Evaluating Existing Research

Below is a compilation of self-authored literature reviews, reports, papers, or presentations that include a significant discussion of secondary sources (any reference that is used in a student’s work that was not written or created by the student themselves is considered a secondary source, as well as, self-authored environmental scans. Completed research methods courses are also listed.


  • BIOL 3000 Biometrics (3,0,2) (L)
  • Course description: Students are introduced to statistical procedures for biological research. Topics include the nature of data, probability, hypothesis testing, goodness of fit, analysis of variance, correlation, and regression. The computer laboratory provides students with hands-on computer experience in graphical and statistical analysis. 
  • SOCI 3120 Gender Relations Media Analysis
  • In this course, the final project was to analyze a piece of media under the lens of the Gender Relations course material. For my media analysis, I chose to write about the BBC show Fleabag and explored the nuances of gender seen in two specific episodes of the show.
  • BIOL 3210 Microbial Ecology Poster
  • The final project, in this course, was to prepare a poster presentation on a topic related to microbial ecology or environmental microbiology using at minimum of 3 to 5 high quality papers from the current literature. Below is the poster my partner and I presented called ‘Effect of Disturbance Events on the Abundance of Soil Bacterial Communities’.
  • BIOL 3520 Cell Physiology Presentation
  • We had to choose a specific scientific article, related to any topic discussed in the material of the Cell Physiology course, and provide a ten minute presentation about it to the class. My presentation was on ‘Autophagy impairment is involved in midazolam-induced lipid droplet accumulation and consequent phagocytosis decrease in BV2 cells’.
  • BIOL 3230 Biochemistry Poster
  • This project aimed for students to discuss a topic taught in class in a poster format. We had to choose a specific scientific article, related to any topic discussed in the material of the Biochemistry course, and create a poster about it. My poster was on ‘Gypenosides Improve Lipid Homeostasis by Regulating Fatty Acid Metabolism in the Liver’.
  • BIOL 3200 Immunology Report on Arthritis
  • For this report, we had to choose two scientific articles that discussed different treatments being investigated on an illness discussed in the Immunology course. I chose to write my report on Arthritis.
  • BIOL 4130 Molecular Evolution Methods Paper
  • In this report, we had to research, using scientific secondary sources, any method that was highly used when investigating molecular evolution objectives. I chose to discuss transposable elements as a means for estimating genomic diversity.