Lab on Synopsis Assessment and Field Trip Preparation

Part 1: Synopsis of Climate Change

This lab has two parts.

1.In the first part you will work on your synopsis assessment by working through a draft synopsis review and then a self-assessment activity. This will be done in your usual lab time slot as a zoom class.
2.In the second part you will prepare for the field trip and associated assessment to ensure that you maximise your learning time while in the field.
At the end of this lab you should be able to:
Evaluate a piece of writing against pre-determined criteria;
Use species identification charts to name several species that you will encounter on your field trip;
Part 1: Synopsis of climate change
You were set the task of writing a synopsis of a current ecological topic, climate change.  Climate change was the subject of the lecture discussion that happened on Friday 5 March. Guidelines for the expectations of this assessment are set out on the assignment page in Canvas and below. This activity is designed to provide an opportunity for feedback that you can use to craft your synopsis before you make your final submission for grading.
At university, it is important you as a student develop skills that enable you to work independently or become a self-regulated learner where you are planning, monitoring and evaluating your own progress against a standard. This exercise is designed for you to practise two skills that are carried out by students who are self-regulated learners.
Two key skills that help you to work independently are the ability to assess your own work (self-assessment) and the work of others (peer-assessment). You will complete an exercise in self-assessment and peer-assessment as part of this lab and to build your skills in evaluating the quality your own work against set criteria.
Synopsis instructions (see the Synopsis assignment page in Canvas for more details)
The synopsis will be no more than 400 words long (1-2 paragraphs). In addition, you will submit a reflection on how you have responded to the feedback on your draft in lab 1. The reflection should be a 50-100 words long.
What your synopsis should include
The goal of your synopsis is to summarise the major points of the discussion to present an argument that addresses the numbered points below.  Assume the reader has no prior background knowledge and pitch your summary at someone who is new to the topic. Think about how you will help the reader understand
1.What sorts of impacts are (will be) happening in biology?
2.What opportunities are there for adaptation?
Use a formal academic writing style. Carefully consider how you organise your ideas and in particular how you structure your paragraphs. All the same rules for paragraph structure that you learned at school apply, so start your paragraph with a topic sentence and follow with explanations and examples. (Link to guidelines for academic writing.)
We would like you to include at least two citations in the text. This citation could be the readings provided or other scholarly sources that you have found yourself.