Contemporary Issues in Biology Online Course

Week 7, Chapter 14 -- Freelance Writer

Part 1: Learn about the problems associated with population growth

The human population is growing at an exponential rate. Many groups, including health care providers, environmentalists, and religious organizations, agree that the current rate of population growth is unacceptable. However, these groups often arrive at this conclusion using different lines of evidence. For example, an environmentalist might be concerned that human population growth is leading to the extinction of species, while an aid worker in the developing world might argue that human population growth is leading to shortages of food and medicine. Interviews with five experts on population growth and its consequences are posted on the NOVA website at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/worldbalance/voices.html. Each expert has a unique perspective on how population growth will affect the global economy, culture, environment, quality of life, and even politics. Read at least one of these interviews.

Part 2: Learn about how people deal with population growth

To reduce the population growth rate some countries implemented voluntary or involuntary family planning programs. Read about historical approaches to family planning in China, India, and Kenya at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/worldbalance/campaigns.html, then read the updates on those attempts at population control (e.g., China: http://www.thinkadvisor.com/2014/12/16/chinas-one-child-policy, India: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/13/india-population-growth-policy-problems-sterilisation-incentives-coercion, and Kenya: http://www.prb.org/Publications/Articles/2014/kenyan-population-policy.aspx). Spend a few minutes thinking about the following questions before moving on to Part 3. What do you think about the approaches to family planning you just read about? Are involuntary family planning programs ever justified? If yes, under what circumstances? If no, why not?

Part 3: Build your installment

In this freelance writer assignment, you will present arguments for and against implementing voluntary programs to limit population growth {Note: voluntary programs include access to free contraceptives, family planning education, etc. They do not include forced sterilization or punishment.} For this assignment, you will create two characters. The first character should be in favor of voluntary population control programs, and the second character should be opposed to voluntary population control programs. Be as specific as possible when describing your characters (e.g. a nun that works in an orphanage in Sudan or a Wal-Mart executive that lives in the US). Each character's point of view should be realistic considering their occupation, lifestyle etc. In other words don't just pick characters and arguments at random; match the argument with the character. Work these "created" characters into a fictional installment of the theme of your choosing (for more on this, see the information on the Freelance Writer assignment in the Types of Assignments page). You can choose the same theme as you did in a previous week, but you don't have to.

Note: Regardless of your personal beliefs, you should equip each character with a logical and well-thought-out argument.

Some specific criteria to consider:

You should introduce/describe each of your "created" characters.
Each "created" character should provide an argument for his or her position.
You must build at least three of the chapter's key (bold-faced) terms into your installment, in bold or colorful type. This is easy to do if you use the "advanced" tab in D2L to create your post.
In using the key terms, it is not enough to simply mention the key term in passing. Nor should you simply copy the definition of the term from the text. Instead, you must also make clear from the context that you are applying the term correctly. In deciding if there is enough context, use this criterion: Would the passage still make sense if you substituted another, totally unrelated word? If it would, you probably need to add some more context to demonstrate your understanding.
Your installment should be between 450-550 words long.
You must include correctly cited links to all references you used in creating your installment.
Please make sure that you have proofread the assignment and run a spell check before you post your assignment to the appropriate forum at D2L.

Note that the instructor will grade these, using the rubric at the bottom of this page.

View sample Freelance Writer assignment.

Part 4: Respond to two other posts

Respond to the Freelance Writer 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).
Make sure your response is substantive, meaning that you have read and thought about the original post and that you are extending one or more of the thoughts in the original post or offering an additional perspective as you might in a good conversation. Pay special attention to the use of the key terms from the chapter. It is not enough to say simply "nice job", "I liked that", "I think you're right about XXXX", "I disagree", etc. The goal is to thoughtfully add something else interesting and new related to the content of the original post. At a minimum this 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 responded to two other students, go to Desire2Learn and complete the Gradebook Declaration for this week's Freelance Writer assignment. (Your Gradebook Declaration is subject to the Honor Code.)

Here is the text of the Desire2Learn Gradebook Declaration:

(2 points) I have responded constructively to the posts of at least two other students (1 point per response; 50-100 words for each).

Grading Rubric for Week 7, Chapter 14 Freelance Writer assignment:

I will use the following rubric to grade your Freelance Writer assignments. Notice that the rubric does not heavily reward creativity; I am much more interested in looking for evidence that you understand the concepts that you have chosen to explore in your episode. In fact, you won't receive full credit for this assignment - no matter how realistic your installment - if you don't provide evidence that you really understand this week's biological concepts. In addition, although you can choose your installment and theme for this assignment, keep in mind that some themes might be offensive to other students. Be careful that your installment couldn't be construed as hostile toward people of a particular race, nationality, sexual orientation or religion.

	Standards
Criteria	Full Credit	Half Credit	No Credit
"Created" character	You "created" two characters and described their occupations or lifestyles = 0.5 point		You "created" two characters but your characters' occupations or lifestyles were not clearly stated = 0 points
Arguments for and against population control	You presented well-reasoned arguments for and against voluntary population control = 2 points	You presented illogical arguments, or only one side = 1 point	Your episode did not include well-reasoned arguments for and against voluntary population control = 0 points
Key term #1	You used and correctly applied a key term from the chapter = 1 point	You used but did not apply (or incorrectly applied) a key term from the chapter = 0.5 point	You did not use a key term from the chapter = 0 points
Key term #2	You used and correctly applied a key term from the chapter = 1 point	You used but did not apply (or incorrectly applied) a key term from the chapter = 0.5 point	You did not use a key term from the chapter = 0 points
Key term #3	You used and correctly applied a key term from the chapter = 1 point	You used but did not apply (or incorrectly applied) a key term from the chapter = 0.5 point	You did not use a key term from the chapter = 0 points
Content	Your installment focused on the chapter's content = 0.5 point	The chapter was part of your installment but not the main focus = 0.25 point	Your installment did not focus on the chapter's content = 0 points
Completeness	All content from the chapter that was necessary to complete the installment was included = 0.5 point	One essential concept from the chapter was missing = 0.25 point	More than one essential concept from the chapter was missing = 0 points
Accuracy	All content and concepts were explained correctly = 1.5 point	You made one mistake explaining content or concepts = 1 point	You made more than one mistake explaining content or concepts = 0.5 - 0 points

Please note that points will be deducted as follows if you fail to meet the "mechanical" requirements of the assignment:

0.5 point will be subtracted if you fail to explicitly indicate what your "theme" is (that is, you fail to say something along the lines of "I am writing an episode for The Simpsons" or "I am writing an episode of The Young and the Restless");
0.5 point will be subtracted for every 2 spelling/grammatical errors (see http://english.acadiau.ca/grammar-quizzes.html and http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/577/1/ for tips on correct punctuation in dialogue);
1 point will be subtracted if you fail to present your key terms in bold or colored type;
1 point will be subtracted if your post is too short
1 point will be subtracted if you fail to list references (if specified in the assignment); alternatively, 0.5 point will be deducted if you listed your references but they are not formatted correctly.

[This assignment was written by Matt Chumchal.]

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