For this week’s discussion:

• Select a source of biology information from the open web (the topic can be any topic related to biology or that of your research topic).

• Evaluate the source and explain why it is or is not a credible source of information

Use the name of your source as the title of your discussion post. You cannot use a source that one of your classmates has already used as a topic for their initial discussion post.

When responding to your classmates, discuss whether you agree or disagree with their assessment and citation and why. Continue to follow your classmates’ posts for the remainder of the week, addressing any follow-up posts to your posts, and reply to any questions or requests for clarification. Your follow-up posts can add additional insight to your classmates’ opinions and can challenge their opinions. Similarly, be sure to read the follow-up posts to your own original posts and reply to any questions or requests for clarification from your classmates.

Use the following materials for assistance:

• Access the Natural Sciences Program Guide from the APUS Online Library at http://apus.libguides.com/natural_sciences/web Select the “Websites” tab. Review the links in the “Internet Research: Tips for Science Students” box.
• Use the Owl at Purdue site for assistance with APA format: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/
• Source Evaluation Cheat Sheet

Forum 250 words +

Response # 1 150 words +

When you are seeking a credible source, you can simply look for affiliations, and who the author is and what their educational background is. If they are University affiliated and have a PhD, then in my opinion, they would be a credible source to use in gathering informations. Organizations who publish articles based on study data are also a reliable resource, but the most reliable sources are those that are peer reviewed and scholarly sources. Scholarly sources are (also known as academic sources) are authored by experts in a particular field with informations pertaining to the most recent research and news on that particular subject. So in an academic paper, the Professor will specify if they want peer reviewed or scholarly sources used to cite your work. Sometimes assignments will say that you can use other credible sources. It all just depends on how you are instructed for your paper. Memberships and Affiliation can also translate to credibility in an article. In the article I chose to evaluate, it lists some affiliations such as Society of Biology and Society for Neuroscience. This is a pretty good indication of credibility so in utilizing this website to gather my info, I’d likely be more confident to use their info in my citations based on those findings. Just simply using google to find sources is not enough. You have to be discerning of the source’s credibility because there is a lot of junk on the Internet. The author in this informational site uses Howard Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences to credit his knowledge on the specific types of intelligence in dogs. It further delves into the hypothesis behind dog emotion and uses theories that have been put into places by past Biologists. However, although this is a great wealth of information on this website, it would not be considered a scholarly article by University professors because it doesn’t meet all the criteria. Accuracy based on verifiable facts along with a list of references and absolutely no grammatical errors is some of the first things to look for. The authors should have good professional qualifications and work at a university or research institute. The article should be built upon factual info, not personal opinion. Being bias would lead me to believe that credibility is low. There are many ways to discern a resource’s credibility but these are the main factors you want to look out for!

Reference:

Simply Behavior publication, (2020) Biology Of Dog Emotion, Cognition, Evolution & The Domestication Hypothesis. http://www.simplybehaviour.com/biology-of-dog-emotion-cognition-evolution-the-domestication-hypothesis/

Response #2 150 words +

searching the web can be quite difficult because information on the web is not regulated for accuracy. I chose the site phys.org because it is a site that covers many topics on science. When looking through the site I check the “About” page to get more information on the page. This page provides the authors, how the website came about, the mission and so much more information. The site has a list of editors and contributing authors and provides a bit of background on each person including their educational background. The author of a site can be very telling, the author(s) must be qualified to write on the given topic and that should be easy to find.

This site covers many topics such as biology, chemistry, computer sciences, engineering, mathematics and many other sciences. I stumbled upon a recent post called ‘Dynamics of gut bacteria follow ecological laws’ by Columbia University Irving Medical Center. At the bottom of the article it gives details on the university and provides links to the university’s website. By including the links and sources, it makes the reader feel reliable about the site and it gives the reader access to evaluate the source.

https://phys.org/news/2020-05-dynamics-gut-bacteria-ecological-laws.html