Anthropology

For your signature project you will learn about a topic that falls within the realm of applied biological anthropology and, using the concepts that you have learned in this course, explain the significance of this topic. You will choose a topic from a series of 50-60-minute* video lectures on the ASU Evolutionary Medicine website. The video that you choose should describe a topic or be by a person that interests you (so that it’s fun!). To get a sense for how an individual becomes a practicing evolutionary scientist you will investigate this person’s background and research interests, describing the path they took to get to where they are at this stage of their career. To solidify your understanding of the material that you have learned in this course, you will describe one or more of the research projects that this person has undertaken and describe how it relates to human evolution and the topics covered in this course.
Format: Write an essay or make a slide show. Your essay may contain pictures/figures/graphs/tables and your slide show should include enough words to clearly explain each concept (avoid bulleted lists). Preferred file types include word files (.doc, .docx) and PowerPoint files (.ppt, .pptx) because these are easy to comment in. Google files can easily be downloaded as .dox and .ppt files. If you would like to use a different format, make sure to run it by one of the teaching team members before you begin.
i. Describe why you chose the video you watched on the ASU Evolutionary Medicine website. (10 points)
ii. For the researcher you watched in the ASU Evolutionary Medicine talk, describe the path they took to get to where they are at this stage of their career. See what you can find on their CV/resume, their faculty profile, a personal and/or laboratory website. Try to answer questions such as: where did they go to college? Grad school? What were their majors? What kinds of things did they do while they were in college and grad school? Do they have any outside interests? (10 points)
iii. What research interests does this person list on their profile or website? How do these relate to the video lecture you watched? (10 points)
iv. Can you envision yourself doing anything similar or even remotely related or similar? Has learning about this person influenced your ideas about your future in any way? Explain. (5 points)
v. Summarize one or more of the research projects that this person has undertaken and explain how this research relates to concepts that we have covered in this course. (15 points)
vi. Explain how this person’s research sheds light on how interactions between an individual’s ancestry and their environmental experiences relate to inequality and/or influence susceptibility to health issues. (This may be straightforward or indirect depending on the research topic). (10 points)
vii. Use this information (from the prompt directly above) to propose ways that this, or similar areas of research and expertise, can be applied to modern health problems to minimize health disparities and the effects of inequality. (10 points)
viii. Cite scholarly and course-related sources within the text of your project. Most common format: Sentence with information from source (author(s), date). (5 points)
ix. Provide a full reference section/bibliography (APA format) at the end of the document. (5 points)
x. Project does a good job of synthesizing relevant content from the class and outside sources. It is detailed, uses correct scientific terminology, and demonstrates the author’s knowledge and comprehension of the material. (10 points)
xi. Minimum word count is 500 words (not including your cover letter and reference section) (5 points)
xii. Write a detailed (>100 words) cover letter where you describe and reflect on your writing process. Did you give yourself enough time to complete this project without too much stress? Are you happy with the final product? Did you receive useful feedback from friends, family, the writing center, or anyone else? How did you address this feedback in your final draft? What, if anything, will you do differently for your next project? What skills did you use on this project that you learned from previous writing experiences? Did you learn any new skills for this project? Describe your current level of comfort with citations and references. (5 points)
Total _/100 points

*note there is one speaker named Mitesh Borad talking about cancer whose talk seems to be broken down into several videos on pages 6 and 7. If you choose this speaker make sure to watch all of his videos from September 27, 2018.