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Select an organism from one of the (traditional) 5 Kingdoms of life: Monera
('bacteria'), Protista (mostly unicellular organisms), Fungi,
Plantae or Animalia. There are two groups of
organisms which are 'off limits'. You are not permitted to select
an organism from either Class Mammalia (mammals) or Class Aves (birds).
Note: No two students can select the same organism - clear your selection with
your instructor before beginning your research.
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Locate at least 5 different web sites which provide accurate scientific
information
about your selected organism. The type of information you are looking
for includes the organism's taxonomic classification, its internal and external structure,
ecological
information (where it lives, how it interacts with it's environment and
other organisms), its life history etc. Check these Biology
links.
You must establish scientific credibility
for each of your web sites. Here's how:
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Determine the author of the information. The author may be an
individual or an institution, and you may really have to 'dig'
to determine the responsible party. If the author is an individual, their
credentials must be presented on the web site.
-
Cite references provided on the web site in the form of a 'bibliography'.
Check out this
Penn
State Library site for help in evaluating web resources.
Here's
a useful
web site evaluation page at U. of California, Berkeley.
Another great site to get you
critically thinking
about what you see on the web from Ithaca College
(Here's a sample search result we can use to practice
evaluating websites)
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Provide the following information for each credible web site:
- the URL (must be accurate! Copy and paste to avoid typos)
-
a brief (1-2 sentence) description of the type of information
at the site. Do not provide specific information about the
organism; I can go to the web site and read that myself.
-
the person or institution (i.e. museum, university) responsible for the
information given at the site.
-
other 'credibility boosters' such as bibliographic references, if
given.
- Locate at least 2 different web sites which you reject as not
scientifically credible. Provide both the URL and a very brief statement as to why you
would not use this web site as a reference.
Click here
to see a Sample Assignment
- Prepare your assignment in Microsoft FrontPage to create a web page
(html document). The URL of each site must
be an active link.
Basics - Using FrontPage to prepare your
assignment
Detailed handout
on Using Microsoft FrontPage to Create a Web
page.
- Upload your completed assignment using the "Internet Assignment
Dropbox" in Angel. (Or see the optional #7 below).
- (optional) Want to put your file on the Web instead of uploading
to Angel? You can do this
using your Penn State Personal Web space as follows:
- Apply for your web space as described at http://www.nk.psu.edu/cis/persweb.html
(It may take several days after you apply for your web space to be
ready to use).
- Make sure there are no spaces in the names of any of your files before you
publish them.
- Publish your file by following the instructions at
http://www.nk.psu.edu/cis/handouts/secureftp.html
(Note: You must send copies of image files as well as html
files to your web space if you include pictures in your web page)
- The address of your published web page is www.personal.psu.edu/youruserid/yourfilename.
Go to this address and check your posted project for accuracy - double check
your links!
If you complete your assignment using this method, please send an e-mail
to Deborah (dys100@psu.edu) with the URL
of your web site.
