Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Ever since Ozmonty ...Australian things are popping up. Here are some genetics ideas...

Wild virus attacks rabbits, your teacher says...Myxomatosis...Hmmm! It's a mystery because the virus no longer kills the rabbits. Why do they want to kill the rabbits. It must come down to money. What did the poor rabbit do to them? Ruined the human food supply? What? Are you kidding? How can we find out about it. Well, let's search the net and see what we come up with. Here are some leads.

First, you should do some research. Skim through these and find some points you can use. Be sure to site them with website and date accessed, according to the style manual your school or teacher uses (probably MLA, but, perhaps in science, CBE)
http://www.csiro.au/science/MyxomatosisHistory.html

Here's the wiki site. It is helpful, but, a lot of schools are snobby about it, So, don't use only wiki. Still, it is a good starting point and can bridge you up to journal articles:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myxomatosis

Here's a site that is biased in favor of humane treatment of rabbits:
http://www.ozrabbits.com/myxomatosis.html

Here's an abstract from a journal article. If you go to one of the colleges, the librarian can help you get a copy of the whole article. This is the level of reading that you should start to be introduced to on the high school level (so you are not shocked when you get to college and they expect you to find and read them on your own without being told...). Try to find more articles on this level:
http://www.publish.csiro.au/paper/ZO9900697.htm

Great, we've got some basic material. What do we need next? A plan. That's it, we need a plan. Just like a video game strategy, we need a Rabbit Population Mystery Strategy.

Time for the H.O.T. Skills Wheel(TM).
Knowledge
So Knowledge...Hmm, we can read and take notes on the articles we found. We can also find more articles. We could cut out some newspaper articles or find some pictures, perhaps.
Understanding
Can you paraphrase what the articles said? That means, can you say them in your own words.
Application
How can you use this information? Can you suggest public policies from it?
Analysis
Can you critique the journal articles you found? Can you reanalyse some of the data you read about? Can you analyze data you collected? Do you know whether to use statistics or not? What statistics to use if you do need to use it?

Synthesis or evaluation
(The highest two thinking levels are sometimes switched)

Synthesis
What can you create? Build? Design? Can you design an experiment to test a new hypothesis you have made based on your analysis of the information you gathered from material you read?
Evaluation
Can you evaluate the results of your experiment and library research? Can you suggest public policy? Should a rabbit law be made? What should it say? Why?

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