Biology 11A Presentations
(50 points)
The goal of this assignment is to give you experience at researching and presenting topics in
biology. You will work in groups of 2-3 to learn about a human disease and give an oral
powerpoint presentation to the lab section.
The Assignment
Your presentation will be a 15 minute-long powerpoint slide show and oral talk. You can also use
the board to supplement your slides. If you do not know how to use powerpoint, the library can
help you. All group members must help putting together the powerpoint and speak during the
talk! There will be a few minutes between groups for question/answer. Follow the outline below
to construct your presentation:
1. Title slide: include the title of your presentation and your names.
2. Disease background: describe the disease.
a. Describe the cause.
b. What are the symptoms?
c. How widespread is the disease? Who are affected? Give some demographic
data.
3. Treatment/Prevention: discuss cures and therapies of the disease.
a. Discuss current treatments and/or prevention.
b. What are the new or up-and-coming treatments/research on the disease?
4. Key points: summarize the important points of your topic and presentation.
5. References: cite all sources used in your presentation (textbooks, research articles,
internet links, etc). Any figure/diagram/table taken from another source must be cited.
Try to present the information in an engaging and logical way. Do not put too much information
on one slide because it may be hard to see. Have a balanced mix of graphics and text. Try not to
just read off of what is on the slides. Also, do not rush through slides too quickly. Generally,
spending about 1 minute per slide is a good pace. That means you will have about 15 slides or so
for your whole presentation.
All presentations are going to be run the on lab computers. There is one of each, PC and Mac. On
the day of your presentation, you will bring in a CD or USB storage device that contains your
powerpoint file(s). We will load the computer with your presentation at the beginning of lab.
Grading
Your presentation will be graded on clarity and accuracy of the information. I will also look for
how well you follow the format listed above and how logical and clear your presentation is. All
members of the group will receive the same grade, so it is important that you work closely with
your teammates on this assignment. The following is the rubric I will use for grading this
assignment.
Item
Title (2 pts)
Maximum
Points
2
Points
Awarded
Comments
Background (20 pts)
Treatments (10 pts)
Key Points (2 pts)
References (2 pts)
Style (10 pts)
Cause
Body System
Affected
Symptoms
Demographics
Cures/Prevention
New Research
Oral Clarity
Visuals
Questions/Answers (4 pts)
Total
5
5
5
5
5
5
2
2
5
5
4
50