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Context: This is one assignment in a series that is used to help students write a term paper for a high school science class.

Contents

• Assignment Introduction and Instructions go
  • Outline for students to use go
  • Working definition of a theme go
• List of Sample Themes go
• Supplies go

Assignment: Preparing for your Report

Writing Short Essays: Assignment 2

Introduction and Instructions

In this assignment you will write a 2 page essay introducing a theme suitable for your report. Your may choose one of the sample themes given below, or develop one of your own. Your own theme must include the scientific principle statement and the impact statement as illustrated in the example given.

From a set of 5 newspaper, short magazine and /or internet articles, build a logical argument to support a thesis (theme). Use information from each chosen article in your discussion. You will receive credit for the thesis and for the supportive evidence. Each must be clearly stated. Include your reference list as a bibliography at the end of the report.

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Suggestion #1

Give them rich experiences to write about.

Throughout this site I have attempted to present resouces for such experiences. Hence the ads for children's toys, videos, books, pets, and such. There are more essays on this topic. I know the pages are crowded with ads, but I hope that they will give you ideas for your students. I have chosen educational items from the sponsors to present in the stores. I have chosen my merchants with teaching in mind.

Imagine these designs as greeting cards, backgrounds, presentations, stationery, mugs, hats t-shirts, and other items.

Use the following outline for your discussion.

I. Statement of theme.

• Statement of the scientific principle that is part of your theme.
• Introduction to a statement of the implications that man’s practices or organism interactions have for that principle in today’s world.

II. Statement of evidence for your conclusion.

a. Explanation of the evidence.

b. Example of the evidence.

c. (Repeat as needed. )

• Another statement of evidence for your conclusion.
• Another explanation of the evidence.
• Another example of the evidence, etc.

d. Conclusion; statement of what you can say about the theme based on the evidence.

• Summary of why this conclusion is drawn.
• Statement of whether you consider this theme important to sustainability and why.
• More development of the statement of the implications that man’s practices or organism interactions have for that principle in today’s world.

Working Definition of a Theme

What is a theme? A theme in a science paper is the statement of the scientific principle behind your essay, and what it has to do with the ideas in your essay itself.

List of Themes

Some possible themes that can be researched using the envelopes and folders of articles in the classroom are these.

• An animal’s native habitat is large enough for getting enough exercise while roaming, finding enough food, finding mates, finding suitable nesting sites, and finding safe places to rest; but this much space is hard to find when humans move into an animal’s habitat.

• Non-indigenous species compete with indigenous species for many components of a niche, often with few predators to keep their population sizes in check.

• Man’s release of non-indigenous species into the environment has threatened the competitive relationships already in place for indigenous species.

• Polluting fresh water streams and rivers with phosphorus-based cleansers and fertilizers causes plants to proliferate, but too many plants deplete the oxygen needed by the animals of these waters.

• Genetically engineered crops can be grown in areas where they are not native or where pests would have required extensive control efforts, and still produce high yields.

• Stem-cell research shows great promise for discovering effective ways to treat many severely debilitating diseases, but the source of stem cells in the past has been tissue taken from aborted embryos.

• Cloning plants is a way to propagate hybrid varieties that would sexually reproduce with parent types if left to produce seeds for offspring lacking the desired hybrid characteristics.

• Third world countries facing famine need to be fed now; but more importantly, they need genetically engineered food crops that will grow in these countries’ harsh environments and still produce high yields of nutritious food.

• Overuse of pesticides can endanger our fruit and vegetable crop yields if the pollinators are affected.

• Some diatoms that assist in oxygenating the biosphere can turn poisonous to sea life, affecting the mollusk and fish populations that man eats.

• Forests are instrumental in cleaning the air of pollutants and storing carbon dioxide, providing a check on the Greenhouse Effect; but man needs the land for other uses and cuts down mature forests.

• Marshlands clean water and air of many pollutants and sewage products, making them important regions to preserve.

• Using bacteria, algae, wetland plants, man-made marshes, and terrestrial plants, we have learned to clean up some types of hazardous waste in a way that allows a restoration of the land once used as a dump. (These techniques are called bioremediation.)

• The legal issues of patent ownership for genetically engineered organisms, cloned cancer cells and cloned stem cells has made farming and research a lawyer’s goldmine.

Supply List

• Provide a large manila envelope with readings cut out from old newspapers, magazines with pages marked (or copies of the articles--but that is expensive) and/or papers/index cards with bibliographical information for books, magazines and URLs that students can use to research one theme. (This is somehing that can be put together over the summer break or over the years. Such envelopes are easy to fill with collection of back copies of Science News, Discover Magazine, etc. Recordkeeping for this collection is easier with an Examples in Science database developed with the tempate)
• Old science magazines and science trade books
• Old newspapers (Continued below.)

Get school, office, and computer supplies from on-line shops with great prices. Get books, mags, ebooks, too...

• Library books
• Science textbooks of all levels and subjects
• English textbooks, especially 11th and 12th grade
• a style manual such as MLA or one your English teachers use in their classes.
• An on-line subscription to magazines and newspaper articles such as EBSCO provided by the library system of the state of Mississippi to all its public library patrons and public schools via Magnolia.
• It helps to have a computer for the students to use.

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A logical argument is a form of structured reasoning in the descipline called logic. It consists of 3 parts:

• a statement of the issue,
• a list of reasons for a conclusion, and
• a conclusion. Go back.

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Suggestion #1

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