SDSU Bio 490: Senior Seminar
Spring 2009
Approaches to
Biological Research
Project Topics: Requirements
and Suggestions
Requirements:
The project must be developed around a hypothesis, and the experiment(s)
must be designed to test the hypothesis.
The hypothesis must be "tested" through the collection of data, but the
data does not necessarily need to be only mathmatical data; however, there
should be some predetermine criteria for accepting or rejecting the hypothesis.
The project must be original (can't be identical to another experiment
already conducted).
The proposal must be developed from previously published studies.
An undergraduate or master-level student should be able to conduct this
research in less than 2 years.
Animals must be used humanely; every attempt must be made to minimize the
level and duration of any painful procedure.
Projects involving the direct experimentation on humans must be approved by the
instructor prior to submission of the Title and Short Description . Projects involving humans at
any level are generally discouraged; however, if you plan to develop such a
proposal, it is critical that all protocols come from the published literature.
Projects that are designed to improve environmental conditions must be
designed to document any changes in the conditions for the selected area.
Selection of the area for the project should be original based upon its
ability to serve as a research model.
Projects to evaluate educational approaches to teaching biology cannot
be used. Future middle school and high school teachers are encouraged
to develop projects that might be used for science fair projects.
Suggestions:
Research is like putting a jigsaw puzzle together. In this class,
the focus is on learning to put the puzzle together not on the puzzle's
picture. When first learning to put puzzles together, it is much
better to select a simple puzzle that you are able to eventually assemble
(even if the picture is a little boring) than one that looks interesting,
but is beyond your capabilities.
It is extremely difficult to develop an original project in a highly studied
area. This is because you must first determine what has already been
done in an research area before you can identify the "next" experiment.
Therefore, it is much easier to select a project topic in areas that are
less studied.
Consult with your instructors while selecting a project. Most of
them should be able to given you some good ideas in their own speciality
area.