According to the QCAA Syllabus glossary, a claim is an assertion made without any accompanying evidence to support it.
The QCAA website has exemplars of the sorts of research assignments you need to produce. First is a Chemistry exemplar, but as well, even though you may not study Physics or Biology, we've added the examples QCAA gives for them, as the requirements are very similar, and they might help you understand what you need to do.
Chemistry Exemplar from QCAA
CLAIM: Natural shampoos are better than synthetic shampoos.
RESEARCH QUESTION: Are natural shampoos better cleaners than synthetic shampoos based on surface tension, wetting time, solid content, detergency and foaming ability?
Physics Exemplar from QCAA
CLAIM: The dream of almost limitless clean energy from nuclear fusion is close to being realised.
RESEARCH QUESTION: Is the Tokamak Energy nuclear fusion power generation technique able to be considered as clean
|
Currency: Timeliness of the information
|
Relevance: Importance of the information for your needs
|
|
Authority: Source of the information
|
|
Accuracy: Reliability and correctness of the information
|
|
Purpose: Reason the information exists
|
Zotero can be set to the same Harvard AGPS (Australia) style that CiteAce uses, called 'Melbourne Polytechnic - Harvard'. Please read the instructions carefully.
Any issues - see your Library Staff
Petroleum diesel, or petro-diesel, as it is sometimes referred to, is produced from crude oil in a process called fractional distillation. A mixture of carbon chains between 8 and 10 carbon atoms in length is produced.
Biodiesel, like petrodiesel, is made from long chain hydrocarbons, the difference being that the hydrocarbons used to form biodiesel come from reneweable plant or animal oil. Oil undergoes a process called transesterification where the fatty acids of the oil are converted into compounds generally known as methyl esters.
Publication Date: 2013
Explores the effects of biodiesel usage on injection, fuel spray, combustion, and tribology characteristics, and engine performance. It also details optimization procedures of diesel engine characteristics using practical examples.
eBook: Advanced Technologies in Biodiesel
Publication Date: 2014
It is expected that biodiesels will become an important part of the global energy mix and make a significant contribution to meeting energy demand. This valuable book gives a critical review on the recently emerged process intensification technologies for biodiesel production as well as the various methods for assessing biodiesel fuel quality. You will also learn about monitoring the transesterification reaction with advantages and drawbacks. The authors offer suggestions on selection of appropriate methods,
eBook: Chemistry of Fossil Fuels & Biofuels
Publication Date: 2013
Chapter on Biodiesel from Biofuels ebook. By John Tabak. Infobase Learning, 2009. ProQuest Ebook http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/bbc/detail.action?docID=477606.
By Christopher Frey, Department of Civil Construction, and Environmental Engineering, North Carolina State University, Mann Hall, 2501 Stinson Drive, Raleigh, NC and Kim Kangwook, Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering, North Carolina State University, Mann Hall, 2501 Stinson Drive, Raleigh, NC, from Journal of the Transportation Research Board (US).
By David C. Holzman, Environmental Health Perspectives; June 2008, Volume 116, Number 6, p. 246
Ohio State University: Biodiesel vs Diesel - Fuel for the Future
Science Direct: Biodiesel - An Alternative to Conventional Fuel
From The Courier-Mail, April 10, 2021
New Plastics Economy: The Global Committment 2020 Annual Report
See Chapter 2: Reuse Models
NCBI: Plastics recycling - Challenges and opportunities
CHEM Trust: Chemical recycling state of play 2020
Cosmos magazine: In search of a better way with plastic
American Chemical Society (ACS): Chemistry may have solutions to our plastic trash problem
Nature: Chemistry can help make plastics sustainable - but it isn't the whole solution
Chemistry World: Plastic recycling heading for the mainstream
Journal of Polymer Science: Advances and approaches for chemical recycling of plastic waste
Areas of interest might include blood, blood alcohol, ink from writing, DNA fingerprinting, drugs, fibres, poison, glass and paint, colour and overdoses.
Possible topics: atomic absorption spectroscopy and MRI.
NOTE: U.S. spelling is 'fluro', so search for that as well. Also called 'PFAS'.
Used in a wide range of products, including carpets, nonstick cookware and firefighting foams. Health effects include cancer, liver damage, decreased fertility, and increased risk of asthma and thyroid disease.
1. Use 'Ctrl F' (Control + Find) to search for particular terms easily in a long document, whether from a website or a database article.
2. Use a Boolean command - put double inverted commas around phrases to limit and improve your results eg "energy drinks problems".
3. Use filetype:pdf to search in Google for only pdf articles - "plastic pollution" filetype:pdf - will force Google to return results on plastic pollution which are only pdf articles (PDFs are great sources sometimes deeply buried in Google results and remain unseen).
4. Use a Google domain command eg site:edu OR site:gov to limit results to a CERTAIN DOMAIN such as education or government eg biodiesel site:edu
5. To check the authority of a website when it is not clear who the author / authority is, go to the end of the URL in the Google search box, cut back to the first forward slash (/) and hit 'Enter'. This will take you to the Home Page of the website, and you can see the full name of the source.
6. Use a Google command to limit results to the MOST RECENT: After you get your results, choose the Google Menu Bar, and choose 'Tools'. Then on the far left, at the drop-down menu next to 'Any Time', you can choose 'Within the last year' (or less, if you prefer), but generally, you can choose 'Custom Range' at the bottom, as often the last 3 years would be sufficient for a recent search.
The ENTIRE collection of resources provided by the BBC Library can now be searched on ONE single, powerful search platform, which retrieves print books, eBooks, database articles and websites. Click HERE for assistance.
Datasets involve the integration of heterogeneous data in varying formats and from diverse communities. Four basic features can be identified as common to most definitions: grouping, content, relatedness, and purpose.
The world’s largest collection of open access research papers
An inclusive journal community which believes all rigorous science needs to be published and discoverable, widely disseminated and freely accessible to all
A free distribution service and an open archive for scholarly articles in the fields of science
An American website that aggregates press releases and publishes lightly edited press releases about science
Breaks down the stories behind the most interesting news and photos on the Internet.
The National Center for Biotechnology Information advances science and health by providing access to biomedical and genomic information.
Google Books can be very frustrating because often much of the book is missing and you are expected to purchase it to read the full content. So after you put in your search term you are interested in (eg biodiesel), and get some results up, you should then go immediately to the search box (on the left - above 'About this box') 
and type in a particular word or term you are interested in (eg CO2 emissions OR methanol) you should get a number of pages pop up. Choose one that looks useful - you should get some good results this way!
You can see the entire Ebook Central Catalogue of 500,000 resources by entering your search term HERE. You may browse any title for 5 minutes, and if it's one we don't already own, it will say 'Available on request', which means you have to ask us to purchase it if you like it.
Click on the title of your choice, and you can see under 'Availability' that you can click on 'request this book', and an email will be sent to the BBC Library staff who can organise purchase for you. In the email message, please tell us if you only require the book for a day or so, and we can simply rent it so you can quickly take the notes you need.
Please note that some of these eBooks are very expensive (this is a university-level database), so that will have to be taken into account! We will attend to your request as quickly as possible.
TYPE YOUR SEARCH TERM IN THE SEARCH BOX
THEN SIGN IN WITH YOUR STUDENT NUMBER AS YOUR USERNAME
eBook: Green Diesel Engines
