MU207 FINAL PROJECT
Poster Presentation Option
Due November 30, 2005
This project is worth 35% of your final grade.
For this assignment, you will work in pairs.
What is a poster presentation?
This is a way of presenting information on a particular topic in a concise and visual manner. It is similar to doing a term paper, except that you have to condense the information succinctly and present it in a way that your audience can read it over relatively quickly and understand the information that you are trying to convey. You will use a combination of text, graphics, and pictures. Preparing a poster presentation takes as much time and effort as a term paper, so do not underestimate the amount of time that you will need.
How does one do a poster presentation?
1. First you and your partner have to think of a question or topic that you are interested in examining, and fits with the focus of this course. This can be any topic related to the following:
History of electronic/computer music, psychoacoustics, tuning and temperament, visual music, auditory illusions…or any other topic that fits within the context of this course.
A good way to find ideas for a poster is to look over the bibliography or sources of illustrations in the textbook. There are many references, covering all sorts of topics in the area of computer music and acoustics; you should be able to find something that piques your interest.
2. Do a literature review of this topic. Use a combination of journal articles and book chapters to gather your information. I will allow some information to be obtained from websites, but you must keep in mind that websites aren’t a great place to find specific academic information, and often one finds misinformation, depending on the site.
Also keep in mind that I know what is going on in the discipline of computer music, so it’s important if you use information from a website, that it be accurate. It’s better to get most of your information from journal articles and book chapters.
Journal articles
The library subscribes the Computer Music Journal; there are also other journals that relate to computer music and acoustics. You can also use interlibrary loan material.
Book Chapters
The library is receiving more and more books related to music and technology, so it’s important to check these out.
Websites
There are some links to get you started on the Final Project page on my website. Websites are good for downloading graphics and pictures for your poster.
Organization of the poster
You will be graded on each of these sections, so make sure you include them all in your poster.
Introduction
You will need an introductory section, wherein you describe the question or topic that you have chosen. Part of this section will include a literature review of your topic. This section should be 4 or 5 paragraphs and is worth 10 points.
Results/Discussion
What did you find out? You have to condense your findings into maybe 4 or 5 paragraphs. It’s also good to include any graphs or charts that you find that help to illustrate the information. You can also use pictures, for example, color xeroxes of photos that you find in books, or pictures downloaded from the web. This section is worth 20 points.
Summary of results
Make a summary table in point form of the results that you have presented. 7 points
Future research on this topic
What kinds of future research questions would add information to your chosen topic? 3 points
References
In your literature review and results/discussion sections, you must cite all information that you use, just as you would in a term paper.
You MUST have a bibliography section at the end of the poster. I expect to see the same kind of bibliography that you would use for a term paper. Each citation in your bibliography should include author(s), year of publication, title of article or book. If you use a journal articles you must also state which journal, which volume and the page numbers. The journal name should be italicized. For books or book chapters, the title of the book should be in italics, the title of the chapter is not italicized. You must also include the publisher and place of publication.
Journal example:
Estrada, A. and Peterson, J.D. 1980. A case of adoption in a captive group of Mexican spider monkeys (Ateles geoffroyi). Primates 21:128-129.
Book chapter example:
Jolly, A., 1984. The puzzle of female feeding priority. In: Female primates: Studies by women primatologists. M.F. Small (ed.). Liss, New York. pp. 197-215.
If you use any website information in the text part of the poster, the URL must be included in your bibliography. Also, you must include the URL for any photos or graphics that you use, and this URL must appear in a caption underneath the photo or graphic.
The reference section is worth 10 points.
Overall effectiveness of presentation = 10 points.
How well have you addressed your chosen topic? Does your poster provide information that could be useful to someone who knows nothing about this topic? How well have you integrated visual information (photos, graphs etc.)?
How big does it have to be? You must buy a folding poster board, which is available at Staples, Office Depot, and sometimes the U.Vic. bookstore.
DUE: Monday, November 30, 2005.
On this day you will set up your posters quickly at the beginning of class. During the class time, one of you stays at the poster half of the time to answer questions while the other one circulates, reads the posters, and ask questions. Then you will switch. I will also come by to each poster and ask questions. Clearly, this method ensures that you really understand the content of your poster, otherwise how will you answer the questions?
(Some text used by permission from Dr. Lisa Gould, Dept of Anthropology, University of Victoria)