The Definition of Life

What part of the definition of life is being presented here? Which aspect of that definition is emulated by this picture? Click on the image to enlarge it. Write down your answer and why you think it is true.

Critical Evaluations

Greetings! This is Mr. Palosaari, and welcome to the new year! As with last year, Extra Credit Critical Evaluations are due at the end of each month. Read below for some changes from last year's procedures.

There are two possibilities for this, one audio and one written. They are Science Friday and World Science. (Science Friday Video Picks of the Week may not be used, unless you are analyzing the actual audio podcast, as well as watching the video.  Science Friday must be listened to, not only read or watched.) An analysis of a Science Friday article will be worth 25 points (as detailed below). World Science will be worth 15 pts., 2 pts. per section.

You are welcome to listen or read the articles immediately, of course. But remember for the Critical Evaluation the articles must be from the current month or the prior month, and they must be the science of whichever class you are in.

The other guidelines are as follows:

• Your entire report should be 1/2 page, single spaced, typed.
• Summarize in your own words. This means no cutting and pasting, and no more than two words in a row that are from the article, unless they are technical scientific terms. Provide a short summary; do not just change words around in each sentence and repeat the article. Your summary should be much shorter than the length of the article. Grammar and spelling will be graded as well. 3 pts.
  
• What would be a question that is being asked in the study, or could be asked about the subject matter? First try to state what question the study in the article was asking. If there is absolutely no study or question in the article, only then may you come up with your own question about the subject matter. (Often it is easier to identify the hypothesis in the article first, and figure out the question that would have been asked after identifying the hypothesis.)  3 pts.
  
• What would be a hypothesis to answer the question? First try to figure out the hypothesis within the study. 4 pts.
  
• What experiment was performed by the scientists in the article? If there is absolutely no experiment done, what experiment could you perform to determine the validity of the hypothesis? World Science articles will usually have an experiment. Many Science Friday articles may require you to come up with your own experiment, as none will be listed. 3 pts.
  
• What is the experiment variable? 1 pt.
• What is the experiment control? 3 pts.
• What future experiments might you propose based on the research in the article? 3 pts.
  
• You must have listed at the bottom the Works Cited, with the full and exact url of the article, the name of the website and the name of the article, the date of the article and the date you accessed the article. 5 pts.
  

In order to know what science articles are being discussed within the last two months, do one of the following two actions:

• Go to iTunes and sign up for the Science Friday podcast for free, by typing "Science Friday" in the iTunes search engine. If you don't yet have iTunes, you can download iTunes online. You do not need an iPod in order to use iTunes.
• Go to the top left of the World Science website, and type in your email address and press "send". You will then receive new article titles every week to your inbox, and can click on the links provided to find out more about the subjects that interest you.