Invasion Ecology (NRC 597NV)
1. Length
All presentations should be no longer than 10 minutes (**NOTE: This is shorter than noted on
the original syllabus I handed out). At 10 minutes, I will ask you to wrap up and conclude. If you do not get through all of your materials, your presentation grade will suffer. Use your teams to help you PRACTICE ahead of time. Hint: memorize what you’ll say for the first slide – uncertainty about how to begin is the biggest time killer.
If your presentation is going long, take material out (do not talk faster). Better to make a few points well rather than many points poorly. My default recommendation is no more than one slide per minute (10 slides max).
2. Questions
Each team will have 2 minutes to answer questions at the end of his/her presentation. Anyone who asks a question during this time period will receive a bonus point on his/her presentation grade (max of 2 points).
3. Format & Logistics
Presentations should be written in powerpoint. Please make sure that your presentation displays correctly on a PC – my laptop runs Windows. Powerpoint files must be emailed to me
( bbradley@eco.umass.edu
or bethany.bradley@gmail.com
if the file is >10 MB) by 8 am on the day of the presentation along with the name of the presenter.
4. Presentation style
Using cue cards will not affect your presentation grade. However, I encourage you to try not to use any sort of prompts. Do not read your presentation from a piece of paper – this can cause a stilted and distracting speech pattern which will adversely affect your presentation grade.
I personally do not find bulleted lists of texts to be effective communication tools. I recommend using text to underscore important points, but to use charts, tables, graphs and images to communicate your overall message.

Suggested Outline for Team Presentation 2
Literature Review & Background

What sorts of traits have been hypothesized to enhance or impede invasion for your taxanomic group? (use information from your readings plus the traits you tested in this exercise)

Give an example species that illustrates an important or unique trait that might enhance invasiveness
Methods

Describe your data – how many species did you have, what traits did you test?

Hypotheses – what were your initial hypotheses? Justify your hypotheses

How did you analyze your data?
Results

What did you find? – include charts to illustrate your results

Which traits were important/unimportant based on this analysis? Did your data support or refute your initial hypotheses?

Include at least one chart of figure from your reading – what traits were important based on a different analysis of a similar set of taxa?
Discussion

Was there any trait similarity between your analysis and the results from your readings? How well do you think we can use traits to predict invasion from your taxonomic group?

Include 1 take home point that you want your audience to remember about important traits that might predict invasiveness for your taxonomic group