Unit 3: Scientific Investigations Literature Reviews

Lesson Objectives To get feedback on your first draft literature review. To obtain guidance on writing a literature review.

Read my comments: I’ve given some individual feedback. Read it, take note and look at ways of improving your work.

Class work / Home work I would like you to resubmit your literature review. (The one I’ve just given you back) You should improve the things that I have indicated. Today I will give you further guidance on writing a literature review.

Why? When submitting assignments, you may sometimes need to ‘re-submit’ one. This exercise will help you become a reflective learner. After half term I will launch your first assignment, which is a literature review. This exercise will help you to do really well in this.

When? Wednesday 4th November This resubmission of your practice literature review is due in: Wednesday 4th November

What, Why, When? Re-do your literature review, by following the guidelines given today & your individual feedback. To help you prepare fully for your assignment. Wednesday 4th November

Literature Review Guides: Decide what you are going to research.   Make sure you have a very clear idea about what you want to research. Know how this topic is relevant. e.g. if you are researching the effect of caffeine on heart rate, what impact does this issue have on society? Hint: energy drinks /under 18s. It will help if you have a personal interest in the topic.

Use a variety of sources to research your topic. This should include; Text books, Scientific Journals, Scientific Websites, Newspaper articles. DO NOT RELY ON INTERNET SOURCES ALONE

Text Books can be found in your classroom, in the college library, in Stourbridge library, in Birmingham Central library! Scientific Journals. You will be shown in class how to access journal articles from college.

Scientific Journals: MyMet….LRC…eJournals https://sharepoint.bmetc.ac.uk/sites/mymet/lrc/Pages/LRC.aspx

Scientific Websites. There is a list of suggested websites at the back of this guide. The websites you use will depend on your topic, but try to stick to websites that are of a scientific or health related nature. GCSE / A level revision websites (bitesize etc) are fine. Wikipedia is not a suitable source. Newspaper Articles. These can be researched by actually reading the newspaper or can be accessed online on some newspaper sites. Ensure you are cautious when using tabloid newspaper. (i.e. avoid articles that give too much opinion, but use ones that stick to the science)

Why is Wikipedia NOT a reliable source? http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news/education/2010/march/The-Top-10-Reasons-Students-Cannot-Cite-or-Rely-on-Wikipedia.html

Make notes in the way we have practised in class.   Bullet point and reword. Research the basic scientific principles behind your topic. Research scientific studies carried out on your topic. (Professional studies) Research how you could test this topic in the lab. Always write the full details of every source you have used. (i.e.Text book, year, author.) You can find more details of this later in this guide and in the Harvard referencing guide which is available in the LRC.

Writing your literature review. This should be typed, in 11 or 12pt text. The word length is 1000-1500 (Approx 2-3.5 pages) The structure of the review should follow the suggested layout below. Although, this will depend on your chosen topic to some extent.

Introduction. State the topic you have researched Introduction. State the topic you have researched. Explain a little bit about why you are researching it (context etc). You could also include a brief overview of what you found here. Scientific Background Write up the research you did using text books, websites etc. Use in text referencing (after each paragraph) Include the basic scientific principles behind your topic. Include relevant diagrams/images. Remember to check spelling, punctuation and grammar. Ask somebody to proof read it to double check. Scientific Studies Write up what you found out about professional scientific studies on your topic. This is likely to come mainly from scientific journals. Use in text referencing. Testing it in the Laboratory Write up details of practical investigations you could carry out in the college laboratory. You could include details of the equipment you would need etc… It is also good practice to state things like hypothesis and dependent / independent variables. Analysis of your sources In this section, you should analyse the usefulness and reliability of each source. Did you come across anything that contradicted other things you read? Which was the most useful source you used? What made it so useful? Compare and contrast the information you found? If you needed to carry out even more research, what would it be? Bibliography A full list of all sources used. Written in the Harvard Referencing style.

Referencing In text referencing is also called ‘citations’. I.e. you have to cite your references as you write your review. You must also include a full list of all the sources you used at the end of your work. This is a bibliography. Below are details of how to in text reference and full reference (Bibliography)

Text Books In Text: Author(s), followed by the year. E.g. (McCarthy, William & Pascale 1997) You could also include it like this: McCarthy, William & Pascale, 1997 wrote… Bibliography Reference: Author(s), Year and Title of book, followed by the publisher. E.g. McCarthey, EJ, William, DP & Pascale, GQ 1997, Basic marketing, Irwin NB: If the text book has more than 4 Authors, it is acceptable to write the first author and then ‘et al’. i.e. ‘Smith et al’

Journal Article In text: Surname, followed by year e.g.) (Wilson, 1995)   Bibliography: Surname, first initial, year of publication, title of article, title of journal. E.g.) WILSON, J. (1995) Enter the Cyberpunk librarian: future directions in cyberspace.

Websites In text: Only the short version of a website is needed here. For example, if you looked at this website: http://www.livescience.com/42081-normal-heart-rate.html you only need (livescience.com) in text. Bibliography: Write the full website and date accessed.

Images All images used should be referenced properly. In text this should include (fig 1.), then in your bibliography, write the full reference for the textbook, website etc..

So, What next? Today’s lesson: For the rest of todays lesson: Read over your work, read my feedback, read the literature review guide. Make a ‘to do’ list of what needs changing / improving in your work. Use text books in the lab/go get one from the library to carry out more research / make notes etc.

Next Lesson I will try to book a computer room / Study centre computers. You can spend the lesson working on this.