PRESENTATION RUBRICS

You will have to give two presentations in this class, one in lecture and one in lab. The
lecture presentation will be a Power Point (or similar) oral presentation that is the
culmination of your Pet Pathogen Project. The poster is a report on your original
research in lab.

Pet Pathogen Presentation: This presentation can focus on any aspect of your pet
pathogen that you have found interesting. It can be on a recent or not-so-recent
professional paper, a historical account of an outbreak, the social consequences of the
disease, or any other topic that you can think of. The only rules are:

1. The microbiology needs to be prominently featured. If you are doing something

other than the straight up science of your organism, make sure to talk about what
traits of your pathogen contribute to the story. For instance, if you want to talk
about the effects of Black Death on medieval culture, you might talk about how
the modes of transmission of Yersinia pestis changed people's attitudes toward
travel, hospitality, and so forth.
2. The presentation needs to be at a level that anybody who has finished a semester
of BY271 can understand -- not just people who have been reading about your
pathogen all semester.
3. You need to make sure to include some PEOPLE in your presentation. Every
scientific story has a personal dimension. If you're talking about history, dig up
some personal stories of people who fell victim to the plague, or who fought
against it, etc etc. If you're talking about current research, learn a little about the
people who are doing the research. Most research biologists have some of their
personal story available online, and if not, most of them are willing to answer a
few quick questions via email if you politely approach them! Why are they
interested in your bug, or the questions that they wrote the paper about?

Lab Poster Presentation: The last week of lab you will hand-draw posters explaining
your research project, and on the last day you will present them to your classmates. The
posters should clearly explain WHAT your hypothesis was, WHY you picked that
hypothesis, HOW you tested it, and WHAT your conclusions were. Try to be creative
but make sure you present all the relevant data in a clear and concise manner.
Guidelines for presentations:

I've uploaded to Canvas some useful guidelines on effective presentations provided by

Dr. Krueger-Hadfield, who teaches a great Science Communication course here at UAB.
Also check out this video for some great pointers on "telling a story" in science:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=ERB7ITvabA4

Later in this document you'll find the score sheets I will use to grade you. Finally, here
are a couple more requirements/guidelines to keep in mind:

1. Not everybody has to speak! If there's someone on your team that doesn't like
public speaking, they absolutely don't have to do it. If one of you is an extrovert
theater minor, by all means, that person can do the whole presentation. However
-- everyone should be available for questions after the presentation is over.

2. Don't go over your time limit. Your presentation must be less than 15 minutes
long, and ideally it will be 12-13 so you have time for some questions.

3. Try to make it interesting -- use lots of graphics, few words, and try to avoid
reading pre-prepared text.

4. Don't try to impress the professor by using big "sciency" words. Use clear
language targeted to non-experts.

5. Be prepared to answer some questions; if you don't know the answers that's fine,
but be prepared to give reasonably speculative responses based on what you've
learned over the course of the semester.
Team: ____________________________________

PET PATHOGEN PRESENTATION SCORE SHEET

1. Relevant microbiology clearly explained?

2. Historical context relevant to the science shown?

3. Relevance to society discussed?

4. Personal stories of patients, doctors, and/or scientists?

5. Questions?

6. Power point quality

a. Wordy slides? _____________

b. Graphics? _____________

c. Length? _____________
Team: ____________________________________

LAB POSTER PRESENTATION SCORE SHEET

1. Background: where did the idea come from?

2. Hypothesis clearly stated and conclusions drawn with data?

3. Presentation of data clear and complete?

4. Cohesive, significant story with relevance to existing literature?

5. Questions?

7. Poster quality

a. Too Wordy? _____________

b. Art/Creativity? _____________

c. Data Aesthetics? _____________