Project Requirements

There are two components to each person’s project. The first is the poster, which will be completed by two people working together. The second is a short paper on some aspect of the poster project, which will be completed by each individual. The two papers from each poster should be on different aspects of the poster topic.

The schedule for the project is

Task	Date
Paper (W credit)	May 23
Edited paper (W credit) returned	May 27
Paper (no W)	May 31
Revised Paper (W credit)	June 4
Poster Presentation Day 1	May 31
Poster Presentation Day 2	June 1

As usual, papers are due at the beginning of class on the day specified.

Poster Presentations

You are required to present your findings in a poster that will be shown at two poster symposia on May 31 and June 1. The exact location of the poster symposia is to be determined. The point of your poster is to communicate your project to each other (as well as the instructors). On the first day, one of your two-person team will stand by your poster to explain your work to other members of the class, while the other will be free to go look at other posters. On the second day, your roles will be reversed.

Your poster should be designed to fit and mounted on a 3’ x 4’ piece of paper or lightweight poster board. The poster should contain at a minimum:

• Title and names of authors (underneath the title)
• Abstract (1 paragraph) – this is a summary of what your poster is about
• At least four figures, two from each person’s part of the project; these figures may be photographs, sketches or graphs. The figures should each have a short caption (label).
• Connecting words as necessary. The poster is supposed to tell a story so help the viewer understand the story by connecting the figures.
• A summary statement (1-2 paragraphs). What are the most important things you learned and what to communicate to the viewer.

Check out this web site for some good ideas for poster construction.

Individual Papers (non-W)

Individual papers should be at least 3, but no more than 4 typed, double-spaced pages.  The written paper must be a solid piece of writing.  You will be evaluated primarily on content, including structure and accuracy, but also on form such as correct spelling, punctuation, grammar, and construction. The paper should include a title, a discussion of the subject matter, and a conclusion. Supplementary tables or figures are encouraged; datasets, references, and other sources of information used in the paper should be listed in sufficient detail at the end so that an interested reader will know how to locate them. Note: figures and references do not count as part of the 3-4 pages of writing. Use at least three references (unless you are commenting on a book, in which case the book alone is probably enough).  Your references may include complete URLs, with date accessed, but at least one reference should be from a printed source. You must list all of your references, and any direct quotes must be indicated as such.

Please be very careful about your referencing. If you copy any exact wording from one of your sources, you must cite the source in your text. If you fail to do so, you run the risk of plagiarizing. Even if you're paraphrasing in your own words something that is clearly one scientist's idea or opinion, you must mention the source. Much of what you write in your papers should represent your own synthesis of what you've learned in your own reading and through talking with each other in your group.

Individual Papers, "W" credit

Students taking ATMS 211 as a writing course will be required to submit a 10-page paper (typed, double-spaced) that will be revised in response to suggestions from the instructor. For more info on the "W" requirement, click here. The paper is due on May 23. This version of the paper should be as polished as possible. It will be returned on May 27 with editorial comments. You will then have opportunity to edit the paper in response to my suggestions. A preliminary grade will be assigned to the first version and that grade will be altered based on the revised version of the paper. If you have any questions about this process, please talk to me.

All of the comments about the non-W paper apply, and more rigorously, to the W credit paper. Because of the greater length of this paper, you should include an introduction as well as a conclusion and, if appropriate, sectional divisions within the text. The web is an appropriate source of information, but you must document this information by use of complete URLs. You must include printed sources as well in your references. I expect that this is a research paper, so your conclusions should document what you have learned about the topic.