Jeffrey S. Dodd & Scott L. Kight Montclair State University How To Organize A Scientific Research Presentation (note the descriptive title) Jeffrey S. Dodd & Scott L. Kight Department of Biology Montclair State University

Introduction (Part One) Bring your audience up to speed on the general background of your topic. Bulleted points only please! Avoid lots of text. Reminders for you. Not for your audience to read.

Introduction (Part Two) Discuss the biology of your organism. Where does it live? How does it get energy? How does it reproduce? Are scientists studying it? What is interesting about it? Provide a picture.

Methods What question did you ask? When and where was the study done? How did you obtain your organisms? What was your independent variable? What dependent variables did you measure? How did you collect data? Describe any equipment or materials used. Pictures of your setup are useful. How did you deal with nuisance variables?

Results What was your sample size? Did you do statistics? What test? Avoid showing lots of numbers. Use graphs!

Discussion What do the results mean? What are your major conclusions? How do they relate to other studies? Were there any problems with your study? What questions remain to be answered?

Acknowledgements Did anybody help you with the study? Volunteers Donations People who let you use their property Etc.

What NOT to Include Abstract Literature Cited Raw Data Paragraphs Unnecessary bells and whistles