Special Project

As noted on the main syllabus, you will be completing a 5-page paper describing a claim with some chemical basis, and what you would need to know to test the claim.  The grading (150 points) will be broken down as follows:

1. Description of the claim.  Is there enough information to know the chemical makeup of the product, or the chemical behavior of what is described? (40 points)
2. Reasonable basis.  Can you explain a reasonable connection between the chemistry of the product or material, and the effect it is purported to have?  Is this a direct effect (examples:  the product is a particular material with specific properties, or it promotes a particular chemical reaction under specific conditions) or indirect (example:  a compound binds to a specific known protein which changes a specific biochemical pathway)? (30 points)
3. Test:  You need not devise a test!  However, given what you describe for #1 and #2 above, how would you go about testing the causal connections?  How would you identify extraneous effects?  How would you determine the difference between a direct causal effect and an indirect or accidental effect (example:  a skin cream has a desired cosmetic effect, but it's due to the solvents rather than the expensive plant extract)? This is a good place to explore what's known about the desired effect.  (30 points)
4. References:  You must provide references for any information you find to support your findings.  You may use Wikipedia or Google as an initial reference, but you must follow (and cite) references that these tools point to.  You may use either MLA or American Chemical Society styles for citations.  (20 points)
5. Writing, spelling, grammar. (30 points)  Papers that are too long may have points deducted from this item.