Global Change Fall 2001

Global Change Fall 2001

Web Poster Project Assignment

The following recommendations have been put together by the GSIs and faculty to give students guidance on the minimum requirements for the term project.

1.  Class Presentation

-During the last lab section of the term, in week 14, your group will present its research to students in your lab, your GSI, and faculty members.
-The time limit will be determined by your GSI, based on how many groups must present, but it will be roughly 8-10 minutes with 3-5 minutes for questions.

-Groups should prepare a web page or PowerPoint presentation which summarizes their project in bullets and figures. Since your lab classroom might not have an Internet connection, all presentations are due by noon the day before you present. Save your presentations on the web, and put a link to the web page or PowerPoint file on the main page of your project. Locations of each section’s presentation sessions and more details about how to give presentations will be given the week after Thanksgiving.

2.  Project (Due at noon on Friday, December 7)

-The poster itself should contain the equivalent of 6 double-spaced pages of text, excluding references (remember, this is a minimum requirement). Since it will be graded on its content and organization, break it into several clearly defined sections:

Introduction

-What is your main research question or thesis? This should be about 1 page long. -Include any background information that is necessary to understand your research but not part of the research itself. Don’t assume that the grader is your GSI who already knows about your research, since it will be graded by several people, and your GSI might not be one of them.

Evidence

-Present the data which supports your thesis or answers your research question. This is the main part of the project.

-It is strongly recommended that you include some quantitative analysis, such as a Stella model or Excel graphs which you made yourself. Reference all data!

-Most important: discuss sources and analyze them. This requires your own, critical thought, and graders will be looking for evidence of it.

-Figures are helpful; include at least 3 of them. The graders will read projects on the web, not on paper, so try to make your report visually appealing without being hard to read (don’t have black text on a dark background, etc.).

Conclusions
-What are your predictions for the future, if applicable?
-What indications for future research follow from your conclusions? What gaps are present in the data available to answer your research question?

-What is the take-home message of your research?

References

-Have a minimum of 6 references including at least 4 articles from peer-reviewed journals. These journals should include original studies, not just reviews of other work. Show these to your GSI or a professor if you have questions about this. For help with your research, use the Global Change Digital Library:
http://www.umich.edu/~scilib/courses/globalchange/index.html

-Citations must be included within your text, in parenthetical form (Author, page number). Use the citation guide on the web in the course tools project resource folder as your reference.
-Any evidence of plagiarism, as always, will result in a zero on the assignment and will possibly be referred to LS&A for disciplinary action. The LS&A standards regarding plagiarism are also in the project resource folder; these include penalties for turning in the same paper for more than one class without permission from both instructors. Please consult your GSI if you are not sure how to quote a source appropriately; the GSIs do not enjoy finding plagiarism but will systematically check any suspicious text that they see.

3.  General Points on Scoring

-Read the grading rubric in the project resource folder; it will give you an idea of what grading standards are used to assign points.
-Heavy weight is given to your discovery process, scientific examination, and take-home message. These show that you put effort into research and critical thought about your topic. The most common comment on the proposals was, “Make this more specific.” Keep this advice in mind, as your project should be more of a critical examination of a specific topic than a broad survey or book report of a research area.

-Organization is also important. Make sure that the presentation and project are on entirely separate web pages. If you choose to further separate the sections into different pages, use frames or have a link from each page back to the main page. The web design aspect is of relatively little importance, but if your work is hard to read or follow, this may negatively impact your grade.
-All members of a group get the same grade. If you have difficulty with dividing up the labor of your project, ask your GSI for help very soon.

4.  Web Mechanics of your Project

-Since groups in previous terms have had problems resulting from the project being on one student’s IFS space which they could not access, or that they ran out of room in their H:/ drive, projects will be posted to the Global Change server. Instructions for this will be E-mailed to each group, including an assigned group password. This means that your GSI will know the location of every project and can help you if you are having difficulty.
-Make it clear where the presentation stops and the rest of the project begins, so that it can be saved onto the laptop being used for presentations once it is finalized by noon the day before you present.