Biology writing homework

Meet an organism (or two). Since observation is a hallmark in many kids of endeavors, your job in this assignment is some careful observation.

Your assignment over the course of the semester is to get to know two organisms. One will be an animal, the other something that is not an animal. This would be something like a plant (ok, that's easy, or a fungus, some kinds of protist, etc.). You will turn in your observations (one page for each) near the end of the semester.

There are a couple ways to do this assignment, depending on how you feel like doing it.

1) Let’s say you decide a particular animal and a particular plant is what you want meet. Here’s what you need to do. Decide on a couple of organisms you wish to study. At least once a week, see what the organism is doing, and make a note of it. Animals should be easy; the bird was feeding for instance. What do plants "do"? You might note how the plant responds to watering, or when the leaves come out, or the plant dies, or are the flowers out and such.

2) Perhaps you would rather see what happens in an area over the course of the semester. Pick some spot that has some plant and animal activity. An idea might be the greenhouse. Things will be happening to the plants over the course of the semester, and one hopes a variety of animals will appear as well. Sit for a while, come back again later (each week), and write down the observations over the course of the semester.

This assignment is based on observations. You may provide some background information from published sources, but most of the material will be your observations of the organisms throughout the semester.

You will turn in a page or so of observations for each organism, with a summary of your observations at the end. You should find as you go through a series of observations the information you really need to collect, but as a start I would suggest the date, the time, the weather conditions, human activity near your area to start, and perhaps other organisms in the area. As you go through this, you may find you need more information (include that!), or you may find some of these suggestions don't matter. But, remember, it's always easier to leave material out than to not have it to begin with!

One question that always comes up is “how do you want this formatted”? The answer is however you feel you can convey the information you have gathered effectively, that is the correct format!

A note: Phenology has been, and is again now, important. This is a very valid region of observation. Don’t forget it.

25 points for each organism, or 50 points total.