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Dr. Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. Office: Centreville 1216 Phone: x5-4084 E-mail: tholtz@umd.edu Office Hours: Tue 8:30-11 am or by appointment

Dr. John W. Merck, Jr. Office: Centreville 1218 Phone: x5-2808 E-mail: jmerck@umd.edu Office Hours: Thurs 3-5 pm (GEO 1119) or by appointment

STUDENT TA:
Sara Sherman
E-mail: sherman8@umd.edu
Office Hours: Centreville 1217, Mon 1-2 pm

A pdf version of this file is available here.

NOTE: It is your responsibility as a student to completely read through and understand this syllabus. If you have questions about it, please contact Dr. Holtz or Dr. Merck. You will be held responsible for following all requirements of this syllabus.

NOTE ALSO: There will be a $40 fee for the printing of your poster, which will be charged when you apply to participate in the Academic Showcase.

Requirements: In order successfully to complete the ELT practicum, you must satisfy four requirements:

• Complete your project:
  • You must complete the appropriate number of on-site hours for the credit hours for which you have enrolled: 25 hours for 1 hour, 50 hours for 2 hours, and 75 hours for 3 hours. Naturally, you must also complete the duties to which you agreed when setting up the project. Go here to download the project completion verification form.
• Poster presentations of practicum projects results will be given in the College Park Scholars Academic Showcase on Friday, April 30. You must register online to participate in the Academic Showcase by March 12. If your service project or internship involves original academic or scientific research on your part, you may, additinally, opt to present at the University Undergraduate Research Day, April 21. (Apply for the Undergraduate Research Day online). (If you do present at Undergraduate Research Day, you are still expected to have your poster presented at Scholars Academic Showcase as well.) In either event, your presentation will be in a public forum that will be attended by current and future instructors, advisors, and, possibly, employers. Your presentation is an excellent opportunity to bring yourself to their (positive) attention.
• Post the pdf file of your poster prior to your public presentation, linked to your main ELT website.
• Post a reflection essay online reviewing your time as a practicum student. This is due by the last day of classes (May 11).
• Complete and turn in your preliminary ELT Citation Completion Checklist (due on last day of classes, May 11).

Grades: The grade for this class is based on the following:

• 40% - Successful and adequate completion of the on-site work (based in part on your site supervisor's report on the Practicum Verification form).
• 40% - Poster grade. 80 points if all requirements are met. The poster grading is found at http://www.geol.umd.edu/~jmerck/eltsite/templates/posterrubric.html.
• 5% - Quality and timely posting the pdf of poster liked to your ELT website. Due date is the date of the Academic Showcase, April 30.
• 10% - Reflection website grade
• 5% - Turn in a copy of the ELT Citation Completion Checklist by the last day of class.

IMPORTANT!!: Each and every person MUST do their own poster. This is true even if you were collaborators on the same exact project. Each poster must be individualized (although of course there will be some overlap if you are doing the same project!).

A guide is provided to help you construct your poster.

Our expectation is that everyone will get an A by following the rules. However, if you fall short of the standards, your grade will be docked accordingly.

GRADE SCALE (Course): >=90, A; 80-89, B; 70-79, C; 60-69, D; <60, F. "+" and "-" grades are given to the top and bottom two-point range, respectively, within each grade.

Schedule: The following includes our various meetings throughout the semester, plus other important dates. If you cannot make the individual evening meetings, please check in with us to make certain that you are getting all the relevant information.

IMPORTANT: It is expected that you will be present for your presentations at either the Undergraduate Research Day or the Academic Showcase. Please plan accordingly.

• Tues. 2/2: CCC1205, 5:30-6:30 pm. General orientation.
• Tues. 3/9: CCC1205, 5:30-7:30 pm. Poster techniques and trouble-shooting.
• Wed. 3/10: CCC1205, 6-8 pm. Poster techniques and trouble-shooting (for those who missed the 3/9 meeting).
• Fri. 3/12: Online Registration for Academic Showcase due.
• Tues. 4/6: CCC1205, 5:30-6:30 pm. Practicum trouble-shooting.
• Fri. 4/9: Poster files on CD or thumbdrive due to Drs. Merck or Holtz by 4 pm.
• Wed. 4/21: Undergraduate Research Day
• Fri. 4/30: College Park Scholars Academic Showcase
• Tues. 5/4: CCC1205, 5:30-7:30 pm. Post-Poster Presentation Party and ELT wrap-up.
• Tues. 5/11: Reflection due online; ELT Citation Completion Checklist turned in.

Students who complete evaluations for all of their courses in the previous semester (excluding summer), can access the posted results via Testudo's CourseEvalUM Reporting link for any course on campus that has at least a 70% response rate. You can find more information, including periodic updates, at the IRPA course evaluation website.

The expectation is that all students will complete these. This is YOUR chance to anonymously evaluate this class: please use this opportunity!

Guidelines for Project Presentations:
One big benefit we hope to derive from this exercise is that we will all look good. In order to facilitate this we are suggesting the following presentation guidelines. There are certain things we absolutely require, however depending on the nature of your project, you may want to modify other aspects slightly. Feel free to do so. We present them as defaults:

Construction: You presentation will be mounted on a 40" x 32" rectangle of foam-core backing (we will provide these). Have your entire poster printed on a plotter. We will provide information on submitting files for printing later this semester.

Absolute Requirements: ELT requires that the following conventions be observed for full credit:

• You poster's overall dimensions should be 36" x 30". There should be a one-inch margin all around. This gives you 34" x 28" of useful space within the poster.
• All poster materials must be printed by the plotter. If you plan to use photographs, drawings, or charts, these must either be digitized with a scanner or developed digitally. Hand-Lettering of poster is prohibited. (If your poster material poses some serious difficulty, consult with us in advance.)
• The University of Maryland logo and the CPS sunspot logo must appear in the upper left and right hand corners respectively.
  • Raster (.bmp) UMD logo file
  • Vector (.eps) UMD logo file
  • Raster (.gif) Scholars logo file
  • Vector (.eps) Scholars logo file
  NEW: If possible, we would like to you include the ELT Cooperoceras image somewhere on the page. It can be as large as the other logos, or you can reduce it. Do not feel compelled to use it; however, it would be nice to see if you can reasonably fit it in.
  • Raster (.jpg) ELT logo file
• All posters are to have a heading indicating:
  • Project Title
  • Author's full name
  • Author's affiliation (i.e., Scholars program and major) and contact information (email).
  E.G.,
  Monetary Benefit Analysis of
  Applying Suntan Lotion to
  the Backsides of Wealthy Retirees at
  the Sunny Side Up Naturist Resort

  Mohn W. Jerck, Jr.
  Hypothetical Physics and Ceramics Double Major College Park Scholars - Earth, Life, and Time Program
  University of Maryland, College Park
  mjerck@blam.umd.edu

• Bibliography: Provide references for your text as if it were an academic paper. Depending on your project and write up, this may not be necessary. See ELT's preferred bibliographic style.
• All text should be in a common True-Type font such as Times Roman Bold, Palatino Bold, Arial, etc. If you MUST use an unusual font, be sure to have a copy of it when you attempt to print it.
• Poster must be readily legible from six feet away. To this end, use large type (36 pts or more) for headings and 18 pt for body text. The title might be even larger than 36 pts.

If your project is non-research oriented:
Service Site: Present the service site, its mission, and contact information for it.

Issue Confronting Site: Introduce the issue confronting your service site that your project was meant to address.

Activities: Tell what you did to address the issue confronting the site.

Impact: Describe the impact that your project had on the site, particularly with regards to the major issue you were attempting to address. Also, describe the project's impact on you (i.e., your knowledge base, attitudes, and outlook.).

Future work: Describe possible future issues that your project enables your service site to address.

Acknowledgments: Acknowledge everyone who gave you support or help. Be sure to acknowledge any individual who helped you (either your site supervisor or someone at UMD), College Park Scholars, and the Earth, Life, and Time faculty.

If your project is research oriented:
Abstract; A telegraphic summary of your work not to exceed 300 words. Readers will use this to decide whether they are interested in studying the rest of your poster.

Introduction: Introduce the issues and problems you are studying

Materials: Describe the materials you used, be they bibliographic sources, archival, or physical specimens.

Methods: Explicitly describe your methods of analysis so that a reader would be able (with some research) to replicate your work.

Results: State the results of your research clearly and succinctly.

Discussion: Interpret your results. This section should highlight your major conclusions and possible future lines of inquiry.

Acknowledgments: Acknowledge everyone who gave you support or help. Be sure to acknowledge any individual who helped you (either your site supervisor or someone at UMD), College Park Scholars, and the Earth, Life, and Time faculty.

In any event:
• Include photographs, illustrations, charts, or graphs if they are useful, but do not allow them to distract from your message. Be sure to include photographs of yourself working on the project if at all possible. This will really help reinforce that YOU did this work: this is not simply a report on someone else's accomplishments.

• Where possible, use bulletized summaries of information in your text, rather than full paragraphs. You don't have much room!

• Assemble elements in a logical visual sequence so that the viewer's eye is drawn around the poster in the right order.

• Design your poster in such a way that it will be logical and intelligible even if you are not there to explain it.

• In academic writing, one generally suppresses one's personal views for the sake of objectivity. In a case like this, however, infusing your text with your personal subjective reactions to your project will make it more engaging and interesting, so don't hold back.

• One neat trick for focusing attention on a key idea is to highlight an insightful quote by placing it in large print in some central location. (You've probably seen news magazines do this.) As you perform your project, be alert for clever quotes that seem to sum up some important aspect.

• But the real key is this: This is you opportunity to promote yourself. People will want to know what you did. Many Scholars student presentations fail to grasp this important fact. Highlight your role and your contribution as much as you can without lying or slamming anyone else. In this setting modesty is a vice!

Last modified: 8 March 2010