Revised
6 Dec 07-> poster & presentation guidelines
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The goal of your project is to
review
current research in a topic of your choice.
-
4401 Students - The
final product is a poster to be presented during the Final Exam
period for the course (see Project Format
& Deadlines). A one-page written
summary is also part of your submitted work.
Undergraduate Student Projects:
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Agricultural & Tuft Soils
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Wade Grewe: "Agricultural Pollution
and Mitigation"
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Meghan Mariani: "Cover Crops and
Crop Rotation: Large Scale [Organic] Agricultural Practices Close
to Home"
-
Jennifer Morse: "Can You Taste
The Dirt in Your Glass?? - How the taste of Pinot Noir is influenced by
soil characteristics"
-
Brian Murtaugh: "Carbon Sequestration
and Storage in Turfgrass Soils - Boulder Country Club Golf Course"
-
Tyler Huntley: "Carbon Sequestration
in US Croplands"
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Role of Microbes
-
Zac Davies: "Mycorrhizae: An important
tool in Mine Reclamation Strategies"
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Taylor Mills: "Cryptobiotic Crusts"
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Forest Change
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Phil Garcia: "Oxisols: Deforestation,
Drying, Erosion"
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Rande Kamolz: "Investigation of
Logging Impacts on Soils"
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The Past
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Mario Guzman: "Applications of
Clay Mineralogy to high latitude climate change"
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5401 Students (Graduate students):
(PPt's posted below)
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Develop your project around your
graduate research or other research interests
-
In addition to all the components
described for projects in this part of the syllabus -
-
As a core part of your Intro,
include a section on research questions tied to your graduate research
- and, if appropriate, develop hypotheses you wish to test in your research.
-
Use the project to evaluate
how much has been done in this area: What prior work forms a basis
for corroboration or refutation of your own work?
-
In the conclusion section, you
should be able to refine your original questions or hypotheses to reflect
the literature, and provide a clear evaluation of what future research
directions are needed.
-
If appropriate, this paper could
form the basis for part of a thesis or dissertation research proposal.
-
The final product is an oral
presentation that you'll present as part of a workshop on 'Frontiers
of Soil Science' during the last day of the course (see Project
Format & Deadlines). A one-page
written summary is also part of your submitted work.
Graduate Student Projects:
-
Michelle Trogdon: "Ancient Agriculture
and Soil Engineering" (ppt,
4.7M, doc;
100k)
-
Meredith Albright: "Post-Wildfire
Erosion: Soil Hydrophobicity in Colorado Soil" (ppt,
1.5M)
-
Kerry Malm: "Can Clearcutting Replace
Stand-Replacing Fire?" (ppt,
650k)
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Your project should be:
-
appropriate for the course
- that is, relates to Course Objectives
-
sufficiently focused - The
topic should be broad enough that sufficient literature is available, but
not so broad as to lack substance. The purpose of the Project Proposal
is to help assure this focus (see Deadlines for
details).
-
I encourage you to focus on
particular systems and questions of interest to you
-
Your project should include questions
or hypotheses of a scientific nature directly related to soils
-
You can, for example, review the
literature on both sides of a current controversy in the science and explore
if there’s a middle ground,
-
Or seek to show what we actually
do know (well supported) and don’t really know (conjectures, hypotheses)
about a certain advanced topic.
-
Keep an open mind in your exploration:
Soil Science comes in a great variety of flavors – for example:
-
pedology (soil formation, morphology,
classification)
-
edaphology (influence of soils
on living things, particularly plants)
-
agricultural soil science
-
soil ecology (e.g. soil foodwebs,
soil communities)
-
soil biogeochemistry (e.g. nutrient
cycles)
-
landscape evolution
-
paleosol studies
-
soil restoration
-
Avoid, however, descriptive
“natural history” topics
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Getting
Started -
-
In thinking about a project, I
have 2 suggested, complementary approaches:
-
First, think about what interests
you keenly. What is it about the world (academic or otherwise)
that you have passion for? - and think about how that world is connected
to soils and soil processes.
-
Second, go out and about and observe.
Is there something you see in the soils around you - in road cuts, in the
forest, in croplands - that is curious? that you can formulate a
question around?
-
On observing -
-
See, in the textbook, Box 1.3 (p.
20)
-
You may enjoy reading: "Zen
in the Art of Sherlock Holmes" (pdf,
830k)
-
Take advantage of the course’s
textbook to get ideas – flip through chapters to see if some topic area
catches your interest.
-
Check references at the end of
that chapter that pertain to this topic
-
Feel free to talk with me about
your ideas as you go along. You can do this via email, talking to
me during class breaks, or coming in during office hours. If you’re
having trouble, let me know - I’ll be happy to work with you to explore
potential topics
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Grading
Citeria - (Individual
Projects = 21% of Course Grade)
-
Poster
or Oral Presentation (95%) - Content 65% • Poster or PowerPoint / Oral
20% • Participation 10%
-
Written
summary (5%)
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Sources
of information
-
Your sources should include a mix
of primary literature (papers reporting on original research) and
review
papers (synthesis papers of several research reports).
-
Your primary sources should be
peer-reviewed (that is, from peer-reviewed journal articles or book chapters;
not textbooks).
-
Keep in mind that the assignment
is to create what amounts to a review paper
-
Web resources and popular press
may be useful for locating appropriate studies, but should be avoided when
possible in favor of journal articles that are the basis of this information.
-
Have at least 10 references,
where only one quarter can be from internet & popular press sources
-
See Format
for how to cite references
-
Use the resources listed under
“find articles and more” on the Chinook page of the CU Library system:
http://libraries.colorado.edu/.
In particular, I recommend the “Web of Science” as a way to find appropriate
literature.
-
See 'Suggestions for Journals
to Search - Soils and Related Sciences' (pdf,
45k)
-
Do not quote your sources directly.
Do all of your own writing, but cite sources of information appropriately.
-
Please remember the CU
Honor Code; note that papers will be checked for plagiarism using resources
of CU Information Technology Services.
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Deadlines
-
-
Submit written assignments by email:
kittel@colorado.edu.
-
Assignments submitted by email
are not due until midnight that day
-
6 Sept - Proposal
due:
-
half to full page presentation
of your idea for a project, including the specific question you're going
to address & why is it of interest/importance. Include initial
sources of information if you have some.
-
The purpose of the proposal is
to get feedback from the instructor as to if your project is appropriate
for the course (i.e., relates to Course Objectives)
and is sufficiently focused (see Project Assignment)
-
if the original idea isn't panning
out: Proposals are not 'a contract' - you can change your topic/emphasis
-- just let me know what your new path is.
25 Oct - Outline
w/ at least 5 journal cites, due
-
One-page
(single spaced) outline of your project, plus a reference list
-
The purpose
of the outline is not only to help you make progress on your projects,
but most importantly for me to give you feedback.
-
The more
you have done and present here, the more I'll be able to give you early
comments on while you have a chance to redirect or follow new leads (rather
than in the last week when time will be short).
-
See Format
guidelines to give you a framework for the outline
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Outline should
include -
-
An introductory
section developing your question
-
A start at
pulling together & organizing material from journal articles
-
References
list w/ at least 5 journal refs (not webpages etc - see Sources)
-
Due
hardcopy in class, or email by midnight - first come first serve (=first
comments back)
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4 Dec
- Draft presentations due
-
13 Dec
-
5401:
Oral presentations; Written summary or ppt file due
18
Dec -
4401:
Poster session; Written summary or full poster files
(text, figures) due
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Format
-
The overall
format of the posters (4401) and presentation (5401) should
include:
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An introductory
section, which:
-
states the
topic of your paper and establishes its importance,
-
as well as
describing the major questions and hypotheses related to the topic of your
project.
-
5401: See additional
details under Project Assignment.
-
A section
reviewing
the published literature on the topic should follow, organized in a
logical way that presents a cohesive story. Be sure to:
-
Provide evidence
for different views, or support statements you make, citing the appropriate
literature.
-
Use headers
to help you organize your poster or presentation and to direct the reader
to the general subjects you are covering
-
see notes
on citations below
-
Conclude
with a synthesis of the information that you've presented.
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And can you
come to some conclusions about the state of the science?
-
What we actually do know (well
supported) and don’t really know (conjectures, still hypotheses)?
-
How extensive
is the literature? - Does it really address the key questions?
-
What else
needs to be done? - What are the next questions to ask?
5401: Presentation
guidelines -
-
Length: 15 minutes + 5 for questions
(20 min. max)
-
See presentation guides -
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4401:
Poster
guidelines -
-
size
45"H x 60"(5 ft)L
-
I recommend
using color construction paper to form your backing
-
apply full
or partial 8.5 x 11" pages to that
-
space pages
out enough so not visually crowded
-
mix up sizes
of sheets and orientation to visually break up the material
-
e.g. you
can use some sheet in landscape (e.g. for text body), others in portrait
(e.g. for illustrations)
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title
banner - be sure to include a title banner that includes your name and
course/semester
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avoid use
of tables!
-
better to
use figures
-
create your
own bar graphs (e.g. in excel) from data presented in tables to make the
info clearer...
-
...but also
to include just the material you want to talk about
-
illustrations
-
always credit
source
-
see additional
notes on figures below
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font
- use a font style & size that can be read easliy from 4' away
-
best to use
a font w/o serifs such as Arial
or Tahoma (easier
to read from a distance - as opposed to one w/ serifs, as Times
Roman)
-
try 24-30
point font size for text body, but use your judgement. Larger for
Title, section headings.
-
Here are
a couple of examples to illustrate some of these points
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I'll provide
pushpins and masking tape for mounting posters in the ATLAS classroom
On
the day of poster presentations
-
Have a way
short (=<1 min) oral intro to your project prepared so when anyone
asks "What's your poster about, anyway?," you can give them an intro as
to -
-
what your
question is, why is this interesting/important, and what is the bottomline
of your findings!
-
If your listeners
are interested in hearing more, the intro will serve to generate questions.
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Arrive on-time
to put up your poster.
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Hand in (by
email) your full poster's files - text & figures. Due by start
of poster session.
-
Posters will
be judged by classmates and other attendees, with awards given at
the end. Note: The judging results will not be part of the instructor's
evaluation for grades - the purpose is for all to be actively participating
& learning in this final course activity. Participation in judging
is, of course, part of the course participation score.
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Include figures
and tables
-
Keep in mind
that tables are difficult for your audience to absorb - use graphs when
possible, otherwise keep simple
-
Be sure to
label graph axes, symbols (in a legend), etc.
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Literature
citations in the text and in your list of references should follow
a regular journal style
-
I recommend
the style used by the journal Ecology, or journals of the American
Geophysical Union (http://www.agu.org/pubs/AuthorRefSheet.pdf;
local pdf)
-
List of references
should appear at the end of your poster or presentation, not as footnotes
-
Cite references
in the text as by last names only and date (use 'et al.' if
more than 2 authors). There are 2 ways to include such cites in the
text - as the subject or parenthetically. For example:
-
"Jones &
Stokes (1999) found that soils taste bad,
-
while there
is substantial evidence to the contrary (Smith et al. 2001, Harper
& Wells 2002)."
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Take advantage
of on-campus services helping with research and writing composition
for term papers. (EBIO has a Writing Lab if you're associated with
that department.)
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