presenting scientific work - oral -. at some point in your career you will have to present...

Presenting Scientific Work- Oral -

At some point in your careerYou will have to present scientific information

before a crowd that can be large or small

A Seminar

How to put one together

Some general considerations

1. You have a restricted amount of time

2. No one is especially interested in what you are saying You have to interest them!

3. You have to get acrossa. why you’re doing what you’re doingb. what you gotc. what you think it means

4. Tell a story.

Presentation Mistakes!!!

1. Overdoing the features of Powerpoint

Presentation Mistakes!!!

1. Overdoing the features of Powerpoint

Colour

Presentation Mistakes!!!

1. Overdoing the features of Powerpoint

Background Colour

Presentation Mistakes!!!

1. Overdoing the features of Powerpoint

Background Effects

Presentation Mistakes!!!

1. Overdoing the features of Powerpoint

Special Effects

Presentation Mistakes!!!

1. Overdoing the features of Powerpoint

Cute graphics

Number of

calls/min

Frog density

Proportion of infected birds

Locality

Vancouver Toronto Halifax New York Dallas

For a publication – don’t use colour

This is a ‘bar graph’

Proportion of infected birds

Locality

Vancouver Toronto Halifax New York Dallas

This is a ‘grouped bar graph’

2003

2005

2007

Avoid too much information

Presentation Mistakes!!!

2. Too Much Information

Avoid tables that are more than about 3 x 3

Presentation Mistakes!!!

2. Too Much Information

Overly complex figures

!

Presentation Mistakes!!!

2. Too Much Information

Overly complex figures

Presentation Mistakes!!!

3. Slides as notes

Presentation Mistakes!!!4. And specific to Mt. A. Biology Honours PresentationsLiterature Cited Aerts, L.A.M. 1994. Seasonal distribution of nudibranchs in the southern Delta area, S.W. Netherlands. Journal of Molluscan Studies 60: 129-139. Baur, B. 1992. Random mating by size in the simultaneously hermaphroditic land snail Arianta arbustorum: experiments and an explanation. Animal Behaviour 43: 511 - 518 Bleakney, J.S. 1996. Sea slugs of Atlantic Canada and the Gulf of Maine. Nimbus Publishing/Nova Scotia Museum. Halifax. viii + 216 pp. Braams, W.G. and H.F.M. Geelen. 1953. The preference of some nudibranchs for certain coelenterates. Archives Néerlandaises de Zoologie 10: 242-264. Clark, K.B. 1975. Nudibranch life cycles in the northwest Atlantic and their relationship to the ecology of fouling communities. Helgoländer Wissenschaftliche Meeresuntersuchungen 27: 28-69. Franz, D.R. 1970. Zoogeography of northwest Atlantic opisthobranch molluscs. Marine Biology 7: 171-180 Garlo, E. V. 1977. Opisthobranchs found off Little Egg Inlet, New Jersey, with notes on three species new to the state. The Nautilus 91:23-28.  Gionet, L., & R. B. Aiken. 1992. Freeze tolerance in the intertidal nudibranch, Dendronotus frondosus (Opisthobranchia: Dendronotidae). Journal of Molluscan Studies 58:341-343. Logan, A., A.A. Mackay, and J.P.A. Noble. 1983. Sublittoral hard substrates. Pp 119-139 in M.L.H. Thomas (ed.), Marine and coastal systems of the Quoddy region, New Brunswick. Canadian Special Publication of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 64: Ottawa x +306 pp Loveland, R.E., G. Hendler and G. Newkirk. 1969. New records of nudibranchs from New Jersey. The Veliger 11: 418 - 420 MacFarland, F.M. 1966. Studies of opisthobranchiate mollusks of the Pacific coast of North America. Memoirs of the California Academy of Sciences 6: 1-544. McDonald, G. R. and J. W. Nybakken. 1979. Additional notes on the food of some California nudibranchs with a summary of known food habits of California species. The Veliger 21:110-118. Meyer, K.B. 1974. Distribution and zoogeography of fourteen species of nudibranchs of northern New England and Nova Scotia. The Veliger 14: 137 - 152 Miller, M.C. 1960. Distribution and food of the nudibranchiate Mollusca of the south of the Isle of Man. Journal of Animal Ecology 30: 95 -116. Miller, M.C. 1962. Annual cycles of some Manx nudibranchs, with a discussion of the problem of migration. Journal of Animal Ecology 31: 545-569. Nybakken, J. 1974. A phenology of the smaller dendronotacean, arminacean and aeolidacean nudibranchs at Asilomar State Beach over a twenty-seven month period. The Veliger 16: 370-373. Robilliard, G.H. 1970. The systematics and some aspects of the ecology of the genus Dendronotus (Gastropoda: Nudibranchia). The Veliger 12: 433 - 479. Sisson, C.G. 2002. Dichotomous life history patterns for the nudibranch Dendronotus frondosus (Ascanius 1774) in the Gulf of Maine. The Veliger (in press). Swennen, C. 1961. Data on the distribution, reproduction and ecology of the nudibranchiate molluscs occurring in the Netherlands. Netherlands Journal of Sea Research 1/2: 191-240. Thomas, M.L.H., D. C. Arnold and A.R.A. Taylor. 1983. Rocky intertidal communities. Pp 35 -73 in M.L.H. Thomas (ed.), Marine and coastal systems of the Quoddy region, New Brunswick. Canadian Special Publication of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 64: Ottawa x +306 pp. Thompson, T.E. 1964. Grazing and the life cycles of British nudibranchs. Symposia of the British Ecological Society 4: 275-297.

Presentation Mistakes!!!

2. Annoying Mannerisms

• Um’s or other fillers

• Pacing (some is OK)

• Trailing voice - sounds like you’re very unsure

• Uplifted voice - sounds like you’re always asking a question

• Jargon - scientific or bureaucratic

• Jokes - they work so rarely that its not worth it

• Not maintaining eye contact

Presentation Mistakes!!!

2. Annoying Mannerisms

THE WORD ‘LIKE’ IS OFFICIALLY BANNED!!!!

Ending a seminar

Thank the audience for their attention

End it!!

Some slides from last year

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Findings Percent of plant coverage

Quadrat Number

Quadrat Number

Results

• Figure 2: Mean Rock Composition and relative cover at all four sample sites.

Background Information

• Sediment characteristics reflect the salinity, oxygen content, pore-water content, temperature, food availability, sedimentation rate, substrate consistency, turbidity, and predation found in a particular environment

• sediment characteristics define what organisms can survive in the environment – Biodiversity: describes the sum total

variation of life forms in a specific environment.

Indian Point

• Transect placement

• Quadrate spacing

•Invertebrate and algal species collection and identification

Total Abundance

Littorina spp. Barnacles

Mytilus edulis

Gammarus spp

HydrozoansLimpets

At the Lab...

Identified Unknown Species

Calculated Simpson’s Diversity D= 0-1 (high to low diversity)

n= count of particular speciesN= Total count of all species

S.D.I.= 1-D

Purpose and Hypotheses

• To relate wave exposure to diversity

• To measure range and abundance as related to wave exposure

• Moderate exposure= Most diversity