Projects
Plant Evolutionary Biology includes a couple of projects. These are meant to complement course material and provide multiple paths to success in the class.
Project deadlines deliberately fall on non-class days, to space milestones away from exams and leave time for feedback before the next stage. All deadlines also appear on the schedule page, which is the authoritative calendar if the two ever disagree.
The full project policies are in the course syllabus on Moodle.
495 Projects
These are posters developed in teams of two or more on an assigned clade. The exact topic a team presents on is dependent on their own research and a proposal. Teams need to adhere to deadlines throughout the semester to prepare drafts for peer review, and to give a presentation toward the end of the semester that represents a synthesis of the course content. Accountability is built into the grading rubric, such that team members provide feedback on each other. Technical assistance is provided throughout the course to help develop presentation skills and best practices in poster preparation.
All students in the class, including those enrolled in 595, take part in the poster project.
| Stage | Points | Due |
|---|---|---|
| Project 1: Proposal | 20 | Friday 25 September |
| Project 2: First draft (for peer review) | 20 | Friday 23 October |
| Project 3: Final, print-ready draft | 50 | Monday 16 November |
| Project 4: Poster presentation | 50 | Tuesday 1 December |
| Total | 140 |
Two optional poster help sessions run outside class time on Wednesday 4 November and Wednesday 11 November, both inside the revision window before the print deadline.
The 16 November draft is the version that goes to the printer, which is why it is due two weeks before presentations. Thanksgiving closes the university 25–27 November.
What every submission needs
- An author contributions statement on Projects 2, 3, and 4. Use CRediT roles and name who did what; every member must agree it is accurate before you submit. Details and an example are on the code of conduct page.
- An AI use note, if you used generative AI. See Using AI below.
Printing and display
Printing is covered, and you will not pay for it. Submit your print-ready file by the Project 3 deadline; do not arrange or pay for printing yourself.
Completed posters will be displayed within the Department of Plant and Microbial Biology at a date to be announced, so your work will be seen by people outside this class. Build the poster with that audience in mind. One practical consequence: check that you have the right to reuse every figure. Prefer figures you made yourself or that carry an open license, and credit every source.
595 Projects
In addition to the poster project, graduate students integrate the course with their own research through a research proposal. Proposals are assessed on progression and development rather than on adhering to a specific theme, because I do not want a CMB student to invest time in an EEB proposal that is not useful beyond the class.
A proposal should provide a plausible basis for a graduate student or postdoctoral fellowship application, or at minimum help develop background for a manuscript you are working on. 495 students are assigned a plant family to research and present; 595 topics should be proposed by you. In lieu of a presentation, a final proposal is due at the end of the semester.
| Stage | Points | Due |
|---|---|---|
| One-pager | 20 | Friday 9 October |
| First draft | 30 | Friday 6 November |
| Peer reviews returned | 20 | Friday 20 November |
| Final proposal | 30 | Friday 4 December |
| Total | 100 |
The peer review is graded on the review you give, not the one you receive. Anticipating a reviewer’s criticisms of your own work is a skill you build by writing reviews, not by receiving them.
A template and rubric are available, and the template is flexible depending on your needs and interests.
Using AI on project work
The full policy for every assignment is on the code of conduct page. For project work:
- Posters and 595 proposal drafts: permitted for language, structure, and finding literature, and must be disclosed. Content, interpretation, and figure choices must be yours. Disclosing never costs points; not disclosing is the violation.
- The 595 one-pager and peer review: no AI. Never upload a classmate’s unpublished proposal to any tool.
- Citations and figures: every reference must be real, retrieved, and read, and no figure on a poster may be AI-generated.
Point totals
The poster project is worth 140 of the 600 points in PB 495. Graduate students in PB 595 add the 100-point research proposal, for 700 total. Full distributions and letter-grade cutoffs are on the schedule page.