Psylutions -- Dr. Snyder's Blog
Assignments
Group Presentation
Students will be organized into groups. Each group will pick a project from an assigned list of topics. Group members will collaborate to research their topic and will present their work to the class in a 40 minute presentation.
Individual Research Project
During the course students will also be working on an individual research project of their own choice. Students will submit a proposal of their research topic, present their work as a poster, and finally turn in a 12 page term paper.
For the proposal students must provide one or two paragraphs describing their research topic and an annotated reference list of at least 5 journal articles. That is, the appropriate APA references for the 5 articles selected, along with a brief (i.e., abstract length) explanation (note: not a summation of the article) of the relevance for each article to the proposed research topic.
The poster will be an academic-style poster presentation of the topic you have submitted in your proposal and are working on for your term paper. Details about poster construction, design, and grading will be covered in class and on the course website.
We will be using peer evaluation for your poster. Three other students (i.e., your peers) will evaluate your poster using the same grading format as the instructor. The instructoręs grade of a poster counts for 75% and the three peer evaluatorsę grades comprise the remaining 25%. If a student fails to complete the evaluations (i.e. grading) of the required posters that student will suffer a 15% penalty on his or her own poster. The term paper should be 12 pages in length, plus or minus one page where 12 point Times font, double spacing, and 1 inch margins are used. The paper should have at least 15 references. Details about APA style format, embedded citations, etc. will be discussed in class and on the course website.
We will be using peer editing for your term paper. This means that each student must submit a draft copy of their paper on 18 November. This draft will be read and edited by one other student in class. The writer of the paper and the peer editor must meet to discuss the editoręs evaluation by 25 November. When the final term paper is turned in the edited draft copy along with the peer editoręs evaluation must also be submitted. Part of a studentęs grade on the term paper will reflect development from the draft copy to the final paper. The peer editor will be evaluated on the thoroughness of his or her editing job of the term paper.
The proposal and paper must be turned in to the instructor by the days they are due. For every day an assignment is late (including weekends), 10% will be deducted. Please do not put an assignment under the instructor's door! A late assignment may be submitted directly to the instructor or may be turned in to office staff at the Department of Psychology office (BSP-217).
Final Examination
There is no final examination in this course.