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BIOL U599 - Biology Senior Seminar - Ferris: Home

Research Assignment
  • You will write a review paper based on a topic of your choice. The topic must be in the field of introduced species (unless you are presenting your own research or receive special approval).
  • If you have conducted your own undergraduate research, you may present your research with the approval of your research advisor and Professor Ferris. 
  • The review paper must include a minimum of 8 primary research articles. Case studies, review articles, and books may only be used in addition to the 8 primary articles and must only play a small role in the paper. 
  • Copies of all sources must be turned in with the final paper. 
  • You will create a detailed outline of your paper that provides the subtopics. This outline will then be used to write the paper. Failure to turn in the outline on time will result with a 5 point deduction/day from your paper grade.
  • The first submission of your paper will be returned with a grade. You will be given the opportunity to rewrite your review paper or accept the original grade assigned.  If you choose to rewrite the paper, your final paper grade will be the average of the first draft and the rewritten draft. ​
 

Primary Source Material: "Either created at the time of an event or period, or was later created by an actual participant or witness from that time." Samantha Sanders, uploaded to YouTube on Sep 22, 2010

Quiz Results
Animal: - Giraffe 4 – Cow 3 – Bird 0
Library Experience: Most only experienced High school or public library
Favorite Databases:
  • EBSCO - Advanced
  • ProQuest Biological Science Collection
  • JSTOR ***
Learning Objectives:
  • View various (new) databases
  • Find primary literature
  • Effectively search (save time)
  • Juicy research
Topics:
  • The relationship between excess folic acid, autism, autophagy and dendritic spines - Medical
  • Colonic inertia OR pseudotumor cerebri intracranial hypertension - Medical
  • Coral reef diseases possibly or avian conservation - Environmental
  • Type 2 Diabetes treatments and efficacies - Medical
  • Modeling intestinal disease using p-glycoprotein deficient C. elegans - Medical
  • The effects of autism in neuroepigene - Medical
  • Chestnut blight, Dengue fever via Asian Tiger mosquitoes - Enviromental
Aspirations
  • Medical school
  • Veterinary School
  • Getting out of South Carolina

Review the basics- Blue basket weave background

Important Links - Biology

Creating Search Terms and Phrases

Remember to search for the scientific name of plants and animals!

These search strategies work well in the library catalog and most databases. 

Boolean connectors- use AND, OR, NOT (sometimes AND NOT) to connect two or more search terms:

  • AND finds all records with all of your search terms and narrows your search
  • OR finds all records with one or more of your search terms and broadens your search
  • NOT or AND NOT is used to exclude the following term and can help to focus a search where one term has different meanings or uses (e.g., Mexico NOT "New Mexico")

Phrases in Quotes - most databases and web search engines allow you to search for exact phrases by placing them in quotes:

  • "carbon footprint"

Truncation - the library catalog and most databases use special characters to make searching easier in certain situations. Check the help screens in the catalog or database you are using to see what the special characters are for that resource.

  • the asterisk * is often used to stand for mutliple endings on a word (singular, plural, etc.): vot* finds vote, voter, voters
  • wildcards are similar, but replace another character in a word: wom?n in the library catalog finds both woman and women

Nesting - use parentheses to sort out the elements of a more complex Boolean search phrase, especially when you may want to search for more than one related term for one element of your phrase:

  • (carbon OR ecological) AND footprint
  • ("hip hop" OR rap) AND culture