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ZOO 620 NEWSVolume 1 Issue 1 September 1994

ZOO 620Fall 1994

elcome to Zoology 620,a course for graduate

students new to graduate work inZoology and Entomology at theUniversity of Alberta. This corecourse is designed to teach yousome of the essential skills forcommunicating your researchplans, and later, your researchresults. The primary medium forthis exercise will be the researchproposal. In writing what for manyof you will be your first researchproposal, you will sharpen yourwriting skills and learn to thinkmore clearly about your intendedresearch. If you leave this coursewith a well thought out outline ofyour M.Sc. or Ph.D. research, andwith the ability to effectively andconvincingly communicate it toothers, we will all celebrate a jobwell done.

In addition to the practicalgoals of the course, we hope that620 will give you a betterunderstanding of and appreciationfor the research aspirations ofbiological disciplines far removedfrom your own. You should alsobecome much better acquaintedwith the scope and vision of thislarge Department

MAJORAIMS

he major aims of thiscourse are summarized

below. Much of this will be done inthe context of tutorial groups offrom 7 to 10 students, withpresentations to the entire classlater in the course.

Zoo 620 should:

1. help you organize your thinkingabout what specific questions you

want to ask in your research.

It should also guide you and giveyou experience in:

2. writing a research proposal.

3. preparing an oral presentationabout your research proposal

4. making oral presentations tosmall and mid-size audiences.

5. preparing and presentingposters.

In accomplishing these majorgoals, you will also

l gain experience in criticalevaluation of scientific writing

l address many of the problemsand issues involved in conductingscientific research.

l become aquatinted with newgraduate students in theDepartment and with the projectsand areas of research theyrepresent.

Inside This Issue1 Summary of major aims of Z6202 Basic elements of the proposal3 Required reading/Nuts and Bolts4 Anticipating oral presentations5 A Note from Your TA

W

T

2 Zoo 620 News

THEPROPOSAL:BASIC ELEMENTSResearch proposals are required bymany types of funding agenciesand by graduate committees.Depending on the intendedaudience and the goals of theagency, proposals varyenormously. In some cases you willbe writing to a panel of referees,some of whom will not becompletely familiar with yourparticular area of research but whowill be very familiar with thepractice and presentation ofresearch in your general field (eg.one of the life science committeesof NSERC). At the other extreme,some members of the review panelwill not even be scientists (eg.some government fundingagencies). Finally, your supervisorycommittee will probably be themost homogenous group for whomyou will write a proposal. It wouldbe disastrous to attempt to write asingle research proposal to allthree of these audiences.

In this year’s Zoo 620, wewill assume that the reviewcommittee comprises wellinformed, practicing biologists whoare not necessarily in your specificfield, but who are, at least, in arelated field. For example, if yourproposal poses a question inmolecular biology, assume that acommunity ecologist will not be onthe panel, and vice versa.

Fortunately, the basicsections of the proposal are similarfor all audiences and the foregoingdiscussion pertains more to howyou set up the background orintroduction and to how youpresent details. It is to these basic

sections that the rest of this articlepertains.

All proposals should havethe following sections:

l An introduction. This givesbackground information and setsyour specific question(s) in a moregeneral context. Often this sectionis called Background (or evenexperimental design) instead ofIntroduction. It is similar to theIntroduction section of a scientificpaper. It should include a generalintroductory statement, a shortliterature review, a clearexpression of the rationale of yourintended work, any preliminaryfindings, and a generalpresentation of your approach tothe question(s) posed. Goodintroductions clearly show wherethe writer is coming from, wherehe or she wants to go and why it isimportant to go there. The bestintroductions make the readerexcited to read on.

l A Methodology section. This isthe body of the proposal, and in ityou should proceed systematicallyand in some detail through theproposed theoretical andexperimental approach, giving therational for this approach. Majormethods should be clearlyexplained along with yourassessment of their advantages andpossible pitfalls. Each of yourspecific aims should be coveredwith respect to how you willaddress the questions involved.

l A Summary. This is the firstpart of your proposal that thereviewer will read. In spite of this,it should be written last after youhave well thought out Introductionand Methods sections. It shouldintroduce the field, explain whymore needs to be known(specifically why answers to yourresearch questions are needed),how you will proceed to answer

these questions, and contain astatement about the overallimportance of this work. All of thisis to be accomplished in one or twopages. Most people find that agood summary is difficult to write.Don’t be too concerned if you haveto rewrite it many times.

l Two additional parts willcomplete your proposal - a titlepage and a list of references. Thetitle page includes the project title,your name, room number andtelephone number. The referencesshould begin on a separate pageand should be in the format of yourfavorite journal (inconsistency willbe frowned upon).

In summary, the divisionsof the research proposal aresummary, background (not morethan two pages each), methodology(not more than 7 pages), title pageand references. It should be typeddouble spaced, with a font size of12 and in Times New Roman orsome equally readable font.

RequiredReadingStrunk W. Jr., and White, E.B. TheElements of Style 3rd edition.MacMillan Pub. Co,. Inc. NewYork, London. 92pp. 1979.

Gopen, G.D. and Swan, J.A. 1990.The science of scientific writing.Am. Sci. 78: 550-558.

Day, R.A. How to write andpublish a scientific paper. 3rdedition. Oryx Press. 160pp.1988.

Briscoe, M.H. A Researcher’sGuide to Scientific and MedicalIllustratrions. Brock/SpringerSeries in Contemporary Science.Springer-Verlag. 209pp. 1990.

3 Zoo 620 News

Nuts and BoltsWe have three major

things to accomplish: a writtenproposal, an oral presentation anda poster. The subject in each casewill be your research proposal, andthe full written form should bestarted first.

The class will be dividedinto working groups (tutorialgroups) each led by a facultymember. In this group you will testout your initial ideas, learn whatothers are planning, present thefirst draft of your written proposaland give your first oralpresentation. During the last thirdof the course, your tutorial groupwill work as a team or teams toplan each member’s poster session.Throughout, you will have theadvice and encouragement of thefaculty member assigned to yourgroup. The standard meeting timewill be Monday afternoon, but agroup is free to organize its time asit thinks best.

Occasional generalmeetings of the entire class will beheld on Monday afternoons fortopical presentations from guestspeakers. For example, preparing ateaching dossier; ethical issues inbiological research. Details will beavailable later.

We are delighted to haveDave Spafford back again this yearas the TA and the student liaison.Dave will assist the faculty invarious ways, but he is alsoavailable to you if you havequestions or concerns about thecourse.

Grading is a complicatedexercise in Zoo 620, to put itmildly. You will receive a grade, infact you will receive several gradesas the course progresses. Insummary:

l First draft of written proposal(graded by tutor) 15%

l First oral presentation totutorial group (graded by tutor)5%

l Oral presentation to entire class(graded by peers) 25%

l Poster presentation to entireclass (graded by tutors as a group)20%

l Final version of writtenproposal (graded by tutors, tworeaders per proposal) 35%

The tutors for this year are:

B.S. Heming

2-24A ESC (4173)

B.K. Mitchell (coodinator)

2-14B ESC (4637)

W.M. Samuel

Z910 BioSci (2360)

The first man I saw was of ameagre aspect, with sooty handsand face, his hair and beard long,ragged and singed in severalplaces. His clothes, shirt, and skinwere all the same colour. He hadbeen eight years upon a project forextracting sunbeams out ofcucumbers, which were to be putinto vials hermetically sealed, andlet out to warm the air in rawinclement summers. He told me, hedid not doubt in eight years more,that he should be able to supplythe Governor’s gardens withsunshine at a reasonable rate; buthe complained that his stock waslow, and entreated me to give himsomething as an encouragement toingenuity, especially since this hadbeen a very dear season forcucumbers.

Jonathan Swift “Gulliver’sTravels”

AnticipatingOralPresentations

Public speaking is anessential skill of the successfulscientist and certainly of thesuccessful teacher. It is also astressful and exhilaratingundertaking. I once heard a veryskilled speaker say he hoped hewould never see the day when hedid not feel some measure of fearbefore stepping in front of anaudience. It was his contention thatthis fear (controlled no doubt)provided the edge that is essentialto all successful engagements withan audience. All of thepresentations in this course willrequire, first and foremost, that yoube organized, but this is doublytrue of the oral presentation. If youknow what you want to say, and ifyou have the outline of how youwill accomplish this firmly in yourmind, you are well on your way toa successful presentation. Thesecond essential ingredient is asmall collection of excellent visualaids. If these aids are wellconstructed and organized tocapture the high points of thesubject, you will be able to “talkaround your slides” with ease andwith little or no reference to notes.Oral presentation is definitely notthe faithful recitation of a wellwritten text, just as goodconversation is not the repetition ofwell worn phrases. The speakerand the audience have theadvantage of being together in thesame place at the same time, andwhile individual conversation isnot appropriate, conversation of akind with the audience is.

In a sense, the contact orrapport between the audience and

4 Zoo 620 Newsthe speaker is even more importantthan what the speaker has to say.This means that you should haveyour outline so well in hand andyour visual aids so well preparedthat you can give your audienceconsiderable attention. You thenwill speak with them not at them.Of course, in most cases theycannot respond until the end ofyour talk, but you can structureyour talk in such a logical manner,and present it so engagingly that itseems to the audience as if they areengaging you in conversation. Inaddition to good organization andvisual aids, this kind of talk mustbe supported by real enthusiasm,not only for the subject but for theprocess of communicating withother human beings.

I have outlined some ofthe elements of a very good oralpresentation. When it happens,both the audience and the speakerknow it, and it is one of the mostrewarding communicativeexperiences you will encounter. Itis not unlike a successfulperformance on the stage or in theconcert hall. If you attend to thedetails of organization and goodvisual aid production, if you likepeople and enjoy passing onsomething that you have justlearned, or communicatingsomething of importance to you,you can reach this level ofperformance at least some of thetime.

In your tutorial group youwill deal with many of the detailsof putting together what may beyour first talk, all of which arenecessary and important. However,these are really only the props for aperformance. In the oralpresentation, when the topic is ascientific paper, art most certainlymeets science.

Bev Mitchell

A Note fromyour TA

Hi and welcome to Zoo620. You are going to have fun inthis class. It is a class with goodintentions, namely, to make you abetter graduate student. Take itfrom me, or anyone else who hastaken the course, it is worth theeffort. I took 620 two years ago,and I believed then as I do nowthat it was wise to take a class inwhich I could practice mycommunication skills, both oraland written. As an added bonus,620 provided me with a forumwhere I could meet other biologystudents in the same position as Iwas, at the beginning of mygraduate program. Without such aclass, I probably would never havemade the effort to meet so manyother students outside myimmediate area of specialization ormy particular building locale.

Unfortunately, Zoo 620has not always had a goodreputation. As you might expect inany class with a close mentor-apprentice relationship, there havebeen times when students have hadminor conflicts with tutors. Such islife, but such smoke sometimesdistracts students from benefitingfrom, and most importantly,enjoying the class. To improverelations, an official studentdesignate has been included in thelast year or so. This year, as last, itis me. My primary role as studentombudsman is to ensure that 620 isyour class with graduate studentprograms in the foreground. I aman impartial class member with noresponsibilities for evaluating yourperformance. Yet, I do work inclose cooperation with the tutors.You might consider me to be in ashop steward’s position; there tohelp you with problems or

questions that you may have at atime when you may not feelcomfortable talking to one of thetutors. Another role for me is tochair the final oral presentations.Here I will ensure that students aregiven priority over askingquestions of fellow students. Theseoral sessions have worked well inpast years, and everyone seemed toenjoy participating in them. We getinto some interested andsometimes intense discussions.

I have just started thethird year of my doctoral programin which I am studying thehydrozoan jellyfish, Polyorchispenicillatus, a species consideredto be among the most primitiveorganisms with a nervous system. Istudy this creature because itprovides me with clues to theevolution of nervous systems inmetazoans. Presently, I am tryingto clone jellyfish voltage-gatedsodium channels. Once this isaccomplished, I hope to examinethe structure and function of thesekey nervous system proteins indetail.

Dave Spafford

About thisNewsletter

ZOO620 NEWS willcontain the usual writtencommunications between instructorand student. It is also a potentialforum for comments related to thecourse. The goals of this coursewill be better understood and thecourse itself will improve ifinterested faculty and studentscommunicate their critiques,suggestions and concerns. We askyou to participate by writing toZOO620NEWS. Submissionsshould be on computer disk inminimally formatted text files andaddressed to Bev. Mitchell (4637).

B.K. Mitchell, Biological Sciences, University of Alberta Copyright 1997

partheno genesis [Gk. parthenos, virgin; genesis, descent.]Reproduction without fertilizationby a males. Offspring are genetic clonesof the mother.

female aphid givingbirth to live young duringits parthogenetical phase.

Pssst!Pssst!

Open theOpen theModule.pdfModule.pdf

B.K. Mitchell, Biological Sciences, University of Alberta Copyright 1997

B.K. Mitchell, Biological Sciences, University of Alberta Copyright 1997

rostrum

maxillarypalpi

labrum

labellum pseudotracheae

haustellum

The higher flies (houseflies and relatives)have lost the mandibles and maxillae,except for the maxillary palpi. Theyspecialize in modifications of the labialappendages only to producesophisticated lapping, probing, scrapingand piercing mouthparts. Most of themcannot pierce host skin but some, likethe tsetse fly (later slide) can.

The fly labellum is a complexsensory organ and feedingstructure looking something likea sock. It’s dexterous beingcontrolled by numerous smallmuscles.

Dipteran mouthpart modifications

B.K. Mitchell, Biological Sciences, University of Alberta Copyright 1997

antenna

maxillarypalpi

labellum haustellum

Tsetse flies have carried labellarmodification to an extremeunmatched by any other insect.The fine labellum with its toothbearing tip makes a needle-likepenetration of the host skin.

Dipteran mouthpart modifications

eyeantenna

maxillarypalp

labrum

haustellum

labellum {

B.K. Mitchell, Biological Sciences, University of Alberta Copyright 1997

The entire abdomen can also serve important functions in arthropods. Thetail flick that is part of the escape response of the crayfish is perhaps thebest known (it’s part of the reason that lobster tails are such good eating).Here is another use of the whole abdomen displayed by blackfly larvae.They twist their abdomen 180 degrees so that their feeding fans can beproperly oriented in the mainstream water flow.

mainstream flow

boundary layer

vortex

laminar sublayersubstrate

B.K. Mitchell, Biological Sciences, University of Alberta Copyright 1997

Data-rich reportData-rich report

PosterPoster

Complex notesComplex notes

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