Saturday, September 17, 2011

Blog 3: Establish Criteria to Evaluate Science Paper

  • Are the cited sources of good quality?
  • Does the paper have a clear meaning about the point it is trying to get across?
  • Are the graphs that are used proportional and are not misleading?
  • Are the ways used to gather and analyze the data vaild?
  • Does the conclusion state results and findings effectively?

Blog 2: Presentation on Penny Weights

What would a 1793 penny weigh?
What would a 1908 penny weigh?
What would a penny weigh picked up from the sidewalk?
 
When required to create a presentation on the above questions these are the results of my group:
Out group concluded that a 1793 penny weighs 13.48 grams, a 1908 penny weighs 3.11 grams, and a penny picked up from the sidewalk (a penny made today) would weigh 2.5 grams.  We gave a brief history about the penny, listed the compositions of each penny at each time period above, and concluded with a video about pennies being stamped in a U.S. mint.
 
Reflection:
I feel that our group's presentation could have been better than it was.  We could have done an experiment to show the probability of picking up a penny and having it be a certain weight.  We did not answer the question about how much a penny would weigh if picked up off of the sidewalk.  We spent too much time on history when we should have focused on experimentation and penny weight.  The other presentations were also good, but most did not focus on the weight of a penny being picked up on the sidewalk.  Only a small amount of groups answered this question and did experimentation on it.  They could have been better if we saw more statistics about penny weight and probability of picking up certain pennies.

Monday, September 12, 2011

APSC 311 Professional Development Plan

Mission
  • To gain an understanding about ethical and legal issues that affect the careers of workers in the science field.  Also to learn how to adapt and/or cope with these issues.
Values
  • A good work ethic
  • Learning by doing, not only by watching
  • Helping others if needed
Goals
  • Follow requirements of the class guidelines
  • Learn how to approach ethical and legal issues the right way and deal with them accordingly
Strategy
  • Participate in all work required for class
  • Be present at every class
  • Give significant effort to learn and understand all material