Organism Spotlight

In this course you will be responsible for doing a short presentation on a particular species or genus. For some organisms, a description of the genus will be adequate. The presentation must be in the form of three or more PowerPoint slides. I encourage you to collaborate with one or two peers to make the presentation piece. You will present the material on your organism to the class. It is important to make connections to the reading.

In your spotlight, you need to outline the taxonomy of the genus or species using the Linnaean classification system as well as outline the natural history of the organism. Organism natural history means the reproductive strategy of the organism, feeding habits, physical descriptions of its’ movement, physical description of the organism and other interesting facts. Presentations should be no more than 15 minutes.

Presentation slides should be referenced using AMA, Chicago, APA or MLA citation styles. Lack of references will result in no credit.

Note: The article that you use for your article review could be a source of information for your presentation. If you have a group of three, then three different articles should be sourced, since you will be turning an individual article review in.

*No more than three people can work on a project

Components:

1. Life history (how long does it live, nocturnal or diurnal, larval and mature phases, migratory habits, where it lives in each part of its’ life cycle etc.)

2. Reproduction

3. Feeding strategy (include manner of ingestion and predation)

4. Physical description of the organism (include dentition pattern, unusual eye placement, cell wall construction etc.)

5. Distribution in the world (where it can be found and its’ abundance)

6. Threats to its’ continued survival (if any)

7. Ecological niche (where it lives and its’ place in the food web)

8. Competitors or symbiotic relationships

9. Taxonomy/phylogeny (Linnaean classification and how the organism is related to other genera in its’ family)

10. Sensory systems (how does it sense its’ environment and how does it navigate)

11. Range of tolerances or limiting factors (can’t survive low salinities or temperatures for example)

12. Communication strategies

13. Any interesting fact about the organism

14. Commercial or other uses

15. Visual images of organism

16. Any unusual aspect of its’ molecular biology (toxin production, genomic, membrane structure etc.)

17. Locomotion-(how does it move?)

18. Social systems present or absent (if present describe)

19. Metabolic strategy-ectothermic, heterothermic or endothermic

20. Evolutionary history-how long have they been around for? What areas of the globe did their primary evolution occur etc.)