Critical thinking and analysis, need help in this

ilBiol 215 Plant Medicinal Secondary Metabolite and Critical Thinking Assignments (20 pts)

Paper copy due at the beginning of Class Friday Feb 9^th.  No late papers will be accepted.  Plan ahead accordingly. 

 

Critical Review of a plant secondary metabolite in Medicine

 

The purpose of this assignment is to promote the appreciation of the complexity of plant biochemistry, the importance of plants in medicine, and to promote critical thinking concerning information literacy. The student acquires, analyzes, synthesizes, and evaluates information.Your paper also addresses the Biology departmental outcomes and will be applied to your BIOL 126 writing portfolio.

 

 

Search the literature to identify a plant that produces secondary metabolites that are useful for medicinal purposes (you might have to find more than one to locate a plant with adequate research to write your paper).  Construct a 3 page paper (typed single space, size 12 font paper, stapled.  Use section headers for each section) describing the indicated aspects of the plant and its uses.  All information should be essay format with complete sentences using proper English grammer.   Information to include in your paper is described below:  No quotations are allowed as per your syllabus.  All ideas or information that I not from your own knowledge or personal experiments must be cited in the text.  Pick a reference style from your literature review to use in your paper.  State which journal format you used. 

 

If you have questions please ask!!!

 

Assignment:Description of the plant and its properties, please include in this order (as bulleted sections):

I.  Plant Secondary Metabolite as medicine

a)Taxonomy

the taxonomy of the plant

                Family, Genus, species

b) Chemical class of the metabolite

                (eg Phenolic, Terpenoid, Alkaloid and any sub-classifications that are indicated.

c) Disease or Condition

the disease(s) or condition(s) that the plant chemical treats.

d) Preparation of Plant

what part of the plant is used, how it isprepared, and administered?

e) Critical review

summary of studies that support and or refute your claims.

                What evidence exists that this has medicinal properties?

                What evidence exists that this does not have medicinal properties?

f) Case Study

A specific case study of your metabolite or plant extract that was used to treat a specific disease or condition

g) Conclusion

Your overall thoughts on this plant as a medicine, include if you would take or prescribe this as medicine.

h) References

Include at least 5 scholarly resources.  Cite your references properly within the text.

 

Please take note of the plagiarism policy as outlined in the syllabus.  (You are responsible; remember no quotes and you must you in-text citations, if in doubt ask!!!!!)

 

 

II.  Reflection on sources and peer review.

 

The last page is a reflection on how you decided if your sources were credible and the contribution of your peer review.

 

Questions to discuss, consider or guide your reflection should include but not limited to:

 

How can you tell information is credible when you are not an expert in the field?  How can you believe what you are being told?

 

Is the article peer reviewed?  Why is peer review important?  How were the reviewers chosen?  Were the reviewers anonymous?  What were their backgrounds and motivation?  Can an article be credible without peer review? 

 

What is the author’s background?  Who funded the research?  What type of institution are they from?  What was the author’s (researcher’s) motivation? 

 

Why is information found on a government (.gov) or education (.edu) website not automatically considered credible?  Who writes the articles?  Who edits the articles?  Who reviews the articles for the website?  Why is that information posted there?  How often is the information updated? 

 

Metacognition is important in understanding why you make the choices you do.  This is basically thinking about how or why you are thinking while you are thinking it.  What in your background or thinking made you click on one link over another?

What are your own biases?  What motivated you to choose some and not others?Is there anything in your background that influenced your decisions?  How has your thinking changed as a result of the information?

 

After you have completed and proof read your paper ask a member of the class to review your paper using the peer review form.

 

What you need to complete the assignment

 

Deliverables: (3 actions must be taken)

 

A)  Hard Copy to me at the beginning of Class. FridayFebruary 17th, 2015

                NO late papers (even minutes late),  Don’t ask me to bring it later or email it to me!

                                Think ahead, plan for emergencies, have a plan “B”.

                Must be typed

                Must be stapled(automatic – 5 points if not stapled)

                Must have peer review attached

B)  Submit your paper to Turnitin.com link though class elearn by 11:00am Feb 19^th.  Your paper will not be graded if not submitted on time.

 

C)  This paper will also be used to fulfill a portion of your BIOL 126 portfolio

a) upload to BIOL 126 elearn Link provided.

b) give it a descriptive file name. (BIOL 215 metabolite paper)

 

 

The paper will be assessed for the content above as well as for writing using the UC Writing rubric.

 

Total Score will be determined:

 

 

	Section	Points
a.	Taxonomy	2
b.	Chemical Class	2
c.	Disease	2
d.	Preparation	2
e.	Critical review of literature	2
f	Case study	4
g	Conclusion	2
h	References	2
I	Reflection and review

 

Peer Review of Secondary Metabolite Project

Reviewer’s Name___________________________________________________

Author’s Name____________________________________________________

Title of Project_____________________________________________________

Please constructively comment on the following:

1.        Are all the appropriate sections present (with section headers)?  If not, what is missing?

2.        Does the paper contain in-text citations for all facts or ideas that the author did not discover?

3.        Does introduction describe the breadth and depth of the topics?

4.        Does the author use Standard English (grammar, punctuation, proper tense, person, etc.)?  Please underline or indicated any errors on the paper itself.

5.        Do the sections contain summaries in the author’s own words

6.        Does the paper contain quotations? 

7.        Does the paper have logical order? 

8.        Does paper use proper word choice and sentence structure?