You will write an approximately 2-3 page research paper (line spacing ~ 1.5) dealing with a topic in Biology that is of interest to you. It can be relating to Genetics, Evolution, Body systems or any other topic you like. You can talk about a disease and how it is caused, what is the research used for treatment or any detail you would like to share. You can talk about latest techniques used in Biology Research to try to find cures. If you select a Body system say Sensory system, your first step is to find a Research Article that talks about some aspect of the topic. Use this article for the Discussion this week. Then find at least 3-4 more articles or websites that will give you more information on the topic. The objectives of this assignment are to allow you to explore a topic of interest and to understand how to research the topic further and write a scientific report on that topic.
The Final paper will be due on the last day of class.
You will need to cite at least five references- these can be review papers, primary, peer-reviewed literature and websites. DO NOT limit yourself to those sources for which electronic full text is available and please DO NOT just find one website and write the whole paper using information provided on the site.
I will grade the papers based upon style, content, and references.
Style: Is the paper well-structured? Are grammar and spelling correct? Are references cited correctly in the text and at the end? Is the paper a pleasure to read?
Content and references: Do you cover the most important points of the issue? Do you have up-to-date information? Were you able to locate the most important sources of information for your topic?
If you are having trouble selecting a topic, I advise looking at the course syllabus and going through the topics we will cover. Sometimes I find students coming up with great topics just by their life experiences. For instance, if someone in your family is a diabetic, heart patient or has any other medical issue, you can use that as a starting point and find more about that topic. Genetics, Immunology, Evolution, DNA structure-replication, transcription, and translation; as well as organ systems and their defects and diseases prove to be great topics.
