Poster Presentation
25% of your grade for the laboratory portion of Bios 325 will be based on a joint poster project you will conduct with a lab partner. Posters will be presented (approximately 3-4 per lab) during week 14. This exercise is intended to facilitate your independent research into subjects that interest you, your ability to work in groups, and your ability to present your ideas to others. It is important to pick a lab partner you feel comfortable collaborating with, and to find a reliable means of keeping in touch with that person (email works well). You and your partner will jointly choose a subject for your poster presentation. Subjects may include any aspect of vertebrate development - we encourage you to come up with a topic but some examples are given below. Your topic must be approved by your lab instructor. Pick a subject you both find interesting and plan an oral presentation and a poster on your topic of choice. These must include:
1. Oral Presentation - A total of 15 minutes. Either decide to take turns, switch speakers after 7-8 minutes, or invent another way in which you both participate. Please DO NOT plan to just improvise, these attempts usually don't go well. Be ready for five minutes worth of questions.
2. Poster - You have seen some examples. Forty eight inches by thirty six inches is a good size. Make it stand by itself (structurally), so the class can see it as you deliver your oral presentation. Use illustrations, figures, and text. Remember to put your names on the poster and credit your sources on a section entitled "references".
Grading: Of the 50 points, 25 will be given for the Poster (content, references, organization and visual appeal) and 25 points for your oral presentation (introduction/background, content, explanation and definition of your topic, clarity of presentation, and tie-in with vertebrate embryology). An anonymous evaluation form will be completed for all posters by the students. This evaluation will be given to you to provide feedback: it will not be considered in assigning your score.
Possible Topics for Posters:
1. Sperm Count and Environmental Pollutants
2. Hydatidiform Moles
3. Kallmann's Syndrome
4. Assisted Reproduction - In Vitro Fertilization, Freezing Gametes and Embryos, Ethical/Legal Issues, Multiple Births.
5. Fetal Surgery
6. Transplantation - Treating Diseases with Embryo/Fetal Tissue Transplants, Xenotransplantation
5. Cancer of Prostate, Breast, Cervix, Lung
6. Testosterone and Estrogen in Behavior, Cognition, Development
7. Cloning - Livestock, Humans, Therapeutic, Ethical/Legal Issues
8. Parthenogenesis
9. Genetic Diseases/Syndromes having a Embryological Component
10. Birth Defects - Thalidomide, Pesticides, Endocrine Disrupting Compounds, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, Cocaine Babies
11. Pediatric AIDS
12. ES cells
13. Imprinting