Kidney cancer.

Each student will research and present (at least 8 minutes but no more than 10) a specific topic relevant to human physiology. Students can research any topic current in human physiology that is of particular interest to them. The assignment is designed to provide each student the opportunity to ask questions relevant in physiology and to independently research the topic by reading through peer reviewed scientific articles with a new understanding and insight to physiology. In addition, the presentations will provide an opportunity for the students to practice disseminating information by communicating what they have learned to the class in a clear, professional manner. Effective presentation of your ideas and knowledge is a valuable skill and this activity is designed to allow you an opportunity to develop this skill.

Presentations should provide the class with enough background to allow for clear and thorough understanding of the physiological mechanisms and the physiological relevance of the summary information. The presentation must explain at least one physiological mechanism (this is the most important component of the presentation). Students may use a variety of ancillary presentation materials (PowerPoint, Prezi, etc.). You will submit to an Assignment folder in D2L:
1. An 8-10 min recorded video presentation (your face must be visible in the recording).
2. A typed summary (paragraph form—no bullet points) of the information being presented (2-3 pages, 12 pt font, double-spaced, 1 in. margins, in-text documentation).
3. A Works Cited/References page listing all sources utilized using appropriate scientific reporting format (at least 4 peer-reviewed). MLA or APA format is acceptable, just be consistent.

A presentation rubric will be used to grade your presentation and project as a whole, and will be available for your viewing on D2L.

The most difficult part of this assignment will be choosing a topic. There are a tremendous number of research choices considering how much is known in physiology, but not all will be appropriate or best suited for this assignment. You will need to find a topic where the mechanisms are fairly well established or hypothesized. It will be difficult to find information as well as present a topic where little is known. Further, be as specific as possible in your topic, while still leaving yourself enough room to construct an 8-10-minute presentation.

Getting Started:
Start by thinking of a question you would like to answer. It can be on anything related to physiology (the how and why of specific body functions—or malfunctions). There are many topics to research so finding a topic should not be the limiting factor. It’s scaling down the topic that is challenging! For instance, you may be interested in muscle physiology. This topic is too broad, so you need to be more specific. A better topic might be the mechanism behind lactic acid and its effects on muscle training, or the actions of creatine supplements on improving muscle endurance. The more specific you are, the easier the question will be to research. Start by googling the topic to obtain a generalized overview and to start to understand your topic better. Once you feel you have a pretty good handle on the topic, then dive into the scientific literature. It can be very technical and difficult to understand, so having prior grounding is very helpful. Each student will be required to have at least four peer-reviewed scientific articles that relate to their portion of the presentation and are no more than 15-20 years old. Below is a short list of some peer-reviewed scientific journals where information may be found:
American Journal of Physiology
Journal of Physiology
Annual Review of Pharmacology
Science
Annual Review of Physiology
Nature
Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA)
Physiology Reviews
New England Journal of Medicine
Use of the KSU Library (http://library.kennesaw.edu/) Search function should make looking for peer-reviewed articles fairly straightforward. Google Scholar and PubMed are also useful search engines.

Resources NOT acceptable for use as a primary reference (because they are not peer-reviewed) are:
Newspapers (print and websites)
Time/Newsweek or similar
Omni/Discover or similar
Wikipedia or similar
MedLine Plus/WebMD blog posts or similar

Warning: The internet is a readily available resource, but beware that not everything you find there is valid. A recent student indicated that 42% of the medical information on the internet was unreliable and 6% contained false information. If you cannot determine the author of a source, or it is not referenced, do not use it! Reputable scientific sources (.org, .edu, .gov) are out there, but you must go to the peer-reviewed source to get the information you want as the articles on these websites are not peer-reviewed. Government policies are okay to cite, but should NOT be used as one of your 4 required citations.