Biology in the News Assignment
Assignment Instructions: view online | download .pdf file
View science news headlines (RSS feeds) (What is RSS?)
Download the Biology in the News Summary Form: Word 2007 | Word 2003
List of presentation dates and links to articles and summaries
Online forum for posting responses to articles
Grading rubric (.pdf file)
Sample news article: view online | download .pdf
Sample completed summary form (.pdf file)
Assignment Instructions
What is Biology in the News?
What do I have to do for my own presentation?
What do I have to do for Biology in the News discussions led by other students?
What is Biology in the News?
This assignment is designed to increase your awareness of the world of biology that surrounds us. By reading about and discussing new discoveries in biology reported in the news media, you will appreciate the importance of what you are learning in this class, and how biology affects us every day.
During the first week of class, each student will be assigned a presentation day (click here to view presentation dates). To prepare for your presentation day, you will find a recent news article related to biology. You will research this topic, and in class, you will present the article and moderate a brief discussion about the topic of the article. In addition to your own presentation, you will be submitting written responses to other students’ presentations, and participating in the class discussions.
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What do I have to do for my own presentation?
Find a suitable news article
You will need to search the available news media to find a relatively short news article related to biology. You can search in newspapers, popular magazines (e.g., Time, Newsweek, Discover), or on news sites on the internet (e.g., Yahoo! Science News, AP Science News, Biology News Net). On the course website, you have access to headlines from some of these sources, updated daily through RSS feeds. Do not use blogs, as they are often unreliable—the author of the article should be a journalist or scientist. If you are not sure whether an article you have found is appropriate, your instructor can give you feedback. (Click here for a sample news article.)
Gather background information
You may need to conduct additional research to fully understand your article and to appreciate its significance. If there’s a term or concept you don’t understand, look it up! Your instructor will give you guidance if you have already done some research and still don’t have the answer.
Complete a summary form for the article
Download the summary form (Word 2007 | Word 2003). Fill out the form completely (see sample summary form). You will need to enter your name, presentation date, and the title and source of your news article. The form also has the following sections:
- Summary. Concisely summarize the findings reported in the article.
- Background. Provide any relevant background information necessary to understand the article. Provide context for the news—where appropriate, you can relate the news to what we have been studying in class.
- Impact. What is the significance or impact of this news? How and why is it important to humans?
- Points for Discussion. List 3-5 questions you can ask when you lead the class discussion of the article.
Submit your news article and the summary form to your instructor.
- The deadline for submitting the article and the summary form is one week prior to your presentation day. Items should be received by 5:00 pm on the due date.
- If your news article is in electronic form, email the article and the link to your instructor. If the news article is in print form, provide a hard copy to your instructor.
- Email the completed summary form as an attachment to your instructor.
- The instructor will send out the article and the summary form to your classmates.
Present your article in class
On your presentation day, you will have ~5 minutes to present the article. You should present the information in a conversational tone rather than reading directly from the summary form. Then, you will lead the class in a brief (~5 min) discussion of the article. The more advance research you conduct on your topic, the more prepared you will be for this portion of the assignment. The class presentation comprises 50% of your grade for the Biology in the News assignment (see grading rubric).
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What do I have to do for Biology in the News discussions led by other students?
First, you need to read the article and summary form to prepare for the discussion. In addition, you should submit a brief (~1 paragraph) written response to the “Points for Discussion” by email to the instructor prior to the beginning of class on the day of the discussion. In your written response, clearly indicate the title of the article and the presentation date. Use of foul language, sarcasm, etc., will not be tolerated and will be penalized by a zero. You should print out your written response and bring it to class to refer to during the discussion. Late responses will not be accepted. These written responses comprise 25% of your grade for the Biology in the News assignment (see grading rubric).
You are strongly encouraged to participate actively in the class discussion following the article presentation. You are expected to participate in at least 5 discussions throughout the semester. Participation in class discussions comprises 25% of your grade for the Biology in the News assignment (see grading rubric).
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