For those who just added the class

We had a lot of fun in class on Friday! If you were absent you really missed out on some fun, but we don't want you to miss out on the assignment as well. In groups of 3, we instructed the groups to take their vial of 5 termites and place them on a sheet of printer paper that has a black line drawn around it with a pen we handed out. Students were instructed to make observations and develop a hypothesis that would explain the phenomena they were observing. Here is a link to a youtube video that shows what most students observed.

So the termites seem to follow the circle drawn on the paper. Why might that be? Some students hypothesized that the behavior is caused by the dark color on the paper (perhaps termites like dark colors). Others hypothesized that the behavior is caused by the indentation that would have been left by the pen. The students then designed an experiment to test their hypothesis. They had various materials available to them (pens, pencils, markers, paper, transparency sheets, etc). We were too limited on time to really spend the time that would be needed to run several different experiments, but collectively as a class we learned the following:

1. It is important, but quite difficult to test for only one variable (i.e. when you use a felt tip pen to test to see if it is the indentation that the termites like to follow, you have changed another variable in doing so: the type of ink used is now different.)

2. The sample size we had in class was too small. Out of the 5 termites we gave to the students, only 3 would follow the line because 1 would get lost and another would have ended up dead from being moved around so much.

3. We are testing for termite behavior, which seems to depend upon the treatment that we apply to the paper. Therefore, the independent variable is what? What is the dependent variable? (come see your TA if you need help with this).

4. It is really important to have a control group for every experiment you conduct. Otherwise, you don't know what your data actually mean.

The assignment handed out was a copy of a "sample exam" that students will fill out and turn in this Friday. The assignment is to write a one paragraph answer to the question "How can the scientific method be used to understand termite behavior?". You must use all of the associated vocabulary terms in this paragraph.

Week 7 Assignment

Blackboard has been acting up on me while I was trying to post your friday assignment so here it is:

Week 7: How should research funding be allocated among cancer, HIV/AIDS, and autism?

Your assignment is to read each of the websites listed below and write down the following for all 3 diseases:
1. A scientific "discovery" or "breakthrough" that has been made with this disease in the past 10 years.
2. The reliable source you used to find this information.

NIH information on autism
NIH information on cancer
NIH information on HIV/AIDS

Exam Tips

All of us TA's are frequently asked "How should I study for the test?" It's a question I wish every TA would just address in a straightforward manner so I will do my best to do that here...
What's on the exam?
25 Multiple choice ?'s
2 written questions that will be the exact format as your termite training paragraph.

• Question 1 will be from Monday or Wednesday of weeks 2-5 (note that week 1 will only be on the multiple choice section)
• Question 2 will be a Friday question from weeks 3-5. You will be required to write a one paragraph "letter" to your senator describing your opinion on one of the issues. You must provide 2 arguments for whatever side you pick and acknowledge at least 1 argument from the other side. Make sure these arguments are supported! WARNING: You will get marked off for putting "because the government is stupid and shouldn't get involved." or "Only losers smoke medicinal marijuana." Those are just opinions and cannot be supported by evidence.

How I would study for the multiple choice section

1. Make sure to go to a review session! The TA's will go over the vocab terms at these review sessions. This will help clarify confusing terms and be a good refresher for the terms that you haven't heard anything about in several weeks. 

2. Go over the vocab terms again on your own time. Make sure you understand each term well. Be able to define the term and be able to recognize the term if only given the definition.

3. Draw out diagrams, label them, make sure you know how each term relates to the other terms (i.e. how does a synapse relate to an action potential? How do prokaryotes relate to eukaryotes? etc.)

4. Review the slides thoroughly. Do you know why we included each slide? Is there anything that Dr. Cates spent an especially large amount of time on (i.e. gene vs allele).

5. Explain everything to a friend. Make sure you can explain each one of the terms in plain english to a friend or classmate.

6. Go see your TA with any questions! They're here to help you.

How I would study for the written portion of the exam:

M/W questions - Make sure you know how to answer each question. You will need to explain the answer to one of the questions in one paragraph. The best way to prepare for this is to write out each paragraph beforehand and make sure it is exactly what you want it to say. You have the grading rubric... take a look at it! Unfortunately, you can't bring your pre-written paragraph in to the test, but you will have had practice in writing these. If you don't have the time to write each paragraph out - make sure you at LEAST make an outline of your answer. You can go see your TA during office hours if you are uncertain about any aspect of your paragraphs.

Fri questions - 

Review your notes and decide your stance for each of the issues now. Write out your paragraph or at least write an outline.

i.e.  

"Intro: (my stance on the issue is YES)

 Yes Argument 1 (brief explanation of argument)

 Yes Argument 2 (brief explanation of argument)

Additional comments about arguments 1 and 2.

 No argument (brief explanation of argument)

 Why no argument isn't convincing enough to overcome my previous 2 arguments

 Conclusion sentence. "

Finally, some tips for while you're in the testing center:

1. Slow down speed racer. Seriously. If someone said they would give you 5 extra points on the test by staying in the testing center for an extra 20 minutes - would you do it? Well, that's what I'm telling you. I know you might think "I'm a quick test-taker". So am I... and we should totally race sometime! Just not on this test. Take your time with each question and don't get things mixed up! (amino acids/nucleotides, genes/alleles, DNA/RNA, etc.)

2. Draw pictures. You can use a sheet of scratch paper that the testing center stamps to just draw out the processes. This will help you with at least 15 of the 25 multiple choice questions. 

3. Choose the BEST answer. For example, if you see the question... 

What do genes code for? 

a. proteins 

b. amino acids 

c. intelligence 

d. phospholipid bilayers 

You might start to think "I know genes code for proteins BUT proteins are made up of amino acids, so maybe the answer is amino acids? Oh wait, I think I remember reading some part of an article about how intelligence has a genetic component to it as well! So maybe it's that one... Yeah I think I'll pick that one."  and you get it wrong because the best answer here is obviously A. proteins. 

Anyway, I hope this all helps you in your preparation for the exam. Best of luck!

*DISCLAIMER* - This is not a comprehensive list of things to do that will get you an A on the exam. You are responsible for your own studying! This is merely how I would study if I were going to take the test.