-Presentations should be 15 minutes in duration.

-Your Powerpoint presentations MUST be on the hard drive of the IBM that runs the Habitat projector NO LATER THAN 8AM, Monday July 5.

-Focus on substance, not on style.

-Every member of your group MUST intellectually contribute to the oral presentation (aka, everyone has to speak)

Just to re-emphasize, we are most interested in your learning the process of how to understand a system, not in you being able to get a right answer or assemble a large body of facts. We want you to think, not simply recite facts. And remember, the faculty are a useful resource. We’re here to help you.

The presentation should generally conform to the following format:

1) Introduction:

Provide the Context

What is the problem?

Why are you studying it?

Why is it an importatnt problem? (e.g. why should anyone care?)

WHAT IS THE HYPOTHESIS?

Introduce the Field Site

Where did you perform the study?

Describe the field sites.

2) Methods:

How did you collect your data?

Equipment

Sampling Protocols

What simplifying assumptions did you make?

(if you’re not sure what this means, talk to your mentor)

How did you analyze your data?

Computer programs

Statistical Tests

3) Results: THIS IS ONLY DATA, NO INTERPRETATION. (Interpretation is in the Discussion)

Summarize your data.

What did you find out?

Is your hypothesis supported or refuted?

4) Discussion:

Interpretation of the Data.

What does your data mean?

Why do you see patterns?

Why don’t you see patterns?

What processes may be forming the observed patterns?

Were there problems with your experimental design?

Do your data suggest other hypotheses that you might test?

5) Conclusion:

Briefly summarize your findings.

Suggest future directions of study.