Assignment

Professor Shimoda has just received tenure. This has resulted in her taking a more "hands off" approach to the work in the lab. She had written down a few ideas about experiments that should be conducted before she lapsed into her current "hands off" mode, and these old notes have been given to you. You have been assigned to take these ideas and turn them into a more formal research plan.

Your proposal should outline:

• How you would actually conduct each experiment (25%)
• What kind of data you would collect (25%)
• How you would interpret the data and weigh them to determine which mechanism you feel is most likely responsible for the evolution of the cooperative behavior in this halictid (50%)

Ultimately your proposal may be submitted as part of a larger grant proposal, so it should be written in scientific form. Also, due to the conditions of the grant proposal your research proposal should be 3-5 pages, and the content should be weighted according the values shown in parentheses.

The proposal will be evaluated for each of the following criteria, roughly in order of importance:

• Creativity
• Consistency of the plan of analysis with the models presented
• Comprehensiveness and rationale of research and analysis plans
• Clear illustration of departures from theory due to constraints of reality
• Incorporation of known biology into the plan

You should receive instructions on when the proposal is due.

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