Applied Biology

From Mendel to Morgan to Megabucks
Investing in the Biotechnology Stocks

The purpose of this semester-long project is to learn that the field of biotechnology is not merely something esoteric and difficult to learn, but it is with great application and value to society and YOU. You will be assigned a real company that is making money because of biotechnological discoveries.

POSTER

  1. VALUE: equal to one "undroppable" quarterly test.

  2. SIZE: as specified by the instructor.

  3. COMPONENTS

    1. Title: name of company, stock symbol, headquarters - example:

      Biosplendens Inc. - BSPS
      Wilmington DE

      (5% of the grade; due by the end of the first week)

    2. The company's business profile (20% of poster's total grade; due by the end of the third week).

    3. A graph of the stock's performance. The stock's price will be followed weekly through the semester and graphed as the weeks go by. Each week the instructor will check to make sure that you are keeping up with the work. A week's tardiness will result in a 5% penalty. The size of the graph will be specified by the instructor.

How to Plot the Points on the Graph

  1. Construct your graph to look like this:

  2. Calculation of values. Because it is difficult to compare stocks that have different price profiles, the prices must be "normalized" (they should be made relative to their starting price). Use this formula to determine the percent change of the stock:

  3. Here is a graph that has points for the first half of a semester:

  4. Your final poster should have a format something like this:


| TOP OF PAGE | VAST-2001 | SUPPLIES NEEDED |