Contemporary Issues in Biology Online Course

Week 7, Chapter 14 -- Digging Deeper

Instructions:

Choose two different stories (less than 6 months old) about two different environmental issues from one or more of the following sites:

Part 1:

What are the titles, dates, and URLs for the articles you chose?
In your own words summarize each article (one paragraph summary for each article) – do not “summarize” by using extensive quotes from the article.
Then, for each article, explain the connection between the article’s subject and human population growth.
Finally, add a personal comment about the articles. You can comment on why you find it interesting (or not), whether there is a relationship between the two articles, something you don’t understand about the articles, or some other personal reflection on the articles.

Your assignment should be between 400 and 500 words long.

Remember, cutting and pasting from another website, without quotes or citation, is PLAGIARISM -- so is using a cut-and-pasted passage and just changing a few words. Plagiarism is a serious form of academic misconduct. If you have any questions about whether your work constitutes plagiarism, please visit the resources at week 1's plagiarism assignment, or ask your instructor.

You can view a sample assignment here.

Part 2:

Use D2L's spell checker (or the one on your word processor software, which will give you a word count as well). Proofread it yourself too, because spell checkers don't catch everything. When you are satisfied, post your completed assignment in the Digging Deeper forum for this week at the D2L discussion board.

Part 3:

Respond to the Digging Deeper posts of at least two other students. (If you are the first or second person to post, you will have to check back later to complete this part of the assignment).

Just as you spell checked and proofread your original post, you should do the same for your responses.
Please respond to posts with 0 responses first; once every post has at least one response, you are free to choose any post to respond to.
When you respond, please use the name of the student you are responding to. That is, say "Hi Trudy" or "Hi Paul" so that you can get used to the names of the people in class. (You can find a list of "real" names and preferred names at D2L).
In your response, be sure you mention something specific that the writer did well. Also, specifically address anything you find that seems incorrect to you (phrased in a constructive way -- use the same language you would want someone else to use in telling you something you did wrong). You may wish to argue with (or critique) what the student wrote, request supporting evidence, evaluate the student's argument, add new information, make a factual correction, or explain why you agree. At a minimum this response should be at least 50 words and 50-100 is preferable. Check out this page for more on the topic of good and bad responses.

After you have posted your assignment AND responded to two other students, go to Desire2Learn and complete the Gradebook Declaration for this week's Digging Deeper assignment. (Your Gradebook Declaration is subject to the Honor Code.)

Here is the text of the Desire2Learn Gradebook Declaration:

(8 points) I have posted my spell-checked, proofread Digging Deeper assignment at D2L. My assignment contains all the components listed in the assignment instructions.
(2 points) I have responded constructively to the posts of at least two other students (1 point per response; 50-100 words for each).

Contemporary Issues in Biology -- BIOL 1003
Mariëlle H. Hoefnagels, Ph.D. © 2004-2015.
biology1003 at OU dot edu (at = @, dot =.)
Last Updated August 5, 2014 11:02 PM