course materials

1. Use Word (*.docx), 2-3 pages typed, double-spaced, 1- 1.25’ margins,
using Times
Use Word (*.docx), 2-3 pages typed, double-spaced, 1- 1.25’ margins, using Times New
Roman 12-type or a similar font and size.This Science News Article assignment is to
demonstrate that you are able to garner an understanding of an important piece of primary
literature on a topic you’ve had some familiarity with in class, related to Plant-Animal
Interactions. Please demonstrate your ability to properly cite a paper (using Ecology
journal style, in name/year fashion) by making at least one in-text citation, and providing
the reference at the end of the paper.Please use your own words to discuss the main
research themes and findings in the article you choose, published within the last 3 years. It
should pertain to Plant-Animal Interactions: you may use Ch 1, 3, or the film What Plants
Talk About as your inspiration for the topic. Ask yourself why the subject matter is
interesting, using that to grab your reader’s attention. Think of yourself as a NY Times
reporter writing for the Science Section: it is your task to make news out of this research.
The language used by the science news writer will probably differ from that used by
researchers. However, the writer will attempt to understand the topic by carefully reading
the primary literature article, along with other sources to fill out the understanding of the
science (popular press articles or Wikipedia are acceptable in this assignment). The news
writer will use the inverted pyramid style of writing, by giving the most important
information (the attention grabber) at the beginning of the article, followed by the next
most important, and ending with the least important information. The end of the article will
also give a compelling conclusion that suggests how the reader could find out more about
the topic. The title of the article should also be an attention grabber: something clever to
get your reader to look at the article.Please also avoid using direct quotes (they are not
helpful to the reader, and they indicate a certain lack of comprehension on the part of the
writer), but if you absolutely must use direct quotes, be sure to indicate their presence with
the use of quotation marks, along with a citation, or you will be practicing a common (yet
problematic) form of plagiarism.Recap:2-3 pages, double spaced 12-point font, well edited
writingWrite in Science News style…make it sound fresh and interesting to your reader.Use
standard Ecology journal citation style, both in text when referring to article (name, year)
and in the reference section at the end. In this case, you only need to cite the article once, at
the beginning, but when you use other sources, please cite them too.Examples of ecology
citiation:Trees do more than just provide shad{Citation}e, shelter and sustenance: they help

2. to purify the air we breathe(Choi-Schagrin 2023). Computer simulations of pollution
filtering shows that coniferous trees may very valuable to continue the filtering process
during winter months when deciduous trees are on winter break(Letter and Jäger
2020).Choi-Schagrin, W. 2023, January 19. How New York City’s Trees and Shrubs Help
Clear Its Air. The N ew York Times.Letter, C., and G. Jäger. 2020. Simulating the
potential of trees to reduce particulate matter polluti on in urban areas
throughout the year. Environment, Development and Sustainability 22: 4311–
4321.