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Instructions for Web Article Reviews

Purposes of the Article Reviews:

	to become familiar with scientific literature that is intellectually accessible to an educated lay person
	to explore two or three topics in greater depth than is presented in the textbook or Study Guide/Lab Manual.

Directions for Using the Web For Article Reviews:

You are required to review at least one article for this course (the second special project can be either an article review or an internet project). You may follow the instructions for the Article Review Project outlined on pages 11 and 12 in the Biology 101 Course Guide or if you would like to do the Internet version of this assignment (which takes advantage of the strengths of the Internet), you may follow the modified instructions below. However, whether you follow the instructions in the Course Guide or the Internet instructions,the basic guidelines are identical.

Basic Guidelines:

	the article must be at least two pages in length--not a news item
	the article you choose must be no more than two years old. Part of the purpose of this review is to introduce you to the cutting edge of biology. It is important that you appreciate that biology is not a set of facts or ideas that are just collecting dust in books--rather it is a dynamic enterprise that has many unknown areas that scientists are actively exploring.
	For each article review, you may select an article from either Scientific American or Bioscience . Be sure to select an article that is full-text, not an abstract. The other biology journals listed in the Course Guide do not have full-text articles on line. American Scientist does have abstracts of articles online as well as pertinent links to the article topic. This may be a good place to visit if you want to check out the journal before you go to the library.
	The article may relate to any of the subject areas covered in Biology 101. The bottom line - be sure you are able to understand the article you choose.
	Your review must be typed. However, Note: the actual instructions are different from that those outlined in the Biology 101 Course Guide. This version of the assignment is not the same as the assignment in the Course Guide. You may use either version of the instructions, i.e.,

you may go to the library, locate an appropriate article, and follow the directions in the Course Guide or
locate a full-text article on the Web from one of the journals cited above and follow the directions in the Course Guide . If you choose this option, it isn't necessary to print out the article; just note the article's URL. or
locate a full text article on the Web from one of the journals cited above and follow the special instructions for a Web article review below.

	Be sure that all of your work is in your own words.
	You may review an additional article for extra credit, if you wish. However, it must be submitted before you take exam 5.

Special Instructions for a Web Article Review

Your article review must contain the following sections:

I. Article Citation (5 points): Author's Last Name, Author's First Name, "Title of Article", Journal, URL, (date of visit).
II. Paragraph of Interest (10 points): One or two paragraphs summarizing one area developed in the article that you found most interesting.
III. Relate to Course (15 points): One or two paragraphs discussing how the article relates to what you have studied in this class. Be specific.
IV. Link Exploration (20 points): In the body of the article are terms in blue. As you move your mouse across the term, the mouse pointer turns into a hand (or some other symbol). If you click with your mouse on the term, you will go to a site that will explore the term in more depth. These terms are referred to as links. Explore at least two links in the paper that you are reviewing. At present , internal web links are developed to the greatest extent in Scientific American. Do not select an article that lacks Web links. Indicate the two links you selected by giving the URL of both links. Briefly discuss both sites and indicate one thing of interest you learned at each site.

BIOWEB Al BIO 101 Web Section ELI BIO 101 Web Section
nverdae@nvcc.edu
Emma Erdahl, Associate Professor of Biology
Northern Virginia Community College
Revised 8/23/00