| So you were both given your project assignments for your senior thesis today, right? |
| Yes, and we already have to submit our topics next week! |
| But how could they give us a grade this soon? |
| No, next week's due date will not be counted towards your final grade. |
| The teachers are just going to read your topic and give you feedback. |
| Oh, I see. |
| So first we should come up with our topics, and then what? |
| Well, once you know what you want to study, |
| you need to think about how you'll study it. |
| You need to decide on your research methods. |
| The methods will be the main part of your paper. |
| What about the results section? |
| Well, I can give you feedback on that, |
| but you will be the one carrying out an experiment |
| and thus will have to produce the results on your own. |
| What I would like to do today is practice writing research papers before you even begin your report. |
| I'll give you samples of old data from past experience. |
| And you can practice writing results and drawing conclusions. |
| I think that would be really helpful. |
| Yeah, it sounds like a lot of extra work, |
| but I'm sure it would make our actual project easier. |
| You're exactly right! |
| So let's get started. |
| First, let's try this simple experiment on fruit flies. |
| Read the information, and then take 25 minutes to summarise a results and conclusion section. |
| That's really important - pay attention to the time limit. |
| OK, does it still have to be 6,000 words? |
| No, don't worry about that. |
| What if we get off topic? |
| I wouldn't worry too much - |
| you will have so much information to write about |
| that it should be easy to stay on topic. |
| But what about other sources? |
| Well for this assignment, you can use the one from your textbook. |
| In your actual paper, you should find old experiments that support your topic. |
| So do we need to find different types of sources? |
| For instance, should I be conducting lots of interviews to use in my paper? |
| No, there's no need to conduct lots of interviews or anything like that. |
| OK, I'm ready to get started. |
| I'm still a little confused though, on how we should format our paper. |
| Don't worry about it for now, |
| but on your final paper, make sure to pay attention to the format. |
| It should follow the guidelines exactly. |
| Oh man, I'm starting to understand why they give us all semester to do this. |
| Are there any other small details like that that we should know about? |
| Not a whole lot, |
| make sure you provide two copies - one for your teacher of course, |
| but one for yourself as well. |
| And of course, you know the due date, right? |
| Uh, it's April the 11th, right? |
| What? No! |
| It's May 11th. Right? |
| Yes. |
| The due date is May 11. |
| Write it down! |
| Oh wow. Yeah, I need to note it. |
| Also, I'm having trouble finding information on my topic. |
| What if I can't find enough good sources? |
| It's alright to change your topic. |
| Just make sure to do it before the beginning of April. |
| Oh really? |
| Wow, I'm definitely going to change it then. |
| Just make sure to write a note to your teacher letting him or her know. |
| Okay. So getting back to writing this sample paper, where do we start? |
| Should I just explain the experiment and what happened? |
| Well, you need to start with your hypothesis - |
| what you think will happen - |
| and then describe your procedure. |
| Then you can write up the results and your conclusions. |
| Oh boy, I don't know if I can handle any more instructions... |