[1]Staying Current in Biotechnology
The field of biotechnology is changing very rapidly. Everyday significant new discoveries are bringing new products to market and new advancements in scientific research techniques. Everyone working in a biotechnology environment must keep abreast of these discoveries. Staying current on advances in biotechnology makes for a better-prepared lab technician.
Using the Internet it is easy to find short summary articles to keep a technician up to date. Several searchable databases catalog summary articles on biotechnology current events.
Websites including:
www.bio-link.org click on news,
www.biospace.com click on Hotbeds then Biotech Bay
www.accessexcellence.org Click on What’s News and look for Biotech Article.
www.bio.org,
These sites can be used to quickly search for short interesting articles on new scientific advancements.
To Do To use a searchable database to find a current event article covering a topic in one of the domains of biotechnology.
1. Pick a domain of biotechnology that was assigned by your teacher. Go to one of the websites above and find an article that covers a topic in the domain of biotechnology. If you cannot find an appropriate article at this website go to another website to look for an article.
2. Highlight the article, copy and paste it into a Word® document. Reduce the document to 77% size and print a copy. Record the website address (URL) if it is not on the document. DO NOT PRINT THE ARTICLE FROM THE WEBSITE, THIS WASTES PAPER.
- Actively read the article highlighting or underlining the topic sentence (main sentence) in each paragraph.
a. Look for main ideas that support the topic sentence in each paragraph
(highlight them).
b. NOTE: As you read, it is helpful to jot down main ideas of each paragraph. Each main idea will present a different aspect of the article. Colleges suggest writing instead of highlighting so you can use this separate paper when you are ready to write your summary. (Plagiarism is a big issue and universities are becoming increasing more strict on what they deem as plagiarism) If you highlight you are more likely to use the author’s words in your summary.
4. After reading the article, place an asterisk (*) by 3-4 things that you think are the most interesting and memorable. Now you are ready to summarize your article.
a. Organizing your summary:
i. Introduction
1. Include the title of article, author, and source of the article
2. Include the central idea of the article in YOUR OWN WORDS
ii. Supporting Points
1. Summarize each supporting point the article presents
2. Make sure supporting points are described in YOUR OWN WORDS, but try to be as objective as possible (do not use the authors words, but also do not add your personal opinion here)
3. As you move from one supporting point to another, use transitional words. Transitional sentences help the flow of a summary, and connect different ideas together. They tend to include an action phrase such as the following examples:
a. First, the author points out….
b. Next, the article describes……
c. Finally, the authors explores……
iii. Conclusion
This is where you add your opinion on the topic. You can discuss your overall thoughts of the article but also please include specific aspects of the article that you found to be interesting or memorable (asterisk areas of article).
1 Developed by Ellyn Daugherty, San Mateo High School (modified by C.Malone 2012) Page 1
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