Download 20-Seminars

Presenting Scientific Work
- Oral -
At some point in your career
You 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 across
a. why you’re doing what you’re doing
b. what you got
c. 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
Vancouver
Toronto
Halifax
New York
Dallas
Locality
For a publication – don’t use colour
This is a ‘bar graph’
2003
2005
2007
Proportion of
infected birds
Vancouver
Toronto
Halifax
New York
Locality
This is a ‘grouped bar graph’
Dallas
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 Presentations
Literature 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
End it!!
Thank the audience for their attention
Some slides from last year
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
Findings
Percent of plant coverage
Indian Point
Greens Point
120
100
Percentage of Plant
Cover
100
80
60
40
20
80
60
40
20
0
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
Quadrat Number
7
8
9
10
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Quadrate number
Quadrat
Number
120
Bar Road
100
Percantage of Plant
Cover
Percentage of Plant
Cover
120
80
Group 1
60
Group 2
40
20
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Quadrat Number
8
9
10
8
9
10
Results
100
Mean %Rock Cover
90
80
% sand
70
% barnacle
60
% bedrock
50
% boulder
40
% cobble
30
% pebble
20
10
0
Indian Point
Greens Point 1
Greens Point 2
Barr Road
• 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
Limpets
Hydrozoans
At the Lab...
Identified Unknown
Species
S.D.I.= 1-D
Calculated
Simpson’s
Diversity
D= 0-1 (high to low diversity)
n= count of particular species
N= Total count of all species
Purpose and Hypotheses
• To relate wave exposure to diversity
• To measure range and abundance as
related to wave exposure
• Moderate exposure= Most diversity