BIOL 102 Fall 2004

Finches Assignment

Draft for Peer Review and Final Draft Submitted to TA

NOTE: Be sure your name IS NOT In the text or graphs that you upload to CPR for Peer Review; these are supposed to be anonymous to your peers! (Your TA will know by your login which paper is yours and which reviews are yours.) Be sure your name IS on the paper with graphs that you print and submit to your TA as your final draft in the week of Nov 8th .

This is a scientific paper, a research report analyzing and interpreting data from a population of medium ground finches on the island of Daphne Major in the Galápagos Islands. You are acting as if you were a member of the research team headed by Peter and Rosemary Grant that gathered this data and stored it in the Finch Program ( You are now writing the primary research article from that investigation to communicate your findings and conclusions. You do not need to cite or reference the data set or the lab book; treat those as your own findings. You do need to cite and reference any outside sources that you use to provide background or to support your ideas.

For ALL discussions, be sure you are explicit. Are you talking about adult birds, fledglings, males, females, live, dead? When discussing traits, be sure you include the units of measurement.

You must address the two central questions in the research investigation:

Why did the finch population decline?

Were some finches more likely to survive and reproduce than others? If so, why?

A minimum requirement is that you present one supported hypothesis dealing with each question and at least one competing or alternate hypothesis (ideally one that you can refute) for one of the questions (three hypotheses minimum). Good papers will address a suite of competing hypotheses that address each question and will clearly explain (with reasoning, data and evidence) which hypothesis or hypotheses are supported, which are refuted and which require more data (and what types of data) to evaluate.

Outline of sections of your paper:

Introduction (includes background on the population and environment, hypotheses addressed and principles involved in the phenomenon)

Methods (very brief see below)

Results – describe highlights in words and refer to at least 2 informative graphs

Discussion – clearly link evidence and conclusion

References (if outside sources are used)

Graphs – a minimum of 2 graphs with appropriate axes labels, units, title, and legend; insert at the end of your draft for review; insert at the end or in the text of your final paper

For methods, you only need to state that

1)a small population of finches was banded (marked) and observed over several years (state which years) on the island of Daphne Major in the Galápagos Islands (and describe what kind of observations were made (behavior, size, etc);

2)climate data and information on other populations, like owls and plants, was recorded;

3)data were recorded in the Galápagos Finch software developed by the BGuILE project and accessed and analyzed from there.

Important points that will be included in good papers:

  • What do you think is the most plausible explanation for the cause of the reduction in the finch population? WHY? What data and evidence support that idea while eliminating alternative explanations? If you cannot rule out several hypotheses then you need to include a clear discussion of what types of evidence (what types of data and how you would compare them) you need in order to refute all but one hypothesis.
  • Did evolution occur? What traits in the population changed, which remained the same? For traits that changed, compare the degree of change to the normal range of variation – what makes you say this is a change vs. being within the normal variation?
  • What type of evolutionary process(es) (gene flow, mutation, genetic drift, natural selection) do you think actually caused the change in the population? What evidence makes you think so? This is a natural place to tie back to the context you set up in the introduction. Of the range of possibilities you set up, which one(s) is/are supported by the evidence? If you argue that natural selection occurred, you will want include a discussion of how this situation meets each of the criteria for natural selection (e.g. heritable variation in the population, competition, differential reproductive success).
  • What are the consequences of this event in the finch population? What do you think is likely to happen to the population in the future? What will happen once the rains return to normal?

REMINDER NOTES:(IF YOU ARE HAVING PROBLEMS, CHECK HERE TO BE SURE YOU DID THESE THINGS BEFORE CONTACTING YOUR TA!)

  • READ THE INSTRUCTIONS IN THE LAB MANUAL AND FROM YOUR TA!!!!
  • DOUBLE CHECK TO BE SURE THE LINKS TO YOUR GRAPHS WORK!! Check filenames at - are the links you typed in your text entry EXACTLY the same as on the instruction sheet and do the file names match exactly (capitals, lowercase, etc.)?
  • Your text is at least 500 words (this is the minimum to be able to upload your paper to the CPR website; a paper that meets the criteria of this assignment will easily be longer than that)
  • DO NOT MISS THE DEADLINES!! 11:01 pm is TOO late. A crashed computer at 10:45 pm indicates bad planning. One missed deadline will prevent you from completing the rest of the assignment (and prevent you from earning any remaining points!)
    Grading Rubric for Finch paper

(based on 50 pt scale used by TA graders of final paper)

Criteria /

Points

Possible

/

Earned

Introduction/Background
  • Demonstrates a clear understanding of the big picture (why is this question important/interesting in the field of biology?)
  • Content knowledge is accurate and relevant
  • Sets the stage for the specific question being posed
/ 2
(CPR 1) At least two plausible hypotheses are presented for each question (1. What killed the finches? 2. Which finches survived and why?) Each hypothesis is:
  • Testable
  • Relevant (likely to be informative)
  • Has a clear rationale
/ 5
(CPR 2) Are all other plausible hypotheses/explanations considered and eliminated or discussed with data and evidence? / 5
Methods - clear, concise description of types of data and methods collected. / 1
(CPR 3) Results
  • Data presented in a logical format (graph types are appropriate, data properly labeled with units, informative titles, axes appropriately scaled)
  • Data are relevant to question and clearly tied back to hypotheses being tested
  • Are there other data that should have been considered?
/ 10
Discussion
  • (CPR 4) Clear, logical and persuasive discussion of why data support this explanation the most
  • (CPR 5) Clear elimination of alternative explanations or if not clearly eliminated, an explicit identification of the data needed
/ 15
(CPR 6) Writer explicitly states whether or not evolution occurred and in what trait. Writer defines evolutionary forces (natural selection, genetic drift, gene flow, mutation) and identifies which one is most likely responsible based on evidence and data. / 5
Future directions – discussion of consequences in the future (what do you think will happen to the finches?); discussion of data that should be collected in future research to distinguish between hypotheses / 2
Writing quality
  • (CPR 7) A clear train of thought is presented and developed throughout the paper (the paper is logical and well organized).
  • (CPR 8) Grammar and spelling are correct. Word usage is correct and facilitates the reader's understanding.
/ 5
Use of outside sources – appropriate use may be a bonus; failure to acknowledge properly violates principles of academic integrity / bonus
Total / 50