  Also consider looking at the websites of other journals/periodicals (e.g., Scientific American) for inspiration.

  www.nature.com/nature/podcast/archivetranscripts.html
  www.sciencemag.org/about/podcast.dtl
  www.sciencefriday.com

  Scholar Google
  http://scholar.google.com/schhp?client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&hl=en&tab=ws

  PNAS
  http://www.pnas.org/

  Pubmed (great site to find names of good articles, this sites just gives you abstracts and then you can search JSTOR other libraries for the actual article)
  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/

• Periodicals:  Consider perusing newspapers and magazines lying around your house (or in the school library).  Magazines such as Time, Newsweek, and The Economist often highlight current issues in science.  While these periodicals may not provide adequate information about how studies were conducted or details of the data collected, they will give you a sense of the type of topics that are currently being investigated.
  • The library also has some great magazines to search in.
    • Bio-Science (looks very good), Science, Scientific American, Science News, and Scientific American Mind
• Teacher: Your teacher can help you transition from a general area of interest to a viable, focused question.

• Menlo Library: Use the great database JSTOR http://www.menloschool.org/intranet/library_databases.asp
  • also ask your amazing librarians

This is an individual project.  All work must be done by students working on their own, not in pairs/groups.  No two students in a given section can work on the same question.

Step 2: Carry out research on the school’s library database and in local libraries to find information.  Quality is more important than quantity!  You will need to find at least four articles from scientific or reputable sources (NOT websites).  Other sources most certainly will be used to supplement the four journal sources.

You may find it useful to conduct research outside the Menlo School library.  You can search San Mateo County Library collections at there website: www.smcl.org/flash.html
You will have three class days devoted to research in the MMR/library.

	B block	D block
Workday 1	Thursday, April 24	Thursday, April 24
Workday 2	Friday, May 9	Monday, May 12
Workday 3	Wednesday, May 21	Thursday, May 22

Step 3: Process your research. (Due: to be announced )

Produce evidence that you have processed the material you have read. This could be a short written summary of your research findings

What supporting information is needed to understand the material?

               How does it link to the real world and biology curriculum that you have been taught this year?

What data and Experimental evidence is their to support your arguement?

Evaluate the quality of the data

Step 4: Write an outline, bibliography, and summary of data supporting your arguement. (Due at last workday )

For your outline, you need a paragraph or two stating the question and giving background, a hypothesis/statement of what you think the answer to the question might be, and your three most compelling pieces of evidence supporting your argument. A also include a simple vocabulary list of important terms you will use in your presentation. Grading Rubric

Step 5: Create a prop to use in your oral presentation.  This may be a summary of important data in a table or a graph.  It   could be a diagram that illustrates a biological pathway or process.  This visual should support your discussion of your question and provide your audience with something that furthers their understanding of your topic.  As   your audience is only three people in size, a PowerPoint presentation is probably not the most appropriate way  in which to present your visuals.

Step6: Give a 6-7 minute Oral presentation to a Biology Teacher (arrange a date and time based on calender below )

Significant Due Dates:

Step in the process	Product due	Due date
Step 1	Research question (See instructions below)	Tuesday, April 17
Step 3	Written summary (instructions to be distributed later)	Tuesday, May 9/12
Step 4	Outline draft/bibliography (instructions to be distributed later)	Tuesday, May 21/22
Step 6	Oral presentation (with final outline)	To be scheduled (during final exams)

Instructions for Step 1 deadline (Research question assignment for Tuesday, April 17):

The following should be turned in on a single sheet of paper.  Please present the work in clearly numbered sections.

1. A concise, clearly stated research question

2. A two-three sentence explanation of your reason for choosing this question

3. An explanation of why you think you have a viable question for the research project.  Discuss the following questions in one to two paragraphs:

What leads you to believe that you can meet the requirements of the assignment with the question you have chosen?  What preliminary research have you done, and what have you found?  This does not need to be a proper bibliography, nor do you need to have located all your sources, but you should describe anecdotally any studies you have been able to find.  Do you have reason to believe you can find studies/data relevant to your question?

Grading Rubric

• Preparation:  Choose something you’re interested in.
• Sources:  Know where your information is coming from.
• Clarity and Depth:  Make a clear point.
• Evidence:  Support your point with good scientific evidence and logic.
• Continuity:  Recognize that the exploration will continue.
• Participation:  Be able to learn from – and be engaged by – your fellow students.

Preparation:  Choose a researchable question that you’re interested in.

• Student shows initiative, resourcefulness, and creativity in selecting a topic.
• Intermediate work shows organization, appropriate time investment, and care.
• All intermediate deadlines met.
• Student sought out appropriate help without communicating helplessness.

Sources:  Know where your information is coming from.

• A variety of sources are used, including general written materials (not just www)
• Annotated bibliography is submitted.  Annotations reflect clear effort to assess quality of sources.

Clarity and Depth:  Make a clear point.

• A clear question or research goal is identified at the start of the conversation.
• The depth and difficulty of the research presented is appropriate.
• Description of science is accurate and thorough without overwhelming us with detail.
• Technical vocab is absent or very clearly defined for the other participants in the conversation.
• Contextualization:  how does other stuff we’ve learned this year deepen our understanding of the topic under discussion?

Evidence:  Support your point with good scientific evidence and logic.

• Ideas are well justified with data, not just [opinions, appeals to authority, anecdotal evidence, etc].  Focused on the best arguments.
• Experimental analysis; understand what a graph means, reasonably critical of experimental design.
• Focus on cause-effect relationships, where appropriate.

Continuity:  Recognize that the exploration will continue

• Conversation is open-ended; felt like it was leading towards more and deeper questions; perhaps presenter offered some next questions that illustrate depth or creativity.  We didn’t run out of things to say or ask.
• Willingness to speculate; not flustered when something isn’t known or understood.  (But be clear about what isn’t understood)
• Engagement -- conversation elicited participation from both the teacher and the other student.

Participation:  Be able to learn from – and be engaged by – your fellow students

• When not the presenter, student asked questions and made comments focused on:
• Clarity (student communicated when they didn’t understand something)
• Testing the evidence, checking assumptions
• Generalizations, connections to other threads

Speculation

Booking Calender

See calender posted on classroom door.