UNSW Cell Biology

2008 ANAT3231 Laboratory 03 - Group Project

Introduction

Objectives

Understand a concept in cell biology at depth

Understand how to work as a group on a research project

Understand to allocate work, research and project record keeping

Understand how to communicate scientific knowledge using a variety of media

The Project

Your group project will involve construction of a Cell Biology Educational Resource. The topic should be decided by your own group but must relate to Cell Biology.

Your resource will be either:

1. Poster
2. Online Resource

You will have approximately 1 hour in each week's lab to work on your project throughout the session, additional work and research time outside the lab will probably be required to complete your project.

Possible topics can be based around those in the current lecture/lab series. For example: cell structures (nucleus, endoplasmic reticulum, Golgi apparatus, mitochondria, cell cytoskeleton, vesicles, membranes......); cell processes (cell division, cell death, cell signaling, cell differentiation/development.......); cell biology techniques (cell culture, microscopy, monoclonal antibodies, microarray, gene expression......); cell biology related disorders (note that the topics listed is not complete giving just a few examples). You will also see from previous years projects (History) that students also provided some background information on their project and access to an online version of their final poster.

The Project Timeline

1. This first week we are organising our groups and preliminary ideas.
2. The second week will be distributing of Group Log Books and discussion of work distribution and record keeping.
3. The third week will be finalising of the Group Topic.
4. Deadline for the final poster will be required approx 1 week to 10 days before the final lab to allow medical illustrations printing and laminating of poster.
5. The second last week will be preparing your presentations for the following week assessment exercise.
6. The final week Lab will be Assessment of the Group Project.

Assessment

The Group Project will be assessed by the following criteria:

1. Final Poster/Online Resource
2. Presentation in the Final Lab week
3. Contribution to group work, assessed in the Group Project Log and by observation.

Final individual marks will be based on criteria 1 and 2 and adjusted up/down by criteria 3.

History

Previous ANAT3231 Projects provides links to overviews of previous poster group projects within Cell Biology. I will also bring some previous posters to the class.

• 2006
• 2005
• 2004

Poster Project Resources

Posters are a very "visual" way of providing information on specific topics. You will need to research your topic fully before commencing layout which is based upon the main associated issues/topics you have discovered. Note that you will always have much more information than you can put on the final poster!

You will be able to use Lab computers for researching and powerpoint preparation of poster, but will have to supply your own memory stick to save your project in each lab (do not forget to take it with you at end of class).

The links below are useful starting points for later use when preparing the actual poster.

• UNSW Medical Illustration Unit Will be printing your final poster. They also provide some useful information about preparing a scientific presentation and have powerpoint versions of full size poster templates we will use.

Scientific Poster Information

• Poster Templates The poster templates files are Microsoft Powerpoint (PPT) files. Suitable for Windows and Mac users. The instructions on how to use the templates are in the poster template files themselves. There are two versions of each shape, with slight variations of colour and design.

Online Project Resources

There are currently two possibilities for the online project.

1. The entire online project can be prepared offline as a HTML project that can be supplied as a site I can upload to UNSW Cell Biology.
2. I have prepared an ANAT3231 Wiki site (https://wiki.cse.unsw.edu.au/anat3231/) which you can currently open but not see anything. If you select this second option I will give you access to your own group pages and you can work entirely online. Only people in your group will be able to edit and add new page(s), though anyone will be able to view.

Academic Honesty and Plagiarism

All materials used in preparation and final presentation of your project must be correctly acknowledged, referenced and adhere to copyright regulations. Please read the extract below from Plagiarism and Academic Integrity

What is Plagiarism?
Plagiarism is the presentation of the thoughts or work of another as one’s own.*

Examples include:

• direct duplication of the thoughts or work of another, including by copying material, ideas or concepts from a book, article, report or other written document (whether published or unpublished), composition, artwork, design, drawing, circuitry, computer program or software, web site, Internet, other electronic resource, or another person’s assignment without appropriate acknowledgement;
• paraphrasing another person’s work with very minor changes keeping the meaning, form and/or progression of ideas of the original;
• piecing together sections of the work of others into a new whole;
• presenting an assessment item as independent work when it has been produced in whole or part in collusion with other people, for example, another student or a tutor; and
• claiming credit for a proportion a work contributed to a group assessment item that is greater than that actually contributed.†

For the purposes of this policy, submitting an assessment item that has already been submitted for academic credit elsewhere may be considered plagiarism. Knowingly permitting your work to be copied by another student may also be considered to be plagiarism. Note that an assessment item produced in oral, not written, form, or involving live presentation, may similarly contain plagiarised material.

The inclusion of the thoughts or work of another with attribution appropriate to the academic discipline does not amount to plagiarism. The Learning Centre website is main repository for resources for staff and students on plagiarism and academic honesty. These resources can be located via: www.lc.unsw.edu.au/plagiarism

The Learning Centre also provides substantial educational written materials, workshops, and tutorials to aid students, for example, in:

• correct referencing practices;
• paraphrasing, summarising, essay writing, and time management;
• appropriate use of, and attribution for, a range of materials including text, images, formulae and concepts.

Individual assistance is available on request from The Learning Centre.

Students are also reminded that careful time management is an important part of study and one of the identified causes of plagiarism is poor time management. Students should allow sufficient time for research, drafting, and the proper referencing of sources in preparing all assessment items.

* Based on that proposed to the University of Newcastle by the St James Ethics Centre. Used with kind permission from the University of Newcastle † Adapted with kind permission from the University of Melbourne.


Now search Online Textbooks

NLM Online Textbooks

Molecular Biology of the Cell 4 - NCBI MBoC | Publisher (Garland) MBoC

Molecular Cell Biology - NCBI MCB | Publisher (Freeman) MCB

The Cell- A Molecular Approach - NCBI The Cell | Publisher (Sinauer) The Cell

References

Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man (OMIM) provides background information to cell proteins and their relationship to known diseases. The introduction of each entry gives a historic background to the disease/protein and links to key references.

Genes & Disease Prepared by NCBI to give a "snapshot" overview of a few of the most common genetic diseases.

National Library of Medicine (USA) Bookshelf has a number of excellent online textbooks that can be all be searched for general background information using the window at the top of the linked page.

UNSW Cell Biology textbooks links to NLM cell biology textbooks and the publishers sites which often contain additional online resources.

National Center for Biotechnology Information (USA)

Different databases can be selected from the pulldown menu.

Selected option "Entrez" shows the results from searching all the different NCBI databases simultaneously.

NCBI "Established in 1988 as a national resource for molecular biology information, NCBI creates public databases, conducts research in computational biology, develops software tools for analyzing genome data, and disseminates biomedical information - all for the better understanding of molecular processes affecting human health and disease"

Medical Dictionary

This allows a Search of NIH Medlineplus Medical Dictionary. Type the word that you would like to find. If unsure of spelling, type the first few letters, followed by an asterisk(*).

Web Links

External

Related Topics

microscopy, tissue culture, cell fractionation, histology, immunochemistry, protein separation,