PLEASE READ ALL OF THE FOLLOWING BEFORE GETTING STARTED ON YOUR POSTS.
Netiquette and Privacy
Words can mean many things and what we intend to say is not always what others hear. This is especially true of "online communication"
during which other students do not have the opportunity to see your "body language" and therefore have a greater possibility of
misunderstanding what you truly mean.
Please, follow these guidelines in all your online responses
and discussion groups.
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RESPECT. We would like to suggest respectful exchanges as a basic ground rule. We feel that informational errors should be
pointed out- respectfully (even if stated strongly...). Disagreements that honor the viewpoints of the various contributors are
productive and can lead to new learning and understanding.
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PRIVACY. Keep in mind not only your own privacy rights but others as well. Do not reveal any information that you deem private.
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BE SUPPORTIVE. We are all still learning. Our job is not to judge or condemn or even praise, although genuine encouragement is a
necessary ingredient. We are here to provide information, to address topics in a discussion forum, and to provide assistance in
helping each participant use her/his own unique learning style. Reflection generally precedes growth. So reflect upon what is said,
provide sincere comments, and hopefully, we will all grow.
BE CONSIDERATE of grammatical/spelling errors.
REMEMBER that humor and satire are often misinterpreted online. Communication is more than words. So, be prepared for some
misunderstanding and requests for clarification.
One good way to avoid problems is to reread your postings before sending them. Something written in haste may be misread.
Created by Val Donato, Sandra Looper, Diane Hostetler and Tom Braziunas
Assignment for Discussion 06
Remember, this Discussion Forum is set up so that in order to see anyone else's post, YOU MUST POST YOUR RESPONSE FIRST. Once
you have posted your response to the Discussion assignment/question, you will be able to see other team members' posts, even if they were
posted before yours. This is meant to help you to understand what you think you know before being persuaded by others' thoughts. I want
to challenge you to really take risks in your thinking about how a problem might be solved, and this means opening your thoughts up to the
constructive criticism of others. This also means that in response to one of your teammate's post, you must take care in how you phrase
your constructive criticism. In this assignment we will continue to practice doing just that.
For this assignment, we're going to practice writing an explanatory story that links all of the concepts we have learned about how a cell
senses and responds to its environment through cell division.
Please do the following for this discussion assignment:
1)
Your first post must be made by Saturday night at midnight.
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If you don't have a copy already, please download the "Response to the Environment Model Checklist" from our Day-to-Day
schedule.
Read the suggestions about how to write an explanatory story for this model on the first page. Notice how the major
concepts found in the checklist on the back page are linked together within the story.
An explanatory story doesn't just describe the mechanisms of the major events, it also answers the question, "WHY are these
mechanisms used?" For example:
o WHY is transcription and translation used during the cell cycle?
o WHY is a signal transduction pathway necessary?
o WHY does this cell need to divide in two?
In your explanatory story be sure to address WHY these major biological concepts (signal transduction, transcription,
translation, etc...) are used.
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Write your story for the specific example of how a B cell "sees" a bacterium and responds by going through cell division,
making, at the end of the story, two complete daughter cells ready to go off to fight the infection.
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2)
Be super careful of plagiarism! Don't just copy what I have written on the checklist. Make sure it is in your own words.
If you can write it in your own words then you know that you understand it better. If you can't, do the best you can and your
teammates will help you with suggestions.
Here's a helpful hint: Try drawing your story out as a picture first, like we do in class. Then use your own words to
describe what is going on, trying to use as many of the main concept words as possible.
Your second, third, and fourth posts must be made by Monday night at midnight.
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This part of the assignment will require you to make at least three replies:
o 1) two replies to two different teammates,
o 2) to your first post that includes a revision of your ideas.
Make sure that you have read through all of your teammates' posts.
First, reply to two fellow teammates with constructive criticism. Make sure you reply to one person who has not had a reply
to their post yet, and then any of your other teammates. Choose one or more (!) from the following list of suggestions or
make up your own, keeping in mind our Netiquette policy of being supportive to each other's learning:
o 1) Ask a clarifying question: "I really like what you say here ____________, but I wonder if you could clarify for
me what you meant about this here______________."
o 2) Offer a different perspective: "I think that what you are trying to say here is ___________, but I thought about it
happening this way ____________."
o 3) Make suggestions: "I see that you used these concepts in your answer (____________), but I noticed that they
weren't linked together to make a story. Here's is a suggestion, ____________."
o 4) Agree with constructive comments: "I really liked how you thought about the problem in this specific way
_____________! I thought about it that way too and talked about it this way, ______________."
Second, after reading any constructive comments that your teammates had, make any needed revisions to your first posted
answer, and post it as a reply to your original post with the key word "REVISION" in your post title.
On Tuesday I will show you some examples of past student work that really developed an explanatory story. In their stories
they used the major concepts as strong evidence to support their argument.
Have fun!!