[LauraJSharp]

I need help on what to do for my coursework for biology. I need to do an experiment but i also want my coursework to be tied into an aspect of nursing or midwifery as this is what I want to do at uni. If there are no ideas for that then I'd like to do something about antibacterial properties of things but I', really stuck on thinking of any really good and different ideas. Please help???

[MBT Bot]

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[Revd. Mike]

(Original post by LauraJSharp)
I need help on what to do for my coursework for biology. I need to do an experiment but i also want my coursework to be tied into an aspect of nursing or midwifery as this is what I want to do at uni. If there are no ideas for that then I'd like to do something about antibacterial properties of things but I', really stuck on thinking of any really good and different ideas. Please help???

Here's some general advice:

Don't be too ambitious. This is an A level assessment, not a grant proposal for a PhD project. Think of something that's likely to work, that's relatively easy to do and will generate good data. Don't try and do something 'out there' or that hasn't been done before. It's a bonus if you can do something interesting, but don't let that be your priority over something that will get you decent marks. Try and think of something that will allow you to do plenty of statistics with the data you generate, as this is the analysis that will get you marks. Pick something that's related to an area on the spec, and that you can explain biologically.

A decent example: Stomatal density of leaves of plants in different light conditions. Easy to do (pick a bunch of leaves from plants growing in dark and light places, paint some clear nail varnish on them, lift it with sellotape, look under a microscope and count the stomata in a given area, compare for statistical difference). Will generate lots of data, easy to do stats. Relevant to the specification of the course, and if you observe any difference you can explain that with your knowledge of photosynthesis etc.

Bad example: Antiobiotic activity of plant extracts. Difficult to do (will need to prepare extracts of various plants - which plants?, requires you to grow bacteria - which bacteria? Gram neg or pos?, requires sterile technique, lots of effort etc.). How will you determine antibiotic effect? How will you quanitify it? Will you be able to produce enough replicates to get data that may produce statistical significance? If you see an effect, how will you explain it? Unless you have an analytical chemistry lab at your disposal, you won't be able to ascertain what compounds are in the plant extracts, so how can you explain what's happening?

I know it might seem a bit boring or whatever, but at this stage you really need to focus on what will give you the best marks. Trying to be too ambitious can really hurt your grades, as I discovered! Hope this helps.