2. Summary (3 pts)

Before beginning work on the poster itself, a concise summary must first be prepared and handed in, at the latest by March 9 (you can hand in this summary earlier if you want). The summary must have been reviewed and accepted by myself before you proceed with work on the poster. The summary for the poster must include: -Your name and discussion group (A - D) -Proposed poster title -The summary itself must be 14 to 15 lines of double-spaced text.     Structure your summary as follows:        •A. Brief introductory statement (1-2 sentences)        •B. Specific objective(s) / goal(s) that will be addressed in your poster         •C. Outline of methods used by researchers to address each objective / goal        •D. Results addressing each objective / goal (provide numerical values)        •E. Brief conclusion (1-2 sentences) -copies of the 1st page of each of your references (at least 3 research articles). Each of these pages must clearly indicate the full reference of the article. Once completed and revised, you can then use this summary as the abstract for your poster.

3. Poster and presentation   (15 pts)

You will be giving a 5 minute oral presentation of your poster to your seminar group in the last seminar of the semester.  Your poster will also be on display to the entire class in the 14th Annual Ecology Poster Symposium on Friday April 15 (the last lecture hour of the semester). When preparing the poster, take advantage of computers to prepare and print text, tables and figures. Also, you may find it useful to explore the Internet to find information (including references), figures, tables, and also drawings and photos relevant to your topic. Fonts: use one font type throughout your poster (e.g. Time New Roman),  All text should be at least 24 pt font size, with the exception of the titles and subtitles (should be larger), as well as the Literature Cited section (can be smaller, e.g. 16 pt). Your poster must be based on at least 3 research articles in primary science journals, and each reference must be cited in the poster.  You may also want to use additional references, such as review articles, textbooks or reliable Internet sources. Consult with me regarding documents, from such sources, which you think might be appropriate. Copies of the first page of all cited research articles must be handed in on poster presentation day.

Poster contents

Your poster must include:        •Header (poster title, your name & affiliation)        •Abstract        •Introduction        •Methods        •Results        •Discussion        •Literaure Cited The poster may also include a "Conclusion" section after the Discussion.

References

Publications Examples: Research articles and review articles     Persaud AD, Williamson CE (2005) Ultraviolet and temperature effects on panktonic           rotifers and crustaceans in northern temperate lakes. Freshwater Biol 50: 467-476      Berger KM, Gese EM (2007)  Does interference competition with wolves limit the           distribution and abundance of coyotes? J Anim Ecol 76:: 1075-1085 Examples: Books -Citing an entire book:      Nybakken JW, Bertness MD (2005) Marine biology: an ecological approach. 6th ed.            Pearson, San Francisco. -Citing a book chapter or section:      Pechenik JA (2001) Chapter 11: Writing a poster presentation. In: A short guide to           writing about biology. Addison Wesley Longman, New York, pp. 252-259      or      Switzer-Dunlap M, Hadfield MG (1979) Reproductive patterns of Hawaiian aplysiid           gastropods.  In: Stancyk SE (editor). Reproductive ecology of marine invertebrates.           University of South Carolina Press, pp. 199-210 Internet documents When looking for information on the Internet, be selective about where you get your information. The Internet contains vast amounts of information; however, anyone can place any information on the net, and therefore much of the information on the net is unreliable. Be critical, and only use information you believe can be trusted (e.g. web sites of recognized research institutions, or information that is backed with adequate references). If you do decide to use information obtained from the Internet, be sure to cite these sources in the text of the poster, and appropriately cite the sources in the "Literature Cited" section of your poster. Internet sources should be cited as follows:      Author(s) (DATE) Title of Internet document if available. Author's affiliation (i.e.           institution) if available. Full Internet address. The (DATE) should be the date the document was written; if not available, indicate when the web site was last updated - replace (DATE) by (updated date month year). If neither dates are given, indicate when you found it on the net: (browsed day month year). The full Internet address consists of the website address at which the document was posted (e.g. http://www.tru.ca/research/ecology54229.htm Examples: Internet documents      National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (browsed 12 January 2011) What is an           El Niño?  http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/toga-tao/el-nino-story.html      Hawaii Ecosystems at Risk Project (HEAR) (updated 21 October 2010)           http://www.hear.org/ If material you find on the net has previously been published in a journal (some info on the Internet is simply copied from published documents), then you should refer to the original published document, not the Internet copy. Note that Internet addresses are needed when quoting data (including tables or graphs) or text found on the web; you are not required to provide a source address for images. Other publication For other document types, follow one of the above formats that most closely corresponds to your document type.

Schedule and evaluation

Each student will prepare his/her own poster, and briefly present it to the discussion group at the last discussion group meeting at the end of the semester. The poster will count for 10% and the presentation will count for 5% of the total for the course.  1 point will be lost for each day late for all assignments.