Sense of Place Project Rubric
The planet on which we live is home to an abundance of biodiversity. This is your opportunity to find out more about a particular part of that biodiversity. For this project, you will select a species and write a species account. You will talk about the taxonomy, ecology, natural history, behavior, distribution, conservation, and other aspects of the species you choose and their place on this planet. You will research and write about this species and submit a paper
No domesticated species.
Sections:
Taxonomy: Write the taxonomic list for your species from Domain to species name. Remember binomial nomenclature rules. The name of the species should be written and spelled correctly. For example, Staphylococcus aureus. After the full genus name is given in the paper, it can be written as S. aureus, but still italicized. This is if there are no other genera in the paper that starts with the same letter.
Introduction: This section introduces the reader to the species and why the author (you) chose this species to write about. This should be six-eight sentences long. Example: “There are many reasons for needing to know about this species… The reasons range from … I chose this species because…. etc.
Natural History: A few sentences about the fossil record of this species and what other living species it is closely related to.
Distribution: The geographic range of this species. Make sure to include historical distribution and present range. If it is threatened, you can take about the loss of space for the species and the factors contributing to the loss.
Ecology: Talk about what this species eats, uses for shelter, habitats it lives in, predators it may have, and other ecological niche information and its population and community ecology/dynamics.
Behavior: Talk about any behaviors that are interesting and tie-in to the behaviors we discussed in class.
Conservation: What level of the IUCN categories is the species in; if it is in trouble, what are the causes; what are people doing to save it and its ecosystem, etc.
Fun Facts: Include some facts about this species. What are reasons you like it or anything else you want to include. Also, you can include a picture of your species (will not count toward the page limit).
Literature Cited:
Must have at least 8 literature citations. Must be from reputable science journals and other sources. Must have in-text citations.
Here is an example of how to do Literature cited on the literature cited page:
“Rabinowitz, Alan, Patrick Andau, and Paul Chai. “The clouded leopard in Malaysian Borneo.” Oryx 21.2 (1987): 107-111.”
So, the in-text citations for this example will look like this: Clouded leopards eat mammals and birds (Rabinowitz 1987). Literature cited will not count toward the page total.
