General Biology II Summer 2021
Scientific Article Presentation Guidelines
Due Dates
1. Be prepared to in lab (via Zoom):
present Tuesday, July 13th
2. A of your presentation due at 11:59 pm the . Final Copy Day of your Presentation
3. Please (PowerPoint or Google Slides): name your file Group name/number / Lab Section
meeting day and time
4. Upload the file of your presentation into the Canvas Assignment found in Module of the week
of your class presentations.
Presentation Format
Use PowerPoint and or Google Slides
Presentation Organization/Structure
Your presentation should be structured like a peer-reviewed journal article. You should add
pictures to your presentation as suggested in Communication Workshop Module 2. They should
help explain or interpret the content of the article but not be distracting.
I. Title Slide: (article citation and group members’ names)
a. Title of the article
b. Article authors
c. Journal Name, Year, Vol: Issue
d. Name of Group Members
II. )Overview: (outline of your discussion
a. Provide a brief outline of what you will be discussion/talking about in your
presentation
III. )Introduction (background info, question and hypothesis
a. Provide or expand on background so that the audience has enough information to
understand the topic/subject the researchers are examining. For example, if the study
focuses on understanding the impacts of global warming the health of coral reefs, you
should expand on coral reef biology (since this is not a topic everyone will be familiar
with).
b. Background provided should help the audience understand why audience is asking
the question they are.
c. What is this study important? What is the big picture subject/issue/questions?
d. State the specific question being studied and, if stated, the hypothesis.
e. Your background information should be obtained from your journal article. You can
highlight several citations from the Introduction of the article that discuss what is
known about the topic. Not everyone in your audience, the class, has a complete
knowledge of the topic you are discussing, therefore be sure to define and provide
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necessary background that is important to understand this study and the questions
being asking.
IV. Materials and Methods (How was the study conducted? Visuals and flow charts are ways
to help show the progression of the study.)
a. Outline of methods used
b. Keep this brief – you do not need to get into every small detail.
c. You need to provide the general idea, not the specific details, though you should be
aware of the details in case someone asks you about them.
d. Example – If your study was determining what the cellular pathways or genes that
are involved in allowing wood frogs to survive being frozen during the winter
months, you would want to include:
i. Study locations/sites
ii. How many frogs were used?
iii. What those pathways/genes do in the body.
iv. How did the author assess gene activity?
v. What was the experimental design and variables? It would be enough to say
“Protein levels were determined using western blotting technique.” You
would not need to go into all the steps of the western blotting technique.
V. )Results (tables and figures with explanations
a. Your Results section should discuss the major of the study.findings
b. Need to select 2-3 important tables and/or figures that show the major findings of the
study.
VI. Discussion (How did the author explain the results they obtained? Were they what was
expected, why or why not? What is the real-world application of the study’s results?)
a. How did the results answer their question or support their hypothesis?
b. How did their results relate to other studies?
c. Expand to the bigger picture:
i. How does this help expand our understanding of the topic?
ii. Why care? Why is this study important?
VII. Future Directions
a. What did the author suggest next steps could be? How could they build off their
findings? What new question or future directions could their research address?
i. Consider where the authors could go next.
ii. No right or wrong answer. Think about the data reported, what it means and
what it tells us about the topic.
iii. Expand on this and speculate what question they could ask in the feature.
VIII. Summary
a. Leave the audience with a final summary of main points that you want them to take
away.
b. What is the most important aspect of the study? How does it apply to the larger
understanding of the topic?
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Suggested Slide Organization
1. INTRO SLIDE
a. Title of Article
b. Authors names
c. Journal name, publication year, Vol:Issue, d. Names of Group Members
2. OUTLINE SLIDE
a. Main points of what you will talk about.
b. Then follow the structure you’ve laid out in your presentation. c. Start broad,
finish specific.
3. CONTENT SLIDES (multiple)
a. Cover detailed information based on your outline.
b. As many slides as you need.
c. GENERAL RULE – Do not spend more than 1 minute per slide.
d. Remember a PowerPoint is more visual than verbal: “a picture is worth a
thousand words.”
4. FINAL SLIDE
a. Audience will likely take away the last thing you say. b. Make a point to have the
last slide be meaningful.
Presentation and Presenter Expectations
1. Your presentation should be 10-12 minutes long.
2. Each group member is expected to speak about a major section, Introduction, Methods,
Results, or Discussion.
3. Begin your presentation by introducing yourselves.
4. Provide a brief introduction before jumping into your study. Tell your audience what
article you are presenting. Audiences like to have an overview, an understanding of what
they are going to hear and where it is going to go. It’s also a good technique to help you
relax at the beginning of the presentation.
5. Speak in a clear, audible voice. Never mumble.
6. Face forward, not the screen on which the slides are being look at the audience,
projected. Since this will be via Zoom, that will be less of an issue.
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7. Make with the audience. Engaging them directly with your eyes frequent eye contact
transfers a bit of your energy to them and keeps them focused on your content. Making
eye contact says that you are in charge of the room that’s what you want. This may be
challenging via Zoom but try to make eye contact with your camera.
8. Avoid reading your slides. You don’t want the audience to be distracted by trying to
read everything written on your slides. Try to summarize the important points you are
going to make on a particular slide.
1. No more than a concise concept per bullet point, ideally not a full sentence.
2. Do not add a whole paragraph to a slide. No one will read it and the audience
loses interest.
3. Divide a subject up into multiple slides if needed to make each clean, clear, and
concise. d. When possible, substitute pictures, flowcharts, or figures for words.
4. If you have a slide that is text heavy, it helps to add animations so that people
don’t try to read ahead while you are speaking.
9. When talking about your figures, through your figure. While you are guide the audience
very familiar with the data displayed, the audience is not.
1. Describe what variables are presented in each axis, what the units are, the
important trends the figure is displaying, and what the audience should be
focusing on. The audience will not have time to figure it out for themselves.
10. At the end of your presentation, and give strong summarize your main points
concluding remarks that reinforce why the study was important to increasing our
understanding of the topic.
11. If you aren’t excited about your topic, neither will anyone Enthusiasm goes a long way.
else be.
12. . You may have a good idea in your head asPractice what you are going to say out-loud
to what you are going to say but sometimes it comes out jumbled if you don’t practice it
out- loud. You don’t want that to happen in front of the audience.
13. Finally, it is Don’t worry, you are not alone in feeling this way. natural to be nervous.
Everyone else feels the same way and we are not here to make you more nervous. We are
all on your side, so try to relax and have fun.
14. One the best ways to combat nerves is to . Know your topic well. You will be prepared
be the expert on the topic in the classroom. Good preparation and the realization that you
are the expert will boost your self-confidence.
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Visual Content
1. Use bullet points sparingly. You do not need to write out complete sentences.
a. 4-6 points per page (is a typically rule)
b. No Large blocks of text- audience stops listening, and reads . You want to keep their
attention.
2. Visual material should supplement, reinforce, and aid your presentation, not distract.
3. Keep slide slides uncluttered and simple. Make sure everything can be seen and read
clearly
4. Images should be good, not pixilated, out of focus, or too dark.
5. Graphs should be easy to read.
6. Use easy to read and widely supported fonts (i.e. best fonts = Arial, Calibri, Times New
Roman, Verdana). Some unique fonts are hard to read.
7. Minimum of 20-24 point font.
8. Main points/titles bigger than subpoints/content.
9. High contrast - dark on light or light on dark. Avoid extremely bright colors – they can be
difficult to see from a distance
10. Use a consistent background and layout for slides. This will make the presentation
visually cohesive.
11. Consider showing one point at a time by using animation to help the audience focused on
what you are explaining. Animations are not required but when used carefully, are
helpful at guiding the audience.
Expectations for the Audience
1. Presentations involve both a speaker and the audience. Individuals in the audience play a
role in how well a presentation goes.
2. People in the audience have an obligation to:
a. Listen politely.
b. Pay attention to the details of the presentation
c. Expect a Question & Answer period to be part of the presentation.
d. Participate in Question & Answer period, either by listening or by posing a
question.
Since this will be via Zoom, it is easier to preset when several of the audience members have
their cameras on. It helps a presenter to have a live, albeit digital, audience.
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