Journal Article Presentation

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Date:

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Journal Article Presentation

Directions: For this project you will required to do a presentation about current research being conducted in Anatomy and Physiology. The best way to learn what research is being conducted in Anatomy and Physiology is to read and be able to explain current journal articles. Your task will be to find a research-based journal article and present it to the class. At the end of the presentations there will be a quiz on the current research being done in the field as explained by your classmates.

Selecting a Journal Article:

You must select a primary-research based journal article that is related to Anatomy and Physiology. Although the topic is of your choosing there are some criteria that the paper must meet. The journal article must be:

- Research based and include an introduction, methods, results, and conclusion

- Peer-reviewed (from a creditable journal, not just published on a webpage)

- Full-text (you need to have access to the whole paper, not just the abstract)

- Published within the last 5 years

Finding a Journal Article:

The best way to find a full text article is by using one of the online databases that Lakeland allows access to. This will be gone over in class, but you may use the worksheet entitled, "Tips to Finding a Research Based Journal Article" for reference. Remember you are going to have to present the journal article to your classmates, so make sure you can understand the article you select and that it is school appropriate.

Reading the Journal Article:

Reading journal articles can be tricky. Journal articles often include terminology that is difficult to understand as well as advanced vocabulary. When reading your article, if you do not understand a term you must look it up to be sure you are correctly understanding the article. If you have questions come ask and I can help you work through it.

Presentation Guidelines:

After you read and understand the journal article you will be presenting the journal article to your classmates. In order to help you present the material to your classmates, you will be required to make a visual aid (Ex: PowerPoint, Poster, etc.). Both the visual aid and the presentation should include the following:

- Background information. This will help your classmates understand the experiment. Remember your classmates did not read the paper and may not be familiar with the terminology, so you must explain any terms or concepts that the class may not be familiar with.

- Purpose of the experiment. You must explain what the authors are trying to figure out.

- Hypothesis. You must explain what the authors think will be the outcome of their experiment.

- Methods and Materials. You must explain how the experiment was carried out and what materials they used. This is often the most difficult part of the paper because it may involve procedures that you are not familiar with. If the methods involve complex equipment or math you need to be able to explain it. You must be able to explain how the authors gathered their data. Hint: Pick a paper that you can understand their research methods with little excess research.

- Data and Results. You have to explain the results of the experiment using data from the actual paper. You can use actual images and graphs from the paper, you just have to be able to explain what they are saying. Hint: Every figure has a legend underneath it that explains what is in the figure.

- Discussion/Conclusion: You have to explain the outcome of the experiment. What do the results say? What does that data mean? Explain why the results matter and what implications they have for the future. What further research is needed in this area? The researchers will often draw conclusions at the end of their papers and sum it all up, but sometimes their conclusions are not always accurate especially in older papers. So if you think their conclusions do not match their data that is fine, but you have to explain why you disagree of what you think they did incorrectly.

- Citation: The last side of your PowerPoint should be a citation of your paper in APA format as well as any other sources you used to complete this presentation. In order to cite in APA format use the guide entitled "Learning How to Cite in APA Format."

** You will be graded on both the content of your presentation as well as your presentation skills, so make sure you understand the journal article and can explain it to your peers without reading off your visual aid or the journal article itself.