A. Do your research early. Do your research well. This is not a simple paper that you can throw together over the weekend. (It will be obvious to everyone, faculty and students, if you try to blow this off). If you are worried about your senior seminar, then get to work! Expect your research to take you into areas that may be outside your topic or very difficult to understand. Expect to get confused by all the information you find. The goal is to become the expert in your field, and understand what is known as well as what is unknown.
B. Consider the Biology faculty your friend. Many students view this ordeal as an "us against them" battle with the faculty. We want to see you succeed. We want to see you learn. We want to see you able to answer the hardest question we can think of to ask you.
You have been assigned a first reader for your paper. Use this person as an advisor. Take them your first outline and go over what you want to talk about and where you are having problems. They can (and will) help you with difficulties, with vocabulary (e.g. What is SDS-PAGE?), and with what to include or exclude from your seminar.
C. Make good figures and tables. Sometimes the best figures are ones the student makes because they fit the seminar, not someone else's research report. Don't try to put too much information on one figure or table. It must be easily absorbed by your audience in a short time. You must explain the figures/tables to the audience.
D. Know your material. Some excellent presentations get lower grades because of an obvious lack of understanding by the presenter. On the other hand, some poor presentations are saved because the presenter can answer all of the questions the faculty ask. Again, discussions with faculty members may help solidify what you really know. Also, don't be afraid to go back to a freshman or introductory textbook to get background information for your introduction.You need to understand the basic biology behind your topic. Most likely you will be asked questions about this. For example: basic immunity, basic nerve transport, basic DNA/RNA (transcription/translation), etc.
NOTE: You are not allowed to read your seminar. To avoid this, you can only use one 5" x 7" notecard for your notes. Do not read your slides on the screen to us. We can read.
E. Make a logical outline. Many students make an outline early and then don't change it. Let your outline be flexible. Make sure your conclusion is a conclusion that repeats the main point of your seminar. Many students get to the conclusion, don't know what to say, and launch off into a new area or topic. Do tell us the importance of this topic.
F. Anticipate questions. You know the specialties of the faculty. They will probably ask questions in their specialty. If you are afraid of one particular faculty member pinning you to the wall, think about what they will possibly ask you. Go to them ahead of time, and ask them questions about what you don't understand or what you need to include in your seminar. It will help you put your presentation together. It will also get the faculty member "on your side" when they see you are addressing what they feel is important.
G. Practice your presentation. Prior Preparation Prevents Poor Performance. Everybody rehearses presentations. We still practice the presentations we make for scientific meetings. Practice in the room in which you are going to present. Practice in front of your peers and let them make suggestions about what you didn't explain clearly and what didn't flow evenly. Once you become an expert, then you must be able to explain things to the rest of us mortals.
Work out the timing of your seminar. You need to plan your seminar to last 12-15 minutes. You lose points for being too short or going too long. You have to answer more questions if your seminar is too short. Assume that when you actually give your seminar, you will be nervous and talk faster than you do during practice.
H. Prepare outlines and copies of articles. 1) One week before your seminar, you must supply each faculty member with final title and abstract of your seminar, an outline and a list of 3-4 important articles on your topic. Please put these in the instructors' mailboxes in Mrs. Bodie's office (room 211). You must give each of your fellow students the same information. This can be handed out during seminar. 2) You must also put copies of the three articles in a folder in room 207-A along with a copy of your title, abstract and outline with references. Make sure your name, seminar title, and seminar date is on the outside of the folder. Failure to do this will affect your grade.
I. Look at the Grading Sheet. Review how you will be graded. Notice that Statement of Purpose, Procedures, Real Data, Conclusions, Command of Subject Matter (40 pts), Order, Complexity of Topic, Appropriateness of Dress, Language, Visuals, Poise, and Length of Presentation are the items we look at for grading.
A. Stay calm. No one has died of senior seminar. If you are well prepared, you will be able to handle any miscues, tongue-twisters, and other unavoidable mishaps.
B. Talk to your audience. Make eye contact with both students and faculty to make sure they are listening. Do not fidget. Use the pointer to point to your graphs and tables. Do not use the pointer as a baton or a spear.
C. Be aware of time. Your seminar should last 12-15 minutes with 5 minutes for questions. You might get a friend to watch the time for you and hold up a hand or motion when time is almost up.
D. Answer questions to the best of your ability. Make sure you understand the question. Ask for it to be repeated if necessary. Pause and think before you answer. If you do not know the answer, admit that you do not know the answer. Then be ready to be asked a similar question in the same area to determine how much you know. Giving a wrong answer is worse than admitting you don't know.
You may not know the answer to a question because there may not be an answer to that question. You must know the current limits of our scientific knowledge. If this is the case, "it is not known how that happens" or "this is not completely understood" are good answers. However, you still should have some ideas about the hypotheses that attempt to explain what is not known.E. Discuss your grade. Your seminar presentation counts 50% of your seminar grade. It is graded by the faculty members who will attend your seminar. We use the Seminar Grading sheet to evaluate you during your seminar. Immediately after your seminar, we discuss the strengths and weaknesses of your presentation. We then assign a numerical grade based on the average of the grades given by the faculty members. You stay after the seminar and meet with the coordinator to discuss your grade. You will know your grade right after the seminars given that day.
III. Seminar Paper (see also Writing a Biology Review Paper)
A. Length. Your paper should be no more than 30 pages (including title page, abstract page and references). The text is normally between 15-20 pages.
B. Content. Your paper should be a written version of your seminar. It does not (and probably should not) be exactly what you said in your seminar. You will want to make changes based on the results of your seminar. If there are some areas in your seminar that need to be strengthened, be sure to add these to your paper.
C. Format. Your paper will present data collected from the research of other workers. As such, it should be in the format of a review paper and not a publication of original research. It should include the following:
Title
Abstract
Introduction
Body (outline of information)
Conclusion
Literature CitedYou may want to look at review articles found in Science, Nature, Bioscience or Scientific American to see how this is done.
1. Title: Place on a separate page followed by your name, and the statement "a paper submitted to the faculty of the biology department, Presbyterian College, in partial fulfillment of the requirements of Senior Seminar, Biology 401." This should be followed by the date. The first letter of the words in the title should be capitalized except for articles and prepositions. The title should contain key words which enable the reader to see the major aspects of the paper, including the organism or groups of organisms used and the technical approach.
2. Abstract: A short (200-300 words) concise, informative series of statements that summarize the entire paper. The abstract should be a separate page, and should be self-contained and fully intelligible without reference to the body of the text. The heading "Abstract" should be centered at the beginning of this section. This abstract page of your paper differs from the abstract and outline page you handed out for your seminar because the outline and references should be deleted.
3. Introduction: A clear statement of the purpose and scope of the paper, including references of conflicting points of view (if any) and the major line(s) of thought of the paper. It may include historical background if appropriate. This section should lead into the main body of the paper. The heading "Introduction" at the beginning of this section must be centered.
4. Body: Present the details of the work done by researchers in the topic area. These details should mention techniques, results, and conclusions relating to different aspects of your topic. This should be a well-blended, logical summation of the work that you could find. Finally, you should elaborate your own correlations and conclusions about the topic. The heading "Body" at the beginning of this section is forbidden, but you may want to divide the body into logical sections, with appropriate headings. Again, if headings are used, they must be centered.
Make sure you cite your sources in your body. These citations should use the Harvard Method: the author's last name and the year the material was published (McMillan 2001). Citations should be placed when information from the sources are used in the body. Consult Writing Papers in the Biological Sciences by Victoria McMillan.
Include your tables and figures immediately following the text in which they are mentioned. If there is not enough room on the bottom of that page, the table or figure should be on the top of the following page. Refer to the table or figure by its number (e.g. as shown in figure 1. . ., the relationship of the species (Figure 1). . .) All tables must have titles above them and be delineated by horizontal lines. All figures must have captions or figure legends below them that explain the figure without the reader having to go back and look at the text of the body.
Make sure you cite the sources of your tables and figures. In Writing Papers in the Biological Sciences by Victoria McMillan (Bedford, 2001), the author assumes that all tables and figures contain original data and therefore does not reference them. If you use tables, figures and information from research articles, you must cite the article at the end of the figure legend, again by the Harvard Method. Failure to cite figures means you claim them to be your original research data.
5. Conclusion: Consolidates, emphasizes important points, shows patterns, tells importance (etc.) of your topic. This is the time to show us your ability to reason logically through your material.
6. Literature Cited: This must list, in alphabetical order by first author's last name, all of the references cited in the main body of the paper. Most of the references will come from scientific journals and will be listed as the following example:
Wolfram S. 1984. Computer software in science and mathematics. Scientific American 251 (3):188-203.
Note that the author's last name is first, followed by initial(s). The title follows the date of publication and only the first word in the title is capitalized (with the exception of proper names and special terms such as DNA.) The full name of the journal must be used, followed by the volume number, issue number if used and page numbers of the article. For more information about references, consult Writing Papers in the Biological Sciences by Victoria McMillan.
D. Grammar. We expect you to use correct English. One of the readers of your paper will take a red pen and read your paper like an English professor would to check grammar, spelling, punctuation, and sentence and paragraph structure. Poor grammar will hurt your grade. Proofread your paper. Have a friend proofread your paper. (You are not allowed to have an English professor proofread your paper.) The Writing Center (Nevlle 206, phone 7083) is there for you to use. We recommend it highly.
E. Binding. Make sure your paper is bound well. It is hard to grade a paper that is constantly falling apart.
F. Due date. Your paper is due at 5:00 p.m., 2 weeks from the date of your seminar presentation. There are no exceptions to this rule.
G. Grade. Your paper counts 50% of your seminar grade. Your paper will be read by two faculty members. The first reader will read your paper for content, accurate referencing, and grammar. The second reader will read your paper for content mainly. The two graders will not discuss your grade. If the two readers differ in their opinion and grade of the paper by more than 10 points, a third member of the faculty will read your paper. These three individuals will then come to an agreement on your score.
H. Graded paper.Come back and look at your graded paper! This is a learning experience. You need to see what is good and not so good about your paper. We want you to read the comments. Also you may want to go back and make corrections to keep for a later use of the paper. It might help you when you interview for a job or for graduate school.
Communication across the Curriculum Ideas at Presbyterian College
Writing a Biology Review Paper Biology Review Paper Score Sheet Biology Senior Seminar Oral Presentation Evaluation Form
Guides to Writing at Presbyterian College Presbyterian College
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