Biology work for creative geek

only for creative geek
 
 
Procedure
In lab 3, you began to carry out a scientific investigation. You started with the first steps of the scientific method – question, hypothesis, prediction, and rationale. You then summarized (at least some of) your data and began to analyze it. The next steps in the scientific method are to interpret your data, make a conclusion based on your hypothesis (i.e., determine whether your hypothesis was supported by your data), and think about what your data show and how to follow up on this work. You will do these steps today in your group from lab 3 and present your findings to your classmates. 
Your worksheet with your group’s hypothesis, etc., as well as your group’s raw data from lab 3 will have been returned to you before you attend Lab 4. You should read the comments left on your group’s worksheet and incorporate any feedback into your presentation (and later into your manuscript). Your TA will be available to give you further feedback if needed. You will spend the first part of the Lab 4 period finishing your figures (if needed), interpreting your data, and developing a presentation to deliver to your classmates in the latter half of the lab period. 
You will use the figure(s) to interpret your data and make a conclusion about your hypothesis. Then your group will make a short (8 to 10 minutes) PowerPoint/GoogleSlides presentation that you will deliver to your classmates. All group members are expected to participate in the preparation and delivery of the presentation (and there will be marks specifically for whether all group members participate in presenting the work). It is common for members to take turns presenting different aspects of the project. Your presentation should finish with a statement about whether you supported your hypothesis and a comment or two on what that might mean about human’s responses to physiological stress with respect to your chosen characteristic. Be sure to also include possible explanations for any unexpected patterns if applicable and/or some ideas for next steps (i.e., other things you could investigate). The idea is that the presentation is a scaled-down version of a lab report.
Your presentation is worth 5% of your final grade and you will be graded as a group. You will be graded on the content of your presentation and the flow of information and not on ‘bells and whistles’ as you will have had limited time to put your presentation together. When you are not presenting with your group in the latter half of the lab you will be listening to presentations by the other groups. You should be thinking about other groups’ data interpretation and conclusions while they are presenting to see if they make sense to you. You will have an opportunity to ask questions and offer feedback to other groups (as they will be able to when you present). The idea here is that you will leave lab with more ideas about what your data might show and an outline as to the main things to include in your report. Part of your group’s presentation grade will be based on your participation during these opportunities to ask questions. It is expected that each group offer feedback or ask a question for at least one other group’s presentation. There is a breakdown of the grading for the presentation on Blackboard. 
Lab 4 – Exercise physiology manuscript: (10%) 
NOTE: While you did parts of this lab activity in a group, your manuscript is to be done individually. Your hypothesis, prediction, figure and figure caption MAY be identical to those of your groupmates, but EVERYTHING else in your manuscript is to represent your own work. 
DUE in three weeks after Lab 4 (see the syllabus for the specific date). You are writing a scientific manuscript for this assignment. A manuscript follows a specific format and flow that need to be followed to do well on this assignment. You will have started learning about this for your outline in Lab 3. If you haven’t already, you MUST read/watch the materials in the ‘Writing scientific manuscripts’ folder in ‘General lab items’ for details on how to write a scientific manuscript in biology. Additional requirements that apply to this lab specifically, and the mark breakdown follow. Please double-space your manuscript and organize the sections of your manuscript by writing in paragraphs. (50 marks)
Title (2 marks)
This should be a descriptive title that incorporates the focus of the study you carried out (i.e., do not use the title of this lab exercise.)
Abstract (1 paragraph; 4 marks)
This is a short (150-200 words) summary of your study. Summarize the primary objective of study (including your hypothesis), how you addressed the objective, your main finding(s), and a broad conclusion that references your hypothesis.
Introduction (1 page; 8 marks)
Provide some background on homeostasis in general, and how/why the variables you examined would be expected the change with exercise. You also will need to include the characteristic you looked at and how responses to exercise are expected to differ based on that characteristic. For example, if you compared a smoker and a non-smoker you would indicate how smoking affects the body’s response to exercise as a stress, specifically mentioning the variables or systems (i.e., circulatory and respiratory) you looked at. In the final paragraph state your overall purpose/aim, your hypothesis and prediction, and a brief statement of how you tested your prediction.  
Methods (up to 1 page; 6 marks)
Describe what you did in enough detail that someone could repeat your experiment. Be sure to cite the lab manual as much of the method is from there. You will need to describe how the subjects collected the data you used (even if you yourself didn’t collect data). You can use the ‘measurements and data collection methods’ text from the Lab 3 writeup to help you. If you used lung capacity rather than breathing rate, you can assume the subjects performed the same procedure, except that they measured lung capacity rather than breathing rate. You should describe your subjects broadly. For example, if you compared smokers and non-smokers, were they all male? All female? What was their activity level? The other characteristics of your subjects are important for someone to repeat what you have done. Don’t forget to mention what you did with your data (i.e., how you averaged your data). 
Results (up to one page plus figures; 10 marks – 5 for figures, 5 for text)
You will include your graph(s) as figures in this section. Your figures are to be done on the computer (e.g., in Excel). See the ‘Excel how-to videos’ in the Lab 2 folder if you need a refresher on how to make graphs in Excel. Don’t forget captions on your figure(s). In your text you should highlight what each figure shows including the overall trend and quantifying differences between the subject types (e.g., pulse was X% higher in the male than the female at rest). Be sure to comment on all three phases when you describe your figures. You might also want to comment on recovery with respect to how close the ‘recovery’ value gets to the ‘rest’ value for each of your subject types. Did one type recover faster than another?
Discussion (2-3 pages; 10 marks)
Start with a statement about whether you supported your hypothesis. Explain your results in the context of the characteristic you looked at and why that characteristic affected (or didn’t) subjects’ responses to physiological stress. Compare your findings to other work that looked at the same or a similar characteristic. Or refer (using citing literature) to other aspects of a person’s physiology that are affected by the characteristic you studied and make some suggestions as you how that might have affected your results. Be sure to include citations by comparing your findings to those of published articles and to back up your ideas for what your results might mean.
Think about other things that could have affected your results and discuss them here. Are there any biases in your data? Did you make an assumption about something that you didn’t think would affect your data that maybe did impact your results? Also, offer suggestions for future work. What could you look at in the future to build on this study?
Finish with a few broad statements summarizing your findings and how it fits in the larger context of the topic.
References (minimum 3 references to the primary literature; i.e., journal articles; 5 marks)
You will find your textbook and other sources helpful for background information when writing your manuscript, but you should also find other references that support your ideas/conclusions or with which you compare and contrast your results. Try to find studies that studied the same system (even if the authors used a different parameter), and/or investigated a similar characteristic. You can also use references to back up your ideas as to what might have affected your results. References are graded on selection of sources AND on formatting of in-text citations and listed references.
Spelling, grammar, clarity (5 marks)
Reports should be well-written and free of spelling/grammatical mistakes. The writing should flow well in all sections and sections should be organized into paragraphs.