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Introduction to Anthropology: Biological

Final Projects Spring 2009

Solo Projects | Solo Project References | Team Presentations | Team Project References | Cover Sheets | Grading Rubric

The project is due on May 26th, with a description or team presentation choice due May 5th. You have the option of either completing a solo project or participating in a team presentation (see below for explanations). The final project will count for 10% or20% of your overall class grade (your final exam will count for the remaining 10% or 20%, depending on whether your grade is better on your project or the exam). See grading rubric for this assignment below. All final projects are required to include appropriate references and a cover sheet.

The final project serves several learning purposes, including:

1. an opportunity to express your understanding of a topic in Biological Anthropology in a medium or manner that interests you.
2. an opportunity to work with your classmates in a team, if you so choose.
3. gaining research and reporting skills through a requirement that you use and cite references appropriately.

Solo Projects:

Solo final projects may be posters, sculptures, songs, poems, short stories, web sites or some other appropriate expression of some facet of Physical/Biological Anthropology that you find interesting (essay-style reports are strongly discouraged). Presentations or performances may be allowed, but team presentations will have first priority for time slots.

You will submit a brief description (1-5 sentences, including the medium and the anthropological theme) of your planned work on May 5th. Descriptions can be submitted via Blackboard , emailed to instructor, or printed and handed in at the beginning of class; they will count for 10 quiz points. Solo projects will be graded based on the effort and quality of the work, plus the relevance and understanding of the anthropological concept expressed.

REFERENCES:You must find and read at least three references in preparation for your project (in addition to the course text). At least two of these references must be from well-reputed published sources, including peer-reviewed academic journals (Science, Nature, Current Anthropology, etc.) or established science magazines (American Scientist, Discover, National Geographic, New Scientist, Science News, Scientific American, etc.); these journals and magazines are available at the Cabrillo library.

Direct quotes or copying of text are not allowed for the purposes of this project. Images may be copied provided the reference is cited (images without explanation and relevance to work you have done will not count for much on your grade). Late solo projects will loose one letter grade for each day they are late.

Team Presentations:

Team final projects may involve two to five students. The teams will each present one of the five available topics relating to modern humans (listed below) during class on May 26th. Team presentations will be about 10 minutes long, with additional time for questions and discussion after the presentation. All presentations must include some kind of visual support (pictures and/or graphs on a poster, computer slideshow, video or animation).

Students must list all team members and everyone's email and phone number on the proposal submitted to the instructor on May 5th. This listing need only be submitted by one team member. It can be submitted via Blackboard , emailed to the instructor, or printed and handed in at the beginning of class; it will count for 10 quiz points for each participant. Every team member is expected to participate in preparing and delivering the presentation, and to attend a team meeting with the instructor in the week before the presentation (May 19th - 26th).

REFERENCES: Your team must find and read at least five different references in preparation for your project (in addition to the course text). At least three of these references must be from well-reputed sources, including peer-reviewed academic journals (Science, Nature, Current Anthropology,etc.) or established science magazines (American Scientist, Discover, National Geographic, New Scientist, Science News, Scientific American, etc.); these journals and magazines are available at the Cabrillo library. Direct quotes or copying of text are not allowed for the purposes of this project. Images may be copied provided the reference is cited.

Teams will submit a single cover sheet, listing everyone's name. Your cover sheet information must be posted on the class blog to be viewed by the entire class.

Students in a team will be asked to evaluate one another's relative contribution to the work after their presentation is finished. The instructor will evaluate the presentation overall, then assign individual grades based on those peer estimates of each student's contributions and effort.

Available topics for team presentations:

1. How has modern human genetic variation been used to track historical and pre-historic migrations and population expansion of humans?
2. Discuss the heritability of phenotype variation in humans (including evidence from twin studies) and the influence of the environment on gene expression.
3. Racial variation in humans - is "race" a valid biological concept? What are the common fallacies associated with this idea?
4. What was the "Environment of Evolutionary Adaptedness" like, and how might it influence the behavior of modern humans?
5. How can behaviors evolve? Discuss the possible roles of genetic heritability, environment and learning on different behavior patterns in modern humans.

Cover Sheet (to be submitted with project on May 26th)

All projects (whether solo or team) must include a cover sheet with the following:

1. the title of the work
2. your name (or all names, for a team presentation)
3. an abstract, usually 3 to 6 brief sentences describing the major points of information being presented; abstracts for works that will not include much verbal or textual information (visual artwork, songs, poems, etc.) should be more substantial (6 to 12 sentences), explaining in greater detail the biological anthropology topics that inspired the work being presented
4. an appropriately formatted list of references or works cited, using APA style (see http://library.osu.edu/sites/guides/apagd.html for guidelines). See requirements for references for solo projects or references for team projects.

Grading Rubric

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