Format of Oral Presentations:

     Oral presentations are scheduled during the last two class periods. Presentation should be 15 minutes on a topic in Molecular Ecology. You must have the topic approved in advance by me no later than November 10th. Please submit your title to me no later than 24 November 2003. The general format should be a description and evaluation of broad topic and not a single paper (e.g., molecular clocks, phylogeography of the southeast United States, taxonomy or 3-toed wombats, phylogeography of near-shore marine invertebrates, speciation rates, population subdivision in high-desert environments, etc.). Your goal is to inform and enlighten your fellow students about the topic. You will be the expert (since you have done the background reading). As a guide, you will likely need to review at least 5 published resources for the core of your presentation. Do not just present a single review paper on the topic.

   You may use any presentation technique that you which (dry board, overheads, slides, flip-charts, computer PowerPoint presentation, etc.). I will have ONLY the dry board and overhead available unless you tell me in advance that you need other equipment. Plan to talk for 12 - 13 minutes and leave 2 - 3 minutes for questions. The class will grade your performance and your final score will be the mean (excluding obvious outliers).

Your presentation will be scored according to the following criteria:

 
Style (body language, speech patterns, expressiveness, etc.): 10 points

Description of the topic/problem: 20 points

Background information: 20 points

Organization: 20 points

Clarity of details: 20 points

Duration: 10 points

TOTAL: 100 points