Real Unknown ID Project: Writing the Unknown Summary

The Unknown Summary will include five components each of which should be typed, double spaced and should use proper sentence/paragraph structure. It should all be written in third person.

This should be an overview of how the project is done in general, and how the process was applied in your specific case. It should give context to the remainder of the paper.

Introduction, Plan, Evidence, Analysis, and Conclusion. • The Introduction and Plan will help with your understanding of the objective

for the Unknown Project. • The Evidence will provide the rationale for which Strike Chart you select. • The Analysis compiles the significant results that will allow you to identify

your organism. • The Conclusion states the identity of your unknown organism.

Due Dates for each component: • Introduction and Plan: at the beginning of the Real Unknowns • Evidence: when you select your Strike Chart • Analysis and Conclusion: with the final draft of paper

Unknown Summary

• Describe the objective of the Unknown Project in 2-3 sentences. • Identify the problem to be considered including relevant

information already known. • What skills and techniques will help to solve the problem?

(These skills may have been learned in this course but may also include life skills.)

• Note: The summary is not cited unless you bring in unique information not mentioned in the rest of the paper. (Only the analysis and conclusion will contain citations.)

Introduction (Due the first week of project)

• Write (in one to two paragraphs) the plan for the steps to be taken to identify an unknown organism. The plan should be broad — any student could use these steps as a guideline to begin identification of their unknown organism. The plan should include:

• How to establish a pure culture? Why? • How to characterize the organism at each step? Why? Consider

characterization of the organism in broth culture, as a colony on an agar plate, and on a slant. (Do not give results.)

• Considering the first page of the Gram-Positive and Gram-Negative flow charts, what would be performed to select a strike chart?

Plan (Due the first week of the project)

• The evidence to select a Strike Chart will use the steps from your plan but will be unique to your unknown organism. Evidence (in 1 paragraph) will include:

• Considering the first page of the Gram-Positive and Gram-Negative flow charts, what did you perform (staining, biochemical testing) to direct you to your strike chart?

• What strike chart did these tests lead to? How?

Evidence (Due upon determination of Strike Chart)

• The analysis to identify your organism should be a brief summary of the necessary tests you performed and how these significant results allowed you to identify your unknown organism. Include (in 1 – 2 paragraphs) the following:

• Briefly summarize how the Descriptive Chart organizes data by type (morphological, cultural, and physiological data).

• Describe the process used to eliminate other possible organisms. • Cite the scientific literature used to compare your results with

published results for each organism. Hint: Each strike chart has a reference for the source of the information given on the chart. Convert to proper APA parenthetical in-text format. *The full APA citation for this reference should also be on your Work Cited Page at the end of your paper.

Analysis (Due in final draft of Unknown Paper)

• The conclusion will state the identification of your unknown organism and any issues that complicated its identification in 1 – 3 sentences.

• Give name of organism using proper nomenclature. • Add info about your organism (habitat, cell size, etc.) with 2 proper

APA parenthetical citations. • Did you have any issues (atypical tests, media availability,

contamination, etc.) that confounded the identification of your organism? How were these issues resolved?

Conclusion (Due in final draft of Unknown Paper)