Student Poster Session: Diversity of Marine LifeFor introductory non-lab Oceanography

David Kobilka, Central Lakes Collegedkobilka@clcmn.edu

“The ocean supports a great diversity of life and ecosystems”Ocean Literacy Standard #5, NOAA Ocean Essential Principles and Fundamental Concepts

(http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/literacy.html)

SummaryIn this project students, 1. perform library research on an assigned marine animal,2. create a formatted poster of their topic and, 3. share with their classmates what they've learned in a poster session, conducted in the way of poster sessions at

science conferences.

Afterward, students complete a written assignment where they are asked to reflect on their experience as a participant in a community of science students, their focused learning on their own marine animal, their larger learning about the diversity of marine life from their poster session participation, and what it implies about the intrinsic value of the ocean realm and the need for a conservation ethic.

The outcomes for this assignment are aligned with course-specific outcomes articulated in the Minnesota Transfer Curriculum. They are:• Synthesize central concepts from assigned readings of scientific literature in written assignments.• Discuss/compare characteristics of diverse environments in the context of ocean science. • Interpret data generated by oceanographic techniques, and present written and oral summaries of their findings.• Explain the basic structure and function of the ocean realm, the impact of humans on it, and the impact of the ocean

realm on humans.

ContextThis assignment is used in an undergraduate, introductory non-lab oceanography course.

Prerequisite AbilitiesBy the time this assignment is given, students should be proficient in,• Reading and understanding scientific literature.• Baseline numeracy – i.e. orders of magnitudes and the ability to translate scientific notation to standard notation and

back.• The conceptual underpinnings of biological oceanography: ocean population dynamics, trophic relationships, biomass,

classification of marine environments, adaptive strategies, symbiosis, and the taxonomic system of biological classification.

• Reading, understanding, and creating maps, sketches, graphs, etc.

TimingThis project is assigned within 4 weeks of the end of the semester, with the final poster session taking place on the very last day of class. The poster they make for this assignment is the second poster they have done. They are expected to build on their learning from the first poster project earlier in the semester.

OutcomesContent Outcomes Communicate their knowledge of the anatomy, physiology, behavior, and adaptive strategies of a marine animal.

Skills Outcomes• Create an effective scientific poster as a tool for communication.• Synthesize central concepts from readings of scientific literature in a written assignment.• Interpret their own findings orally, and visually on an effective scientific poster.• Prepare in advance an electronic version of their poster, using MS Power Point as the poster design tool.

Ocean AwarenessInfer the intrinsic value of the ocean realm, its diversity and the necessity for conservation.

Activity Description

This multi-step project develops over a series of several weeks and culminates with a poster session on the last day of class. It begins with the marine life section of an introductory oceanography course about 4 weeks from the end of the semester with passing out the student handout for the Diversity of Marine Life Poster Project. This handout describes the steps of the project and the specifications that the participants are required to follow. At the end of the handout is the grading rubric. In passing out the rubric at the start of the project students know what is required of them from the very beginning.

Three components of this project encourage a high quality outcome for the project:• Students are required to create a single-sheet poster using an extra-large Microsoft PowerPoint slide. • Students are required to electronically submit a preliminary poster design well in advance of the final due date. This

preliminary design gets an extensive review and suggestions for improvement.• They are instructed to follow the advice from Web resources that explain poster design, such as the Creating Effective

Poster Presentations, by George Hess et all; website at http://www.ncsu.edu/project/posters .

AssessmentsThere are three assessment points for this project;• Preliminary poster design is graded for promptness only. Extensive feedback is provided on how to improve their

poster so there is strong incentive to be as complete as possible with this preliminary submission.• Their final poster is graded according to a rubric.• The writing reflection is graded for their ability to infer, from what they have learned from the poster session, and

earlier class activities, the intrinsic value of the ocean realm and its inhabitants.

Assigning topics• For topics, students draw from a menu of marine animal groups pre-selected by the instructor. • The choices are broadly listed as marine phyla, class, order, or family. • The student must investigate in order to narrow their choice to a specific genus and species. • In this way the problem of more than one person having the exact same topic is averted, while maintaining an

element of ownership on the student’s part: from the very beginning they have to invest in the library research, in selecting a genus and species.

Post-session Writing ReflectionStudents are asked to reflect on the experience by responding to the following statement:“Think about the posters you just saw and the concepts of symbiosis, trophic pyramids, populations and communities, symmetry, and adaptive strategies. Use your collective learning from the posters in general to talk about the ocean realm, its diversity and mystery, and why it is important to know about the world's animals before we destroy them. Use examples from the posters today and the concepts mentioned above to illustrate your points.”

Students know in advance, before the poster session begins, that they will have to respond to this statement. On the day of the poster session they are told that they may take notes during the poster session, and then refer to those notes to help them compose their written response.

Poster Grading Criteria.The poster is graded according to a rubric. The poster below is an example of one that received high marks in all criteria.

Criteria

Appearance and Formatting

1. Poster generally follows the recommendations given by the “Effective Scientific Posters” website and as presented to you in class.

2. Words are easy to read from an appropriate distance (3-5 feet).

3. Poster is well organized and easy to follow.

4. Graphics and other visuals enhance presentation.

5. The poster is neat and appealing to look at.

6. Poster is free of grammatical and spelling errors.

Content  7. Content is clear and easy to understand.  8. Poster is focused on the original topic choice. Space is not wasted on peripheral information. 9. There is sufficient detail to convey the science of the topic in question appropriate to an introductory college-level course in Oceanography. The poster reveals a depth of understanding that reflects considerable study of the topic in question. 

10. Poster is scientifically accurate.

Poster SessionThe poster session is conducted like at any science conference only on a shorter time frame. The class is broken up into three groups, and a single class period is broken into three poster sessions. For each session, one third of the class presents their poster, and the other two-thirds attend the poster session, range around and learn as much as they can in the short time available.

Quotes from Oceanography post-session reflectionsThese quotes are all from Kobilka’s Spring 2013 Oceanography class.

“I think its important to know how these animals live and what their purpose is before we . . . kill them and end up hurting multiple species instead.”

J.J.

“ . . . People need to be aware that ocean life must be preserved so we can explore it while it is still alive. . . . Because without the smallest plankton, there wouldn’t be the largest fish.”

S.M.

“The trophic pyramid explains . . . . If we end up totally destroying a whole species, we may end up destroying more than one species unintentionally.”

A.K.