Additional Information for Students
Important dates
Deadline for application to the Honour’s Program: March 15th.
PHS 4326S Seminars in Physiology
- Seminar 1: November (date to be confirmed)
- Seminar 2: February (date to be confirmed)
- Poster presentation: April (date to be confirmed)
PHS 4219 Honour’s Research
Thesis submission: 1st week of May (date to be confirmed).
Guidelines for Preparing an Honour's Thesis
Evaluation of Project:
The final mark for the project will consist of two components:
- Laboratory performance as assessed by the research supervisor (30%).
- Thesis evaluation by two other Departmental Faculty members (70%).
Format
While the final decision on the length and format of the thesis report will be left to the project supervisor, the manuscript should resemble a mini-thesis, with clearly defined sections for the Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion and References. The report will be evaluated within a week of the submission date. It should not be more than 40 pages including figures and references. Honour's theses from previous years are available for perusal in the departmental office. Pay attention to the style and flow of the writing and use this as a guide for your own thesis. Students are strongly encouraged to discuss their thesis outline with their supervisor and to begin preparing the introduction and methods sections as early as possible.
Thesis Submission
The deadline for thesis submission is generally in the first week of May. A final date will be given at the beginning of the winter semester.
Tips for Organizing and Writing your Thesis
- Prepare an outline or flowchart to organize your thoughts
- Often it is not the quantity of data but rather it is how the results are analyzed and interpreted that makes a thesis excellent.
- Reference findings and ideas that are not your own and use quotations for sentences written by others. Avoid the temptation to copy. Remember that plagiarism is illegal.
- Don’t leave the writing to the last minute! It is evident when a thesis has been hurriedly written.
- Use a spelling and grammer checker to edit your final draft and have a colleague and your supervisor read it over for clarity.
PHS 4326S Seminars in Physiology
You are required to present 2 seminars and a poster. Each seminar as well as the poster will each be worth 33.3 % of the total grade for the course.
Seminar 1: (November) will be modelled on a scientific research symposium in which each speaker presents one aspect of a common theme. The theme will be chosen approximately 6 weeks in advance of the symposium date together with the name(s) of faculty members who have agreed to act as resource persons for the symposium. This seminar format can be highly rewarding but it requires coordination and cooperation by all the students to make it a coherent presentation.
Seminar 2: (February) will be based on your laboratory research. Essentially, it should present an outline of your research project including;
- General overview of the topic, including a review of literature pertinent to your topic
- A statement of Hypotheses or Questions
- Research Plan
- A description of Method(s)/Analysis to be used
- Results
It is generally expected that students obtain some results during their honour’s project; however, for a variety of reasons, not all projects yield positive results. In this case, the Expected outcomes should be discussed
- Significance
The poster presentation will present the near-final results of your research project. However, remember that the seminar course is intended to assess your ability to communicate information as much as the research itself. The posters will be displayed on the poster boards lining the corridors of the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine and must be up for viewing by 12:00 p.m. on presentation day.
Costs for poster materials will be reimbursed by the Department if we are provided with an official receipt up to and that the cost is no more than $30. Posters should be designed to fit the standard poster boards which may can be seen in the corridors; in general it is suggested that your poster be no larger than 4' high x 6' wide including title. Your poster should be self-explanatory so that you are free to supplement and discuss particular points raised by your audience. On the other hand you should be prepared for evaluators who may ask you to present your poster. You may find it useful to have on hand a pad of paper and suitable drawing materials.
Bear in mind that illustrations may be viewed from a distance. The sequence of illustrations should be indicated with numbers or letters at least 2" high, preferably in bold print. Each figure or table should have a heading of 1 or 2 lines in large type stating the "take-home" message. Detailed information should be provided in a legend in smaller type below. Because there is little text accompanying the poster, the legend may contain commentary that would normally appear in the body of a manuscript. It should describe the content of the figure and the conclusions derived therefrom. Details of methodology should be brief and may either be printed as a separate sheet or may be included at the end of the appropriate figure legend. Charts, drawings and illustrations could be similar to those used in making slides - preferably simpler (avoid unnecessary details) and more heavily drawn. Keep everything as clear as possible. Use of colour photographs, graphics and backing board is encouraged.
The poster will be evaluated by members of the department's faculty who will assess:
- Legibility
- Headings
- Adequacy of figures
- Concise description of methodology
- Delineation of aims
- Results
- Discussion and conclusion(s)
- Oral presentation
Students are encouraged to visit posters currently on display in the Department for ideas. The Departmental secretariat has considerable computer driven graphics capability. Information about this can be obtained from Blanche Dinelle, Room 3206, Tel. 613-562-5406.
Seminar Presentations Dos and Don'ts
- DO speak with your supervisor once the date and time has been decided. Remind him/her on occasion. They must attend.
- DO get them to commit time to go over your presentation with you.
- DON”T panic
- DON’T leave it to the last minute – it is painfully obvious when this happens.
- DO practice, practice and practice – in front of your lab mates or anyone else – and get feedback
- DO make some notes in case you get flustered and lose your place
- DON’T read your presentation or memorize it word for word (the first one or two slides is OK if you are nervous).
- DON’T use word slides – nobody likes lectures where the professor crams in tons of text onto a slide - wherever possible use pictures or diagrams to explain your point.
- If you need prompts, use bulleted keywords rather than complete sentences. The audience will have trouble listening to you if they are reading the slide.
- DO speak naturally and in your own words
- DO look up at the audience
- DON”T read your title. Everyone has most likely read it already.
- DO begin with a general statement about the importance of the topic you are presenting (“Cell division is a key step in the formation of multicellular organisms…”)
- DO present the rationale for the topic you are presenting (“…however, for many years it was unclear how cells maintain a constant number of chromosomes”)
- DO include references for the data slides you present – usually this can be written under the figure in small text or in the lower corner of the slide.
- DON’T throw around names of scientists to try to impress the audience.
- DO know the leading scientists in the field (like Nobel Prize winners) in case you get a question on this.
- DON’T assume that professors know about the subject area you are presenting. Most will not be experts in the area.
- DO assume that the audience has a good scientific background, that they know how to interpret an experiment, and are familiar with most basic techniques.
- DO explain new technologies briefly and what can be learned using the method.
- DON’T focus solely on techniques – the biology and/or physiology is the most important.
- DO explain the take home message of an experiment or series of experiments (“These results suggest…”) in case the audience missed the details. This can be done after each slide. Use this as an opportunity to make a transition to the next slide (“These findings raised the question …To explore this idea…next slide).
- DO present a summary of your presentation at the end. Again, try not to read it. Explain the importance of what you talked about. Raise interesting issues and unanswered questions in the field.
- DO acknowledge people who helped you a lot.
- DON’T acknowledge family, friends etc.
- DO end your presentation by stating that you would be happy to answer any questions (even if this is a lie!)
- DO say “I don’t know” or “I haven’t thought carefully about that” if you can’t answer a question – elaborate about a related issue if you have information on it. If you don’t understand the question, ask the person to repeat or rephrase it.
- DON’T give B.S. answers when you don’t know what you are talking about. You will just dig yourself into a hole (and invite more questions)!
- DO realize that the professor might know the answer or might not – he/she may be genuinely interested in finding out more.
- DO take a moment to think about the question. Rephrase it, if necessary, to make sure you are answering the right question. Use the board if necessary to make diagrams to help with your explanation.
- DON’T blurt out irrelevant nonsense.
- DO try to anticipate possible questions and how you would answer them. Think about what the next big steps are in the field. What key experiments remain to be done? How would you design an experiment to test…?