BEFORE POSTING ANYTHING…..Read These Instructions! COLLAPSEOverall Rating:

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Discussion Activity #1 Instructions (25 pts total)

For this discussion activity, I want you to use creativity and your understanding of cells and their structures to produce an original work that demonstrates your understanding of cells and their organelles and other cellular structures. Then, I want you to review each other’s original works and provide helpful feedback for improving the submission. Finally, you’ll revise your own work in response to your feedback, and then post the final version in your concluding post at the end of the week.

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Prompt for your original essay post (12 pts), due by FRIDAY of the assigned week:

Before starting, choose to describe either a prokaryote (such as bacteria) or a eukaryote (such as an animal or plant cell) and make it clear in your post’s subject line which cell type you chose. Then, choose the TYPE of creative work you want to produce (see examples and suggestions below). Finally, make sure to include at least five (5) different organelles or sub-cellular structures in your original work as you create it.

Examples of creative/original works you could produce:

• If you are an artist, create a work of art that tells the story of the cell you select in a drawing. As an artist, your work should be creative, not a tracing or copy of a figure from your book. Show us what YOU see.
• If you are a musician or songwriter, compose a song about the cell you selected and type up the lyrics (and record yourself singing it as an audio file if you can).
• If you are a poet, write a poem about your cell (not a haiku, please! that’s too short!)
• If you want to be a teacher, create an activity that students could do to help them learn about the parts of the cell you chose and post the activity (post it without answers shown, but attach a file with the answers for students to look at after they’ve done it on their own).
• If you like math, write about the relative dimensions of your cell and its component parts in relation to something we can visualize on a human scale. For example, if a cell were expanded to the size of a golf ball, how big would the nucleus be, then?
• If you like politics and government, write an essay that uses a city as a metaphor for how a cell functions. What cellular structures/organelles could different parts of the city government and city services represent?

You don’t have to use one of these suggestions — be creative and come up with your own cell presentation!

Publish your original work as a NEW THREAD in this discussion forum. Please type a subject line that includes your cell type and creative title, then type/paste your original work directly into the text editor box so it shows up directly in the discussion board. Do NOT attach any files unless you created an audio or video file.

Here is an example of what a student in a previous semester submitted as his original work.  Yours does not need to be this great – I picked a really great example so you’d have an idea of how creative you could be. 🙂

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Prompt for your response posts (4 pts each, 8 pts total), due by SATURDAY of the assigned week of discussion:

Read everyone’s posted original works and select at least TWO CLASSMATES for replies. Reply to these classmates, including the following elements:

• A greeting (directed to the original writer) – i.e. say hello (preferably using their name).
• A closing (sign off with your name) – i.e say a closing word (like “Regards” or “Great Job!” and then YOUR NAME (so they know how to address you if/when they respond to your feedback).
• In between the greeting and closing: A response to what they wrote (in paragraph form with proper grammar/style) of at least 3-4 sentences providing:
  • at least one piece of positive feedback AND
  • at least one area where they could improve their original work.
• Check grammar and spelling. This is a college-level course, so your writing should reflect that.
• Follow the Netiquette rules provided in the “Getting Started” section of eCampus – be constructive, positive in tone, and helpful! Do not attack or insult!
• I also want you to try to help everyone, so if a post already has a reply, find a different post to reply to if you can. 

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Prompt for your SUMMARY / CONCLUDING post (5 pts), due on SUNDAY of the assigned week of discussion:

Review all of the original and response posts, then EDIT/IMPROVE your original work based on the feedback and anything you wanted to add. Even if you did not receive any replies or suggestions, you still need to make at least one improvement to your original submission and post the final version in its entirety along with a brief description of what you changed. To post your conclusion, make sure to select the “reply” to YOUR original post so it is nested in the correct location on the forum. Do NOT create a new thread for the conclusion.

Do NOT write your conclusion and final version until after Saturday night so all your classmates have time to respond and provide feedback to you by the reply deadline. Posting your conclusion too early will result in lost points.

A grading rubric will be used to calculate your grade on this discussion.  You are welcome to review the rubric to see how I will determine your score BEFORE you write your posts. A copy of the rubric is available in the grade book (in the Discussion Activity grade information).

Do NOT reply to this thread. Return to the main forum page and create a new thread for your original post.