DISCUSSION LEADER

The Discussion Leaders  will present a 40 minute lecture, using PowerPoint, based on the article for discussion that day in class.  The presentation will summarize the article including purpose (contribution to science), methods, results, and conclusions.  The presenter will highlight the assumptions the author(s) make and consider the effect of these assumptions.  The work needs to be compared and contrasted with the main literature cited in the article to illustrate differences and/or  improvements made by the present author.  The good students will search for other articles, not cited, perhaps more recent, to aid in the evaluation of that paper.  In short, the discussion leader needs to read the original literature outside of the paper under discussion.  Also, the good student will attempt to evaluate how appropriateness of the assumptions/methods/conclusions..

Because of the limited scientific depth the students in the class have compared to the challenging task of reading and comprehending a journal article in a field in which they are unfamiliar there will be two Discussion Leader.   After the presentation, the Discussion Leader will be answer questions from the class and while trying to emphasize the "take home message" of the article.

Days Prior to the Presentation:  The Discussion Leader s will discuss the approach with the Professor to be sure they are on the right track.   This is an important check for the students that they are going in the right direction.  It is important that the Discussion Leaders maintain coordination, there should be no surprises among the team in the presentation. 

Style:   Do not present the article with statements like "he did this", or, "then she did that".  Its boring and not very thoughtful.  Power Point lends itself to lots of nice photos with little information, be careful of needless eyewash.  Alternatively, reading sentences, particularly lists, are boring.  The audience can read those faster than you can verbalize them.  Just point out the important thoughts, items that you want the audience to remember.

After the Presentation:  Hand in the PowerPoint File, your typewritten notes and outline for the talk.

CLASS MEMBERS

Each class member  needs to have read the article and be ready for discussion.  Each member , except for the presenter and assistants, will hand in a short summary (not to exceed one page typewritten, 12 pt font) of the article. The summary will include:

 1.   Title and author
2. Purpose of the paper (why was the study done).
3. Relevance: how does it contribute to the field, what problem is it trying to solve, gaps trying to fill.
4.  Methods,
5.  Major points of the discussion,
6.  Important conclusions
7.  Include three questions about the paper, which you will use as a basis for your discussion after the presentation.

Please title each section with the headings above. It will help you stay organized and be clearer to me.