| You should hand in the project to your lab instructor. Leave the completed assignment on your lab instructor's desk, or in your lab instructor's mail box, or IN assignment box outside 208H Morrill Hall. If the assignment is late -10%, Then starting Monday December 5, you lose 5% per day of the 150 points (7.5 points per day). All late Projects need to be handed in before Friday December 9th at 4 PM. Nothing accepted after 4pm Friday December 9th. |
NO ASSIGNMENTS WILL BE ACCEPTED AFTER THIS DEADLINE!
Early Hand in (+15
points)...........Friday 18 November, 4pm
Regular Due
date.........................Friday December 2, 4pm
If
late, -10%, Then if later than 4pm Monday -5% off per day (4pm
deadline)
Absolute
LATE deadline...............Friday Dec 9, 4pm (-30%)
Projects will not be accepted
after this time.
Anything later:
0, no credit.
NOTE: Once you hand in your
project you may not
make
any later additions to it.
When you submit your project
it is done and it
will
be graded as is.
OVERVIEW
For this project you will create spreadsheet tables and graphs and a WWW page using data to develop a theme of your choice. The completed seamless document will contain at least two spreadsheet data tables, two graphs, a discussion of each graph, and at least two images (pictures). Attached to this seamless document will be a printout of your project Web page.
Your project must demonstrate a scholarly, rigorous analysis of the theme of your choice.
TECHNICAL DETAILS
The project should be submitted in a pocket folder and arranged in the following sequence:
PowerPoint Cover Sheet
Title Page
Table of Contents page
Theme (start page number 1 here)
Image 1
Data Sources
Data Table 1
Graph 1
Discussion 1
Data Table 2
Graph 2
Discussion 2
Image 2
(Optional Additional Data Tables, Graphs & Discussions)
Conclusion
References Cited (on its own page)
Credibility of Web sources (on its own page)
Web Page Printout (including your zoo URL)
Enclose the project in a two-pocket folder. On the
outside of
the folder on the top edge of the front should be your name, lab
section (day & time), and your lab
instructor's name. BE SURE TO MAKE MULTIPLE BACKUPS as you
construct the project and save them in multiple places including
uploading it to
your zoo account BACKUP folder.
FORMAT DETAILS:
Double space all text and indent the beginning of all paragraphs five spaces. Leave no large white space within the body of the paper thereby creating a seamless document (text, spreadsheet data tables, and graphs can appear on the same page). In other words, starting on the PROJECT THEME page and ending at the end of the CONCLUSION Section, leave at most about six or seven blank spaces between any section.
Main section headings, such as PROJECT THEME, DATA SOURCES, DATA TABLE 1, GRAPH 1, DISCUSSION 1, and CONCLUSION, should be centered, bold, and in caps at the beginning of each section in the text. Number the pages with page number 1 starting on the Project Theme page (not the title or table of contents page). Any information that is not common knowledge should be referenced with either a reference number [1], the author and date (Smith 2010), or if from the Internet the address (http:// www.info.com/source.html). Be consistent with your reference style throughout the project. Please include spaces in the URL so it does not wrap around and start on a new line in your document. Put the reference at the end of the sentence or paragraph that contains the information. Reference all images that you use by putting the source just under the image.. At the end of your project, list the references in alphabetic order. Any information that is not common knowledge needs to be referenced in the text. Do not just put the list of references at the end without reference citations in the text itself.
HERE'S AN EXAMPLE OF THE FORMAT FOR THE TITLE PAGE YOU SHOULD
FOLLOW:
The ****s below represent the top and bottom of the page:
*****************************************************************************
PATTERNS OF HEALTH
AND HUMAN POPULATION GROWTH RATES
OF
AFRICAN COUNTRIES 1950 - 2010
A Project Presented
by
Susan S. Smith
In partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
of CALS 85, Computer Applications in
Agriculture
and Life Sciences, University of Vermont
November 2011
************************************************************************
Bottom of page
HERE'S AN EXAMPLE OF THE FORMAT TO FOLLOW FOR THE
TABLE OF
CONTENTS PAGE:
************************************************************************
*************************************************************************
HERE'S AN EXAMPLE OF A PROJECT THEME:
************************************************************************
PROJECT THEME
The theme of this project is human population growth and how it affects the quality of life
in countries throughout the world. Human population growth until very recently has been
exponential and currently there are over 6.6 billion people on our planet (Brown 2010).
I was especially interested in the "developing" nations and how population growth may be
correlated with a lower quality of life. I was interested in this theme because I spent a semester
abroad in Botswana last spring where I saw first-hand large numbers of hungry children.
I used the World Population Data Sheet from the Population Reference Bureau's Web
site (http://www.prb.org/) and data from the United Nations site (http://www.un.org/esa/). I was
interested in Gross National Product per capita (GNP/cap) as a measurement of economic well
being in various countries. I wanted to answer the questions: "Does greater GNP/cap correlate
with greater quality of life?" "Is there any difference in population growth rate between "industrialized"
and "developing" nations? If so, what factors contribute to this difference?" The measurement of
quality of life I decided to use was the "Quality of Life Index" which is calculated from the Infant
Mortality Rate, Life Expectancy, and Illiteracy Rates (http://www.UNFAO.org/dev/measures.html).
***************************************************************************
SOME SUGGESTIONS ABOUT YOUR THEME:
Choose a theme that you are interested in, and one that you can easily find data on from the web, the library, or other credible sources. This may be about anything from endangered species to human population growth, from agriculture to forestry, from greenhouse gases to fossil fuel consumption, from crime rates to diversity. Choose a theme that you have some interest, indeed, some passion for. If you have ANY doubt whether your theme is appropriate, check with your instructor. The goal of the project is to tell an interesting story with tables and graphs, so choose a theme topic that you will be able to support with tables and graphs. Here's a list of some themes that students have used in the past:
Sustainable
Agriculture in New England
Bioengineering
Peak Oil
Genetically Modified Organisms: Panacea or Pandora's Box?
World Population Trends
Health of Women in ...
(Africa, Latin America,
etc.)
Our Changing Atmosphere
Patterns of Endangered Species
International Adoption from
China: A Second
Chance.
Synthetic Bovine Growth
Hormone: Is it
necessary?
Patterns of Deforestation: the
past 30 years
A Comparison of Agricultural
Practices across
the World
Hemp: a viable product or
smoke and mirrors?
Patterns of Government
Spending on Education
and Illiteracy rates.
SUVs, an Analysis of their
Environmental
Impacts.
The PROJECT THEME should start on its own page, and be numbered page 1. In this section you should introduce your project topic and give some background information to orient your reader, as well as explaining why you were interested in this theme. You will need to do some research for this background information. Be sure to cite references in the text to any information that is not common knowledge.
Explain clearly why you were interested in your theme.
Your Theme should propose a set of questions you were trying to answer with the data you find. For example: "I was trying to find out what countries have the fastest growing human population and what they have in common. Are they all found in the same region of the world? Do they have the same land area? or density?" etc. If you choose a subset of Countries, or a subset of data, justify and explain why you chose that particular subset.
Be sure to explain the time and space boundaries of your project. Does your project use data only from Vermont, the USA, or from the entire World? Does your project deal with a snapshot in time, or during a particular period of time?
When you present any information that is not common knowledge, cite it in the text, so the reader can find out your source of information. For example: "..there are currently over 6.7 billion people alive on our planet (Brown 2010)." This information comes from Lester Brown's book,Vital Signs 2010.
DATA SOURCES SECTION SUGGESTIONS:
Immediately following the PROJECT THEME (do not start a new page), begin the DATA SOURCES section which describes the data that you used, and where and how you got them. For example: "I used Google to search for data on my theme of human population growth. The keywords I used were "population growth", "Human Population", and "Overpopulation". I discovered a year 2010 data file on current population estimates from the UN Population Census website (http://www.pop.unesco.un) and saved the file to my memory stick. Then I imported it into the spreadsheet. I found data from the 2010 Universal Almanac in the Bailey-Howe Library that I entered into a spreadsheet by hand."
Be sure to include the Title of any Web Sites along with the URL addresses (http://www.data.source/file.html) for the data that you use for your tables and graphs. Include the title of books or journal articles that you use for tables and graphs. In the REFERENCES CITED section include a complete citation (see the REFERENCES CITED section below) for data sources you used for your tables and graphs as well as any other information that is not common knowledge.
Because many Web pages do not go through any form of peer-review, a Web page data source may not be as credible as, for example, a scientific journal. Therefore, be critical of all Web sites. The most credible sites will list the author, the organization the author works for, when the web page was last updated, and links to other resources of similar information. You will have to defend the credibility of your data from the web in the last section of the project (CREDIBILITY OF WEB SOURCES).
You may get data from the web, blogs, interviews, videos, audio tapes, or e-mail discussion list. The project must have a well developed theme, not two disjointed graphs that have little to do with each other. A key to success with the project is to have your data (tables and graphs) support a well developed theme.
There are many ways to gather data on the Internet. You can find data on Google, Google Scholar (http://scholar.google.com/), Yahoo, Excite, or other search engines on the Web by using either a subject or key word search. You can hear about a URL address and go there directly using Firefox or other Web browser. Some students join a discussion list and ask for data. Other students use e-mail to contact experts who responded by directing them to Internet data sources. Credible sources include the National Center for Biotechnology Information (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov) that includes PubMed and other journals, and the databases of articles at the UVM Library site (http://library.uvm.edu/articles/index.html) including AGRICOLA, BIOSIS, and the Web of Science.
Be sure to keep track of where you found your data to include in your project. In the DATA SOURCES section of your project you need to spell out specifically WHAT information you found, WHERE you found it (Title, Author, URL, E-mail, Interview, Book, Journal, etc.), and HOW you got it (for example: I key word searched on "endangered species" on the AltaVista search engine. This gave me 12 links to other pages, from which I choose "Endangered Mammals in the North East" URL: http://endangered/animals/NorthEast.html. I saved the picture of the Harbor Seal by saving from inside Photoshop after I had right-clicked the mouse and chose "View this image").
DATA TABLE 1 SUGGESTIONS:
Data Table 1 should follow the DATA SOURCES section. Do not start this Table on a separate page unless you are very near the bottom of a page. The Table must be nicely formatted and fully labeled so it is understandable if it stood alone. Data in the table should be sorted either numerically, or by date/time. Make sure you have titled the table, cited the source of the data, and that the units of measurement are clear. The title should explain what, where, and when about the data.
GRAPH 1 SUGGESTIONS:
The graphs should be made by you using spreadsheet software (Excel) using the data in the table (above). If you find a graph on the web already made that you want to include in your project, include it as an IMAGE. Do not include it as a "Graph".
Graph 1 should be the appropriate graph for the data in the table, and be fully labeled (axis labels, legends, titles, and scales where appropriate). Be sure to include the data source in a text box, note, or title of the graph. Data should be sorted so bar or line graphs appear in some order (line graphs in order by time, bar graphs with bars from largest to smallest or vice versa). The title should explain what, where, and when about the data.
DISCUSSION 1 SUGGESTIONS:
Each graph you make should be discussed in detail. Include: What kind of graph it is, what does the graph show, and what can we conclude from this graph (interpretation and possible explanations for the pattern, or lack of pattern). For example:
"Graph One is an X-Y scatter plot that shows a positive relationship between the amount of deforestation in
10,000 hectares (X-Axis), and the number of endangered mammal species (Y-Axis). Countries are shown as boxes.
As the number of hectares deforested per country goes up, so does the number of endangered mammal species. If
deforestation continues at its present rate of over one acre cut down per second (Brown 2009), there will be no virgin
uncut forest left on the planet after the year 2025 (Meadows 1992). Although there is a correlation between deforestation
and the number of mammal species threatened, this graph suggests, but does not prove that the cause of mammal
extinction is related to the amount of forest that is cut."
Be sure to summarize what the graph shows, and why it is important, and any trends. In XY scatter plots, is the trend linear, exponential or otherwise?. (Part of the take home message of this project is to learn about our planet and/or society from real data. Your discussion should reflect this.)
IMAGES SUGGESTIONS:
Somewhere in the text of your paper should be at least two images that have something to do with the theme of your project. These images may be photographs or technical line drawings that show examples of what you are presenting in your project. The images should be placed in your project so that text wraps around the images if the image does not take up all of the horizontal space of page. Right click on the image in Word and change the format to which ever wrap around scheme looks best. Include a source citation of the image and include this source in the REFERENCES CITED section of the project.
CONCLUSION SUGGESTIONS:
The seamless part of the project should end with a CONCLUSION where you talk about how your graphs demonstrate, support, or refute the THEME of your project. Revisit your initial Theme questions and refer to your graphs to summarize the answers to your questions. You may want to discuss what other questions came to mind in doing the project and what other data would be needed to answer those questions.
REFERENCES CITED SECTION:
Start the REFERENCES CITED section on a new page.
The reference page should list the complete sources you used in your text and in your data, discussions and conclusions. The sources should be detailed enough to allow the reader to find the original source as well as know what the source was about.
Anything in your text that is not common knowledge should be referenced [1], or (Patterson 2011), or Thom's Web Site (http://www.uvm.edu/~tpatters/refs.htm) in the text of the project. At the end of your project in the References Cited section, list your references by Authors' last name in alphabetic order, or by http:// alphabetical order. If your reference is a URL, include a description of at least two sentences of what is found at this web site. When possible include: 1. Author's Name, 2. Organization the author works for, 3. When the page was posted (how current it is), 4. Coverage: what information is in the page, is it complete or not, and 5. The date you accessed the page.
When ever possible us primary references (written by the people who first published the data or information). Wikipedia is a good start for searching, but by itself it is not a primary source and you should only use it to locate primary sources.
Single-space the references, but put double spaces between them. For example:
Book sources: Alexander, T.
G. 1998. Expansion of the Global
Empire. Harper & Row Books, NY, NY.
Patterson, T. F. 2008. Success with Final Projects.
TQM
Books, Simon & Scheister, NY, NY.
Journal source: Leonard, J. G. 2008. How to cite references. Journal of Paper Etiquette. Vol 3 (5): 1-20.
Web sources:
http://absolut.awesome.ref.com/.
TITLE: Hiking on the Appalachian Trail. Author: Robert M.
Proudman, Appalachian Trial Conference. The page was last
updated May 2007. This URL is a wonderful source of
information about hiking world records. It includes the data I used for
the Appalachian Trail Thru hiker who hiked the entire trail from south
to north, then turned around and hiked south to the beginning, then
turned around and hiked north again to the trail's end. His
trail name: Yoyo. Accessed 4
March
2011.
http://www.zzz.zzz/snooze.html. TITLE: Sleep Disorder for Dummies, an Evolutionary Approach. This page was created by Dr. Bill W. Upp, last updated on July 21, 2010. This URL contains data about sleep disorder research done at the Bethesda MD Naval hospital. Accessed 12 March 2011.
CREDIBILITY OF WEB SOURCES:
In this section, you need to defend the credibility of each of your data sources from the web. You need to explain why each source is worthy of being included as a legitimate data reference. Things to consider are: 1) The URL. Is it what most people would consider to be a reliable, credible source like census.gov, or is it questionable like wacko.com. (2) Who is the author? If the author is not listed the cite may not be credible. Does the author have credentials? Could you e-mail the author for more information? Has the author published anything in peer-reviewed journals? (3) When was the site last updated? (4) Are their other sources of information on the web site like books or journals that have gone through peer review? (5) Can you detect any bias in the web site or in the links? Also, check here for the Bailey Howe Library's recommendations for how to evaluate credibility of web sites.
WWW PAGE PRINTOUT:
Include a print out of the web page you have created and uploaded to your zoo public_html directory to further develop your theme. It should contain as a MINIMUM, two pictures (sources cited), a nice background, two links to other web sites related to your theme, and a link to send you e-mail.
Your page should contain a summary of your project's key findings. It must have a title; it must be cross-linked with your original home page ("click here to return to my home page" and in the home page "click here to see my CALS 002/85 Project on..."); it must have your name and be identified with UVM, an email link, and it must have a date of construction.
Include at least one graph from your spreadsheet/graphics package in your web page. You can do this by copying and pasting your graph from excel into PowerPoint, and then saving the PowerPoint slide as a .jpg image. Or use the Alt-PrintScreen keys to capture the window, and then paste it into paint or PhotoShop and remove the parts of the window you do not want, and save the image as a .jpg file. Then you can insert this image into your web page.
In this part of the Project, we are expecting you to be creative in constructing a Web page. A graph, two pictures and two links is a C grade on this section. In order to earn more points, you must demonstrate innovation, imagination, and creativity.
Include a summary of the most important points, arguments, or facts you presented in the written part of your projects.
Be sure to include your Name, Date and ZOO URL address so we can visit your page.
Make sure your page works in Mozilla Navigator, Foxfire, and IE.
You may use an HTML editor such as Front Page or Dream Weaver if you wish for this web page. Or, you may download and install Komposer from the UVM Software Archive.
Click Here for examples of student Web Pages from the Final Lab Projects from the past
*************************************************************
KEY TO SUCCESS WITH THIS PROJECT:
1. Start now and work at it for a few hours two or three times each week. Come to lab with questions and problems to be worked on with you and your lab instructor.
2. MAKE BACKUPS OF ALL YOUR FILES! Upload your work to your zoo account (create a separate directory or folder for you project in your home directory using FTP).
3. SCAN FOR VIRUSES EVERY TIME YOU TURN ON THE COMPUTER!
4. REMEMBER "Data" are plural. "Datum" is singular.
GRADING: The
following is the grade
sheet the lab instructors will be using to evaluate your project:
****************************************************************
CHECKLIST FOR GRADING FINAL LAB PROJECTS:
NAME:
PROJECT IN A POCKET FOLDER WITH YOUR NAME, LAB SECTION (DAY
&
TIME),
& LAB INSTRUCTOR'S NAME on top right corner of pocket
folder's
cover?
Yes No
PRESENTATION GRAPHICS PAGE:
Presentation Graphics (PowerPoint) Cover Sheet
Present?
Yes
No
Title of Project present?
Yes No
Your Name on Presentation graphics
page?
Yes
No
Graphics page printed in Portrait Orientation?
Yes
No
Image on the page evoking the project theme?
Yes
No
Image with reference
citation
Yes No
Name of your lab instructor on
page?
Yes
No
TITLE PAGE &
CONTENTS:
Is the Title Page in the format from
this
web page
example? Yes
No
Table of Contents format from this
web page
example?
Yes No
GENERAL FORMATTING:
Double-spaced?
Yes
No
Spaces in long URLS to prevent
wrap-around?
Yes No
Headings of main sections Bold,
Caps, &
Centered? Yes No
Computer Generated Page
Numbers?
Yes No
Theme pg.
1?
Yes No
Seamless
document?
Yes No
TABLES:
Title Complete (what where
when)?
Yes No
Location boundaries clear (USA,
World,
VT)?
Yes No
Numbers aligned RIGHT so decimal
places line up in a
column? Yes No
Units
Present?
Yes No
Sorted by numbers (not
alphabetically)?
Yes No
Headings aligned right side of
columns with numerical
data? Yes No
Dates present where
appropriate?
Yes No
Data sources
present?
Yes No
Stands
alone?
Yes No
GRAPHS:
Title complete (what where
when)?
Yes No
Location boundaries clear (USA,
World,
VT)?
Yes No
Units
Present?
Yes No
Sorted by numbers (not
alphabetically)?
Yes No
Dates present where
appropriate?
Yes No
Data sources
present?
Yes No
Stands
alone?
Yes No
IMAGES:
At least two images present?
Yes No
Images have something to do with the project theme?
Yes No
Text wraps around images where appropriate?
Yes No
References cited for source of images?
Yes No
THEME SECTION:
Topic stated
clearly?
Yes No
Why you were interested in this
topic stated
clearly?
Yes No
Questions you will answer with
Tables &
Graphs clear?
Yes No
Boundaries of project clear (what
regions,
countries & dates)?
Yes No
References in the text for any
information that
is not common
knowledge? Yes No
DATA SOURCES SECTION:
How you went about finding your data
presented in
narrative form?
Yes No
Book sources
given?
Yes No
Journal or Magazine sources
given?
Yes No
Web sources present with URL
address?
Yes No
Title of Web sources given along
with
URL?
Yes No
Keywords
presented?
Yes No
Primary sources used for your data used in table and
graph? Yes No
DATA TABLE ONE Comments:
GRAPH ONE Comments:
DISCUSSION ONE Comments:
DATA TABLE TWO Comments:
GRAPH TWO Comments:
DISCUSSION TWO Comments:
ADDITIONAL DATA TABLES, GRAPHS, AND DISCUSSIONS?
CONCLUSION:
REFERENCES CITED SECTION:
On its own
page?
Yes No
Present and format
correct? Yes
No
Date accessed URLs?
Yes No
Two sentence summary of web page
URLs?
Yes No
Author and date on URL
citations?
Yes No
CREDIBILITY OF WEB SOURCES
USED
Brief Paragraph explaining
credibility of EACH
web source? Yes
No
Evidence such as Author Credentials,
URL source, Date,
Link choices, etc.
discussed? Yes No
PROJECT WEB PAGE SECTION:
Printout including URL
address?
Yes No
Web Page works in Mozilla Navigator,
Foxfire, and IE?
Yes No
Background color or image
working?
Yes No
Summary or take-home message of your
project
present?
Yes No
At least 1 of the graphs from your
spreadsheet?
Yes No
At least 2 images relevant to
project theme?
Yes No
At least 2 links relevant to project
theme?
Yes No
Images all come
up?
Yes No
Images with
sources?
Yes No
Links clearly labeled with
text?
Yes No
Links
work?
Yes No
Your name, UVM, and date
present?
Yes No
Cross-links to
and from your home page
work?
Yes No
Your e-mail link present and
working?
Yes No
"Data" treated as a plural word
Yes No
Spell Checked? Yes
No
Proof
Read?
Yes No
OVERALL:
Outstanding
Correct
Fair
to Poor,
barely
Failure
With "something
special"
& complete
average
acceptable
Here are two examples of completed Final Lab Projects:
Travis Gervais's Final Lab Project Jake McFadden's Final Lab Project