Biology Senior Seminar Policies and Procedures:

Last updated: 4-29-06 V. Gooch

Goals of Biology Senior Seminar: Gain experience in orally presenting an in-depth scientific study of Biology. The goal is to see that you can search primary literature on a biological subject, read and comprehend that primary literature, and then be able to synthesize that information into a comprehensive scientific story. This course is a capstone experience to the Biology Major at the University of Minnesota-Morris

1. You must meet with your seminar coordinator and discuss the topic before you start preparing your seminar.

2. The seminar must use the biological sciences, must be scientific in nature, and must be based upon primary references, and must comprehensively answer a question you propose. Your copy of "A Short Guide to Writing about Biology" by Pechenik sets up standards that we are expecting.

The seminar must reflect the work of primary articles (original research). Avoid a seminar that merely reports the results of science, instead it must reflect the science that was done. Data, experimental methods, and resulting statistics that support your topic thesis must be a significant part of your presentation. One or more good review articles (not text regurgitation) relevant to the subject should also be found and used.

A student may (and is encouraged) to present any personal research that they may have done, but their presentation must also reflect an understanding of the primary literature associated with their subject.

Understanding and presentation should be comprehensive of the field (rather than a few shotgun reports). Any issues, controversies, and points of contention within the field should be understood. Your title, in essence, should ask a question and you should be giving a full answer. Therefore "finding a 'couple of good articles" is not sufficient. You need to cover the field. If your topic field is too big to be covered, then you need to narrow your subject. Your report should tell a story with support from primary references.

The student should have critically read and be knowledgeable about the subject matter in the references that are included in the "Literature Cited". "Literature Cited" must be in the format as described in Pechenik.

Audio visual aids, graphs and charts should be presented where appropriate.

In the seminar, one should also be trying to be answer the questions of ≥How do we know?≤ and ≥What is the evidence?≤ "What is the mechanism?" , "How does this answer the question addressed by my title?". A seminar made up entirely of such statements as the following is inadequate: ≥Sympathetic fibers extend from the medulla into the spinal cord. From the thoracic region of the spinal cord, cardiac accelerator nerves extend out to the SA node.≤ Indeed you may want and need such statements, but a major portion of the seminar should also contain statements that present the data that supports the statements, such as: ≥It was shown that manatees can detect high frequency sound by measuring the action potentials from their auditory neurons. (see table in the transparency) and therefore ä≤

Seminars that involve diseases and health issues (≥clinical seminars≤) are often problematic for senior seminar students for two reasons: they tend to be very descriptive and not scientific, and b) frankly, medical and veterinary journals are weak in their scientific standards making it difficult to present a seminar high in scientific standards.

3. You will be required to attend at least nine seminars (ten, if you count your own seminar) during the academic year. Attendance will be taken at each seminar; it is your responsibility to see that you sign the attendance sheet. You are strongly encouraged to attend more than nine seminars during the year; we hope you will develop the "seminar habit" and come every time your schedule permits. Ask questions at the seminars. Observing others' seminars is also a good way to learn what works and what does not work in a seminar presentation.

4. You should aim for your seminar to be 40 minutes long with an additional 10 minutes for questions. A seminar can not be less than 30 minutes long (points will be automatically deducted for every minute a seminar is less than 30 minutes) and should be no more than 50 minutes.

5. The seminar can not be read. Cards, an outline, or notes are allowed for reference; however, the student must be well enough prepared so that reading is not necessary (this also means do not read from your presentation, such as Power Point slides.) Being well prepared minimizes the problems of nervousness and inexperience. (It helps if you do not view the seminar as a chore, but rather as an opportunity to learn more about a particular subject that interests you. And better yet, an opportunity to 'turn on' others as to why this is an exciting subject.)

6. The seminar meets at 12:15 PM on Tuesdays and/or 5:00 PM Thursdays in SCI 1020. By Wednesday noon of the week preceding your seminar, you must have done three things:

i) Email a notice of your seminar for the Weekly Bulletin (email: rileyjk@morris.umn.edu or hand carry to Education Building). Also send an email of the announcement to goochv@morris.umn.edu so that he can forward it to seminar students and biology faculty.

ii) Prepare an abstract, outline and "Literature Cited" sheet. You must go over this with your seminar coordinator. Prepare an appropriate number of copies (usually around 25), and distribute copies at the seminar.

iii) Prepare a seminar announcement and post announcements at sites in the building and remove these notices after the seminar. Use only certified poster areas and NEVER tape to the wall or glass surfaces.

7. You are responsible to introduce the seminar speaker most prior to yours. First introduce yourself and your seminar for the following week. Then introduce the speaker of the day. Include: name, seminar title, home town, post graduation expectations, and at least one other interesting fact about the person.

8. The student must contact the coordinator within two days after the seminar to discuss the strong and weak points of the seminar. Although most seminars will be good, some seminars may be deemed as unacceptable. If any of the above procedures are not met, or depending upon the nature of the unacceptability, the result may be an 'F', a repeat seminar, a research paper, demonstration of competence in a particular area, a two page summary of your talk or other requirement.

9. The computer in room 1020 is a Macintosh with Power Point capabilities. There is also a PC video plug in. It is your responsibility to make sure the system works for your format.

10. If, for some reason, you are allowed to change your scheduled date after it has been set, then your final grade gets dropped one full grade.

11. You will be given a Senior Survey that is important to us in evaluating our Biology Major program. It is a requirement of Senior Seminar to turn in this survey.

Double majors: Your Biology seminar requirement for the Biology major may be waived (no credit) on the following conditions: 1) You have completed Biological Communications, Biol 3701, 2) You have given a scientifically acceptable seminar in Chemistry as part of your double major (with a Biology professor in attendance), 3) You have met all of the normal Biology seminar attendance, announcement and other formal requirements.

Your seminar coordinator is there to help you. You must seek help on selecting a topic, organizing visual aids, asking what subject material is appropriate and what is not, etc.

Senior Seminar Web site: http://www.mrs.umn.edu/academic/biology/sensem