BIO 15L: Writing
Assignments
Your Writing Assignments will be broken into 2 parts: (1) Responding to questions or situations that I pose for you and (2) Finding current articles in the popular media and relating them to what you are learning in your biology classes. Each of these parts will, in turn, be broken into two assignments (A and B) worth 10 points apiece, for a total of 40 points throughout the semester. Parts 1A and 1B will be assigned by me as relevant topics in lab appear. Parts 2A and 2B can be completed any time before the end of the semester, though I will start nagging you in a few weeks if you have not completed part 2A by then. This will allow you to accomplish the writing assignment in small pieces and with some flexibility.
The objectives of the writing assignments are to help you
Guidelines
for Parts 2A and 2B: Each current
article analysis will be worth 10 points;
to start you must find a
current article in a magazine or
newspaper or reliable website, which is
related to biology. In 1-2 pages you
must
Write for an audience
of your peers; use complete sentences and paragraphs.
Your grade will be based on the clarity of your
writing (poor spelling,
grammar, and organization detract from clarity), as well as
scientific accuracy.
The short writing assignment can be turned in any time up to the
last
day of class. If you turn one in at
least 10 days before the last day, I can return it to you for revision.
Assignment 1A (10
points): Good Science or Bad Science?
Due
Tuesday, February 16, at the start of lab
Dr. Barry Sears has
a PhD in
biochemistry and invented what he called the "Zone Diet,"
which is a low carbohydrate-high protein
diet (40% of Calories from carbohydrates,
30% from protein, and 30% from fats). He
called it the Zone Diet because he claimed that it helped athletes and
others
stay in their "zone" of high performance. He
claimed that the diet worked because it
kept the production of insulin low and promoted the production of other
molecules that stimulated high performance.
To summarize his
ideas in the
form of the scientific method, we could represent Sears' ideas:
Observations: high
carbohydrate diets can inhibit enzymes
removing “bad” fatty acids
high
protein diets can stimulate enzymes removing “bad” fatty
acids
Hypothesis: A
low carbohydrate-high protein diet (the Zone Diet) can improve physical
and
mental performance
Prediction: People
on the Zone Diet will outperform those
not on the diet
Sears'
reported Experiment: 1990-91 Stanford
swim team lost to University of
1992 Dr.
Sears convinced Stanford coaches to put swimmers on Zone Diet; while
Univ. of
1992
Stanford swim team beat
Sears'
Conclusion: the Zone Diet leads to
“peak
performances”