BIO2030 Chap.13 The Poster, the Presentation and the In-class Tests
The Poster, the Presentation and the In-class Tests
The Poster, the Presentation and the In-class Tests covers the remaining sixty five per cent of the unit, and all three tasks share a feature: they are set on material you have already been taught, so the losses in them are procedural rather than conceptual.
The poster is marked against ten criteria totalling twenty marks, and the two largest are one science criterion and one design criterion, which is the fact most posters are built as though were not true. The fourth component differs between the two unit codes that share this Moodle site, and confusing them is the administrative failure most likely to cost a whole task.
The two tests are short, taken without notes and worth more together than the poster.
What this chapter covers
- 01
The poster brief: aim, the five required sections, format, references and the source weeks
- 02
Why the instruction to choose only one genetic approach makes breadth a liability
- 03
The ten marking criteria at their stated maxima, and where the twenty marks concentrate
- 04
The criterion that requires genotype, environment and management in one recommendation
- 05
Locality: why an unnamed country caps the policy criterion
- 06
Administrative gates that void a task independently of its quality
- 07
The fourth component, and how it differs between the undergraduate and postgraduate codes
- 08
The two in-class tests: timing, conditions, coverage and what the unit says about the questions
Rewrite a recommendation so that it reaches the interaction criterion
- +1Score it against the criterion: reasonable suggestions without consideration of the interaction between genotype, environment and management score one of two, and the sentence contains no interaction at all.
- +1Note the second criterion it also fails: the policy criterion rewards clear knowledge of relevant local regulations, and nothing here is local.
- +1Build the interaction explicitly: state how the proposed variety's biology changes what management is appropriate, for instance that a slower developing variety only gains from earlier sowing where frost risk is low.
- +1Attach the environment as a named region rather than as a condition in general, so the recommendation applies somewhere specific and is refutable.
- +1Rewrite the policy sentence so that the instrument matches the interaction: attach the support to the region and the practice together rather than to the seed alone.
Key terms
- Required sections
- The five subheadings a poster must carry: background, genetic approach, implementation, looking ahead, and references. Their presence with a clear title is worth a mark on its own.
- Design criterion
- One of the two three mark criteria, awarded in full for a visually engaging and logically organised poster with a good balance of text to graphics and easy readability.
- Interaction criterion
- The criterion awarding full marks only when proposed practices and policies take account of how genotype, environment and management act together.
- Similarity threshold
- The stated level above which a submission may receive zero and be investigated for academic misconduct, applied to both the report and the poster.
- Group sign up
- The requirement to create a group in order to submit, including for solo submissions. Failure to do so prevents submission entirely.
The Poster, the Presentation and the In-class Tests FAQ
Should I compare several genetic approaches in the poster?
No. The brief says to choose only one genetic approach even if several would work, and the criterion rewards a clear rationale explaining why the selected approach is appropriate for that crop and that problem. A poster that surveys three routes has demonstrated reading and failed the criterion, because there is no single rationale for a marker to assess.
The efficient move is to pick the route that the shape of the required change points to, then dispose of the alternatives in one line each, which shows the same breadth without spending the space or losing the criterion.
How are the two in-class tests run and what do they cover?
Each is a Moodle quiz held during your allocated laboratory class, worth twelve and a half per cent, with a thirty minute limit, one attempt and a password. They are taken without notes, with laptop only, and no phones, artificial intelligence tools or talking are permitted; you receive a data sheet that is returned at the end.
Test one sits in week six and covers weeks one to five, with printed data to analyse, and the worked examples the unit names for it are harvest index and growth rate calculations. Test two sits in week twelve and covers the genetics theme from week six onward, in the same format.
Why does my fourth assessment differ from a classmate's?
Because the unit runs under two codes on one site. The undergraduate stream gives a group presentation with slides uploaded and a group and topic chosen by the end of week eight; the postgraduate stream writes an individual two thousand word review of a journal article, on which discussion with others is treated as collusion. Both are worth twenty per cent and both appear under the same heading.
The poster deadline also differs between the codes by about a week, so check the code at the head of every task page before acting on a date.
Assessment move
Plan this material rather than revise it, because its losses are almost all avoidable in advance. In week one, put four dates in a calendar: the week six test, the week seven report deadline that collides with the genetic modification laboratory, the end of week eight deadline for forming a presentation group, and the week twelve test.
For the poster, decide the country and the single genetic approach before writing anything, since both decisions determine which criteria you can reach, and budget graphics per section before drafting text, because text expands to fill whatever space is left and the design criterion is worth as much as the science one.
Draft at least one sentence that carries genotype, environment and management together, and check the cheap criteria last: a title that communicates topic and focus, all five sections present, and five consistently formatted references. For the tests, prepare by working the arithmetic and the route choice reasoning rather than by rereading, because thirty minutes working without notes rewards what is already automatic.
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