Ms. Englehart's Biology Class
Genetic Disorder Assignment
The Assignment
Expectant parents can have a genetic test to determine the health of the fetus. These tests are able to detect genetic disorders even before the baby is born. When parents get a diagnosis that the child they are expecting has a rare genetic disorder it can be a very overwhelming experience.
Your task is to create an awareness piece in the form of a video (animated or live-action) for ONE genetic disorder that would be shown on television, a physician’s office, or hospital. You must provide accurate information on the disorder that will inform people and potential parents. It is important that the information is presented at an understandable level for a person without any prior knowledge of biology. Therefore, you will have to define any key terms necessary to understand the disorder.
The Research Component
INDIVIDUAL Research: In order to create an awareness piece that will be useful to parents, you must find scientifically correct, relevant, and recent information from sources that are free of bias. Some of the questions you need to answer are below, but each disorder is unique so you may find other information that is important for your disorder.
What is the disorder? What is the cause? Non-disjunction or chromosomal error?
Describe the symptoms: include information on diagnosis, treatment, lifespan, mortality, prevalence in population etc.
How is it inherited? Which chromosome or gene does it affect? How is it affected?
Treatment: How is it screened? What are the possible treatments?
Resources: What organizations or resources are available to people affected by the disorder?
Topics
Cystic Fibrosis Hemophilia Hypercholesterolemia Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy Thalassemia Klinefelter syndrome Prader-Willi syndrome
Phenylketonuria
Lesch-Nyhan syndrome
Neurofibromatosis
Fragile X syndrome
Turner syndrome
Marfan syndrome
Angelman syndrome
Edward’s syndrome
Alkaptonuria
Tay-Sachs disease
Cri-du-chat
Gaucher disease
Maple Syrup Urine disease
Galactosemia
Huntington’s disease
Down syndrome
Sickle Cell disease
Williams syndrome
The Research - Looking for Books in the Library Catalogue
- Go to the applications page and click on the "Library Catalogue - Louise Arbour"
- Go to www.peelschools.org. Click on the pink BYOD link. Click on the teal library circular icon. The green library catalogue icon will be at the top of the page.
Once you are at the main page, enter the subject/keywords of the topic that you are searching for. Keep in mind that spelling is really important! If you spell the word that you are looking for incorrectly, the system will assume we do not have it. Try to keep your search fairly broad initially. For example, search for books on genetic disorders instead of a specific disorder. You will find lots of options with that search! After your initial generic search, then you can start to narrow down your search to your specific disorder. We may not have books for some of the topics that you are looking for, but this is a good place to start!
The Research - Finding The Databases
- Go to the applications page and click on "Library Catalogue - Louise Arbour". Then click on Library eResources. Click on eResources. Click on Intermediate/Secondary. Then you will find all of our databases.
- Go to www.peelschools.org. Click on the pink BYOD link. Click on the teal library circular icon. The intermediate/secondary library databases will be listed below.
Boolean Search Operators
The Research - Which Databases to Look At For This Assignment
- Britannica Online - The School Edition: This database is good for a basic overview of your topic. It also has links to possible websites that would be suitable for you to use for this assignment.
- Explora - Using Explora will allow you to search many databases at once. The downside is that the amount of information you might get might be overwhelming.
- General Science Collection - This is a great database to use when looking for information that is science specific.
- Health and Wellness Resource Centre - This will be an excellent database for you to use for this assignment as you will find lots of information regarding the genetic disorders in this assignment. I would recommend you start here!
- Science in Context - Another great science specific database.
- Science Reference Centre - This database is an excellent resource for science based topics.
These databases are the ones that you should focus on as they are most relevant the topics that you are researching. All of the databases are great sources of information. They are better than a random search on a website because you can find a lot of information here that has been written by experts in the field. You should not have to use Google for any of your research for this assignment. The databases will have what you need to get your work done!
This is where your search can, and should, be more specific. Once your have selected which topic you are searching for, you may have to use some of the tools to the left to eliminate some of the articles. Some searches will yield thousands of results so being specific will be helpful.
Please keep in mind that you cannot click the links below to get to the databases. You will need to go to the Library Learning Commons MyClass page to get there or you can click on the secondary eResources link below.
Note Taking and the Databases
Great Websites to Check Out!
APA Citations - The Sixth Edition
Embedded Citations - APA Format
Research - Completing Your References Page in APA format
You can also use the databases to help you complete your references page by clicking on SourceIt. This database is Peel Board approved in terms of being a great tool to help you.
One of the easiest tools to use when creating a references page is Citation Machine. If you go to www.citationmachine.net , you can input your book, magazine, website, film or other resource and the citation will be created for you! Please keep in mind that if some parts of the citation are missing, you can easily fill them in using Citation Machine.
Finally, many of the databases create the citation for you! When you are in a database and you are looking at an article, look to the top or the left of the article to find a citation tools like (in some databases it will look like a check mark). If you click on that link and select APA formatting, the citation will be created for you and then you can copy and paste it into your references page.
When completing your references page, there are a few key things to remember:
- It should be in alphabetical by author's last name. If there is no author, then it should be in alphabetical order by whatever letter comes first in the citation.
- The second line should be indented. You can do this by pressing "Enter" and then "Tab".
- You do not have to number your citations.
- You do not have to put your list of citations into categories (i.e. books, magazines, websites, etc.).
- You should only include resources that you actually used in your research. If you looked at it, but did not use it, it should not be included in your references.
References Page EXAMPLE – APA FORMAT
References
Atwood, M. (2003). Oryx and Crake. London: Bloomsbury.
Harris, J. (2002). Five quarters of an orange. Boston, MA: Harper.
Packer, A. (2003). The dive from Clausen's Pier. New York: Vintage Books.
Policy.ca. (2000-2006). Retrieved March 1, 2007, from http://www.policy.ca.
Westerfeld, S. (2005). Uglies. New York: Simon Pulse.
You must include WITH your script a list of references. You must use at least 3 different types of references.
You must cite the resources you used, in APA format:
For a journal or magazine Article: Author (Date) Title of Article, Title of Journal, Volume, Pages.
Example: Wilcox, R. V. (1996) Shifting roles of women. Studies in Popular Culture, 13(2), 53-65.
For a Book: Author (Date) Title, Place of Publication: Publishing Company
For an encyclopedia article: Author, (Date) Title. In Title of Encyclopedia (Volume, Pages) Place of Publication: Publishing Company
For a website: Title of website, Retrieved date, from web address