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Final project

Final project rubric (100 points total)

  • Scientific accuracy and ability to convey the information (30 points)

    The presentation should make sense, use correct language, and not have too many speaking errors. The science contained in the presentation should be accurate.

  • Coherence of presentation structure (20 points)

    The presentation should be easy to follow, tie in the peer-reviewed literature, and have a clear overall message or point.

  • Topic of ecological interest and of the correct scope (20 points)

    We’d like the topic to be clearly linked to some aspect of ecology that we learned in class, but perhaps didn’t have enough time to fully get into. The presentation should also be of correct scope, meaning that it cannot be so specific that it’s difficult to find any more than one article. If you haven’t noticed, We appreciate ecological theory, so links to generality would be nice. On the flip side of this, too large of a scope may hinder the group’s ability to present a good view on the topic (e.g., “predator-prey interactions” is likely too broad of a topic to try to address during presentation time).

  • Equitable talk time for all group members (10 points)

    Every member in the group should have a role in presenting the information. The transition between speaking parts should happen organically. We don’t really want to hear somebody stop after a sentence, look at a group member, and say “your turn now”.

  • Use of peer-reviewed literature (10 points)

    We’ve been reading peer-reviewed literature in class, and we now want to see if you can find it yourself, synthesize the findings, and present them to make an overall point. You shouldn’t be focused on saying “These scientists found this. These other scientists found this”, but digest the information in the articles, leading to more synthetic statements about how the previous science fits together to support your main message.

  • Write up (10 points)

    The presentation is mostly what we’ll grade you on, but we would also like something tangible as well. A pdf of the slides is not really sufficient. Ideally, this document would be a short write-up (1-2 pages) containing the main take-home points of your project with associated references. Show me that you understand the material and can weave different scientific papers/ideas together.

BIOL 4253 – Student Presentations

Here are a final set of instructions for your class presentations. The presentation is worth the same as an exam, and should be worked on throughout the semester. I encourage discussing potential ideas with me and/or potential team members. You will form teams of 3-5 students to address a topic in more detail than we were able to get into in class. Presentations should not be overly general (e.g., “what is climate change?") or oddly specific to an organism of interest (e.g., “everything about the right whale”). Instead, I’d like presentations to go into detail on an ecological concept (e.g., competitive exclusion) in more detail, and with relevant citations, providing us all with some fun examples of the phenomenon as well as some nuance (e.g., in what systems would we expect to observe competitive exclusion?) and a demonstration of tying different concepts together (e.g., how would demographic stochasticity influence competitive exclusion?).

  1. Time line. Teams should be assembled and finalized by the second exam. You should try to form/join a group as early as possible.
  2. Time limit. Each presentation will be allotted 5 minutes. Presentations going over this limit will be interrupted. An incomplete presentation will affect your grade.
  3. Participation. Everyone in your group must contribute equally to the presentation. That includes being involved in the research or contributing to the oral presentation. If one of your assigned group members has not responded to your requests to participate or does not show up for the presentation, proceed without him/her. That person will receive an F and you will not be penalized for their lack of participation.
  4. Citations. When preparing your presentation, you must cite your sources of information. Otherwise, you risk being accused of plagiarism. Please refer to LSU’s Student Advocacy and Accountability web page (https://www.lsu.edu/saa/students/academicintegrity/index.php) for a description of plagiarism and how to cite your work. For your Powerpoint presentation, provide a list of citations at the end of your presentation.
  5. Grading. Your presentation will be graded on your creativity, enthusiasm, accuracy and how clearly the project relates to the field of ecology. All participates will share the same grade.
  6. Submission of presentations. All presentations must be submitted as a digital file before presentations begin.
  7. Order of presentations. Presentations will be given over a two-day period. To keep things as fair as possible, I will randomly determine the order of presentation. You will all need to be prepared to give your presentations on the first day.
  8. Presentations & Final Exam. The material presented by your classmates will be treated like any other lecture material and, thus, could be included on the final exam. You will only be responsible for the content of the presentations given during your assigned section of the class.

Examples

Here are a couple of previous presentations that were reasonably good. For the slides, I recommend you not to stack lots of text within each slide. You want your audience to listen to you, not to read the text all the time.