BIOL1007 From Molecules to Ecosystems
From Molecules to Ecosystems
Hello, dear friend, you can consult us at any time if you have any questions, add WeChat: THEend8_
BIOL1007 From Molecules to Ecosystems
Scientific Report Instructions (BIOL1007)
Submission details
This assessment is worth 20% of total unit marks.
Due date: Week 9, Tuesday 3rd October 2023, 11:59:00 pm Sydney time
File format: Save your scientific report as a pdf. This is to prevent you from losing elements from the
figures during the upload.
Include your student ID number in your file name e.g. BIOL1007 report_123456789.pdf
For the purposes of anonymous marking, you should avoid including your name in your report and in the
file name.
Late submissions: As per University policy, a deduction of 5% of the maximum mark is applied for each
calendar day after the due date up to 10 days. If the submission is over 10 days late, the assignment will
receive a mark of zero.
What is the context of the assignment?
Earlier in the semester in Practical 4, you measured the effect of environmental conditions (light intensity
and wavelength) on plant growth in the context of protected cropping, such as vertical farming. The data
was pooled across the cohort and has now been presented to you. In this assignment, you will analyse this
data and write a scientific report based on your findings.
What are the detailed instructions for this assessment?
Due to the involved nature of this assessment, there are two main resources that you will need to refer to in
completing this scientific report – this instructions document (which tells you what you need to do, and the
Scientific Report Module on Canvas (which shows you how to do it).
This instructions document will cover the following:
• How to get started with your scientific report
• Report structure
• Formatting requirements including what is counted in the page limit
• What to include in each section of your scientific report
• Academic dishonesty and plagiarism
BIOL1007 From Molecules to Ecosystems
Semester 2, 2023
How do I get started with my Scientific Report?
In Practical 4, data was collected for 2 experiments:
• The effect of light intensity on the total leaf surface area of bok choy
• The effect of wavelength on the total leaf surface area of bok choy
Report structure
There are many ways of writing a scientific report depending on the discipline you are in, and what
scientific journal you are submitting your report to. Below we have outlined the sections that you
would typically find in a scientific report and indicated those that are required for this assessment.
Section Required for the BIOL1007 scientific report
Title Yes
Abstract No
Introduction Yes
Methods No
Results Yes
Discussion Yes
Figures
Yes. When submitting manuscripts to scientific journals, it is
often a requirement that figures that form the part of the
Results section are presented on their own separate page for
ease of editing purposes. We will be taking the same
approach for this assessment.
References Yes
Appendix No
You will only need to focus your report on one of these experiments. Decide which experiment interests
you more before analysing your data.
BIOL1007 From Molecules to Ecosystems
Semester 2, 2023
Formatting requirements
A small portion of the marking rubric of the Scientific Report will assess how well you adhere to formatting
requirements specified below. This is similar to when submitting scientific manuscripts or grants, there are
strict formatting guidelines to adhere to. The formatting requirements are as follows:
• Font type: Calibri
• Font size: 12 point
• Line spacing: 1.5 spaced
• Margins: 2.5 cm on all sides
Page limit
BIOL1007 From Molecules to Ecosystems
Semester 2, 2023
What is required in each section?
Here we detail what we expect to see in each of your sections of the scientific report.
Title (recommended 1 line)
The title should be informative while being concise. The best titles cover all the important details of the
study including:
• the environmental variable tested
• the dependent variable measured
• the study species
Introduction (recommended 1 page)
The Introduction is a brief review of the scientific literature and should be structured with multiple
paragraphs. There should be enough context provided to the reader so they understand why you did the
investigation. This means:
• addressing a broad/global context
• highlighting the main findings from past scientific studies so the reader has a good idea of the
current state of knowledge in the field
• providing relevant biological information so that the reader can understand the knowledge gaps
in the field which then links to the significance of your study and helps justify your hypothesis that
will be presented at the end of the Introduction.
• addressing the significance of the study
• presenting your hypothesis at the end of your introduction. The hypothesis should be testable and
related directly to the treatments that were tested and the measurements made.
Note that the information should be presented in such a way that as the reader progresses through the
Introduction, it becomes more specific to your investigation.
For detailed guidance on how to complete each of the sections, please refer to Scientific Report
Module on Canvas. The module has a variety of guides on processing and graphing your data, how
to analyse your results, tips on writing scientifically and written exemplars.
BIOL1007 From Molecules to Ecosystems
Semester 2, 2023
Results (recommended 1/3 - 1/2 page)
In this section, you will need describe your results objectively. It's important to keep in mind that the focus
here is describing findings at the population level, and not describe particular individual plants. Any
studies on populations will inherently have some variation and regardless of whether the results were
expected or unexpected, your job here is to objectively describe what was observed.
This section may be presented over multiple paragraphs. When describing your results, you will need to
include:
• A written description of results that includes:
o the mean leaf surface area and standard error for your chosen experiment (light intensity
or wavelength)
o The sample sizes (the number of replicates) in each treatment.
• Statement(s) that integrate the results of the statistical analysis relevant to your chosen
experiment
• A reference to your figure that is well-integrated in the written description of results. For this
assessment, we want you to present your figure on its own page after the Discussion so don't
include them within the Results section. However, any figure presented in the report must be
referred to in the written description of the results - this is normally done in scientific papers. A
reference to a figure should be included in the sentence when key information presented in the
figure is first described.
Head to the Scientific Report Assignment Page on Canvas to download:
• Total leaf surface area data from the light intensity and wavelength experiments
• Statistical analyses
Refer to Scientific Report Module on Canvas for guides on
• processing and analysing your data using the desktop version of Microsoft Excel. This will help
you calculate the means and sample sizes. It is not a requirement to use Excel to process your
data and you are welcome to use other software such as R.
• how to write a description of results objectively, concisely and with scientific conventions
• interpreting the statistical results and how to integrate this information in statements to include
in the results section
• how to integrate a reference to your figure concisely in the written description of results
BIOL1007 From Molecules to Ecosystems
Semester 2, 2023
Discussion (recommended 1.5 - 2 pages)
The Discussion should be structured with multiple paragraphs and include the following:
• an interpretation of your findings, including a statement addressing whether your results support or
reject your hypotheses.
• a discussion of the biological implications from the current study (supported by evidence in the
scientific literature).
• suggestions for future research directions (supported by evidence in the scientific literature).
• a concluding paragraph
Your interpretation of your findings should be presented first in the Discussion. An interpretation does not
mean repeating (or providing a variation of) the information that has been stated in the Results section –
this is not the best use of your space and does not add value to your report. Rather, you should state
whether there were significant differences between treatments in the experiment and whether these
findings supported your hypothesis.
The next few paragraphs of the Discussion should be dedicated to drawing biological implications from
the current study based on evidence in the scientific literature. This means:
• discussing the biological reasons to explain the patterns observed in your study
• comparing the differences and similarities between the findings of your study and past studies
• analysing and discussing the underlying biology (plant physiology) to explain similarities and
differences between the findings from your study and past studies. Discussion around
methodological differences is acceptable, but the analysis needs to provide an in-depth discussion
around the underlying biology (plant physiology).
In the latter half of the Discussion, you will need to discuss 2 evidence-based suggestions for future
research directions. You should discuss research questions that could expand on the current work to
provide further insight into how plants grow and justify biologically why these new ideas can help provide
new knowledge or understanding.
The last paragraph of the Discussion is dedicated to your conclusion. Here you need to highlight in
approximately 2 sentences:
• a summary of the major findings of your investigation
• a link back to the broader context. This could be emphasising the significance of your study (e.g.
how the findings contributed to furthering our understanding of the topic) and/or briefly
summarising directions for future research.
Make sure new content is not presented in the conclusion.
BIOL1007 From Molecules to Ecosystems
Semester 2, 2023
Figure (1/2 page presented on a new page following the Discussion)
You will need to present the data from your chosen experiment only as a column graph. Do not present
any data in a table. Please note presenting the same data in both a figure and a table is unnecessary and
is considered double presenting of results.
Present your figure on a new page after the Discussion so they do not count towards the page limit.
All figures need to be accompanied by a figure legend (also known as a figure caption) that sits
immediately under the figure. The figure legend includes the figure label and a description of the data
being presented. The description needs to be informative enough so that the reader can understand the
content presented in the figure and make their own interpretation of the data without needing to refer to
the written description of the results. Different disciplines within life sciences have their own set of
conventions for what constitutes appropriate information for figure legends but for this report, we expect
that you integrate information on:
• the variables are being presented (with units where appropriate)
• the study species
• the treatments and their sample sizes.
• what the error bars represent
Refer to Scientific Report Module on Canvas for guides on creating your graphs using Excel. If you are
comfortable using other programs to graph your data (e.g. R, Prism), you are welcome to do so.
Specific Leaf Area / Leaf Mass per Area: When finding relevant primary literature for this report, you
might notice that many papers will measure the response of a particular set of growing conditions on
plant growth using ‘Specific Leaf Area’ (SLA) or ‘Leaf Mass per Area’ (LMA). It is a slightly more
complicated, but more accurate, measure of plant growth than we used in this experiment as it takes into
consideration not only how big a leaf is, but also how much organic matter (but importantly not water) is
also in that leaf.
Specific Leaf Area = Area of leaf / Dry weight of leaf
Leaf Mass per Area = Dry weight of leaf / Area of leaf
BIOL1007 From Molecules to Ecosystems
Semester 2, 2023
Note that It is scientific convention that graphs are labelled as figures. Each figure and accompanying
figure legend/caption should take up about 1/2 A4 page. Also ensure any text within the figure is of an
appropriate size and clearly legible.
Figure presentation checklist
Light intensity experiment Wavelength experiment
Generate 1 column graph presenting mean
total leaf surface area across all light
intensity treatments with error bars
representing standard error.
Generate 1 column graph presenting mean
total leaf surface area for the white light,
blue light and red light treatments with
error bars representing standard error.
The column graph has no gridlines The column graph has no gridlines
The graph has a clear y- axis label with
units.
The graph has a clear y- axis label with
units.
The graph has clear x-axis labels that
indicates the low, medium and high
intensity light treatments. Providing the
quantitative values for each treatment is
optional.
The graph has clear x-axis labels that
indicates the white, blue and red light
treatments. Providing the quantitative
values for teach treatment is optional.
The graph is accompanied by an
informative figure legend/caption that is
positioned under the graph. There should
be no chart title present at the top of the
graph.
The graph is accompanied by an
informative figure legend/caption that is
positioned under the graph. There should
be no chart title present at the top of the
graph.
The column graph and its accompanying
figure legend/caption combined takes
~1/2 A4 page
The column graph and its accompanying
figure legend/caption combined takes
~1/2 A4 page
BIOL1007 From Molecules to Ecosystems
Semester 2, 2023
References
Including references in your scientific report is important because it helps to show how your work fits into
the work done by other researchers and provides some context to help the reader evaluate how your
investigation has changed the state of our current knowledge on the topic. You should only use literature
that you have read yourself, rather than merely citing literature that other papers have cited. The reason
for this is that you cannot rely on the interpretation of others, and must draw your own conclusions.
The majority of the sentences in the Introduction and Discussion will need to be supported by in-text
citations. Statements that generally do not require in-text citations are:
• the hypothesis
• the interpretation of your results in relation to the hypothesis
• the conclusion
You should avoid citing only at the end of a paragraph as it does not show the reader where you sourced
information for a particular statement within the paragraph.
All sources that you cite throughout the scientific report must be included in the reference list which appears
at the end of your scientific report. Any sources that are presented in the reference list also must be
appear as an in-text citation.
Writing and Presentation
For your scientific report, you should use appropriate spelling, grammar, sentence structure, scientific
language, and focus on its overall cohesiveness (i.e. the hourglass structure of a scientific report).
For directions on how to format in-text citations and the reference list for your scientific report, please
follow the guidelines outlined in the Scientific Report Module on Canvas.
Please refer to the Scientific Report Module on Canvas for tips.
BIOL1007 From Molecules to Ecosystems
Semester 2, 2023
Academic Dishonesty and Plagiarism
While the University is aware that most students and staff act ethically and honestly, it is opposed
to and will not tolerate academic dishonesty or plagiarism whether it is done intentionally or not.
Students are expected to be familiar with, and act in compliance with, the relevant University
policies and procedures:
• Academic Integrity Policy 2022
• Academic Integrity Procedures 2022
All students are expected to commit to a culture of academic integrity as outlined in the Student
Charter 2020.
Common behaviours that are reported
You should familiarise yourself with what the University considers academic dishonesty and plagiarism
here: https://www.sydney.edu.au/students/academic-dishonesty.html
Here we list some common behaviours we encounter in first-year biology assessments that students may not
be aware of that are considered a breach in academic integrity.
Plagiarism
We often see places in student work where entire sentences or paragraphs were copied from the
original source. This is not acceptable even if the source is attributed via an in-text citation.
It is important that you properly paraphrase the information from your sources. This means
understanding the meaning of the phrase from the source and putting it into your own words. It is
not enough to change a few words in a sentence and consider it paraphrased as the overall
sentence structure is similar to how the information was presented in the source.
We recommend that you close your sources as you write your scientific report. This encourages you to write
in your own words and avoid unintentional plagiarism.