For your final project, your group will submit a paper describing your experiment and create a presentation for the class. The paper will be due June 14, 11:59pm and the group presentations will take place June 14, 12-3pm.
We are offering a minor extra credit opportunity on the final project. Extra credit will be awarded to any team that analyzes the eigendecomposition of a spike time tiling coefficient (STTC) matrix created from their data. You created STTC matrices in the Electrophysiology HW and did eigendecomposition in the Eigenvectors HW. Compare this to principal components analysis (PCA). On top of being extra credit, this analysis can count as the "original analysis" you are required to do for your final.
Your final paper should be a scientific article describing your experiment. This is a fake journal article, with an Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, and Reference sections. Length: Your paper should contain at least 5 pages of written text, and can have no more than 8 pages of text. “Written text” is defined as the text you write for the following sections of your paper: Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion/Conclusion. Notice that “written text” does not include references, plots, tables, section headings, or blank space for layout. The actual paper you submit will likely be longer than 8 pages.
Minimum: 0.3 pages
- Provide a brief summary of your paper
- Nice tutorial on writing abstracts
Minimum: 1.25 page
- Briefly, contextualize the experiment you ran with the larger scope of scientific research on the same topic. Provide a background summary of experiments related to yours.
- What experiments have there been in the past related to your topic? How are these finding similar or different? Do they use different equipment or biological models? Please note, your experiment was an exercise- we do not expect novel results.
- In general, what new technologies you are using that make your experiment unique?
Minimum: 0.75 page
- State the general type of experiment your group ran, the name of the device used for the experiment, and the type of tissue used.
- Describe the protocol that was implemented to conduct your experiment.
- State any changes made to your protocol from what was originally submitted in the “Experiment” homework. Did the stimulation pattern change? Did the tissue model change? Why were these changes made?
Minimum: 2 pages
- Should contain at least 5 unique plots/tables
- Pay particular attention to this section. It’s the portion we find the most interesting.
- Analyze the resulting data from your experiment. Use your analysis to determine whether or not your experiment yielded the expected results
- Make sure to perform some of the analysis techniques used in previous home works
- Attempt a new analysis technique not from the homework. For your original analysis, you can use plots seen in papers, code found online, or ideas you come up with yourself.
Minimum: .7 pages
- State whether or not your experiment went according to plan. If it didn’t, describe why not. Are there any changes you would make to your protocol? Any changes you would make to the experiment in general (tissue, sample number, etc...)?
- Tie your experiment’s results back to the literature. Was it consistent with literature?
- Do you think your experiment was a good idea? What did you learn from doing it? If given the opportunity again, what experiment would you do?
Minimum: 10 sources
- Reference Format: Any, just keep it consistent
- Format: Google Docs
- Font: Arial, 11pt font
- Spacing: single
- Margins: 1 inch
- Text Length: 5-8 pages
- Due Date: June 14, 11:59pm
Your group will present a 25 minute talk where you showcase the results of your experiment. Classmates then have 5 minutes to ask questions about your presentation.
Scientific talks tend to follow a similar format to papers: Introduction, Method, Results, Discussion/Conclusion, and Acknowledgements. With that said, at least half of this specific talk should be devoted to your analysis of the data. Your peers already know the general format of the experiment, so keep the Introduction and Method section brief. If your experiment’s method is novel, it can warrant a slightly longer description.
Some words of advice – Lots of text is a sign of a bad presentation. Presentation slides are your opportunity to showcase figures, equations, graphics, and visual cues, not text. Instead of reading off a presentation screen, either memorize what you want to say or bring flashcards. Also, practice how you orate. You are being graded on substance and style. Dress professionally. Questions to consider when constructing your presentation:
- Is the focal point of my presentation the figures and analysis?
- Are the most important equations I used shown in Latex?
- Did I practice speaking the presentation out loud and time myself?
- Format: Google Slides
- Talk: 25 minutes
- Questions: 5 minutes
- Time: Jun 14, 12-3pm
- Location: Psys Sci 114