ANATOMY

The purpose of the Mammalian Anatomy lab exercise is to (re) familiarize you with the Anatomy and Physiology of the mammalian body. For your makeup assignment, you will choose one of the options of a disease of the human body, research it using reliable literature and write an essay about this disease.

Instructions:

1. Pick one of the diseases listed at the very bottom. These are mostly diseases that involve other organisms rather than caused by life-style changes, which fits with the theme of this semester.

2. Research this topic using at least two reliable sources. At least one of your sources should be a scientific primary research article. Other acceptable sources include secondary sources such as articles from the science section of the newspaper and popular scientific journals such as National Geographic, Discover, Science News, New Scientist, Scientific American…), textbooks, or reliable internet sites such as those ending with .edu, and possibly .org, or .gov. You can get scientific articles from the library or through the University library online site at http://library.albany.edu/, where many biological journals are available in electronic format. Alternatively, you can look for available scientific publications through Google Scholar. Do NOT use Wikipedia or places like WebMD as sources, unless it is to find primary sources. See below for links to search engines you can use to find primary literature.

3. Write a two-page essay on this disease following these instructions

b) Provide at least one picture or graph. Provide the web address underneath indicating where it came from.

c) Use proper in-text citations for the information you are using

d) Use no more than 11 point font, 1.5 point spaced, 1 inch margins.

e) Make sure you check spelling and grammar

f) Do NOT copy verbatim from your sources! Also do not copy from the material available in this course. It is considered plagiarism and will result in a loss of points! Rephrase and use proper in-text citations (check Blackboard for information on citing)

g) Include a reference section (Check Blackboard/lab manual Appendix on how to properly reference articles)

h) Grading will be on the quality of your essay (followed instructions, is clear and through and well written) and appropriate use of sources

Please follow these instructions or you will not receive full credit. Have fun!

 Suggestions for finding scholarly sources:

Any of these databases should give you useful sources provided your search terms are appropriate. Note that all these databases should give you access to abstracts, but may not have the full text available. Many databases will refer you to additional links or icons on the side where you may find the full article. Note that scholarly articles can include primary articles (research papers) as well as secondary articles (review articles).

1) Click the database you want to you which navigates you to the database website

2) Type in your key search terms and see what comes up. As with Google, search terms are critical in determining what you pull up, so choose your search criteria carefully. All databases are slightly different, but they all have common features in that they give you title, journal information, author, date of publication. Some offer a short description of the articles. There usually is a button that allows you to download a full text version in html or pdf format. Make sure the article you chose is available in full text. Not all articles are! Read the abstract to see if it is relevant-don’t just download the first available. Choosing judiciously will save you time and aggravation in the long run. Journal titles or article titles that have the word “review” in it are secondary sources. Primary sources (research articles) usually are separated into Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion, typical for a primary research articles.