Evaluating Science Resources

In Unit 1 you learned how to determine whether a resource was reliable and reputable and how to best apply such a source of information to your everyday life. To reinforce this skill, you will apply this knowledge by researching and evaluating two different resources on one scientific topic. Pick a topic that is related to any field of science, such as chemistry, physics, biology, or geology, and think of a question that you would like to find an answer to. For example, “Is global warming causing more earthquakes?” Or “What is the best treatment for my allergies?” Discuss how, and why, you chose your question.

To complete this Assignment:

1. Locate two resources about a scientific topic that interests you: one from a scientifically reputable resource and another from a questionable resource.
2. Write a brief summary of these two articles and an explanation of the differences between the reliability of these resources.
3. What characteristics make one more scientifically valid than the other? Be sure to indicate which resource is the scientifically reputable resource and which resource’s reliability is questionable. Present both your resources in APA format.

Basic Writing Expectations:

• 400 words minimum.
• Free of grammatical and spelling errors.
• No evidence of plagiarism.
• Follow college-level writing expectations such as an introduction, conclusion, and paragraph structure.
• Use of APA style for References Page and citations. Refer to the APA Quick Reference Guide.

Be sure to review the Course Rubrics for details on how this Assignment will be graded.

Turnitin Analysis

A special feature is available to help you with reviewing your Unit 2 Assignment for plagiarism. When you submit your Assignment to the Unit 2 Dropbox, your Assignment will automatically be analyzed by the plagiarism detection tool, Turnitin. Soon after you submit your Assignment, you will be able to view the Turnitin Originality Report. Originality Reports provide a summary of matching or highly similar text found in a submitted paper. When an Originality Report is available for viewing, an icon will appear in the report column of the Assignment Inbox. Originality Reports are only available in the InBox. For this reason, you will need to download the report prior to the grading of the Unit 2 Assignment. To do this, click on the print icon at the bottom of the Originality Report. This will prepare a readable, PDF version of the Originality Report that you can save to your computer.

Submitting Your Assignment

Save your copy of the Assignment in a location and with a name that you will remember. Be sure to use the “Save As” option to include your first and last name in the title of the document. For example, your paper might be called Shawn_Edwards_Assignment2.doc

Student’s work examines the generally accepted standards of reputable and questionable sources. The student is able to judge the quality of different sources and can argue the quality of a source using generally accepted standards.