From Syllabus:  10% of your final grade [ = like a test grade ] = Individual projects, mostly summaries of professional publications and other work, presented via posters or handouts or web pages.  Grading will be on a point system (10 points total), with each project accumulating 1 to 5 points, depending on its difficulty and your success in presenting the information effectively. Some questions on Test #5 and the final exam will involve the summaries (yours and your classmates’; so take notes!).
 

POSTER 1  Wednesday 17 March:  Angiosperm Families

Poster  or power-point presentation or web page presenting the most important information every 204 student should know about this family.  Medical applications are a good optional side-light. ---~-----~------~--------~----»   Ecologists' meetings have poster pubs (if it's a web page you need to get translated to "html", you have to get it to Dr. Jann by Monday afternoon)   how to make a professional poster for scientific meetings:  (yours should be simpler and cheap or free). http://www.aspb.org/education/poster.cfm  http://www.biology.duke.edu/jackson/ecophys/awards.htm#poster

Amaryllidaceae:   Lou Apiaceae:   Troy? Asteraceae:    Brassicaceae:    Ericaceae:    Fabaceae:  Jonathon Iridaceae:  Jim Lamiaceae: Mardi   Liliaceae:  Michelle Magnoliaceae:    Orchidaceae:   Christina Poaceae:    Ranunculaceae:   Rosaceae:   Tammy Solanaceae:   Nikki?

 

General Instructions for Poster 2-4 Outside of class, you should read a real research article.  If you have not negotiated in class for a particular article, you should check to see if your choice is ok before you invest much time in it.  In general, you should have an article about botanical research published within the last year in the American Journal of Botany,  (http://www.amjbot.org/ or in the traditional print medium in the library)   NOW temporarily available for friends of fungi:  http://www.mycologia.org/  Science (http://www.sciencemag.org/; use library terminals unless article is at least twelve months old) Nature (http://www.nature.com/nature (use Queens terminals) American Naturalist (http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/AN/journal/index.html;    available on campus terminals only) Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (http://www.pnas.org/; full article usually available after it's 3-6 months old))   or other journals, but check first.   Notice that Science and American Naturalist and PNAS also have non-botanical articles, which are not suitable for posters for this course.   You can tell it's a research article if it emphasizes experimental results and procedures (or "materials and methods"). Quit whining.    Present the research as though you are at a professional meeting of scientists and as though you were one of the authors.  If it's a web page, stand by a computer which shows it.  If it's a poster, stand near it.  We'll take turns looking and asking questions while the other half of the class is "presenting" by standing there and answering questions one-on-one. Prepare a poster or web page which summarizes the article as follows: list TITLE and authors and URL or bibliographic citation for the original published article. What hypothesis was the main experiment based on?  Why is the hypothesis  important? Show at least one graph or picture which shows important results of the experiment. How did the results support (or refute) the hypothesis.  Are the results really convincing?  Is this research really important? If it's interesting, show or tell how the experiment was done.  but not if it's not interesting. http://www.aspp.org/education/poster.htm tells how to make a professional poster for scientific meetings.  http://www.biology.duke.edu/jackson/ecophys/awards.htm#poster  has tips on making it an award-winning poster.  Don't spend money.

Poster 2.  2 April:  Systematics (including fossils) or Anatomy or Morphology Suggested articles are listed at the end of Taxonomy    See yellow instructions above.	Jim:  "Nitrogen availability alters the expression of carnivory in the northern pitcher plant, Sarracenia purpurea" from PNAS. Nikki:  Genes in wheat vernalization http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/303/5664/1640 Jonathon:  "Cytokinesis in Coleochaete orbicularis (Charophyceae): an ancestral mechanism inherited by plants" From the American Journal of Botany Tammy: Importance of underground buds in prairies disturbed by fire.  From the American Journal of Botany
Poster 3.  5 April  Phytochemistry or Plant Ecology. Suggested articles are listed at the end of Phytochemistry.  See yellow instructions above.	Jim:  "A Role for Peroxisomes in Photomorphogenesis and Development of Arabidopsis" from Science. Troy:  Auxin-dependent cell expansion.  Science 282:1114. Michelle:  "Fern evolution in Angiosperm shade" from latest Nature Mardi:  Orchestrated Transcription of Key Pathways in Arabidopsis by the Circadian Clock http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/290/5499/2110
Poster 4 16 April  Open Topics.   Get article approved in advance. See yellow instructions above.	Nikki: The Chemistry of Sexual Deception in an Orchid-Wasp Pollination System.  Science 302:437 Troy:  "Regulation of flowering time by histone acetylation in Arabidopsis" www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/302/5651/1751 Tammy:  Allometric gender allocation in ambrosia has adaptive plasticity, American Journal of Botany. 204;91:430-438.  "This is just a fancy way of stating that growth of male and female parts on a plant varies because the plants adaptation during growth depends partly on the parts function." Mardi:  Identification of a novel gene, HAABRC5, from Helianthus annuus (Asteraceae) that is upregulated in response to drought, salinity, and abscisic acid.  http://www.amjbot.org/cgi/content/full/91/2/184