Grade 11 Biology
Genetic Disorders 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 Topics
- Cystic fibrosis
- Hemophilia
- Hypercholsterolemia
- Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy
- Thalassemia
- Klienfelter syndrome
- Prader-Willi syndrome
- Phenylketonuria
- Lesch-Nyhan syndrome
- Neurofibromatosis
- Fragile X syndrome
- Turner syndrome
- Marfan syndrome
- Angelman syndrome
- Edward's syndrome
- Alkptonuria
- 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
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?
Research - The Library Catalogue
- Go to the applications page and click on the "Library Catalogue - Louise Arbour"
- Go to www.peelschools.org. Then click on the BYOD link. Then you should click on the Library link at the bottom of the page. The library catalogue will be a green circular icon toward the bottom of the page in the middle of the screen.
Please keep in mind that if you type your genetic disorder into the library catalogue, we may or may not have a specific book on that disorder. I would recommend keeping your search broad and then looking in the index of books on genetic disorders for your specific book.
Although the library catalogue is a great place to find book, if you make one spelling error, it will assume that we don't have the book! So you want to be sure to spell all of your keywords correctly. We recommend starting with a book search first as book resources are more limited. If you can't find what you are looking for in the library catalogue, the databases will be your new best friend!
Research - The Databases
- Go to the applications page and click on the "Library Catalogue - Louise Arbour". Once you are there you can click on the eResources link. From there you will click again on eResources. Then you will chose the Intermediate/Secondary option and that will take you to the databases.
- Go to www.peelschools.org. Then click on the BYOD link. Then you should click on the Library link at the bottom of the page. The databases are below the library catalogue link.
We recommend that you start your search using the following databases:
- Science in Context
- General Science Collection
- Science Reference Centre
- Canadian Points of View
- Health and Wellness - This is the best one for this assignment so I would recommend you start here!
- Teen Health
Databases are not like Google. You will need to focus on using key words to complete your search. If you try to type in a research question, the database will get confused and your search will not be productive. Select the key terms in your research question and do your search using those terms. Also, some databases will have information on your topic while others may not. Don't give up! Keep trying and searching through the list of databases provided for information about your topic.
Science in Context
General Science Collection
Science Reference Centre
BOOLEAN SEARCH OPERATORS - TOOLS TO HELP MAKE USING THE DATABASES EASIER
To Google or Not to Google....that is the question!
You may want to check out some websites for your research. However, you need to make sure those sites are not biased and have been created by reputable sources. So you will need to put them through the CRAAP test! CRAAP stands for Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy and Purpose. Below is a worksheet that will help you determine if the website that you are choosing to use passes the CRAAP test:
Can I Use Google Scholar?
Appropriate Websites
APA Citations - The Sixth Edition
Embedded Citations - APA Format
Doing Your Research - Creating a References Page in APA Format!
No research would be complete without an accurately formatted references page. For some assignments (i.e. Science), you will be using APA as your method for creating your citations. It is important to keep track of the information that you use as you go along with the creation of your assignment. Waiting until the very end could be a problem, especially if you can't remember where you got all of the information from.
One of the easiest tools to use when creating a references page in APA format 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 works cited.
REFERENCES 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.