Home

This lab course requires greater independence than BIOS 211. You are expected to design a novel genetic circuit in the form of a written project proposal.

Laboratory Notebook (INDIVIDUAL Effort)

• 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 objectives of each lab, experiment summaries, and conclusions, must be unique to each student.

Project Proposal (INDIVIDUAL Effort)

• You will prepare a project proposal for a novel genetic circuit. You have a great degree of flexibility as to how you prepare your work; each individual's proposal should be unique in organization and style.
• The major restriction is that EACH STUDENT must individually create all text, tables, graphs, and figures that are presented AND draw her/his own conclusions.
  You must write each section of the proposal 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.
  
• Discuss strategies for experimental design ONLY with your graduate advisor; however, do NOT ask your graduate advisor to help you write or organize your proposal.
• DO NOT LET ANYONE ELSE "PROOFREAD" YOUR PROPOSAL.

Written reference material

• You may consult your notebook, the course web site, reference readings, textbooks, review articles, and primary sources (published research papers).
• You may NOT consult another student's lab paper or PowerPoint presentation, from this year or from any previous year.
• You may not consult my comments on past presentations 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 or computer files.

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.