This assessment help page assumes you have read the unit outline, assessment description and marking rubric provided in Moodle.
This assessment requires you to write:
A lab report based on an experiment you have conducted.
It needs to include
Start planning your search by:
|
Key concepts |
Alternative terms |
| Red blood cells | Erythrocytes |
| Sodium chloride | NaCl, salt |
Now use Boolean operators to connect your search terms.
Use OR to combine all the terms for the same concept: red blood cells OR erythrocytes
Use AND to combine terms from different concepts: red blood cells AND sodium chloride
Use quotation marks to search for a phrase: "red blood cells"
Use brackets to group all terms from the same concept together
Watch the following video to learn more about Boolean operators
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When you put it together:
("red blood cells" OR erythrocytes) AND ("sodium chloride" OR NaCl OR salt)
You will probably need to alter your search terms as you go.
Suggested databases for this report are:
Google Scholar is another place you can search for and find articles. You can use some of the same search techniques as described above, such as Boolean operators and phrase searching.
However, it does not have all the same filters that Quicksearch does. You cannot limit results to only peer reviewed resources. You can set a date limit by using the menu on the right hand side of the results screen but this is only useful limit available.
To access articles in Google Scholar, you can set it to automatically link to articles available through Federation University. The video below shows you how. Alternatively, you can also copy and paste an article title into Quicksearch, and if Federation University library has the article, it will usually be the first result shown.
No matter where you get information from, it is important to critically evaluate it. This is particularly important now, as there is so much information shared on social media that may not be accurate. Information that claims to be scientific but is actually false is sometimes called 'pseudoscience', 'misinformation' or 'disinformation'.
The following article has more information about how to tell pseudoscience apart from actual science.
Townson, S. (2016, January 26). Why people fall for pseudoscience (and how academics can fight back). The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/2016/jan/26/why-people-fall-for-pseudoscience-and-how-academics-can-fight-back
The CRAAP test (Currency, Relevancy, Authority, Accuracy and Purpose) is an easy way to assess if information is reliable, and the general principles are the same for any time of information, whether it is a peer reviewed journal article or a website. Click on the tabs above to explore each element of the CRAAP test.
When was the article published? Check the assessment instructions to see if a date range has been given. Consider also if the article needs to be recent or not. Sometimes an older study can still be relevant.
How old are the references? Has the article referred to other fairly recent articles?
How old is the data used? Check to see if the data was collected a long time before the study was published. If it has been, do the authors explain why this was?
Is this information relevant to your assignment? Is there likely to be better information? This will depend on what you are trying to find out. Often you will need to read the abstract to find out.
Is this aimed at the correct audience? Articles for this assessment should be peer reviewed. If you are not sure, for example if you found the article on Google Scholar, you can copy and paste the title into Quicksearch to see if the purple peer review icon shows in the result:
Alternatively, you can check the journal title in Ulrichs. If it has a small black icon that looks like a book next to the title, it is peer reviewed (called refereed in Ulrichs).
Who wrote it? What are their qualifications? Are the qualifications relevant to the topic? Most peer reviewed articles will have information about the authors, often at the end or hyperlinked, with their qualifications listed.
Where do they work? Who do they work for? Generally, authors should be working for a university or a research centre of some kind.
Are they likely to have a good understanding of this field?
Have the authors' described exactly what they did, including any tests they ran? Is it likely that those methods would help answer their research question?
Have they described how they collected any materials being studied, and how they were prepared? For example, if they are studying blood cells, where did they get the blood from? Was it treated in any way to prepare it for the experiments or tests?
Did the authors compare different interventions? If they are trying out a new technique or product, it should be compared with what is usually done to see if it had any effect.
Do the statistics make sense and match the authors' claims?
Who funded the study? Is it a company, university or research organisation? If it is a company, do they manufacture a product being tested? If you are not sure, can always search for them on the internet. If the URL ends in .com, it is a company.
Is there any obvious bias where the authors or their employers are likely to benefit from the study recommendations? For example, if the authors work for a particular company and recommend the use of one of their products, this could indicate a risk of bias.
Does it state what the authors' were trying to find out? The research aims or questions should be clearly stated in the beginning of the article, and the conclusions should describe what they found out.
The following resources are helpful when writing your lab report.
In this unit, for the Methods section, you are also required to acknowledge you are carrying out the experiment based on instructions outlined in the lab manual, and that this be cited in the text and included in the reference list at the end.
The following example is an annotated lab report that shows what you need to include in yours. Hover over the highlighted text to see the comments and instructions.
FedCite is the one stop shop for all your referencing needs. In SCBIO1001, you can use the referencing style most common in your discipline, such as Harvard or APA7. You need to be consistent, so use the same reference style throughout your assessment. Look at the Using..... section in FedCite to find out general information on how to cite and reference, and the source types for specific examples.
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