1020QBT- Science & Technology Assignment.

Task Overview:
Students are required to work in groups of 4 – 5 students to create a presentation (3 minutes per person) that explains to a non-expert audience a key idea from their discipline area and:
A) Identify a problem or unresolved issue in the discipline
B) State why the problem is significant for the discipline
C) Offer a solution or solutions
D) Provide arguments for the proposed solutions.
1020QBT- Science & Technology Assignment.

A minimum of 6 academic sources should be used to support your ideas. You can use journal articles, conference papers, textbooks, book chapters, company reports, and reports published by the Government.

You should be creative with your presentation through the use of audio- visual aids and other techniques that enhance the engagement and interest of the audience.

1020QBT – Academic & Professional Skills Development For Science & Technology-Griffith University Australia.

Every member of the group should contribute to the presentation (3 minutes each), and all students should contribute to the development of the script.

Submission Requirements

Each student is required to submit their script/notes, including citations and a reference list (APA for science students & IEEE for IT and Engineering students), to Turnitin via Moodle. In addition, each student will also be required to submit an evaluation of their participation in their group through the development of their presentation along with a brief peer review of the other group members’ roles. A template is provided for this in the portal.

The team leader should submit the final copy of the PowerPoint presentation to Turnitin by the due date (day of presentation). A paper copy of the PowerPoint presentation should be submitted to your lecturer/tutor on the day of presentation.

1020QBT- Science & Technology Assignment.

ALL transcripts & a copy of the slides MUST BE SUBMITTED TO TURN-IT-IN BEFORE the presentation in Week 8.

Assessments submitted after this time will be late and will be penalised.

What is a non- expert audience?

When we communicate ideas in science and technology we can communicate to different audiences with different levels of expertise in the areas we are talking about. It is possible to categorise these audiences into 3 groups. The first group is what can be called the ‘experts’. These are people who know your discipline area and you can communicate with using terms that are discipline specific. The second group can be the ‘general public’. These people have no expertise in science and a limited expertise in research and academic argument. It is this group that the mainstream media tries to communicate with. There is a third group of people that exist between the public and experts, and that is the ‘non-expert’ audience. This group of people are people who know things about research and academic writing, but do not know your specific discipline.

1020QBT- Science & Technology Assignment.

To speak effectively to a ‘non-expert’ audience you need to think about the following ideas:

• This group does not have an in-depth knowledge of your discipline and therefore terms that you use may not be easily understood – i.e. you must explain and define terms used.
• Be careful with jargon and words that can mean different things in different contexts.

What ideas from my discipline should I include?

In your tutorial, you will be allocated to work in a group of 4/5 students. Where possible this group should be made up of students studying the same discipline (i.e. science, engineering or IT). However, if this is not the case, then your group should decide which one of these areas will be your focus.

1020QBT- Science & Technology Assignment.

Your topic should be:

• A problem or an unresolved issue in your discipline

You must:

• State why the problem is significant for the discipline
• Offer a solution or solutions
• Provide arguments for the proposed solutions.

You must not recycle assignment content from either your other courses or from previous trimesters.