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BIOA02 Writing Assignment
Literature Scavenger Hunt: be curious, discover, write, query
and reflect on Biology

In BIOA02, you will be responsible for completing three short writing assignments focused
on a topic you choose, from one module in the course. The topic you choose should be
something that interests you. This assignment will give you experience writing about
Biology in a more informal manner than one would do when writing a lab report or a
journal article.

The assignment consists of three separate parts, each of which is outlined below. This
writing assignment is meant to have students achieve the following learning outcomes over
the entirety of the course:

1) Explore existing knowledge of a chosen topic related to each module delivered in BIOA02
(Plants, Animals and Ecology)
2) Use library resources to search for an example of your chosen topic in the scientific
literature
3) Learn to summarize a primary literature journal article on your chosen topic
4) Generating questions after reading a research article on your topic of interest
5) Reflect on how this research paper has changed your understanding of your chosen topic
6) Contemplate on prior misconceptions about your topic that have now been clarified
7) Using a secondary article to further your understanding and expand your knowledge on
your topic of interest
8) Formulate questions about your topic based on your new level of understanding
9) Practice and develop effective scientific writing skills

All assignments must be submitted in Word format (.doc or .docx file type) only! If other
formats for submission are attempted and are not able to generate a Ouriginal score, you will
receive a zero for this assignment. This assignment is worth 6% of your final grade in BIOA02.

The due dates for each part of the writing assignment are:
Part 1 Submitted through Quercus before Monday, January 31, 2022 @12:00pm (noon)
Part 2 Submitted through Quercus before Monday, February 28, 2022 @12:00pm (noon)
Part 3 Submitted through Quercus before Monday, March 28, 2022 @12:00pm (noon)
To receive credit for Part 2, you must have completed Part 1. To receive credit for Part 3, you
must have completed both Parts 1 and 2.

Please also note that all submissions will be submitted through U of T’s plagiarism detection tool
(Ouriginal) to check for academic offenses (ie. plagiarism). Please see the final page of this
document for more information.

If you have any questions regarding these assignments, please contact the BioHelp TA or the
Course Coordinator.
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Part #1 – Think about what interests you and write about it
***Part # 1 should not exceed ½ page of 12pt double-spaced typed font or
approximately 125-150 words***

1. From the list below, choose one topic from any module. Select a topic that interests
you and that you would like to learn more about. This assignment is an opportunity to
explore your own interests. If you wish to select a topic related to one of the modules
that is not included on this list, contact the Course Coordinator for approval.


Module 1 – Plants: Form
and Function
Module 2 – Animals: Form
and Function
Module 3 - Ecology
Topics
Evolution of land plants Animal nervous systems
Associative versus non-
associative learning
Key innovation in the plant tree
of life (or in individual plant
groups)
Neuron function and action
potentials
Role of hormones in learning
Flowers (evolution,
development, importance)
Autonomic nervous systems Animal dispersal behaviour
Limitation of plant growth in
size or age
Smooth or striated muscle
contractions
Animal communication
Evolution of wood
Muscle excitation-contraction
coupling
Estimating population size
using mark-recapture
Evolution of photosynthetic
systems
Joint and limb movement Metapopulations
Effect of climate change on
photosynthesis
Muscle fibers Life history strategies
Seed dispersal (focus on
specific classes, their
distribution, their importance,
symbiotic relationships)
Bone formation and growth
Fundamental and realized
niches
Flower polymorphisms
(evolution, function,
distribution)
Animal skeleton diversity Competition for resources
Self-incompatibility (evolution,
function, genetics)
Respiratory gas exchange Predator-prey dynamics
Pollinator deception by flowers
(cheating)
Animal circulatory systems
Mutualisms and
commensalisms
Importance of bees as
pollinators
Cardiac cycle of a 4-chambered
heart
Levels of biodiversity
Water transport in plants
(evolution, limitations)
Anaerobic and aerobic
respiration
Global nutrient cycles
Mycorrhizae (different types,
distribution, importance for
plant)
Animal diversity Climate change
Humans and the nitrogen cycle
Animal dormancy (hibernation,
torpor, diapause)

Mechanical plant defense
Chemical plant defense
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2. Without doing any research, write candidly about your current knowledge of this topic
and why this topic is of interest to you. If your knowledge is limited, unpack the words
in the topic to try to make sense of it. If you are somewhat familiar with the topic, let
us know what you know and how you obtained this knowledge (e.g. from another class
you took? From a conversation you had with a friend or relative? From something you
heard on the news? From a book that you read? Maybe you’ve had some experience
with this topic and wish to expand upon that?). This is mainly your opportunity to
write free-form about a topic that you are interested in and tell us what you know
about it and why it is of interest to you. You don’t need to have any prior knowledge
on a topic for it to interest you.

3. Identify 1-2 preliminary questions that you have about this topic that come from
your interest and current knowledge base. What do you want to explore with future
parts of this assignment? These questions may form the direction you go with the
future parts of the writing assignment.

Part #2 – Explore to deepen your understanding of your topic of interest
***Part # 2 should not exceed 1 page of 12pt double-spaced typed font or
approximately 250 words***

1. Watch the UTSC Library’s video tutorial on searching for journal articles (found at this
link: https://query.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/search/?scholarly=1). Using the methods
from the video, select one peer-reviewed primary journal article that focuses on an
example of your chosen topic. There are library resources and links available to you
also outlined on the course Quercus page under the tab “Library resources”. Try to
pick a research article that is relevant to answering the questions that you posed in
Part 1 of the writing assignment.

2. Write a very brief, 3-4 sentence original summary of the journal article you found.
This summary should include what the research article studied, how they studied it,
what results they found and what they concluded at the end. Include a proper
citation and corresponding reference at the end of the document in CSE: Name Year
Format (see Quercus for link to style guidelines).

3. Follow up your summary by linking your previously proposed questions to the newly
learned information regarding your topic of choice. Did the article you found
sufficiently answer the questions you came up with in Part 1? Explain why or why not.

4. Conclude with 1-2 new questions that stem from your reading and summarizing of
your selected journal article. Which, if any, of your previous ‘curiosity’ questions still
remain after exploring the article?



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Part #3 – Reflect on what you have learned
***Part # 3 should not exceed 1/2 page of 12pt double-spaced typed font or
approximately 125-150 words***

1. Write a reflection on your research of your topic of interest and how it has
contributed to your new level of understanding on your chosen topic. Be sure to
include how your research has helped to answer questions you had that
interested you, talk about any prior misconceptions that you had about your
topic and how your exploration has helped to clarify these.

2. Finish this part of the assignment by considering the future direction of your
research if you were to continue to read up on your topic of interest. Think
about initial questions that arose during your research that were left
unanswered, new questions that you thought of while writing this assignment
that you didn’t even touch on or new directions you would want to venture into
that were left unexplored. You may want to include a new question to help
guide your proposed future direction.

3. Select an additional research article that would help to further your
understanding on this topic. Include a proper citation and corresponding
reference at the end of the document in CSE: Name Year Format (See Quercus
for link to style guidelines). You do not need to summarize this article but you
should explain how it relates to your topic of interest and how it helps to answer
any of your questions you have come up with over the course of this writing
assignment.



















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Referencing and formatting
All references used in this assignment must be cited correctly (both in-text and in your reference
section at the end of the assignment) using the CSE format of referencing used in BIOA02. All full
citations can be compiled into one reference section at the end of your assignment.

Please use a title / heading to indicate the start of a new part of the writing assignment. No title
page is required for your writing assignment, but we ask that you include your name and student
number in the header or foot of each page, as well as include page numbers (no submission
should be greater than one page of text).


Note regarding plagiarism for the writing assignment
Please be aware that all writing assignment submissions will be submitted through Ouriginal for
potential academic offences (ie. plagiarism). This will occur automatically once you submit your
assignment on Quercus. The University of Toronto takes academic misconduct very seriously, as is
outlined the Code of Academic Conduct. Any student found to be in violation of this Code may be
subject to academic sanctions, which may include a grade of zero for the assignment.

It is expected with these assignments that you are searching for and using peer-reviewed journal
articles as sources of information. It is not acceptable to copy any portion of other authors work
and use it as your own, even with proper referencing! The expectation is that all submitted work
will be written in your own words, with no use or quotations or direct copying. Any student
whose submitted assignments contain plagiarized materials (copied sentences from any other
source whether referenced or not) will be contacted by the Course Coordinator.

It is also an academic offense to submit a previously submitted assignment from another course
to a different course for credit without the consent of the instructor(s) of the course. We will not
be accepting previously written assignments from previous offerings of the course.

Please keep these details in mind when writing and submitting your assignment.