SCI 207 Week 3 Assignment

SCI 207 Week 3 Assignment

SCI 207 Week 3 Assignment

Ashford 4: – Week 3 – Assignment

Rough Draft of the Final Lab Report

Carefully review the Grading Rubric that will be used to evaluate your assignment before you begin.

You are required to develop a rough draft for your Final Lab Report, which covers all three experiments for “Lab 2: Water Quality and Contamination.” To begin, carefully review the instructions for your Final Lab Report assignment located within Week Five. Next, download the Rough Draft of the Final Lab Report Template and utilize this form to ensure proper formatting and inclusion of all required material. Using the template will ensure proper formatting. You must use at least four scholarly sources and your lab manual to support your points. The rough draft must be three to five pages in length (excluding title and reference pages) and formatted according to APA style. For information regarding APA samples and tutorials, visit the Ashford Writing Center, located within the Learning Resources tab on the left navigation toolbar.
The Rough Draft of the Final Lab Report must contain the following seven sections in this order:

Title Page – This page must include the title of your      report, your name, course name, instructor, and date submitted.
Introduction – This section should discuss why the      experiment was conducted. At a minimum, it should contain three      paragraphs. One paragraph must cover background information of similar      studies that have already been done in the area. This is accomplished by      citing existing literature from similar experiments and explaining their      results. A second paragraph should provide an objective or a reason why      the experiment is being done. Why do we want to know the answer to the      question we are asking? A third paragraph should provide a hypothesis for      each of the three experiments conducted.
Materials and Methods – This section should provide a      detailed description of the materials used in your experiment and how they      were used. A step-by-step rundown of your experiment is necessary;      however, it should be done in paragraph form, not in a list format. The      description should be exact enough to allow for someone reading the report      to replicate the experiment, but it should be in your own words and not      simply copied and pasted from the lab manual.
Results – This section should include the data and      observations from the experiment. All tables and graphs should be present      in this section. Additionally, there should be at least one paragraph      explaining the data in paragraph form. There should be no personal opinions or discussion beyond the results of      your experiments located within this section.
Discussion – This section should interpret or explain      the meaning of your data and provide conclusions. At least three      paragraphs should be outlined here. First, a paragraph should be present      that addresses whether the hypotheses were confirmed or denied and how you      know this. Second, you are to discuss the meaning of your findings in this      area utilizing scholarly sources to put the paper into context. For example,      how do your results compare with the findings of similar studies? Also,      you should discuss any future questions arising from your results and how      you might test them. Finally, you should discuss if there are any outside      factors (i.e., temperature, contaminants, time of day) that affected your      results. If so, how could you control for these in the future?

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

• The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS

  Discussion Questions (DQ)

  • Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
  • Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
  • One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
  • I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.

  Weekly Participation

  • Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
  • In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
  • Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
  • Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.

  APA Format and Writing Quality

  • Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
  • Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
  • I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.

  Use of Direct Quotes

  • I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
  • As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
  • It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.

   

  LopesWrite Policy

  • For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
  • Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
  • Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
  • Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.

  Late Policy

  • The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
  • Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
  • If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
  • I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
  • As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.

  Communication

  • Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me: 
    • Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
    • Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.