Special Assignment

Development of Ichthyology Display Cases

Teams of students will research specific topics involving the biology of selected fish families.  Each team will work under the direction and guidance of a graduate student.  After researching the literature as discussed below, students will deevelop posters and possibly display cases.  All poster and display development and setup must be completed by 10 November 2006.  Failure to complete the setup by this date will result in a 20% reduction on the grade for the set up.  Besides working with the graduate students, each team will be required to turn in a bibliography on their topic by 17 October 2006 to the instructor.  The bibliography will be reviewed to insure that all the pertinent points are being properly covered before the actual set up of the posters and displays.

Topics: will be on selected families of fish.

Display Set Up—As part of your poster or display development and set up, you will need to include or address the following items:

• A bibliography of the scientific literature (journals and textbooks, not web sites) consulted to develop you information for the display.  Bibliographic citings must follow the format of the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologist (http://www.asih.org/).
• 5-10 good web sites whose addresses are located at institutions of higher education or museums.  Privately maintained web pages by nonprofessionals are not acceptable.
• Digital images form off the web or taken during class when in the field.  Images must be clear and distinct and easily identifiable as to what they are.  A caption should be developed for each image.  Images taken off the web must have as apart of the caption the source form whence they came.
• A discussion developed from you bibliography that focuses on the flowing points.
  • Key species in the family
  • Distribution of the species
  • Preferred habitat
  • General discussion of their reproductive biology
  • Unique aspects of their biology  (Example: if you where discussing salmon, a section on their migration and spawning in redds would be warranted.
  • Specimens mounted or preserved form the VSU collections that can be put on display in the cases

After your literature search is completed, you will develop one to three posters (32 X 44” PowerPoint slides) per family on which you will superimpose your pictures, maps and discussions.  The posters/slides will be printed out as large format posters and placed on the walls of the atrium or on the back and sides of the display cases. For the cabinets, you may also place some of the information gathered on sheets of paper such that they can be placed in the cabinets as stand up place cards.  Specimens from the VSU collection or models and props can and should used if they help improve the display.  For an example of what the display should look like, see at the herpetology displays across form the faculty office on the second floor.