Group Poster Project

Here you will find details of a Group Poster Project run for a large first year class in the Foundations of Mathematics course carried out in the Discipline of Mathematics at the University of Queensland. The project was first run in both semesters of 2007.

Outline of the Group Poster Project

Students are to form groups of 3 or 4 people from the same tutorial class and students should start forming groups in the first week of tutorials to allow plenty of time before the project work begins. The final date by which students must have formed a group is announced during the first week of teaching. If students are having problems forming a group, they should notify the tutor or the lecturer so that they can assist. A bulk email should also be sent to the class as a reminder.

Each group will chose and research a topic from the list below to be presented as a poster during your regular tutorial class. Students are expected to work on the project both individually and as a group outside tutorial class time. Students will need to arrange meetings with your group members to decide who does what and when to ensure that each assessment task for the project (outlined below) is completed on time.

Projects will be marked by the tutors according to the Assessment Criteria.

The project is worth 10% of the final grade. Students must submit all items listed in the assessment criteria and all work is to be submitted to Assignment boxes corresponding to tutorial class lists. It is expected that each student will spend approximately 10 hours on the project. It is recommended that the project be run over a period of six weeks. A summary of deadlines for each of the assessment pieces should also be provided to the students.

Project Topics

RSA Cryptography
Carbon Offset Schemes
Famous Female Mathematicians
Famous People
The Fibonacci Sequence
Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic
Magic Squares
Mendelian Genetics
Nuclear Energy Waste
Roots of Polynomials
Population Growth Models
Safe diving
Dynamic Response Structures
Tsunamis
Share returns
Bandicoots

NOTE: Students may develop their own topic subject to approval by the Lecturer. New projects are being developed each semester that the project is run.

Poster Information

Short lecture presentation: "How to make a poster".

Maximum size of the poster is A0, that is 841 x 1189 mm. There are example posters up outside the tutorial classrooms on level 3 of the Priestley building (67), and also on the blackboard website. Students are not expected to computer generate a poster. A4 pages stuck on to cardboard, tidy handwriting and (accurate) hand-drawn diagrams are all acceptable. Other tips for poster production may be found here: Poster check list.

During the tutorial class, each group will spend 2-3 minutes (only) explaining the research and findings of their poster project to the class. Each member of the group is encouraged to speak. Therefore it is important for students to spend time preparing exactly what they intend to say so that each presentation remains under 3 minutes. A class discussion should be encouraged at the end of each presentation.

Example Posters:
Winning poster from 1st Semester 2007: Fibonacci
Runners up from 1st Semester 2007: Tacoma Narrows Bridge Collapse and Mendelian Genetics

Assessment Item 1 - Progression Sheet

Students download and complete the Progression sheet. The submission of the Progression sheet is to be typed and handed in to the Assignment boxes by the due date. Only one submission is required per group.

Assessment Item 2 - Peer Assessment

During the tutorial class, each group spends 2-3 minutes (only) explaining their poster to the class. Each group is required to peer assess one other presentation.

To do this, students are required to download the Peer Assessment Sheet before the poster presentations in the tutorial class.

The group peer assessing may wish to briefly leave the tutorial room after the presentation to discuss the poster being peer assessed and short notes should be hand written on the form. The group should then take the notes and prepare a typed version for submission. This is to be handed in to the Assignment boxes by the due date and only one peer assessment sheet from each group should be handed in. Each project group will receive a copy of the comments made about the group poster in the tutorial class in the week following submission.

Assessment Item 3 - Individual summary of work

Each student must submit a concise summary of the work (between 200 and 300 words) on the group project by the due date using the Template provided here. The submission must be in your own words and should complete the requirements outlined in the project description.

The "Your project" bit should fill in the gaps that didn't fit on the poster, for example, the parts explained verbally in the group presentation. It should be about the whole project and not just a student's individual contribution.

The motivation for this is that often in the workforce you will have a team working on a project and then you will have to combine the work and you may have to present the results of others. It means that it's important that you understand the contribution of your collegues to the project, and not just your part. Hence the importance of generating an 'originality report' (see below).

The Individual Summary needs to be uploaded to the interface given by Turnitin in Blackboard and students will be able to view an 'originality report' which assesses the level of originality of the work. Students can view their ‘originality report’ for their poster project by clicking "view/complete" in the same place where they submitted their Individual Summary in "Turnitin". There will appear a table. One of the titles in the table will be "contents" and under this a colour coded percentage should appear within 24 hrs of the student's submission. Click the colour code to view the originality report. If students need to change something, they can resubmit. For example, if a paragraph has been copied from a website, the originality report will reflect that and it will be necessary for the student to rewrite the paragraph. However, students can only submit a summary and receive a report once every 24 hours - so the process should not be repeated too close to the due date! Students must also hand in a typed hard copy of the Individual Summary to the Assignment boxes by the due date. Make sure you put your summary into the correct box matching your tutorial class.

Note about plagiarism: Students must read and understand the library resource on how to avoid plagiarism: http://www.library.uq.edu.au/training/plagiarism.html. In particular, for help on referencing correctly they may consult http://www.uq.edu.au/hanginthere/studySkills/study43.html.

EXAMPLE 1 This is a typical example of what is considered a PASS for the individual summary.
EXAMPLE 2 This is a typical example of what is considered a FAIL for the individual summary.

Assessment Item 4 - Project Questionnaire

To complete this project each student must fill out a Questionnaire which is to be completed in Blackboard by the due date. The results have been used by the Discipline of Mathematics for future practice of the project and the Questionnaire is an essential Assessment Criteria.

The Student Questionnaire.

Instructions for Tutors

For a class larger than 100 students, a "project supertutor" is required for up to 45 hours of work to ensure that the project is coordinated runs smoothly. The following instructions may also be helpful:
Tutor instructions for the running of the group poster project.
Tutor instructions for the running of the student poster presentations during tutorial classtime.

Back to the Mathematics Education homepage

Mathematics Education Web Page. Last updated November 2007 by Katrina Hibberd email.