Options 1: Crime Scene Forensics
In recent years, law enforcement has been revolutionized by molecular biology. When human tissues are left behind at crime scenes, these tissues can be collected and processed to yield samples of DNA, which can then be treated to isolate specific DNA fragments that are highly variable in the human population.
Statistically, any 2 people are very unlikely to have a matching set of these DNA fragments. Thus, if a DNA profile obtained from a suspect matches the DNA profile produced from the crime-scene evidence, authorities can be very sure that the suspect was at the crime scene.
In this lab activity, you will prepare DNA samples from 4 suspects, produce DNA profiles for each, and compare those profiles to a sample that was produced from DNA collected at a crime scene.
Option 2: Is An Endangered Species Being Traded Illegally?
Molecular biology techniques such as DNA sequencing are important tools for enforcing laws that protect threatened or endangered species. Just as human tissue collected at a crime scene can yield DNA that can be used to identify victims and suspects, unidentifiable animal tissues (e.g., dried shark fins, powdered mammal bone and teeth, and dried internal organs) can be analyzed to determine if it was taken from a protected species.
You are to write a 1-page Lab Report using the Scientific Method sections below. Your Pearson report is your data to support your report. Attach the Pearson report as part of your lab report results. The Pearson questions are to help you understand the topic and may be used in your report to support your findings.
Complete the steps of the scientific method for your lab option choice. Use these headings in your paper, please.
Purpose:
State the purpose of the lab.
Introduction:
This is an investigation of what is currently known about the question being asked. Use background information from credible references to write a short summary about concepts in the lab. List and cite references in APA style.
Hypothesis / Predicted Outcome:
An hypothesis is an "educated guess." Based on what you have learned and written about in the Introduction, state what you expect to be the results of the lab procedures.
Methods:
Summarize the procedures that you used in the lab.
The Methods section should also state clearly how data (numbers) were collected during the lab; these will be reported in the Results/ Outcome section.
Results/Outcome:
Provide here any results / data that were generated doing the lab procedure.
Discussion/Analysis:
In this section, state clearly whether you obtained the expected results, and the outcome was as expected. Note: You can use answers to any multiple choice or essay questions you filled out in the lab to help you discuss the results and what you learned.
Provide references in APA format. This includes a reference list and in-text citations for references used in the Introduction section.
Give your paper a title and number and identify each section as specified above. Although the hypothesis will be a one sentence answer, the other sections will need to be paragraphs to adequately explain your experiment.