Earth Sciences 1086F/G Scientific Report – Instructions

Earth Sciences 1086F/G

Scientific Report - Instructions

For an essay course you are required to compose original material that reflects your ability to comprehend and synthesize information from a variety of sources.  For this course you will be required to write a  1500-word scientific report on an assigned topic.

The topic is “THE SEARCH FOR LIFE ON MARS” .  Humans have long been fascinated with the prospect of finding life on the planet Mars. Historically, it was believed that complex civilizations once thrived there.  However, currently we have not yet found evidence of even simple bacterial life.  In the summer of 2020 NASA launched their mission “Mars 2020”, which put a new rover called Perseverance on the surface of Mars.  The main purpose of Perseverance is to look for evidence of life and collect samples that will later be returned to Earth.  Your assignment is to write a scientific report about life on Mars.  You will be asked to research and write about two themes: 1) Why do we believe there is a possibility of life on Mars? and 2) What kind of evidence of life are we searching for?

The most important skill in writing a scientific report is the ability to obtain useful and quality information from published literature.  To do this well, you must be able to:

1.    Choose quality sources

2.    Scrutinize what you are reading

3.   Recognize the information that is pertinent to your report

4.    Summarize the pertinent information in your own words

5.   Synthesize the information into a coherent and succinct argument

To polish the skills required to write a decent report you may submit your work twice.  The report is worth 35% and is submitted in two different versions.  The first version will be worth 25% of your course grade.  You will receive feedback on this version that you can use to improve your essay and resubmit for the second version, which is worth 10% of the course grade.  Revising your essay to improve its content, based on feedback from your TA, is an opportunity both to improve your writing and to increase your grade. The revised (second) version of the essay maybe submitted at anytime up to the final submission deadline.  If no revisions are made or if you do not submit a second version, the grade for the final version will be the same as that for the first version.

Your report will be marked on:

1.   Content (which reflects your ability to gather, synthesize and convey information): 60%.

Please see the detailed OUTLINE(below) for a summary of the information you need to include in your report.

2.   Formatting (based on your ability to follow instructions and your writing style):  40%

Please see the FORMATTING INSTRUCTIONS(below) for specific instructions on how to format your report.

OUTLINE:

Please use the following outline to guide your research and writing. It is expected that your report will include discussion of all things included in this outline.

Note: In each of these sections I am looking for more detailed information here than what is provided in the course notes. Search the literature, seek recent research studies, always provide evidence for your statements (do not cite course notes), and always put your facts in context (e.g., provide background and explain implications).

I am giving approximate word-counts for each section – these are loose guidelines (and will not be marked) to help you gauge the level of detail I’m expecting and the significance of each section.  Only the overall word-count (1500) will be marked.

Introduction (250-300 words) (10 marks)

Begin by just stating very simple facts – all the details will come in later in the report.

•   You’ll want to provide some introductory facts that will convince the reader that your subject is worth discussion.  You should include:

o Where/what is Mars?

o Why are we investigating life on Mars and not other planets?

•   You’ll need to include a definition of “life” .

•   Give some historical context – did people ever believe there was life on Mars?  Why or why not? What is the current belief?

•   Statement of Aim (this maybe a subsidiary heading under Introduction or simply a separate paragraph): just a sentence or two about what the report will cover.

Can Mars Support Life? (400-600 words) (20 marks)

•    Describe at least two of the requirements for a planet to support (and sustain) life (e.g., water, etc.). Please note that liquid water and temperatures that allow water to be liquid are the same thing.

•   Discuss (in detail) TWO pieces of evidence that Mars meets (or met at sometime) some of these requirements. Note – I am not asking for evidence of life, just evidence that there was a suitable environment to support life.  For each piece of evidence, you have chosen explain:

o What was observed? (e.g., ice crystals)

o How was it observed? (e.g., satellite images)

o What does the evidence prove? (e.g., Marshas water)

•   Did Mars have the right conditions to support life in the past?  What about now?

Ongoing Search for Life (500-700 words) (25 marks)

•   In the previous section you proved (I hope) that there is a possibility that life can/could exist on Mars (e.g., Marshas water).  In this section you will discuss how we search for life on Mars. If you are confused about the difference between these two sections, please ask for clarification on the Forums.

•   Discuss (in detail) TWO of the past strategies used to find evidence of LIFE on Mars

o Where have we been looking? (e.g., parts of the planet, meteorites etc.)

o What have we been looking for? (footprints, fossils, methane, isotopes etc)

o What was observed?

o What has worked/failed and does failure mean that there is no Martian life?

•   What are the strategies/technologies that various missions will use to search for life on Mars?

•   What would be the significance if we are successful? Try to justify why we are sending missions to Mars.

Conclusions (150 words) (5 marks)

This is a summary of the important parts of the report; neither new material nor personal opinions should be included.

Due Dates

•   First version:        Wednesday, June 5th  at 3:00 pm           

•   Second version:    Wednesday, July 17th  at 3:00 pm

•   The “Due Dates” recorded here, on the syllabus are the final dates of submission without penalty.

•   If you have technical difficulties submitting an assignment, contact the instructor immediately.

•   Assignments submitted within two hours after the deadline will receive a 2 mark penalty.

•   For 5 days following those “Due Dates” (including weekend days) reports maybe submitted but will be subject to a deduction of 10 marks per day. No reports will be accepted after that.

•   Extensions will not be granted because you have a time problem on the due date; it’sup to you to manage your time and get the report assignment submitted.

•   If you require an extension for a legitimate medical or personal reason (e.g., physical illness   or extreme stress or compassionate consideration) please get documentation from your doctor and take it to an academic counsellor in your home faculty.

•   When you submit an assignment, you will receive an email receipt from OWL and an email receipt fro Turnitin.com. Keep these for your records.

Submission Process

1.   Before you submit, open the assignment (in MS Word) and be sure that it looks the way you want the marker to view it. If you make any changes, remember toresave in the correct format. Close the file. Also save the file as a PDF to preserve formatting.

2.   Go to the Brightspace site for our course.  Choose “Assignments” from the left-hand menu. I am currently getting this set up as there was an issue due to the migration from Sakai to Brightspace.

3.   From the Assignment List choose “Scientific Report – Version 1 (or 2)”

4.   You will now see information about the assignment including:

•   The due date and time.

•   Information about the assignment including this attachment.

•   Below that is the title ‘Submission’, and “Attachments”

•   Where it says “select a file from computer” click the BROWSE button and a window will open showing files on your computer.

•   Select your assignment file from your computer (click open to attach). This is what you use to send your report from your computer to the UWO server.

•   Please attach a WORD document (which the marker can edit) AND a PDF version.

5.   When done,the pop-up disappears, and you’ll be back to the assignment page. You should seeyour report listed just below the Attachment title.

6.   Below the Comments box are the options: Submit, Preview, Save Draft, Cancel. Click on Submit.

7.   You will then get a highlighted message at the top of the screen telling you that your assignment was

submitted at a specific time; if you get that message, everything has gone well. [Ifyou don’tget that message, then the report has NOT been submitted. First, check that your computer is properly configured; if it is and still nothing works contact WTS for help].

8.   Click OK and you’re done!

9.   When you submit an assignment, you will receive an email receipt from OWL and an email receipt from

Turnitin.com.  Keep these for your records.

Submission problems: Contact Western Technical Services (which takes time) at:https://wts.uwo.ca/helpdesk/

Turnitin

Turnitin.com is the name of the software that Western uses to check submitted work for plagiarism.

This software compares your report to everything that has been published, everything on the internet, and all other student papers that have been previously submitted to Turnitin (from any university).

When you submit your assignments through the Brightspace system it will automatically be checked by the TURNITIN software (no need to submit your report anywhere else).

Of course, I do not want you to plagiarize anything. I am giving you the chance to see the “similarity report” generated by Turnitin before the assignment deadline.  This means that if you submit your assignment early, you can see the Turnitin report (it can take a day or two for the report to be generated if the system is busy) and you will know whether there are any passages that are similar (or copied) from other sources. You will then have a chance to make changes and resubmit the report (you can do this an infinite number of times until the deadline, but you can only submit once after the deadline).

The Turnitin report is what I use to determine if your paper contains plagiarism. Each Turnitin report generates a “score” out of 100.  Of course, it is almost impossible to have a score of zero – this is a large class, everyone is doing the same assignment and parts of your work will likely be highlighted as being like other students in the class. I will be looking through your assignments to ensure that you do not have sentences or paragraphs copied from one source or another.

IMPORTANT – PLEASE READ

Scores of up to 25% are not unusual, because literally thousands of essays on this topic have been submitted worldwide. Scores more than 25% could indicate a problem. You MUST check your score and ensure it is below 25% otherwise the following penalties will be automatically applied:

•          Turnitin Scores of 26-30% will receive a 10% deduction.

•          Turnitin Scores of 31-35% will receive a 20% deduction.

•          Turnitin Scores of 36-40% will receive a 30% deduction.

•          Turnitin Scores of 41-45% will receive a 40% deduction.

•          Turnitin Scores of 46-50% will receive a 50% deduction.

•          Turnitin Scores above 50% will receive a grade of zero (0) and you will be contacted.

Turnitin Scores above 50% will be scrutinized for originality in the written content. If evidence of plagiarism is found, you will be reported to the Dean. Plagiarism is a serious offense (see note on  plagiarism below) and is treated seriously in this class.

Please note: it may take several minutes, several hours, or even a day for Turnitinto generate a report. Please plan accordingly! My advice to you is this:

1) Prepare a draft of your assignment well before the deadline

2) Submit the draft assignment and view your Turnitin report early

3) If you have a high Turnitin score (>25%) or any highlighted sections beyond a partial sentence, reference, or equation then rewrite those sections.

4) Repeat steps 1 to 3 until you are below 25% and happy with the result and then submit the final version of your assignment.

IMPORTANT – PLEASE READ

Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Use of Generative AI is not required in this course.

Generative AI uses sophisticated models that can generate responses to “prompts” from existing examples and patterns. Generative AI models use natural language processing (NLP), neural networks, and deep learning AI algorithms to extract patterns in data. However, you should be aware that all Generative AI platforms (like ChatGPT) still tend to makeup facts and fake citations. You are responsible for any inaccurate, biased, offensive, or otherwise unethical content you submit regardless of whether it comes from you or a Generative AI platform.

I acknowledge that some students maybe interested in exploring the use of Generative AI as a learning tool. I have chosen not to ban its use in this course. Instead, I require that all essays MUST contain one of the two following statements:

1) I did not use artificial intelligence in creating this paper; or

2) I did use artificial intelligence in creating this paper. I affirm I did not generate text with artificial intelligence and directly copy it into my paper.

You may use of Generative AI (e.g., ChatGPT, etc.) to get you started and/or help you when you are stuck. If you choose to do this, you must include a brief description of the following:

•    Software and version used.

•   A complete list of prompts.

•   How the generative AI was used (e.g., brainstorming, preparing an outline, discovering facts about the topic, locating background information, improving grammar/spelling/punctuation/structure, etc.)

Why can’t I directly copy words from an AI engine into my essay? There are multiple reasons:

1) this is considered plagiarism (which means presenting others’ words as if they were our own)

2) I have already created several essays using various Generative AI models so Turnitin is already good at detection and you will likely get a very high similarity index;

3) AI engines are notoriously unreliable on facts;

4) AI engines reproduce biases and prejudices from their source material; and

5) using AI to generate text robs you of the chance to develop your own critical thinking.

The point of this essay course is to help you develop your ability to think critically. Writing is a mechanism to convey your critical thinking. The act of writing helps you cultivate your own intelligence. Not artificial intelligence.

CHOOSING GOOD REFERENCES

For your scientific report part of your mark will be based on the quality and formatting of your references. To ensure that you make good choices begin this process early to make certain that you read quality sources that will enable you to write a quality report.

For the report you will be asked to cite at least 12 references. Reference sources maybe textbooks, journals or websites…anything that is ‘reputable science’. You will be graded on the quality of the  sources you choose and the formatting of the citations:

•   Are at least 4 of your sources from scientific, peer-reviewed journal articles?

•   Do your sources cover the range of topics required for the final report?

•   Presentation – Have you followed the formatting instructions (see below)?

Tips:

1.   The best possible source of information will come from scientific articles (printed in scientific

journals).  If you want full marks for “quality” of the references, then please ensure that at least 4 of your sources are from scientific journals. These articles have been peer-reviewed so we know that the science is good, and the facts are valid. What is peer-review? To have a scientific study  published it first has to be read and critiqued by other scientists who are experts in the same field (this are your peers). This process is meant to eliminate the publication of bad science.

2.   Information on the internet is not always reliable. If you are going to use web-sites for information, chose those that:

a.   Have reliable authors (e.g., sites of government science agencies like NASA, Canada Space Agency, USGS, NOAA and Environment Canada)

b.   Have cited the source of their information (e.g., Wikipedia articles often have a long list of references at the bottom – if they don’t, then be wary).

3.   Avoid highly personalized, subjective opinions (like blogs) that do not quote scientific investigations (i.e., the stuff that’s  ‘off-the-wall’).

4.   Be skeptical when you read news articles as journalists can sometimes report incorrect

information if they don’t understand the subject. Often news articles will cite an original study and it is always best if you can go find and use that source.

5.   Avoid using material from the course notes! The final report is a test of your writing and research skills so it is important to hunt for your own information.

Tips for finding resources:

1.   If you are on-campus, you can access any electronic journals in the library system; if you are off- campus, you can do the same by logging into the library system using your UWO ID and password. You can also access the UWO library system through the EZ-Proxy link on our Brightspace site.  It is worth taking a quick cruise through the journals ‘Science ’ and ‘Nature ’ this way. These are high profile science journals that offer “short” (2-3 pages) article on cutting edge science.

2.   Use an academic database to search for scientific journal articles

a.   Goto the Western Libraries site (sign in using EZ-proxy if you are off-campus)

b.   Choose Research Tools along the top menus

c.   Choose Databases

d.   The databases are listed alphabetically. A good database that covers most topics in the natural sciences is “Web of Science” .

e.   Start searching using keywords

3.   If you find a paper you like and want to see who else might have written similar information, you can do a “cited reference search” .  For example, lookup that paper in Web of Science and when   viewing the abstract goto the bottom of the page and click on “Times cited”. This will show you all the papers that have cited that paper since it was written.

A word on using references for writing your report

I expect that your report will compile information from at least 12 references. I have given you these numbers because students often ask what the bare minimum is they need to do and I think that you can write a decent paper by choosing the best 12 sources you have read/skimmed/seen. But please be aware, that there is no magic number because it depends on the subject and quality of each source. You should read/use as many references as it takes you to understand the subject matter and write about it using your own words. For example, if you only read one source about  aparticular detail (e.g., is there water on the Moon?) it will be very hard to put that in your own words. But if you read 3-4 articles/web sites about this subject, then you will begin to see what themes/facts are common among all the articles (a fact found in more than one source is more likely to be true), what key points are important to the subject (a point made by several different authors is likely an important point), and whether or not there is any controversy (you can’t identify any controversy or weak science if you only read one author’s opinion).

REPORT PREPARATION INSTRUCTIONS

A significant portion of you mark is for correct formatting.  Follow these instructions closely if you want those marks.

The requirements for a good scientific report are always very rigorous. What I’ve defined below is roughly what an editor of a scientific journal might ask of you. There are a few notable differences between a scientific report and an essay:

1)  Scientific reports use headings for different sections of the report

2)  Nothing is ever written in the first person (do not use “I”).

3)  We only report facts.  We do not include personal opinions except on rare occasions. Those opinions must be backed up by facts from a cited reference.

4)  We use figures to demonstrate complex ideas (maps, graphs with data, diagrams) that would be complicated to explain in words.

There are many details in the following sections that you must remember; please print them out and keep it handy as you construct your report.  I am not trying to torture you with super long instructions.  I am trying to tell you exactly what you need to do to get a good mark.  Follow the instructions!

File Format

Please, save your file with your lastname in the filename

Please submit your report as both a Microsoft WORD document and a PDF file.

•   We need the WORD document so that we can add comments and edits to your report.

•   We need the PDF so that original formatting will be preserved (and figures won’tbe displaced)

Most word processing software converts files readily to MSWord. It’s usually done in the ‘Save As … ’ option. Please understand that I cannot accept reports submitted in any other formats because markers will not have other software.  We do not want to mark a PDF file because it is difficult to insert comments and tedious to calculate the word count.  A PDF file can be marked, but may not receive many comments.

Report Structure

1.  Report length

Word count should be 1500 ± 200 (double spaced). Do the word-count as follows:

•   Place the cursor at the beginning of the word “Introduction” and select straight through to the last

word in “Conclusions” . The count of that block should be 1500 ± 200 words; that is the method of counting the marker will use. DO NOT selectively add/subtract any components (headings, figure captions, etc.) within that block. However, ifyour software for ‘word count’ shows a checked box for “Include textboxes,footnotes and endnotes”, then uncheck that box.

•   Reports with word counts between 1100 and 1299 words or between 1701 and 1900 words will be penalized 5 marks.

•   Reports less than 1100 words or greater than 1900 words will be penalized 10 marks.

2.   Title Page

o The title page must include

    report title

    author’s name

    student number

    date submitted

    name/number of this course.

    Generative AI Statement

o The title page must not have a page number (the easiest thing is to assign it ‘0’ but not have page number printing start appearing until page 1; see the options under ‘Insert’ and ’Page Numbering’).

o Do not put a picture on the title page

3.   Table of Contents

o This page must be numbered 1.

o All the headings/subheadings within the report must appear here exactly as they do inside the

report, in order, and with the page number (align all numbers in a column on the right side) at which that heading appears in the report. Do not give a range of pages for content of topics included under headings – only the page number at which the heading appears.

o The heading following ‘ Conclusions ’ should be ‘References ’ (not ‘Bibliography’).

o It is best to choose some numbering sequence for headings so their hierarchy is obvious to the reader/marker.

o In the table of contents after ‘References ’ must be a list of ‘Figures ’ and then ‘ Tables ’  (we’re still in the Table of Contents- this is the location for your list of figures, but the figures do not follow  the references in the actual report). Every assignment will require some illustration or table.

    Each illustration must be listed as:

Figure 1 Title or Caption (keep it short)         page #.

    Tables must have similar format.