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Author Topic: How do I write an A+ assignment for biology?  (Read 9024 times)

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Delis101

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How do I write an A+ assignment for biology?
« on: October 08, 2019, 08:00:42 pm »
+4
With exams it is quite simple, you do a bunch of practice questions and read the subject textbook so you know how to answer the questions on the exam. However, how do you achieve an A+ on assignments? How do you know your assignment ticks of the 'A' grade criteria? Thanks.

Bri MT

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Re: How do I write an A+ assignment for biology?
« Reply #1 on: October 09, 2019, 12:20:52 am »
+8
Welcome to the forums! :)

Your tactics will vary depending on the particular assignment, but here are some things to watch out for:

- Check that you have a good grip on the numeracy in biology skills on pages 7 and 8 of the syllabus
- Check the assessment information in the syllabus and the different topics that could come up. I liked to use a ranking system for each dot point to evaluate where I was at, so that I knew where to focus my attention the most
- There are sample assessments provided by QCAA here which you can use to a) see what an exemplar for that assessment type looks like b) learn from the feedback what's expected of you and c) examine marking criteria. I definitely recommend looking at the annotated sample responses and reading the comments
- If you want to, feel free to post up your responses to a practice task (just don't include any copyrighted material when you do that) for feedback here on the forums. Definitely also seek feedback from your teacher when/if you can
- It might seem counter intuitive, but practice exam questions can still help with other assessments! If you're doing a data test, focus on questions that include figures, tables, or data in other forms for analysis. If you're prepping for a scientific report, focus on questions on research principles and methodology. If you don't know where to find practice questions lmk and I'll point you to some places.
- For report write ups at school, I liked to plan out what I was going to write at home before any in-school write-ups. I found it easier to focus in a less-stressed environment and I'd go in feeling more in control. Note that I don't recommend trying to memorise what you'll say, but once you've written it once you'll probably find it's easier the second time and you remember the main points.


Hope this helps! Let me know if you have any more questions :)

K.Smithy

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Re: How do I write an A+ assignment for biology?
« Reply #2 on: October 10, 2019, 11:48:31 pm »
+14
With exams it is quite simple, you do a bunch of practice questions and read the subject textbook so you know how to answer the questions on the exam. However, how do you achieve an A+ on assignments? How do you know your assignment ticks of the 'A' grade criteria? Thanks.

We are quite different people, haha  ;D I find it much more of a challenge to get an A+ on an exam.
I do understand assignments tho! So hopefully I can help :)

GENERAL TIPS
- (I know Bri posted this one, but I would like to also stress the importance of it :) ) My biggest tip is to look at the example assessments that QCAA has up on their website! It has helped me tremendously, especially considering all the assignments I have had to do this year are so so different to assignments I've done in the past.
- Always proofread! it doesn't sound like it will do much, but trust me, taking some time before you hand it in to make sure there aren't any grammatical and/or spelling errors and to ensure it makes sense can really help
- Have good research! (Google scholar all the way!!) It is really hard to write an A+ assignment with shoddy research
- Pick a topic you are most interested in (you will find it much easier to work on it you find it enjoyable)
- Think outside of the box (for example, with my student experiment I looked at how the rate of reactions varied when an enzyme was repeatedly used as a catalyst - other people just did things like cutting their potato up differently) - this may help you show your understanding of a topic (i.e. I was able to show my understanding that enzymes are catalysts, not reactants, and thus wouldn't be used up in a reaction and therefore could be used again. The people who cut their potato differently just showed the impact of surface area on the rate of reaction, which had already been tested so it didn't really extend their knowledge).
- Really pay attention to the ISMG
- Get feedback from teachers as much as possible

STUDENT EXPERIMENT
- I cannot stress this enough: get good data! I really suffered in my physics student experiment because my experiment was a flop, and while you will usually be fine even if the data doesn't support your hypothesis (as long as you evaluate the reason for the difference), you need to be able to graph your data and analyse it. My data was that bad for physics that I couldn't do anything with it, so I lost marks in the analysis section.
- Most of your writing should be in your analysis of results - this is important!
- Your report inquiry should contain the independent and dependent variable
- In your rationale, include your research and show how that developed the modification of your experiment
- In the methodology section, don't allocate a million words to this part of the assignment. You don't need to write it out step by step. Instead, you can say something along the lines of "The methodology implemented when conducting the experiment was adapted from [NAME ORIGINAL EXPERIMENT]. The original method was developed as a means of investigating [ENTER WHAT THE ORIGINAL EXPERIMENT INVESTIGATED]." then briefly write about the differences of your experiment and what it investigates.
- In the section exploring modifications, you can talk about modifications, refinements, extensions and redirections (this doesn't need to be too long winded)
- In the risks and ethical considerations section, identify the primary risks and how they were mitigated (i.e. PPE, administrative controls, adult supervision...). You could include a table that has the equipment used, potential hazard and standard handling procedure
- In the results section, use tables and graphs to present your data (include error bars), look at the spread of your data, you can look at R values and stuff like that. This is the section where you can also bring up any potential confounding variables (but don't go into too much detail, save the discussion for you limitations and analysis of results)
- Limitations has to do with the experiment itself (i.e. was there human error? were the trials truly fair?)
- In your analysis of results, talk about things like confounding variables, and what may have caused the results to turn out the way they did. I did a paired t-test in my analysis in order to look at the statistical significance of my data. This is also the section where you state whether or not you accept your hypothesis
- In the improvements and extensions section, your improvements and extensions should link to the limitations you identified
- In the reliability and validity sections, this is like the limitations section but this time you are talking about the data itself. You can talk about type 1 and type 2 error, statistical significance of data, and systematic errors that may have affected data collection (e.g. parallax and meniscus...)

RESEARCH INVESTIGATION
- Be as specific as possible. What I mean by this is to make your research question as narrow as possible (not so narrow that you can't answer it tho). My teacher loved my psychology assignment because I was able to narrow my research question down to Western Australia - rather than the entirety of Australia, or the just the planet in general.
- Your rationale must show the development of your research! This is an absolute must. You have to mention a broad research question, then do some further research, and by the end of your rationale you should be able to state a refined research question. This refined question is what you should base your report off of.
- If your teacher allows it, I would highly recommend doing a literature review paragraph, rather than a background research paragraph. By doing this, 1) it increases the amount of scholarly articles in your reference list, and 2) it allows you to look at studies and experiments that have to do with what you are researching (for example, my biology investigation was about using synthetically designed DNA to produce an antibody response, and in my literature review I looked at three scholarly articles: 1) Bioinformatics and Multiepitope DNA immunisation to Design Rational Snake Antivenom, 2) Developing Snake Antivenom Sera by Genetic Immunisation: A Review and 3) In-vitro Neurotoxicity of Two Malaysian Krait Species (Bungarus candidus and Bungarus fasciatus) Venoms: Neutralisation by Monovalent and Polyvalent Antivenoms from Thailand).
This is a good way of finding data!
- the data you use can be qualitative or quantitative, so this leaves you with a lot of options in regards to where you want to take your investigation.
- make sure you analyse your evidence well! What are the limitations of your evidence? Do they aid in answering your research question?
- It is vital that your talk about trends, patterns and relationships in your data!
- I find that it helps to refer to the claim and research question throughout the report so that you can show that you are finding reliable evidence
- It is most important to mention them in your conclusion however. Don't forget to do that!
- in the evaluation section, consider these things: limitations of your report/evidence, strengths of your report/evidence, ethics, quality of sources (did they aid in answering the research question? were they peer-review articles? were they backed up by other sources?), improvements to investigation, validity and reliability of report (does your report answer what it is meant to answer? can you trust it?), how can you extend or redirect your research?

That's about all I can think of at the moment. I hope this helps, if you have any questions feel free to ask :)

Best of luck on your future assignments!
« Last Edit: November 03, 2019, 09:16:02 am by K.Smithy »
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Bri MT

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Re: How do I write an A+ assignment for biology?
« Reply #3 on: October 16, 2019, 09:22:42 am »
+4


Hey Katelyn - absolutely love your response! Thank you for sharing your advice as well :D

Just a couple of comments:
- If your method of data collection isn't great then yeah you are going to lose some marks but I want to reinforce that even if you struggle to show any type of relationship in your graph you can analyse this, the reasons why etc.
- I wouldn't bring up any confounding variables in results. Since your teacher is marking this go with what they say but you could lose marks for this
- bio students aren't expected to know about and apply paired t-tests etc. Instead, I would expect things more like "As the mean [atrtribute] for population A (value) is more than 1.5 standard deviations lower than the mean [attribute] for population B (value) this indicates that it is highly likely the true mean [thing] A is lower in population A than population B". Again, since your teacher is marking your work throughout the year if they have requested this I'd be safe and go with what they say.
- Similarly, I haven't seen anything indicating that bio students should know about type 1 (rejecting the null hypothesis and accepting the alternative hypothesis when the null hypothesis is true) vs type 2 errors (failing to reject the null hypothesis when the alternative hypothesis is true); however, psych students should definitely be (or make themselves) familiar with this.

K.Smithy

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Re: How do I write an A+ assignment for biology?
« Reply #4 on: October 18, 2019, 10:59:13 pm »
+1
- If your method of data collection isn't great then yeah you are going to lose some marks but I want to reinforce that even if you struggle to show any type of relationship in your graph you can analyse this, the reasons why etc.

So, with my experiment I was looking at how the resistance in a circuit increases with wire length. What I didn't know until after conducting the experiment, however, was that the resistance increases by such a minuscule amount - an amount that is too small to be seen on an analogue ammeter. Due to this, all the numbers I got across all of the trials had the same value (oof)... So my graph was just a straight line  :-\  I was able to find an equation to calculate the resistance of each circuit (that is how I discovered how minimal the increase in resistance was), and this allowed me to justify why my graph sucked. But it was unfortunately not enough to save my report.

- bio students aren't expected to know about and apply paired t-tests etc. Instead, I would expect things more like "As the mean [atrtribute] for population A (value) is more than 1.5 standard deviations lower than the mean [attribute] for population B (value) this indicates that it is highly likely the true mean [thing] A is lower in population A than population B". Again, since your teacher is marking your work throughout the year if they have requested this I'd be safe and go with what they say.

We were taught about t-statistics very briefly in bio (it was really only how to calculate it using excel). We learnt how to compare our t-statistic values to our P value in order to determine the significance of data. But yeah, we didn't spend too much time on it. We spent much more time learning about t-tests in psychology, and we learnt to compare the t-statistic value to the t-critical value in order to determine the significance of data (rather than using the P value).

- Similarly, I haven't seen anything indicating that bio students should know about type 1 (rejecting the null hypothesis and accepting the alternative hypothesis when the null hypothesis is true) vs type 2 errors (failing to reject the null hypothesis when the alternative hypothesis is true); however, psych students should definitely be (or make themselves) familiar with this.

Hmmm, we were encouraged to talk about type 1 and type 2 error and stuff in our limitations and stuff.

I must add however, that my bio teacher encourages us to go above and beyond and really wants us to achieve the best we can. So, I don't know if he is just teaching us these extra skills so we can extend our knowledge.
QCE 2020: Physics (92) || Psychology (96) || Biology (93) || Methods (79) || English (98) || SOR (91)
ATAR: 98.40
2021-2024: Bachelor of Advanced Science (Honours) @ UQ

Uni Journal ; U3 Bio ; U3 Psych ; U3 Physics

Bri MT

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Re: How do I write an A+ assignment for biology?
« Reply #5 on: October 23, 2019, 08:16:42 pm »
+1
So, with my experiment I was looking at how the resistance in a circuit increases with wire length. What I didn't know until after conducting the experiment, however, was that the resistance increases by such a minuscule amount - an amount that is too small to be seen on an analogue ammeter. Due to this, all the numbers I got across all of the trials had the same value (oof)... So my graph was just a straight line  :-\  I was able to find an equation to calculate the resistance of each circuit (that is how I discovered how minimal the increase in resistance was), and this allowed me to justify why my graph sucked. But it was unfortunately not enough to save my report.

That sucks :/ I'm surprised your teacher didn't pick yo up on it when you were researching your investigation

We were taught about t-statistics very briefly in bio (it was really only how to calculate it using excel). We learnt how to compare our t-statistic values to our P value in order to determine the significance of data. But yeah, we didn't spend too much time on it. We spent much more time learning about t-tests in psychology, and we learnt to compare the t-statistic value to the t-critical value in order to determine the significance of data (rather than using the P value).

Hmmm, we were encouraged to talk about type 1 and type 2 error and stuff in our limitations and stuff.

I must add however, that my bio teacher encourages us to go above and beyond and really wants us to achieve the best we can. So, I don't know if he is just teaching us these extra skills so we can extend our knowledge.

It's great that your teacher is keen to extend you and have you learn as much as you can :) - hopefully working with different sets of expectations isn't very confusing.