1020QBT - Academic and Professional Skills Development for Science and

Technology
Team Presentation
Learning 2
Objectives
Weighting 30%,
DUE Date Week 8 (During the Learning Experience session)
Task Overview Students are required to work in groups of 4 - 5 students to create a
presentation (3 minutes per person) that explains to a non-expert audience
a key idea from their discipline area and:
 Identify a problem or unresolved issue in the discipline
 State why the problem is significant for the discipline
 Offer a solution or solutions
 Provide arguments for the proposed solutions.

A minimum of 6 academic sources should be used to support your ideas. You

can use journal articles, conference papers, textbooks, book chapters,
company reports, and reports published by the Government.

You should be creative with your presentation through the use of audio-
visual aids and other techniques that enhance the engagement and interest
of the audience.

Every member of the group should contribute to the presentation (3

minutes each), and all students should contribute to the development of
the script.

Submission Each student is required to submit their script/notes, including citations and
Requirements a reference list (APA for science students & IEEE for IT and Engineering
students), to Turnitin via Moodle. In addition, each student will also be
required to submit an evaluation of their participation in their group through
the development of their presentation along with a brief peer review of the
other group members’ roles. A template is provided for this in the portal.

The team leader should submit the final copy of the PowerPoint presentation
to Turnitin by the due date (day of presentation). A paper copy of the
PowerPoint presentation should be submitted to your lecturer/tutor on the
day of presentation.

ALL transcripts & a copy of the slides MUST BE SUBMITTED TO TURN-IT-IN

BEFORE the presentation in Week 8.

Assessments submitted after this time will be late and will be penalised.

What is a non- When we communicate ideas in science and technology we can communicate to
expert audience? different audiences with different levels of expertise in the areas we are talking
 about. It is possible to categorise these audiences into 3 groups. The first group is
what can be called the ‘experts’. These are people who know your discipline area
and you can communicate with using terms that are discipline specific. The second
group can be the ‘general public’. These people have no expertise in science and a
limited expertise in research and academic argument. It is this group that the
mainstream media tries to communicate with. There is a third group of people that
exist between the public and experts, and that is the ‘non-expert’ audience. This
group of people are people who know things about research and academic writing,
but do not know your specific discipline.

To speak effectively to a ‘non-expert’ audience you need to think about the

following ideas:
 This group does not have an in-depth knowledge of your discipline and
therefore terms that you use may not be easily understood – i.e. you must
explain and define terms used.
 Be careful with jargon and words that can mean different things in different
contexts.

What ideas from In your tutorial, you will be allocated to work in a group of 4/5 students. Where
my discipline possible this group should be made up of students studying the same discipline (i.e.
should I include? science, engineering or IT). However, if this is not the case, then your group should
decide which one of these areas will be your focus.

Your topic should be:

 A problem or an unresolved issue in your discipline
You must:
 State why the problem is significant for the discipline
 Offer a solution or solutions
 Provide arguments for the proposed solutions.

You must not recycle assignment content from either your other courses or
from previous trimesters.
 Marking Criteria – Team Presentation
Criteria
Excellent
Ability to communicate The presenters are clear and
clearly orally easy to follow.
(6) Ideas are clearly linked and
explained.
Ability to analyse key Comprehensive and discerning
ideas and research analysis of highly relevant
within a specific literature is provided.
discipline & Presented an excellent critical
Ability to reference analysis of the findings from
sources & create a the literature with a clear
reference list argument.
(6) Excellent use of in-text
citations throughout, no
errors; correctly formatted
reference list - no errors.
Knowledge of discipline A sound knowledge of the
ideas discipline area is clearly
(6) evident.
Ability to properly Presentation of ideas is highly
explain content and relevant to the audience.
engage a specific Presenters are engaging:
audience presenters do not read;
(6) excellent use of voice,
gestures, movement & eye
Standard of achievement
Proficient
The presenters are usually
clear and easy to follow.
Ideas are usually linked and
explained.
Mostly relevant analysis of
highly relevant literature is
provided.
Presented a critical analysis of
the key findings from the
literature and created a
discussion with some
argument.
Very good use of in-text
citations throughout, minor
errors; correctly formatted
reference list - minor errors.
A good knowledge of the
discipline area is evident.
Presentation of ideas is mostly
relevant to the audience.
Presenters are mostly
engaging: minimal reading;
good use of voice, gestures,
movement & eye contact.
Competent
The presenters are sometimes
clear and usually easy to
follow.
Attempts are made to link and
explain ideas.
Provides mostly description of
credible & reliable literature
as relevant to the topic.
Critically analyses the
literature but provides little
discussion.
Limited use or incorrectly
formatted in-text citations;
reference list attached -
several errors.
A reasonable knowledge of
the discipline area is
somewhat evident.
Presentation of ideas is
somewhat relevant to the
audience.
Presenters make some
attempt to engage the
audience: presenters are
Poor / Unacceptable
The presenters are not clear and
are difficult to follow.
Ideas are not linked or
explained.
Provides little to no description
of the literature and/or no
relevance to the topic.
Provides limited to no critical
analysis of the literature and no
discussion.
Limited use or no use of in-text
citations; no reference list
attached, or no use of credible &
reliable literature.
Limited knowledge of the
discipline area is evident in the
presentation.
Presentation of ideas is of little
relevance to the audience.
Presenters are not engaging and
fail to use any engagement
techniques.
 contact.
Excellent use of audio-visual
aids.
Ability to work There is clear evidence of
effectively as a group / contributions from all group
team members towards the
(6) development of the
presentation.
Good use of audio-visual aids.
There is evidence of
contributions from all group
members towards the
development of the
presentation.
occasionally reading;
Reasonable use of voice,
gestures, movement & eye
contact.
Some use of audio-visual aids.
There is some evidence of There is little/no evidence of
contributions from most group contributions from multiple
members towards the group members towards the
development of the development of the
presentation. presentation.