Need help with creating a presentation for my Animal Behavior class in which we discuss different species and its behavior and how it helps them in their living habitat. The project is basically creat

1 | P a g e BIOL 2451 - Introduction to Animal Behaviour Independent project presentation (20% of your course grade ) Overview The scientific study of animal behaviour requires a range of technical and intellectual skills using the scientific process of inquiry. An independent research project will be assigned at the beginning of the term. During the project, a topic will be chosen and justified, followed by a literature search. You, the student, will present on a focal behaviour following the framework o f this course, and present the material to your peers using a communication style of your choosing, such as audio -visual film, audio “podcast”, visual infographic, or another form of communication as should be discussed with your instructor . Steps -in-brief : 1) Choose a topic: Justify your choice and a pprove it through your instructor . 2) Literature search : You will need to source a minimum of three peer -reviewed articles. 3) Presentation : Choose your presentation style . 4) Peer review : You will need to look at and comment on five of your peer’s presentations. Choose a topic and do a literature search This project will start at the beginning of the term (see due dates below). The first thing you will need to do is pick a topic (species and behaviour). Please be spe cific, otherwise you will find that explaining a behaviour will become too complex! For example, consider pick ing a particular genus or particular species (e.g. Dung beetle) AND a particular behaviour (e.g. movement of dung balls ) that you wish to target f or your student project. In order to evaluate the feasibility of your project, you will need to do a brief literature search to see what has been done and how. For your final presentation you will need to: 1) describe your proposed species and behavioural topic , 2) explain why you find it interesting/ relevant, and 3) summar ise the information that you gather ed on your topic, with information from a minimum of three peer -review journal articles . Please keep in mid that you credit/cite the information source s appropriately. Presentation guidelines This presentation is NOT meant to be an academic report , technical or lab report, or conference poster presentation. Rather, I want you to demonstrate to me that you have chosen an animal behaviour that you find interesting/relevant, done some research from peer -reviewed and reputable sources to understand the behaviour, and then communicate this to your classmate peers, in an effective manner. For example, think about people’s fondness for Sir David Attenborough’s documentaries. 2 | P a g e If you are doing an audio, or audio -visual presentation style, please limit it to 10 minutes . As people tend to speak at 120 words a minute, this means that for a 10 minute presentation, the equivalent is ~ 1200 words, and a bit less if you use combine written media with visual or audio -visual materials. Basically, aim for between 900 -1200 words. The re is a maximum of 1 minute (60 seconds) for use of video or audio from other sources (which you need to credit properly and avoid copyright infringement). Example of such sources may be including a short video clip (e.g. BBC Earth) of a behaviour or an au dio clip of acoustic communication. Please use such sources as little as possible. There will be a discussion thread for free methods of recording and creating your own audio and spectrogram files, as well as creation of audiovisual materials. Handing your presentation in You wi ll be handing in a minimum of two files : 1) your presentation (which can 1+ files depending on your presentation style) , and 2) an accompanying 1-2 page ‘metadata ’ document with the following information : a) a brief methods explanation (~ 1 paragraph) of how you created your product (e.g. “ I created an info graph in Powerpoint using a mix of publicly available art clips, and my own written text ), b) your peer review references (any scientif ic citation format is fine, but please be consistent. For example you can us e the ‘Animal behavior ’ journal format). c) and credits (for photos , films, or other used materials) . Please have a title to your presentation (e.g. Tapping to the beat of their own song). Your presentation will need to be submitted on Nexus. This will be under the Assessments - Assignment tab . The format of the fi les you su bmit will vary depending on your presentation style. Here is a guid eline: • Audio/podcast format: Audio file in a standard format such as .mp3 or . wav • Documentary (Audiovisual): Video file in standard file format such as .mp4 or .avi • Visual format (e.g. infograph): High resolution .jpeg , .pdf or PowerPoint (. pptx) file. • Visual and Written fo rmat: High resolution .jpeg , .pdf or PowerPoint (. pptx) file , or word file (.docx) Please talk to me if there are other formats that you think you ’d need/like to use. 3 | P a g e Peer -review : Peer review is very important in strengthening and assuring the quality of science. In the final week of classes, after this project is due, you will examine your classmates work and make constructive comments on their content and presentation style. Gra ding of completed presentation and peer -review : As the presentation style will vary amongst students, you will be graded on inclusion of the following content , as well as a small portion of your grade dependant on the quality of your chosen delivery method (which means you decide on which mode of communication works best for you). Content: 75 points Delivery: 20 points Peer -review: 5 points Please include the following content in your presentation (75 points) : • Describe your species - general information (e.g. species, habitat, food source. size) as it pertains to your question • Describe the behaviour you propose to examine considering: o Is the behaviour framed as at least one of the Tinbergen’s four questions (Specify proximal or ultimate cause) ? o If the behaviour well explained in terms of adaptive value, cost and benefit? o How is the behaviour related to the animal behaviour topics that we have studied in this class ? • Describe why this behaviour in important/relevant interesting to science (from y our chosen perspective - examples are ecology, policy, conservation) . • Use and describe specific background information to establish the importance of the behaviour so that the audience can understand your project • Make sure you credit/ reference your sources appropriately (reminder: information from three peer -reviewed articles) • Use appropriate visual or auditory aids to clarify your content • Assist the audience in un derstanding the important results of your peer -reviewed articles. • Present appropriate data (i.e., cite figures and/or tables) , and make sure that any used table and/or figure are captio ned appropriately (i.e. concise, yet self -explanatory ). Delivery ( 20 points) : • Clarity of message: Organization – gives information in logical order • Subject knowledge • Audience connection - how well does the presenter engage the audience 4 | P a g e Peer -review (5 points): You will peer -review other student’s presentations. Please note that during the final exam, I will be asking you for examples of particular behaviours , which can be answered from student presentations. Please, be constructive with your criticism, give praise where it is due…and be aware wheth er your comments are based on fact or opinion. Why have peer -reviews? • Different perspectives to be considered • Identifies major flaws • Creates confidence in what we read • Collective minds • Creates stronger science • Helps clarify the message to readers For eac h presentation, please make several constructive comment s considering : 1) Whether you understood why this behaviour is interesting/ important 2) Whether you see the how this behaviour is related to the topics covered in this class 3) Any alternate hypotheses about the behaviour or further research questions to address the behaviour 4) What presentation strategies you found to be effective, and why . 5 | P a g e Student project peer review ( 5 points ) For eac h presentation, please make a constructive comment considering : 1) Whether you understood why this behaviour is interesting/ important . 2) Whether you see the how this behaviour is related to the topics covered in this class . 3) Any alternate hypotheses about the behaviour or further research questions to address the behaviour . Presentation 1: Name of presenter (s tudent) : _______________________ ____________ __________ Title of presentation : ___________ ______________ _____________ ______________ Feedback: ______________________________________________________________ Presentation 2: Name of presenter (s tudent) : _______________________ ____________ __________ Title of presentation: ___________ ______________ _____________ ______________ Feedback: ______________________________________________________________ Presentation 3: Name of presenter (s tudent) : _______________________ ____________ __________ Title of presentation: ___________ ______________ _____________ ______________ Feedback: ______________________________________________________________ Presentation 4: Name of presenter (s tudent) : _______________________ ____________ __________ Title of presentation: ___________ ______________ _____________ ______________ Feedback: ______________________________________________________________ 6 | P a g e Presentation 5: Name of presenter (s tudent) : _______________________ ____________ __________ Title of presentation: ___________ ______________ _____________ ______________ Feedback: ______________________________________________________________