Biology lab assignment
LECTURE QUIZ 1 Biol 1406 – 2020FA BIOL 1406 Scientific Lab Report on the Enzyme Experiment (50 pts) Report Due on Friday, October 23, 10:00 p.m. This report must be submitted in eCampus where directed in either PDF or .DOCX format. Any other format will be rejected and your report will be considered late if you have to re-submit it in the correct format after the due date passes. You must write your own lab report – although the lab group work asignment where you discussed the experiment and wrote a reflection was a group effort, writing this report should be entirely your OWN effort. If you are caught cheating or plagiarizing (look it up if you don’t know what it is) on any part of this report, you will receive a zero on the entire report. General Instructions on how to write a lab report: · The title should come first – it should be short, formal, complete and specific, (e.g. “Enzymes, the goodies of life” IS NOT an appropriate title). It should mention both the enzyme name and the independent variable. · All sections after the title should include headings and should ALL be the same style/capitalization. Required section headings are Abstract, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, & Literature Cited. · The entire lab report should be presented in paragraph form (it should look and read like an essay-type paper, nothing should look like a step-by-step or bulletted list or otherwise appear disjointed or fragmented). · I realize this is counter to most English composition instructions, but: · Most of your lab report should be written in past tense because you already did the experiment, such as saying: “The plants were placed in a window with access to bright sunlight.” The only exceptions are your conclusions and similar statements that transcend the experiment, such as “The results of this study support the conclusion that plants grow better in blue light than green light.” · Write primarily in a passive voice and refer to yourself as “we” (not “I”). The experiments were a group effort, so as a scientist, say “we” even though you are writing it alone. · Try to avoid using personal pronouns because the focus should be on the experiment and data, not on you unless you are talking about your OPINION or IDEAS. To avoid using personal pronouns when it isn’t necessary, look at my two sample sentences above about plants. I could have said, “We placed the plants in a window...”, but I wanted the focus to be on the plants’ position, so I wrote “The plants were placed in a window…” If you need help with this, email me! Your opinions and ideas are your hypothesis and conclusions – it is fine to use we/our in those sentences because you are sharing your personal thoughts. · Use SPELL CHECK and PROOFREAD! Spell check alone is NOT enough if you typed the wrong word. I expect you to use proper grammar and style for a formal writing assignment, so no contractions, no sentence fragments, and avoid being too casual. Abstract (expected length, ~1/4 to 1/3 page) An “abstract” is a fancy name for a summary of the entire paper, typically in 250 words or less. It should be in one single paragraph, and briefly introduce the topic/question studied, including the hypothesis tested, then briefly describe the overall experiment, then briefly summarize the results and and conclusions (was the hypothesis supported or rejected?). There are usually no references in this section because you are focusing on your questions, hypothesis, experiment, and conclusions – no prior or post-knowledge needed. Introduction (expected length = about 1 page) · The introduction describes the topic/question, explains the background of what you know, why you are doing the experiment, and your hypothesis. It is basically an essay that leads to the hypothesis and why you tested it with the experiment you did. · You should assume that the reader does NOT know anything about the subject you are writing about, so introduce the reader to the subject of the lab including the key questions and concepts, and your hypothesis. · Every time you say something that a reader with NO biology background would not already know, you must provide an in-text citation to document a source where that information is provided if the reader wants to check that information. You can use your textbook as the source for a lot of this background since that’s where YOU learned it, but you need to use at least one other external source for information about yeast or peroxidase/catalase types of enzymes and/or how temperature affects enzymes. · You need to find a “hook” – What is the central question/problem your experiment was intended to address? This may be different for different students because you can focus on how the enzyme works, whether balloons can accurately measure reaction rates, the effect of temperature on enzymes/reactions, etc. YOU get to tell me what matters to YOU in this introduction. · Remember to make each section flow. Your introduction should not read like a list of definitions, it should make sense as a story of the background for your experiment. · The topics to address are listed below, but they are not in the sequence that YOU should use. It is up to you to decide how to make your content flow from background/question to hypothesis to the design of the experiment and what you expect to discover/learn. · Introduce/explain the basic biology concepts under study, any relevant key terms and how they relate (examples: what is a chemical reaction? How does it relate to enzymes? to temperature?). · Introduce yeast and its utility as a model system (live source of enzyme). Introduce the enzymea we tested and what it does – why does capturing the product in a balloon work? · Summarize any relevant history on this topic – what kind of data is already out there? Is there existing information on how temperature should affect this enzyme’s function? What is the normal functioning temperature for this enzyme in yeast cells? · A hypothesis that encompasses the information you introduced. Remember that what you write should lead easily into the hypothesis statement, so if it seems out of place, re-arrange the rest of your intro so it flows into the hypothesis. · After your hypothesis, briefly describe the experimental design you used to test your hypothesis and the predictions (what you expect to see in the experiment) that stem from your hypothesis. Do NOT give details of the method here, focus on the general design of what you did. Materials and Methods (M&M, expected length = about 1/2 page) The M&M section is ALWAYS IN COMPLETE SENTENCES AND PARAGRAPH FORM. Never give a list of reagants or numbered list style materials and methods. It should always be written in sentences just like the rest of the report. · In the materials and methods, you should (in sentence form) tell the reader what chemicals and reagants you used for this lab. You do not need to list small items used such as pipets, glass vials, etc. · The 2nd paragraph of the M&M section should briefly describe the procedures you followed. Remember to stay in sentence, narrative format! This should be fairly short, but should generally explain what you did, and the KEY set-up and experimental details (such as the exact temperatures tested (include temps for all the data you have – including the data from your group-mates), how long the solutions were heated or cooled, etc. Results (expected length = about 1 page, including figures) Here, summarize the results in both paragraph text (describing trends, patterns, etc.) and in figures like graphs. The results section should describe the data in words while referring to the figures as they are discussed. · In the text portion of this section: · Very briefly remind the reader what you measured (what was the dependent variable? what independent variable did you vary to see how it affected what you measured?). Then describe the results in words. · Focus on trends rather than exact numbers – did you see an increase or a decrease? In relation to what change in the independent variable? · As you describe the trend/pattern in words, refer the reader to your visual representations (graphs and/or tables) by including a parenthetical notation such as “(See Figure 1)” at the end of the sentence that describes the trend. Keep in mind this only works if you include “Figure 1” in the title for your figure! · It is VERY important that you do NOT analyze or draw conclusions about the data in the results section. Don’t say why you think the results came out the way they did, and don’t say whether the results support your hypothesis – those are conclusions that you put in the “discussion” section. In science, we like to let the readers see the results BEFORE they read what we think about those results. It gives them a chance to draw their own mental conclusions before being influenced by what we think. · In the figures portion of this section: Create a graph of your data that shows the trends and has a proper title (“Figure 1: add description of figure here”), X and Y axis labels (including units). Remember: A graph is considered a “figure” and should be numbered so you can refer to it in your text easily. · This is a MAJOR PART OF THE RESULTS SECTION, so make sure your graph looks correct and is properly labeled – the title and axis labels matter as much as the data itself! · Paste all figures into the text directly into the Results section – they may NOT be submitted separately. Discussion (expected length = about 3/4 of a page) The discussion should be 2-3 paragraphs. Remember to write it in essay format so that it flows naturally – don’t just write individual sentences that answer my questions and then put them together and call it a “paragraph”! Do not submit what your group submitted, but it is okay if part of what you write here ends up drawing the same conclusions since you worked together on that – just make sure to write this discussion YOURSELF, not while looking at what your group submitted so you don’t accidentally plagiarize. First 1-2 paragraphs of the discussion: Evaluate the outcome of your results. · Open by VERY BRIEFLY summarizing the data that has been reported in this paper to get an overall view of the results. · Then, describe WHY you think this result occurred and what it means in relation to the hypothesis at the beginning of the report. This is when you tell the reader whether your results DO or do NOT support your hypothesis. · Topics you should address somewhere in your discussion: · What happened