Panel Term Project -- Worth up to 25 points.

You may wish to print a copy of this so you can have these instructions handy, particularly when entering information into the class wiki.

1. Textbook Readings "Cliff Notes" Summary (class wiki)

Your panel will be responsible for summarizing the class readings assigned for the week of your panel presentation.  Your task will be to summarize the readings into the main concepts (not details). Summarize about 4 - 5 pages of readings into about 1 page (single spaced)  -- rather like a "Cliff Notes" summary. 

If a summary is already posted at our class wiki for the book chapters assigned for the week of your panel presentation, edit what is posted for better clarity, and add new material if it is relevant.  Please change the text color of your panel's changes / additions in blue text (and at the bottom of the contribution, please list the members of your panel).

Your classmates will have access to your summary and can use to study for midterms or the final exam.  In addition, before the midterm or final, I will make an mp3 file of what you have written (using the text-to-speech program Textaloud -- see TextAloud.com if you are interested in this software.   I will email the class the mp3 file before midterms / final so you can listen to it if you wish.

To post your summary, go to our class wiki:   http://DrMillsLMU.wikispaces.com.   Log in.

Once you have logged in, click on the class wiki link, then click on the link labeled "Textbook chapter summaries." Click on the link to the textbook/chapter you are working on (or create a link if it is not already there).

Click on the "Edit This Page" button, and add in your summary.  Remember to click "Save" when you are done.

Note: During your panel classroom presentation, do not review your chapter(s) summary.

For the Psyc 452, Evolutionary Psychology class only:

2. Panel Video Clip

Search for an online video clip that is relevant to your panel topic, and that is educational and/or entertaining.  You can search video.google.com,  YouTube.com, and similar web sites.  You will present the video clip to the class, and discuss the clip, just before, or after, you give your panel presentation (per the below).   The video clip should be brief -- about 5 minutes at most.

Several days before your panel  presentation, please email me with the web address of the video clip to get my approval. 

You should also post the video clip along with your other panel materials to the class wiki (see below).
 

3. Panel Article/Chapter Summary, Outline and Presentation

This project will involve finding, summarizing, and presenting a scientific article or book chapter relevant to the class topic for the week of your panel presentation (see the syllabus for weekly topics).    (Note: you may not use any assigned readings, or readings covered by previous class panels, for this project.)

Seminar panels will be composed of a group of two to three students.  The panel will find an academic article, or book chapter, related to their topic, or, one will be assigned by the instructor.  

The panel will prepare a written summary, an outline, a critical review, and a PowerPoint presentation, as well as make a presentation to the class and lead a class discussion. To get an idea of what is expected, you may wish to look at papers written by students in previous classes – see our class wiki website (drmillslmu.wikispaces.com).   

You will not need to turn in any printed copies to me -- all of your panel's written work should be posted at our class wiki.

If your panel is summarizing a journal article or book chapter that I have not assigned or recommended, please email me with the full reference, and, if possible, the abstract of the paper, before you start work.   I will let you know if it is appropriate. Panels may not select a paper or book chapter to present that has already been presented by previous classes (see the class website).   See the bottom of this file for possible journal sources for your class.

The panel will be graded as a unit -- that is, each panel member will be awarded the same point value (unless a particular  panel member is especially remiss in his or her responsibilities,  in which case he or she will have points deducted). 

Your panel will be evaluated on these criteria (each worth up to 5 points): 

Accurately summarized the most important concepts.

Quality of writing and grammar/spelling/formatting of the summary 

Quality of the PowerPoint slides.

Quality of the presentation to the class (do not simply read the PowerPoint slides), and the quality of the post-presentation class discussion.

Followed directions.

Each seminar panel member must assume responsibility for at least one of the tasks that are necessary for the seminar panel to run well.   The assignment of these tasks can be done via discussion among the group members themselves, or by drawing numbers if there are no volunteers.   More than one person may collaborate on any of the assigned tasks.   I suggest that you exchange email addresses and phone numbers, and plan to meet several times outside of class to prepare and discuss your presentation. 

If I did not provide your panel with an article or book chapter, coordinate with your panel members to do library research to find the article/chapter that is relevant to the class topic for that week, and that you think your classmates will find interesting. 

You might wish to search scholar.google.com using relevant keyworks.  Or, go to the library and find scientific journals related to your topic. Another way to search for relevant articles is to use PsychINFO.   Ask the reference librarian for help to learn how to use this resource.  At the bottom of this page is a list of relevant journals that you may wish to search.  The journal article or book chapter that you choose must not be more than 10 years old.

If you have difficulty finding an article or book, consult with me and I'll help you find something appropriate.

All members of the panel should read, and become thoroughly familiar with, the readings the panel will summarize.  The readings and written work should be ideally completed one week before the assigned presentation date. 

Collectively, the summaries written by the class will be used as class supplementary readings -- everyone in the class will be responsible for knowing this material for tests.  These materials will be published on the class wiki website ( http://DrMillsLMU.wikispaces.com ) after each panel presentation.

Your summary paper should be generally organized and formatted according to APA style, except that it should be single spaced. 

I am particularly impressed if you include tables and graphics (histograms, diagrams, charts, etc.) that help to summarize and visualize the results of a study or the conceptual points of an argument, both in your paper and in your PowerPoint presentation.  

For your class presentation, prepare a PowerPoint presentation.  (If you don't have easy access to PowerPoint, you can use a free web-based presentation site, such as http://www.zohoshow.com/ or  http://www.thinkfree.com).

I suggest you review the following resources that offer good suggestions about developing your PowerPoint and giving your presentation:

Giving an Academic Talk at: http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~jrs/speaking.html

How I made my presentations a little better: http://www.43folders.com/2007/08/23/better-presentations/

Rethinking the Design of Presentation Slides: http://www.writing.eng.vt.edu/slides.html

I recommend that only one person take primary responsibility for the presentation to the class – do not sub-divide the presentation so that each person presents only one part of the presentation.  However, one person may wish to do the main presentation, and another may wish to review their critical review comments and lead the class discussion. 

SEMINAR PANEL MEMBER TASKS AND ROLES 

1.  Write a summary of the reading material. 

At the top of your summary paper, include the names of the members of your panel, and the full reference (using APA style format) of the journal article or book chapter that you are summarizing.  For example.

Summary of:

Smith, J. B. & Jones, J. R. (2001).  The effects of fatigue on perception.  Journal of Perception Research, 8, 121-132.

Summary by Mary Lewis, Frank Johnson, and Emily Wilson 

For Dr. Mills' Psyc ___ class, Fall, 2006

Write this summary paper like the prose in an introductory textbook -- it should be easy to read, logically organized, define unfamiliar terms, and  not get bogged down in too much detail.  Your task is not to present  everything that the author has to say, but rather to summarize his or her main conceptual points. 

For this project, you are allowed to quote from material and include important passages of up to a couple of paragraphs of the most crucial prose.   Include those passages that you think are particularly eloquent, that very clearly explained a concept, or that represent the main thrust of the author's argument.  The sure to include the full reference for any quote that you use, including page numbers -- e.g. (Smith & Jones, 1993, pp 4 – 5).   

You may create tables or diagrams presented in the readings to include in the summary if you think that they are particularly relevant.   Do not directly copy any copyrighted graphics, but you may modify them and note that the graphic is “Adapted from Smith and Jones, 1994, p. 33.”

Your summary should, on average, summarize about five pages from your readings into one single-spaced page.  Thus, if the article you are summarizing is 20 pages, your summary should be about 4 single spaced pages. 

2.  Write an outline of the reading materials. 

Write a conceptual outline of the reading material immediately following your summary.

The outlined headings should be informative, not just labels.  For example:

A.  METHODS OF TEST CONSTRUCTION

        1.  Deductive Approach – deduce test items from a theory or common sense. 

                a.  Rational / Logical Content / Common Sense   

                b.  Theoretical

        2.  Inductive Approach – use statistical methods  

a.       Factor Analysis 

b.      Contrasted Groups

Use appropriate headings and indentation, e.g.,: 

    1st MAJOR TOPIC 

        Sub topic. 

              Sub-sub topic.         Sub topic. 

    2nd MAJOR TOPIC 

Do not make your outline so detailed that it captures every aspect  of the paper your summarizing.  Rather, simply clearly explain the most important conceptual points in a logical order.  In fact, you may leave out topics that you do not think are particularly relevant, interesting, or, if you do not understand  the point the authors were trying to make. 

3.  As a group, write a list of critical review items to the following questions. 

First, discuss the reading material with your panel members to critically review it as a group.   Then: 

    (a) Identify up to three points made by the author that the panel found especially interesting or informative. 

    (b) Identify up to three arguments made by the author that the panel either disagreed with and/or for which you think the author made a weak case, or were unclear, and explain why you came to that conclusion.  

4.  Test questions 

Your panel should write three multiple-choice test questions, and three true/false test questions, based on the major points of the readings you have summarized.  These questions may appear on tests.   Do not include any material that was not included in the written summary. 

List these questions under the the heading "Test Questions" after the outline.  After the test questions, include an answer key.   (It is ok if other students read the questions and the answers.)

5.  Prepare the PowerPoint presentation 

The presentation should contain, at a minimum: 

     (a) the full reference citation for the article or book (author, title, journal, date, etc.) on the title page

     (b) a few of the most important and interesting points made by the author.

     (c) a list of your panel's critical comments that you developed  in response to question 3 above. 

If possible, include some graphics (and, if relevant, a very brief video or audio clip) in your presentation.   Again, do not violate copyright by copying graphics directly.  However, you may modify them somewhat, and note that the graphic is  "adapted from "  (e. g.., “Adapted from Smith and Jones, 1994, p. 33”).

Create a footer such that each PowerPoint slide has the full reference for the journal article or book chapter you are summarizing and reviewing at the bottom of each slide.

The class presentation itself should last only about 5 - 10 minutes (with up to 5 additional minutes for questions and discussion), so design your PowerPoint presentation with that time limit in mind.  Your slide presentation should be no more than 8 slides.

Given that time limitation, do not try to cover all of the material in the article or book chapter.  Instead, focus on just a few of the most important points that you think your classmates will find interesting.   Do not include too much information in each PowerPoint slide.

PowerPoint has a “Notes” feature.  Prepare your notes for each slide using this feature of PowerPoint.   Print out a copy of the PowerPoint notes so you can refer to them during your presentation.  If you are unfamiliar with the speaker's notes functions of PowerPoint, there is a brief intro at the end of this file.

As noted above, you can use your PowerPoint notes to guide your presentation, but you should NOT to simply read from your PowerPoint slides during your presentation.  It is best if you use a conversational style, rather than directly read from notes.

6. Create a listing of your summary, and copy to a new wiki page, at the class wiki web site.

Make a listing of your summary and PowerPoint at the class wiki web site:  http://DrMillsLMU.wikispaces.com .

Once you have logged in, click on the class wiki link, then click on the link labeled "Panel article/chapter summaries and outlines."  Click on the "Edit This Page" button, and add in your panel info using for format below.

For example:

For a book chapter, or chapters:

Summary  and Powerpoint Presentation of Chapter 3: The Power of Parasites, in The Red Queen (1995), by Matt Ridley. Summary by Natasha Saltz, Cat Rotunno, Ivy Featherstone (Spring, 2008). 

For an article:

Summary and PowerPoint Presentation of Heppner, M. J., & Hendricks, F. (1995). A Process and Outcome Study Examining Career Indecision and Indecisiveness.  Journal of Counseling and Development, 73, 426-438.  Summary by Daniel Rodriguez, Brian Marsee, Lorena Yepez, and Maria Garibay (Spring, 2008)

Click on "Save" every so often so you don't lose your work if the internet connection fails.

Once you have created your article/book chapter listing, upload your Summary and Powerpoint files.  (Remember, your Summary file should also contain the outline and test questions).   Your Summary and PowerPoint files should have unique names (e.g., "summary-smith-f07.doc" and "summary-smith-f07.ppt").  Should your file have the same name as an existing file, it will overwrite the old file (not good).

Follow these instructions, step by step:

Click on the Insert File icon (it is the green button).  Under "Upload New File" click on Browse, and find your Summary file.  Then click on Upload.  Do the same with your PowerPoint file.

Click the "Links to the file" radio button.

Put the cursor in the main window where you want the file link to be inserted, and click the mouse.

Back in the "Insert a File" click on the files you just uploaded.  They should appear as active links. 

Close the "Insert a File" window.

Edit your panel listing so that the Summary and PowerPoint file links are renamed "Summary" and "PowerPoint" (not the unique name of the file itself).