Synthesis Project

Our Synthesis Project is an opportunity to use your developing understanding of biology to explore an issue of your choice at the intersection of biology and society. As we have seen in the ongoing pandemic, the overwhelming amount of information available can make it difficult to make decisions about our own health, the health of family members, and the health of our community. This course has been designed to provide you with a foundation of biology that you can use to evaluate information about issues at the intersection of biology and society.

In biology, synthesis means to bring smaller components together to build something bigger and more complex. In photosynthesis, plants use light energy to build sugar from carbon dioxide and water. The goal of our project is to curate* content on a topic at the intersection of biology and society. You will use your developing foundation of biology to evaluate, sort, interpret, present, and share trustworthy information on your topic in a format of your choice that is understandable and engaging for friends, family, community, and future BIOL 1 students. You will use the understanding of biology you build during our course to make these complex topics accessible and relevant.

This project is designed to help you make progress on the Butte College Institutional Learning Outcomes:

  • Think Critically: Locate relevant information resources and use them effectively and ethically.

  • Communicate Competently: Communicate clearly, appropriately, and ethically.

  • Engage Collaboratively: Understand the local and global impacts of individual and collective actions.

  • Work Effectively: Develop personal accountability and initiative, and pursue lifelong learning.

and the General Education Student Learning Outcomes:

  • Describe how knowledge is synthesized, revised, advanced, and shared.

  • Formulate responsible approaches to address contemporary individual and global challenges relating to culture, society, and the environment.

and demonstrate the BIOL 1 Student Learning Outcomes:

  • Investigate the biographies and contributions of biologists.

  • Apply biological principles, critically analyze evidence, and summarize scientific conclusions to explain personal experiences and issues at the intersection of biology and society.

Your completed project will include:

  • Informative introductions to the main topic and a sub-topic of your choice

  • Appropriate biological background information necessary to understand the main topic and your sub-topic

  • Inclusion of scientific/scholarly sources where appropriate (summarized and with citations)

  • A scientist spotlight highlighting the contributions of a current biologist to your topic

  • Accessible, openly licensed images / media (interpreted and with attributions)

  • Connections to society and/or community issues

You can choose to work on a team or individually. I encourage you to choose to work on a team. Teammates can collaborate online, asynchronously, so you do not need to meet in person or over Zoom unless you want to. Many students find it more fun, and that they learn more, when they work in collaboration with other students. I have also noticed that students working with a team are less likely to fall behind in our course since you have teammates helping to keep you on track. Teammates' contributions will only help you learn more about your topic, and keep you motivated, they can not negatively impact your grade on this project or in our course. Your grade in our course will be determined by how many activities you complete. Teams will be arranged based on your interest in focusing on one of the following topics:

Or, if you would prefer to work individually, you can choose your own topic that you are interested in exploring, or a sub-topic of one of the topics above that you would like to focus on. Examples of some other possible topics include sex and gender, microbiome, parasites, and the future of food. Think about topics that interest you and how they intersect with biology.

*What does it mean to curate? That is the first thing we will explore as we start this project. You will also complete lessons on evaluating online information, copyright, finding openly licensed images, creative commons licenses, accessibility, attributions, and citations so your completed project can be shared publicly. This is a semester-long project, and it will be important to follow the recommended timeline to do your best work:

Week 1: What is Content Curation?

Week 2: Explore Potential Topics

Week 3: Evaluating Online Information

Week 4: Choose Your Topic and Explore Available Content

Week 5: Copyright, Fair Use, and Creative Commons

Week 6: Citations and Attributions

Week 7: Scientist Spotlight

Week 8: Student Privacy

Week 9: Accessibility

Weeks 10-12: Curate, Revise and Share

Weeks 13-16: Peer Review and Revise

There will be more information and resources provided in each weekly module as we progress through the semester and Melody will read and respond to your weekly progress checks to help you stay on track. If you ever have questions about what you, or your group, should be working on each week, please email Melody to discuss over email or to set up a phone or Zoom appointment. Our goal is to produce a finished product, like an informative website or a children's book, that can be shared with future BIOL 1 students or the larger Butte College community.

This project was inspired by, and adapted from, CORE 101 Open Pedagogy Project by Heather Miceli, CC-BY 4.0 license.