Transcript Semester Project - Broken Arrow Public Schools

Semester Project
• One of three possibilities:
– You must pick one to complete for the semester project
• Invertebrate collection
• Leaf Collection
• Scientific Experiment
– that you design, conduct, record data and write a scientific paper in scientific
format.
– Due Friday May 8th
Invertebrate Collection
• Must collect 50 Invertebrates
• Invertebrates either have to be:
– Pinned (Insects)
– Preserved in ethanol (everything else)
Invertebrate Collection
• Invertebrates have to be identified to
taxonomic rank depending on Phylum,
Subphylum or Class.
– For example:
Monarch Butterfly (Insect) will have to be
classified to Order which would be Lepidoptera
while an earth worm (Phylum Annelida) would be
to Subclass, which would be Oligochaeta.
• Taxonomic ranking requirements will be
provided later.
Invertebrate Collection
• Field Guides will be available for you to use to
identify invertebrates.
• We will talk about taxonomy, classification and
field guides when we get to the evolution unit.
• I will help you identify invertebrates that you
struggle with identifying.
• Invertebrates whether pinned or preserved must
be given an identification tag including:
classification, county where they were caught,
Date and year caught and catchers name.
Invertebrate Collection
• Tools needed:
– Insects that have wings (butterflies, moths, wasps,
etc.) will need their wings spread for full credit. Wing
spreaders will be available.
– Insects will need to be pinned appropriately for full
credit. Insect pinning blocks will be available.
– All other invertebrates will need to be preserved in
ethanol. You will only be responsible for catching and
brining the invertebrates to class. I will help you
preserve the specimens. Preserving jars will be
provided.
– Styrofoam Block
Leaf Collection
• Must Collect 50 leaves from 50 different
plants.
• Leaves must be pressed (using a plant press,
which will be available) and dried.
• Plant leaves must be identified to species.
Leaf Collection
• For example:
– Post oak must be identified
using it’s scientific name
(Quercus stellata).
• Leaves must be given an
identification tag including:
classification, county where they were
picked, date and year picked and
collectors name.
Leaf Collection
• Field Guides will be available for you to use to
identify plants.
• The internet is a great tool for identifying leaves,
just make sure to use range/distribution maps to
narrow down leaf
identification.
• I will help you identify
leaves that you struggle
with identifying.
Quercus stellata distribution map
Scientific Experiment
• You will design, conduct, record data and write a
scientific paper in scientific format.
– The experiment must be original
• No copying the first experiment off the internet you find
– The experiment must be testable
• You must be able to collect data
• You must have the tools you need to observe and record your data
– The experiment must not harm or traumatize (either
physically or mentally) any animals.
• NO CRUALTY TO ANIMALS
– The experiment (including experimental design) must be
approved by me before you can collect materials or start any
experiment.
Scientific Experiment
• You must provide your experimental design when
getting your experiment approved.
– Experimental design Includes:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Independent variable
Dependent variable
Control Variables
How you are going to perform the experiment (what are you
going to do and what are you testing)
What type of data you will be collecting
How you are going to measure your data
How are you going to analyze you data (I will help you with this)
What is your control group (what are you using to compare your
data to)
Scientific Experiment
• Experimental design example:
• Johnny and sally wanted to know the affects
of nitrogen on plant growth.
• Hypothesis:
– If plants are given nitrogen, then the plants will
grow taller.
Scientific Experiment
• Experimental design example:
• Designing Controlled Experiment
– The researchers selected similar plots of
marsh grass. All plots had:
– similar plant density,
– soil type,
– input of freshwater
– height above average tide level
Scientific Experiment
•Control and experimental groups.
–The plots were divided into control and experimental groups.
Control Group: The group that will be compared to
Experimental Group: The group that will be tested
Scientific Experiment
• Collecting and Analyzing Data
– The researchers added nitrogen fertilizer (the independent
variable) to the experimental plots. They then observed the
growth of marsh grass (the dependent variable) in both
experimental and control plots.
– A control variable or constant is
any variable in the experiment
that is not the independent
variable. In this experiment,
that would include plant density,
soil type or input of freshwater.
Scientific Experiment
• Collecting and Analyzing Data
–
There are two main types of data:
• quantitative data and qualitative data.
– Quantitative data are numbers obtained by counting or measuring.
In the marsh grass experiment, it could include the number of plants
per plot, plant sizes, and growth rates.
– Qualitative data are descriptive and
involve characteristics that cannot
usually be counted. In the marsh
grass experiment, it might include
notes about foreign objects in the plots, or whether
the grass was growing upright or
sideways.
Scientific Experiment
• Scientific Paper Sections
– Title
– Abstract
– Introduction
– Materials and Methods
– Results
– Conclusions
– Literature Cited
Scientific Experiment
• TITLE. The title will help you to determine if an
article is interesting or relevant for your
project.
Well-written titles give a reasonably complete
description of the study that was conducted, and
sometimes even foreshadow the findings.
Included in a title are the species studied, the
kinds of experiments performed, and perhaps a
brief indication of the results obtained.
Scientific Experiment
– ABSTRACT. Abstracts provide you with a
complete, but very succinct summary of the
paper.
An abstract contains brief statements of the
purpose, methods, results, and conclusions of a
study. Abstracts are often included in article
databases, and are usually free to a large
audience. Thus, they may be the most widely read
portions of scientific papers.
Scientific Experiment
INTRODUCTION. You will find background information
and a statement of the your hypothesis in the
introduction.
An introduction usually describes the theoretical background,
indicates why the work is important, states a specific research
question, and poses a specific hypothesis to be tested.
Scientific Experiment
• Materials and METHODS. The materials and
methods section tell your readers what materials
you used and how you performed the
experiment.
The methods describes both specific techniques and
the overall experimental strategy used by the
scientists. Generally, the methods section does not
need to be read in detail. Refer to this section if you
have a specific question about the experimental
design.
Scientific Experiment
• RESULTS. The results section contains
the data collected during experimentation.
– The results section is the heart of a scientific
paper. In this section, much of the important
information may be in the form of tables or
graphs. When reading this section, do not readily
accept an author's statements about the results.
Rather, carefully analyze the raw data in tables
and figures to draw your own conclusions.
Scientific Experiment
• DISCUSSION. The discussion section will explain
the your interpretation of your data and how you
connect it to other work.
Authors often use the discussion to describe what
their work suggests and how it relates to other
studies. In this section, authors can anticipate and
address any possible objections to their work. The
discussion section is also a place where authors can
suggest areas of improvement for future research.
Scientific Experiment
• LITERATURE CITED. This section provides
the sources cited throughout the paper.
This section offers information on the range of other
studies cited: Does the author cite only his or her
previous studies? Are both classic and modern
sources influencing this work? Does the author look to
the work of scientists in other disciplines? The
literature cited section is also helpful for generating a
list of background reading on the topic under study.
Scientific Experiment
Scientific paper links
Kenyon College of Biology (OHIO)
http://biology.kenyon.edu/Bio_InfoLit/how/pag
e2.html
University of South Carolina College of Biology
http://www.usca.edu/biogeo/researchguide/wri
ting.html