63rd Eastern Colleges Science Conference, Spring 2009
Presentation Evaluations and Awards
It is the intent of the conference to provide an evaluation for each platform and poster presentation. Copies of the evaluation forms are presented here so that students and their mentors can better understand the criteria given to the judges. Click here for Platform Evaluation Form . Click here for Poster Evaluation Form . These evaluation sheets will be sent to the mentors after the conference and the judges' names will have been removed.
The evaluations provide students written, constructive comments about their presentations—information that may be useful to students who wish to improve their presentation skills. These evaluations also provide the basis for determining awards for particularly outstanding presentations. These awards are presented during the conference banquet. It is the intent that one award will be given for each platform presentation and poster presentation per category. If the evaluators deem that no presentation for a particular category is excellent, no award will be given in that category.
Awards for excellence will also be presented for particularly outstanding full-length manuscripts . Each manuscript/paper will be evaluated by one judge. The judge evaluating a given manuscript will have professional expertise in the discipline covered by the research topic but will not be from the same institution as the author. The manuscript will not be formally reviewed but instead will be evaluated as either "excellent" or "not excellent," based on the professional opinion of the evaluator. The decision of the evaluator is final.
Examples of criteria that are likely to be used in evaluating a manuscript are shown below:
Introduction
Does the introduction present a thorough background?
Does the introduction tie the subject of the research to existing literature?
Materials and Methods
Are the methods outlined clearly and in a logical sequence?
Results
Are the data presented clearly, completely and in a logical order and format?
Discussion
Are the results interpreted logically?
Are there adequate references to relevant literature?
Paper as a Whole
Is the writing clear? Are the ideas or points made in a logical sequence?
If a judge includes constructive advice (not an in-depth, formal review) that s/he wishes to pass on to the author, that will be handled through Dr. Donald Stearns after the conference, to maintain anonymity of the evaluators. However, each judge is asked only to identify a paper as "excellent" or "not excellent;" additional comments are completely optional.
Have a question? Please contact Dr. Donald Stearns at dstearns@wagner.edu.