Biology

Advice on choosing a topic in Biology

1. Biology focused, not Medical/Psychology

2. Be able to collect data easily, or find multiple sources of data from a Database that they can manipulate

3. Make sure the topic has enough modern, up to date sources to draw from

4. No animal testing, or human testing without consent

5. Make sure you have time to collect sufficient data, it takes time to grow bacteria or plants, or to get informed consent. Be prepared to change your RQ if things don’t work out as you have planned them

Advice for research in Biology

In terms of research, use Jstor, Questia or Google Scholar to find scientific papers . Don’t rely on Wikipedia, or Google searches. Look at Royal Society of Biology Website, Science and Plants in Schools website and the Vernier data logger website for suggestions of good practicals. If you do a research-based essay, make sure you get two very strong sources.

Advice for write-up in Biology

Keep a log of your sources as you go. Make sure you reference the scientific theory in both the introduction and the discussion. Ensure graphs and tables are clearly labelled and text size is at least as big as in the body. Ensure any pictures are clearly annotated and referred to in the text. Keep any write-up of the method succinct to allow space for good analysis. Reference standard protocol. Tables should only contain data, not text.