Written Assignment (Due Week #7)
On Week #5, students will be provided with only the figures and captions from a published paper and asked to interpret the data in the form of an abstract describing the paper. The abstract should provide a brief introduction to the paper's topic, a summary of the results, and an interpretation of the significance of the results. DO NOT LOOK UP THE PAPER.
Oral Assignment (Presented in the Final Class Meeting)
On Week #10, students will be provided with a list of articles selected by the course instructors but not discussed in class. From this list, students will select one paper to discuss in a 15-minute presentation, followed by a 5-minute discussion with the class. The presentation should provide a critical analysis, rather than just a summary, of the data, the controls, and the published interpretations. The presenter should also discuss the relevance of the paper to the course topic and the field, whether the authors' conclusions were justified, and what would be a good follow-up experiment.