| Background
Working
in teams of 2, investigate one of the following problems. Submit
your project topic online by midnight Feb 10.
La’au
The use of higher plants in the treatment of disease is as old as
the art of healing itself. Isaiah of Biblical times suggested that
a plaster of figs be placed on boils as a treatment of this form
of infection. The Chinese have used plants and herbs for centuries
in the treatment of many diseases. Thousands of phytochemicals have
been isolated and several serve as plant defenses against microbial
infection. The idea of using plants was abandoned with the discovery
of antibiotics from soil bacteria. The widespread resistance of
bacterial pathogens to conventional antibiotics has prompted renewed
interest in the use of alternative natural microbial inhibitors
such as amtimicrobial peptides. Read
more…
Questions:
-Effects on bacterial/fungal growth of sublethal concentration(s)
of an extract of berries, leaves, etc.
-Determine the Minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) and/or minimal
lethal concentration (MLC) of an extract.
-Determine the effect on bacterial/fungal growth/survival in a
food.
-What is your control?
Gaia
The Gaia hypothesis proposes that living and nonliving parts of
the earth are viewed as a complex interacting system. Named after
the Greek earth goddess, this hypothesis proposes that all living
things have a regulatory effect on the Earth's environment that
promotes life overall.
Biodiversity and productivity
-Determine the effect of human
activities on surface waters.
-Do introduced plants affect soil productivity?
The Rhizophere
-Determine the effect of introduced plants on soil mycorrhizae.
Indoor Air Quality
-Loma Chica + childcare facility.
-Pacific Heights.
-A 50+ year old local school to which you have access.
Biodiesel
The greenest fuel may be provided by little green cells. More than
100,000 strains of algae have been identified. Many of them grow
rapidly and can be cultivated to develop high oil content, often
more than 60 percent of their biomass. Basic production requirements
are simple: water—even saline water—and carbon dioxide.
Current research efforts are focused on maximizing oil production.
Culture one or more unicellular algae to answer some key questions:
:
-What algal strains are most efficient?
-How can you get the most fuel? Compare cell growth with oil production
under different conditions [e.g., pH, [nitrogen]), treated sewage,
saltwater]. (read more…)
| Purpose
Working in teams of two students, you will
1. Answer the following questions in the background:
-What will you be looking for?
-Why is this important?
2. What will you look for with your experiments?
-How many trials will you do?
-What will you use for controls?
3. Discuss the significance of your results
4. Write your report in the proper
format.
Hypotheses
State your hypothesis
(& alternative hypotheses)
Materials Available
You must turn in the Supply Request
form before you begin working.
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Results
Displaying data
Discussion & Conclusions
Literature Cited
You are encouraged to read all the available information on
the topic for your paper. To select appropriate references,
you must evaluate your sources of information. Print and electronic
encyclopedias are often good to get familiar with a topic:
however, these are not appropriate references for
a research paper. The most reliable information is that published
in peer-reviewed journals. Peer-reviewed means that the author's
work has been read and accepted by colleagues in his/her discipline.
Start your literature search with Highwire, PubMed, or another
science database and search on your topic. Read the abstracts
and keep a list of interesting articles. Note, you must read
and cite the articles. Highwire, PubMed, and other databases
are not citations; these are indexes to articles.
For each topic, there some article links to get you started
but these should not constitute your entire literature review. |
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