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    Assignment

Students will complete six papers on individual species:

  1. One species from Kingdom Protistan in the Domain Eukaryote
    DUE: Friday, January 27
  2. One species from Kingdom Fungi in the Domain Eukaryote
    DUE: Friday, Febraury 10
  3. One invertebrate species from Kingdom Plantae in the Domain Eukaryote
    DUE: Friday, February 24
  4. One invertebrate species from Kingdom Animalia in the Domain Eukaryote
    DUE: Friday, March 10
  5. One vertebrate species from Kingdom Animalia in the Domain Eukaryote
    DUE: Friday, March 31
  6. One species from Archaebacteria, Eubacteria, a virus, or a prion
    DUE: Friday, April 14

    Papers must be typed, without spelling or grammatical errors, and contain at least two pages (but no more than five pages) of narrative (12 point font, double spaced, with 1 inch margins).

    Photos, schematics or drawings, if included, do not count toward the required two pages of narrative text.

    At the end of the paper, but not counted toward two pages of narrative, the references are cited using MLA format (see library MLA Style Guide). You may use RefWorks to assist in formulating your bibliography, but you are responsible for ensuring the correct content and format of your citations.

Grading

  • 0-5 points: Proper format of paper and proper references
  • 0-5 points: Classification
  • 0-10 points: Evolutionary history and evolutionary trends (phylogeny)
  • 0-10 points: Morphology (structure, shape, coloration, appearance)
  • 0-10 points: Life Cycle & Modes of Reproduction
  • 0-10 points: Habitat, Niche, and Importance in Ecosystem and to Mankind
  • +5 extra credit points if substantially correct paper submitted Friday 2:00 p.m. one week before the due date

    Source Requirements

    There must be five (5) separate references

    • Of the five sources, 4 must be recent (no older than 2000)

    • Of the five sources, 3 must be print sources that have been published (even if your found your information on an Internet site). e.g. Discover magazine has articles posted on a web site and in databases, but they would be considered a print source because they were published in print, even though you are accessing them online.

    • Of the 3 "print" sources, 2 must be from a peer-reviewed scientific journals that has been pre-approved by Dr. Allen no later than the Wednesday before the due date. These articles should NOT be review articles. They must be original reporting of a research study, experiment, etc. Hints: Use the terms “materials and methods” in your search. Often medical journals will be easier to read than purely scientific publications. DO NOT EVEN THINK OF AWAITING TO ASK DR. ALLEN TO LOOK AT YOUR SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND DECIDE IF THEY ARE ACCEPTABLE ON THURSDAY OR FRIDAY OF THE WEEK THE PAPER IS DUE
      • You may use a review article as one of your three print sources, but you must do one of the following with any information you wish to use from that article:
        • Find the original source. If the author is citing Jones, L., Peters, T.R., & Lawrence, G. H. (1999), you must get the full-text of that article.
        • Cite the information as being found in a secondary source. To do this, use the phrase "review article" in you signal tag and the "quoted in" parenthetical citation. Example: According to the review article "Current Trends in Biology Research," Jones, Peters, and Lawrence found in 1999 that many findings are not correctly reported (qtd. in Smith 203).
    • Copies of all five (or more) references, in their entirety, must be attached, unless Dr. Allen has pre-approved fewer pages no later than the Wednesday before the due date. DO NOT EVEN THINK OF ASKING DR. ALLEN TO LOOK AT YOUR REFERENCES FOR APPROVAL OF LESS COPYING ON THURSDAY OR FRIDAY OF THE WEEK THE PAPER IS DUE

    • All portions of the references used for information included in your paper must be copied and attached, with significant portions highlighted

    • Any information not properly attributed to the primary author(s) will be considered a form of cheating (plagiarism) and result in a failing grade for that paper. If it happens more than once, you will receive a failing grade for the course.

    • You may ask for help from any of the DSC reference librarians or Live Chat 24 / 7, but you can also make an appointment with William Baer, Library Director, who has extensive experience with science topics. You can contact Mr. Baer at 652-7711 or baer@dixie.edu. DO NOT EVEN THINK OF ASKING MR. BAER FOR AN APPOINTMENT DURING THE WEEK THE PAPER IS DUE.

I. CLASSIFICATION

    Information needed in this section:

    Domain, Kingdom, Phylum (and subphylum if given), Class, Order (and suborder if given), Family (supra and subfamily if given), Genus and Species name.

    • You must properly write genus and species names or points are deducted

    • Address any questions that exist about the classification of the species

    • Address any evidence that supports the classification scheme you decide upon


    Search words: "Classification," "Taxonomy" and "Systematics" combined with your organism's name

    Good web sites:

    http://bioinformatics.ubc.ca/atlas/webtools/taxonlist.php

    http://tolweb.org/tree/phylogeny.html

    http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/help/taxaform.html

    http://www.biosis.org/zrdocs/zoolinfo/stn_nome.htm

    http://www.natureserve.org/explorer/servlet/NatureServe?init=Species

    II. EVOLUTIONARY HISTORY AND TRENDS

    Information needed in this section:

    • Address the broad macro-evolutionary questions (time lines and trends)

    • If available, add a schematic showing family tree, but be sure to add a verbal explanation-don’t simply attach a schematic and assume that Dr. Allen will figure out what it means!

    • What fossil records, DNA data, RNA info, or other evidence exists to support your statements about evolution, and what dates have been established?

    • Address the specific micro-evolutionary questions (gene frequencies, strains or races within a species).

    Search words: evolutionary history, evolution, evolutionary time-line, phylogeny, systematics, and cladistics

    Good web sites:

    http://tolweb.org/tree/phylogeny.html

    http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/help/taxaform.html (no bacteria, good otherwise)

    http://www.biosis.org/zrdocs/zoolinfo/stn_nome.htm

    http://www.adonline.id.au/plantevol/ (plants only)

    III. MORPHOLOGY (structure, shape, coloration, appearance)

    Information needed in this section:

    • What does organism look like?

    • Are genders the same or different in appearance.

    • Does the organism look different at different stages in life cycle, or perhaps in different environmental conditions?

    Search words: Usually, morphology is found if you simply use the genus species name as a search term. But try: morphology, size, shape, appearance

    Web sites are too diverse to list

    IV. LIFE CYCLE AND MODES OF REPRODUCTION

    Information needed in this section:

    • If available, include a schematic with verbal description of life stages, and relative time periods during each stage.

    • How long does an individual live?

    • If your species is a pathogen, you should describe how the organism enters a host, causes disease symptoms and then exits to infect a new host.

    • Does organism have sexual and/or asexual forms of reproduction?

    • How many offspring are normally reared? Do both parents provide care?

    Search words: life cycle, disease life cycle, reproduction

    Good web sites:

    http://www.cdc.gov/az.do ( if organism is a human pathogen)

    http://www.doctorfungus.org/ (fungi)

    http://www.hcs.ohio-state.edu/hcs300/gymno.htm (gymnosperms plants)

    http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/help/taxaform.html

    http://www.microbes.info/ (bacteria)

    V. HABITAT, NICHE, IMPORTANCE IN ECOSYSTEM OR TO MANKIND

    This is a “catch all” section. It really depends on your organism.

    • If it is a pathogen, address how common, how widespread, how economically or socially devastating is the disease.

    • What does organism eat? Where does it live? Where is it distributed across the world?

    Search words: habitat, niche, "role of", "importance of", "disease and", ecosystem, ecology, "epidemiology of", etc.

    Good web sites:

    http://www.cdc.gov/az.do ( if organism is a human pathogen)

    http://www.doctorfungus.org/ (fungi)

    http://www.microbes.info/ (bacteria)

    http://medinfo.ufl.edu/year2/mmid/bms5300/bugs/index.html (bacteria and fungi)

    A FEW NOTES OF WARNING

  • Be sure to indentify the source of your information in both a signal tag (According to ...) and parenthetical or in-text citation (Adams 24) . To not do so could lead to plagiarism. You must also include a full list of Works Cited. To see how to correctly format both parenthetical and bibliographic citations, use the library MLA Style Guide.

  • If you do not put the information into your own words and use correct citations, you are plagiarizing. Avoid using long quotes; read the material and put it into your own words. This is called paraphrasing, and with a citation it avoids plagiarism and shows you understand the material.

  • Do not rely on the abstracts found on the web or in the databases. If you want to use the paper as a source, you must get the entire paper.

  • Once you have the entire paper, do not rely on just the abstract. Use the place in the paper where the actual information is found.

  • If you find information in one articles that is cited from another article, you MUST get the original article to use as your source.

  • If you include material out of context, it is thereforeclear that you have no idea of the meaning of that material, then you HAVE NOT FOUND THE REQUIRED MATERIAL or USED THE REQUIRED SOURCES and points will be deducted. Here are examples of problem paragraphs:


    Penicillium marneffei was once believed to have been most closely related to the subgenus Furcatum. However, recent research has told us that mareffei is most closely related to subgenus Biverticillium. Also, the sexual state of Talorolmyces is closely related with the asexual state of Penicillium.


    The Amanita taxa show a significant speed up in the molecular rates of evolution in the "mtSSu-rDna". This acceleration in the rate, which resulted in "lack of phylogenetic resolution" amoung the taxa. The results from this shows that one gene may stay the same while the others evolve at a quick rate.

    SAMPLE SEARCH

    Here is a sample of the research process:

    Species: Escherichia coli

Sample Search: Section on Classification

HINT: Notice that sometimes simply changing from abbreviation to full genus name results in different links:

2) Google search: life cycle Escherichia coli

THIS IS A SCIENTIFIC PAPER that you may want to read! Be sure to give yourself enough time to request and receive the complete paper.

Under life cycle, if your species is a pathogen, you should describe how the organism enters a host, causes disease symptoms and then exits to infect a new host.

Here is an example of serendipity. This is a site that could be used for the evolution or classification section, but is not particularly useful for this section on life cycle.

Sample Search: More Resources for Scientific Peer-Reviewed Journals

If during all these steps, you have yet to find two scientific journal articles that will work, start searching using the databases.

1) Ebscohost Academic Search Premier (also under Library Home Page > Article Databases > General / Multi-Subject)

Search: Escherichia coli

Select: Peer Review

Pick articles that you can read and understand.

See hit #20: E. coli 0157:H7 Incidence Drops 43 Percent in 2004.

See hit #49: Determining the Source of Fecal Contamination in Recreational Waters.

2) BioOne (also under Library Home Page > Article Databases > Alphabetical List)

Make sure the articles you select are scientific peer-revioewed articles if that is what you need.

3) Annual Reviews select Biomedical Sciences Suite

Not all articles all full-text

4) JSTOR Scholarly journals

All articles are full-text, but none are current

Full-Text of Articles

Most of the articles you find through searching Google will not be full-text.
Here are the steps for retrieving the full-text of an article:

1. Go to Library Home Page > Article Databases > Full-Text Periodicals List

Search TITLE of periodical (e. g. Journal of Microbiology)

Check date range, link to periodical and then article if available

2. Go to Library Home Page > library catalog

Search TITLE of periodical (e. g. Journal of Microbiology)

Check date range, locate print copy of periodical if available

3. If the periodical and/or article cannot be found in either of the above sources, you may order the article.

Go to Library Home Page > ILLiad

Register first, using a Then fill out the form completely. Most articles will be electronically delivered to you with 2 working days.
You may order up to 10 articles per day, 30 per week.

Resources

Books in library

    Reference Area  
    Encyclopedia of Microbiology Reference QR 9 .E53 2000
    Bergey's Manual of Determinative Bacteriology Reference QR 81 .B47 1994
    Bergey's Manual of Systematic Bacteriology Reference QR 81 .B46
    CRC Handbook of Microbiology Reference QR 41.2 .C18 1974
    Molecular Genetics of Bacteria Reference QH 434 .D35 2004
    Desk Encyclopedia of Microbiology ReferenceQR 9 .D47 2004
    On the Origin of Phyla Reference QH 367.5 .V26 2004
    Walker's Mammals of the World Reference QL 703 .W222 1999
    World of Biology Reference QH 302.5 .W67 1999
    Variety of Life Reference QH 83 .T84 2000
       
    Course Reserve Area you need your DSC ID for reserve items
    Introductory Microbiology Reserve BIOL 1620

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Links to search engines, databases, and utilities

Google (the best search engine)

PubMed (search for articles, very little full text)

Google Scholar (search for articles, very little full-text)

Academic Search Premier (EBSCOhost) (some articles are scholarly, some articles are full-text)

BioOne (some articles are scholarly, all are full-text)

Annual Reviews (scholarly journals, not all are full-text; select Biomedical Sciences Suite)

JSTOR (scholarly journals, none are current)

MLA Guide (learn the proper format) or see Documenting Sources

RefWorks (format your bibliography) use group code from off-campus

Full-Text Periodicals List (look for articles in library databases)

Library Catalog (look for print copies of articles)

ILLiad (order articles not found in databases or our library)

Off-Campus Access

To use databases from off-campus, select the off-campus icon and enter the current username and password. You will need to obtain the current semester password from a librarian. To use RefWorks from off-campus, you may also need to use the group code.

Web Sites for Non-Scientific Articles

These are not scientific journal articles, but they can further understanding of a topic.They can also help in selecting a topic as they can be browsed. The library also has print copies of these magazines in the periodicals section (current year upstairs, past years downstairs), since sometimes the articles are not full text online.

Science magazine http://www.sciencemag.org/

National Geographic magazine http://www.nationalgeographic.com/

Nature http://www.nature.com/

      Created by:
      Martha Talman
      Instruction Librarian

      		 Questions or corrections?
      Contact: talman@dixie.edu      		 Date Created:
      08/30/03
      Last Updated:
      01/13/06
 
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