Honor Code Policy for Advanced Experimental Biosciences

Please carefully read over the following policy before beginning work on your lab notebook and paper.
If you are in doubt then ask the Instructor, NOT a TA or fellow students.
NOTE: Policy for my other courses may differ

Laboratory Notebook

All corrections must be indicated in the notebook when the mistakes are discovered; making changes on the "copies" or the original notebook pages AFTER the fact is an honor code violation.
Do not attempt to "line-up" the copy page under the original to make a correction.
All notebook entries must be dated with the actual date; that is, you cannot "pre-date" or "post-date" pages to agree with a particular lab session.
The notebook is a "real-time" record of the procedures, problems, and results that occur during lab; you are not allowed to come to lab with the protocols already written in your notebook.
The notebook must contain evidence that you personally did the manipulations required to calculate all of the data presented.
Although the notebooks will contain similar data, the presentation of this data and how it was obtained, as well as the Purpose and Introduction of each lab, experiment summaries, and conclusions, must be unique to each student.
All notebook pages recorded DURING lab are due in your folder at the end of that lab session (i.e., you must turn them in BEFORE you leave lab).
Do not remove notebook pages from your folder until after they have been graded.

Section Drafts and Final Paper

The major restriction is that you must individually create all text, tables, graphs, and figures that are presented in the paper. Acknowledgement as to the source of the data is required.

You must write each section of the paper entirely on your own. The Instructor needs to know your own understanding of the concepts in your own words. NEVER quote directly from ANY source, and never paraphrase someone else's interpretation.
Feel free to discuss strategies for data preparation and interpretation but do not write your lab paper with another student.
DO NOT LET ANYONE ELSE "PROOFREAD" YOUR PAPER.

The analysis of this experiment involves the comparison of the characteristics of a native and a cloned enzyme and necessitates that a team of four work collaboratively to obtain the necessary data for this comparison. Cooperation and exchange of data is required and expected but there are restrictions as to the extent of cooperation and exchange.

Raw data may be exchanged freely among CURRENT class participants, including chart recordings, instrument readings obtained during an experiment, and photographs or photocopies of original gels.

Written reference material

You may consult your notebook, the lab manual, reference readings, textbooks, review articles, and primary sources (published research papers).
You may NOT consult another student's lab paper or notebook, from this year or from any previous year.
You may not consult my comments on past lab papers or notebooks. In fact, those comments may be inappropriate for the current lab.
To protect yourself and others from possible plagiarism please do not allow anyone access to your notebook, rough drafts, or computer files.

Data preparation

The paper requires that you report your findings for both sources of the enzyme. The exchange of final numbers such as relative molecular size, isoelectric point, and kinetic constants are exchangeable among teams.
Final numbers may also be accumulated from as many teams as you wish to strengthen the analysis of the comparison. You will need to interpret data records and to prepare computer-generated graphs and tables.
You are encouraged to work with each other while learning how to work with the data. Teach each other - that's the best way to learn. However, once you know what to do and how to do it, I expect you to prepare your own graphs, tables, and figures.

The Rice Honor Code allows proper and improper conduct to be defined for each course. Since the learning value of your work in the laboratory is considerably enhanced by appropriate collaboration on data preparation and interpretation, some collaboration is allowed and even encouraged. Unfortunately there are occasional abuses. It is very frustrating to an instructor who has prepared an effective lab course to discover that students have shirked their responsibilities for learning. It is also a sickening feeling to have to turn someone in for an honor code violation.