Paper and Poster
Each student in this class will be required to present a poster and write a paper.
During the first class, you will randomly select a topic. You will have two choices of topics. The first choice will be related to a person in Genetics who won a Nobel Prize. A list of possible people is included in the front cover of your textbook. The second choice for a topic will be based on a disease or topic relating to a chapter listed on the syllabus and a database relating to this chapter. A list of these topics can be found here.
Project 1
For this project, you will need to answer the following questions based on the person that you were assigned:
1. When did this person live?
2. What did they get the Nobel Prize for? What was their discovery?
3. Why was this finding important in their time?
4. Why is their discovery important to us today?
5. What is some future research that can be done relating to this discovery?
Project 2
For this project, you will need to answer the following questions:
1. State what is the disease or topic and data base that you were assigned.
2. If you have a disease, answer questions, 3-6
3. Explain the mode of inheritance of the disease. How do you get the disease?
4. Explain some symptoms and characteristics of the disease.
5. Are there any treatments for the disease?
6. What are some current studies being done to learn more about this disease?
7. If you don’t have a disease, answer questions 8-10.
8. Explain the topic that you were assigned.
9. What is the significance or impact of your topic?
10. What is some current research being done on your topic?
11. This question must be answered by everyone doing project 2.
Explain how your data base is used and what can be learned form it.
You should be able to answer this question in one or two paragraphs.
For this project, you are not just to summarize what is in the textbook. You must find some original articles and read them.
Paper guidelines
The papers are due July 10 at the beginning of class. If you hand it in after class starts or later that day, it is LATE.
Your paper must be 3-5 pages in length.
You must have at least 5 primary scientific references. You may NOT under any circumstances hand in a paper without any references. You obtained this information from other sources. It was not your own and you must give credit to the person(s) whom you go the information from.
You must appropriately reference your sources within the text.
You must have a list of references at the end of the paper.
Your references must be in appropriate format. Different journals use slightly different formats. You can look at the papers assigned in this class to see one example of proper format for citing references. However, for the sake of consistency, please use the format used in the supplement to your book called Reading Primary Literature. There are references listed in the back of the book.
You must answer all of the questions listed under project 1 or 2.
You may NOT have any Internet sources.
All papers must be typed and stapled. If you have loose pages or the tips of pages folded over, then I will return it to you and it will be counted as late.
Poster sessions
There will be 2 separate days for poster sessions in this class to accommodate all of the students.
However, the timing of these sessions may change based on the topics chosen by the students.
The first poster session is planned for July 3. At this poster session, students will present posters on people who won Nobel Prizes in genetics.
The second poster session is planned for July 17. At this poster session, students will present posters on diseases and data bases.
You should include roughly the same information in the poster that you put in the paper. However, your format will be different. You will need to get a poster board. The instructor will show an example in class.
Try to be creative with your poster. For example, you might want to show pictures of what someone with the disease looks like. Another example would be a diagram of the use of a database. You might show a sequence of DNA and something that was determined about it by using a database.