Christine Case, Skyline College

Guinea moray eel. ©CLCase

Christine L. Case, Ed.D.
Biology Professor
Skyline College

BIOL 675 Project

Working in groups of 3, you will determine the source of an outbreak and report your findings in a scientific poster.

You will receive preliminary data. From those data you will determine what addtional information you need to determine (a) the scope of the outbreak; (b) the source of the outbreak (relative risk calculations); and (c) discuss transmission, prevention, and treatment.. Additional data will be provided as you request it. The sample questionnaire used by public health agencies to track foodborne outbreaks might help you come up with the list of information you want. (Not all of the class projects are food-related.) Sample food outbreak questionnaire.pdf

The Fal 2007 Outbreaks are:
New Hampshire	Middle East	South Dakotaa

The grading form.pdf must be turned in with your poster.

Format. See a sample poster.

Poster siize. Up to 36 x 48 inches.

Font. A sans serif font, such as the Helvetica in these guidelines, should be used. Do not use all capital letters.

• Use a computer to typeset the text. Letters should be at 18-24 point. (Literature cited may be 12-14 point.) Use Helvetica type with capital and lower case letters.
• Paragraphs should be flush left.
• Do not justify the right margin. Justification makes text more difficult to read.
• Lists should be written in phrases rather than sentences.
• Use bullet points to reinforce the items in the list.
• Numbers <10 should be numerals rather than spelled out.
• Color attracts attention, but too much can be distracting. Use only two: one for the text and one for the background. Dark type on a light background is easiest to read.

Headings. Be consistent with headings, whether they are all capital letters, boldface, or italicized. Keep them short-four words or less.

Content

Title. Titles should be no more than ten words. The title and authors' names appears at the top of the poster.

Abstract. Include purpose and brief summary. No more than 150 words.

Background. A review of current literature on the topic. Cite references by (number); see the Stylesheet.

Data. Include case definition, index case, and relative risk calculations. Three figures including tables, graphs (e.g., incidence), and relative risk tables. Each figure must have an explanatory legend. Relative risk sample.

Discussion & Conclusions. Discuss how you arrived at your conclusions (source, method of transmission, prevention, and treatment). Use references to explain whether your outbreak is typical or unusual.

Literature cited. Include at least 5 current references in correct format (see the Stylesheet). References must be cited somewhere in the Background or Discussion. References must be from peer-reviewed scholarly and professional journals feature articles written by researchers and medical personnel. The following are good source of information

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Emerging Infectious Diseases
Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report
World Health Organization publications
Medical journals are indexed in PubMed. PubMed is not the publisher, reference, or citation. It is an index that allows you to electronically search for relevant articles in peer-reviewed medical journals.

Peer groups of researchers, scholars and professionals within a specific discipline are the audience for scholarly literature. Scholarly and professional journals are peer reviewed. Peer review is a well-accepted indicator of quality scholarship. It is the process by which an author's peers read a paper submitted for publication. A number of recognized researchers in the field evaluate a manuscript and recommend its publication, revision, or rejection. Articles accepted for publication through a peer review process implicitly meet the discipline's expected standards of expertise. Read more about scholarly journals.

Peer evaluation. Each student will evaluate the members of their group and the other posters. Some of the criteria you might use could be time spent, useful discussion, work on research, work on layout, and general organization. Peer evaluation form.