|
Fall 2008
Overview:
Each student will be required to complete a final project
for this course that will consist of an oral presentation and a written
report. The purpose of this project is to acquaint students with the
process of writing and presenting a scientific paper, emphasizing the role
of statistical analyses in scientific studies. Students will be
required to design a "thought" experiment that tests one or more specific
biological hypothesis. That is, students will not be required to
actually conduct the experiment; rather, students must find a data set from
the primary literature and ask different questions than the study from which they obtained the data. Students will
be required to properly analyze the data, correctly interpret
the results, and create a written report in standard scientific format.
Guidelines for Written Report:
The
written report should include the following elements (see McMillian 1988 for
more details. --McMillian, V.E. 1988. Writing papers in the
Biological Sciences. St. Martin's Press. New York, NY. 142 pps.):
 |
Title -- the title identifies the important contents of
the paper and orients the reader by specifying the writer's major findings
or perspective.
|
|
Abstract -- the abstract is a short passage (usually 250
words or less) that appears just after the title and summarizes the major
elements of the paper (i.e., objectives, methods, results, and conclusions)
|
|
Introduction -- the introduction of a research paper sets
the stage for your scientific argument. It places your work in a broad
theoretical context and gives readers enough information to appreciate your
objectives.
|
|
Materials and Methods -- your methodology provides the
context for evaluating the data and should include enough information so
that your study can be duplicated. The creditability of your scientific
argument depends, in part, on how clearly you have outlined and justified
your procedures.
|
|
Results -- the results section should summarize the data,
emphasizing important patterns or trends, and illustrate and support your
generalizations with explanatory details, statistics, examples of
representative or atypical cases, and references to tables and/or figures.
|
|
Discussion -- in the results section you reported your
findings; now, in the the discussion, you need to tell the reader what you
think your findings mean. Do your data support your original
hypothesis? Why or why not? Here is the place to discuss the
work of other researches. Are your findings consistent with theirs?
How do your results fit into the bigger picture?
|
|
Literature Cited -- the literature cited contains all the
sources mentioned in the text. Even if you have acquired` useful
background knowledge by reading five articles and three books, do not list
any of these sources unless you have specifically mentioned them in the
text.
|
Guidelines for Oral Presentation:
The oral presentation should include the basic elements
of the written report with an introduction, methods, results, and
discussion. You will have 12 minutes to present with 3 minutes
allotted at the end of your presentation for questions. The purpose of
the presentation is to give you experience in presenting scientific
information, which is a major responsibility for all scientists.
|
