Assignment Paper

INSTRUCTIONS:
You will read a selected news article from a popular science news source provided below (choosing one of the
two options provided), then draw connections between it and the general foundations principles covered in
the relevant learning materials, by answering the questions below.
1a) Which article did you select? (See two choices below)
1b) What was the most interesting point or discovery – about the latest (new) scientific research of primary
focus in this article – for you, and why? (50-100 words) [1 mark] 2) How do the corresponding lesson notes in Blackboard help to explain the science behind this point of
interest for you? (Be very specific in your references, by properly incorporating the relevant portion of the
lesson notes into this discussion, while always writing your responses in your own words without copying
sources.*) (100-150 words) [2 marks] 3) How do the corresponding textbook readings (in the sections assigned for this lesson, as listed in the
Schedule) help to explain this point of interest? (Be very specific in your references, by properly incorporating
the relevant portion of the readings into this discussion, while always writing your responses in your own
words without copying sources.*) (100-150 words) [2 marks] * See the final section of this document on Academic Integrity expectations and requirements.
HOW TO SUBMIT:
Upload your response document (as a Word or PDF file) in the corresponding assignment submission link in
the ‘Short Responses’ section of Blackboard, under the ‘ASSESSMENTS’ heading.
ARTICLES:
Select one of these articles for your response, indicating the selection clearly at the start.
Article 1: Detailed Cross-Section of Another Galaxy Reveals Surprising Similarities to Our Milky Way

(LESSON 11: GALAXIES AND BEYOND)
OR:
Article 2: Potentially Habitable Exoplanets: How To Find Hidden Oceans on Distant Worlds With Chemistry

(LESSON 12: LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE)
SCIE 2000: Astronomy (Online)
Formatting Requirements:
• stay within the word limit to produce concise but insightful answers
• list the full article title in 1a
• do not include the text of the questions of the assignment; only your answers labelled as 1a, 1b, 2, 3
• minimize/avoid quoting passages from the article; use your own words to explain it instead
• include reference/mention of the specific section (in textbook and lesson notes) being connected in your
answers
Content Suggestions:
• make sure your explanations in 2 and 3 relate directly and clearly to the point-of-interest (POI) you
identified in 1b
• include specific connections between lessons/readings (i.e. answering the ‘how does it help to explain
the point-of-interest’ question, with a link to a particular concept), and not just generalized
discussions/impressions, and/or stand-alone summaries of lessons or article
Academic Integrity and Plagiarism
You are expected to follow all academic integrity standards in your courses. Please review the following resources to
understand how to do so:
• Video: “Plagiarism: How to Avoid It”
• Document: “Avoiding Plagiarism – A Quick Reference Guide” (posted in the ‘Short Responses’ section of
Blackboard)
SafeAssign: As a tool to help you improve the academic integrity of your written work, your report will be checked using
the SafeAssign tool in Blackboard, and you will receive a SafeAssign originality report after your first attempt, showing
you the ‘score’ of how much of your report has been matched with other written sources. Ideally this score should be no
higher than (about) 20%. Note that the software is not always context-perfect: it will find matches between URLs
(references listed), and/or titles of specific articles used as research sources, etc. These do NOT count as true examples of
‘plagiarism’. Your detailed originality report will show you all specific instances of where the matches were found;
references/URLs/etc matches can be ignored. However, significant matches in the actual written work of your report –
which should be all written in your own original words – should be cause for further work on fixing your report, to ensure
its academic integrity with the final draft submission. Minimize quoting – copying passages (with proper credit) –
directly from your sources; you should be able to re-tell almost all information in your own words instead.
Use this report as a LEARNING TOOL and opportunity, to first understand more clearly what plagiarism is, and second
to fix your report, before final submission. You can resubmit your report as many times as you wish, before the final
project deadline, so that only the final copy will be the graded version.