teaching with writing

biological sciences assignments

Instructors involved in creating and sequencing science-related writing assignments often consider not only what students are to learn, but also how they learn that material. Biology students, like those involved in science-writing professionally, can be involved in creating a variety of formal and informal scientific documents, from observation journals and lab notebooks to grant proposals, research papers and informational Web sites. Likewise, just as professional science writing goes through a nonlinear sequence of preparation (organizing data, drafting and revising, sending pieces out for peer review or editing, proofreading, and publishing), students in college-level science courses learn from assignments that allow them to become both familiar with and proficient in these multiple parts of the writing process.

Biology - Heredity and Human Society: an intro-level Biology course that includes a sequence of colorful prompts suitable for formal and informal writing:

• Short Moral Critique: a writing assignment requiring students to resolve ethical problems posed by case studies.

• Morality from an Author's Standpoint: a follow-up assignment requiring students to expand their short moral critique into a longer researched argument.
  

Entomology: an array of brief writing assignments that are designed to be completed in or out of class.

• Description and Interpretation

• Evaluating and Interpreting Information

• Educational Exhibits for Young Adults

• Explaining at Family Dinner
  
  
• Taxonomic Classification is not Easy

biological sciences assigment resources

• Biological Science Writing Assignments: a compendium of materials for teaching college-level science courses, including sample assignments for chemistry, biology, and astronomy.
  
  
• Ecology Writing Assignments: a collection of materials for teaching in Ecology, including many formal and informal writing assignments.
  

• Scientific Writing Presentations: a series of PowerPoint presentations on the elements of scientific writing created by Michael Alley, from the Mechanical Engineering, Electrical, and Computer Engineering faculty at Virginia Tech.
  (All in PDF format.)
  
  
  • Introduction to Scientific Writing
    
    
  • Formatting a Document in Scientific Writing
    
    
  • Avoiding Common Errors of Grammar, Punctuation, and Usage
    
    
  • Language in Scientific Writing
    
    
  • Structure in Scientific Writing
    
    
  • Editing for Managers, Scientists, and Engineers
    
    
  • Being Concise
    
    
  • Illustration: The Meshing of Words with Images
    
    
  • Making Scientific Presentations
    
    
  • Proposals in Scientific Writing
    
    
• CourseLib: a service provided by University of Minnesota librarians that enables instructors to build and post customized, course-specific research pages.

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