Missouri River Basin Authority

Instructions
Using the River Basin Authority that you got approved in your Project Proposal create a PowerPoint presentation approximately 25-35 slides with the primary goals of:
• Describing the river basin using the grading criteria below
• Critiquing and analyzing the current management of the basin using information gathered from peer-reviewed primary scientific literature and course materials
The vast majority of your points on this project come from the critique and analysis. Critique and analysis means that you look at each type of management being done at your site and using peer-reviewed primary scientific research and course materials to evaluate the management strategies being used there.

You will be graded here on the professional nature and effectiveness of your presentation as well as the content. You will want to use a consistent and appropriately professional theme for your graphics and color scheme, fonts, etc. When doing presentations you want to use bulleted or numbered lists instead of large unbroken blocks of text. A good general rule of thumb is 5 bullets/numbers per slide and 5 words on each of those bullets/numbers. If in doubt, break it into a second slide. Be sure each slide has an appropriate title that links back to the important requirements of the Assignments. Never have a slide without a title to guide your reader/listener. You can use the notes part of your presentation to include information that you would be saying aloud if you were presenting this to a live audience. Do not simply write a paper and then cut-and-paste big blocks of text from that paper onto your slides. Also do not just cut-and-paste big blocks of information directly from the plan you are using. Be sure it is 100% clear to your Instructor what items in your presentation are simply a report of what is in the plan vs. your analysis/critique of it. One approach is to have the presentation of the management item and then the analysis & critique of that item on the same slide or one followed by the other. Another way is to do all of the reporting in the first part of your presentation and then end with all the slides of your analysis & critique. Either way be sure your bullet points and slide titles are very clear which is which.

Final Project Grading Summary
1) Introduction to the basin (10 points – see breakdown below)
1a: location information, including a map (2.5 points)
1b: formation history such as when the site was established and under what conditions (2.5 points)
1c: important land use and other historical or traditional use information (2.5 points)
1d: important political situation information (2.5 points)
2) Management Plan overview (10 points – see breakdown below)
2a: history of the plan including type, date accepted, date(s) revised, etc. (2.5 points)
2b: managing political entities and other stakeholders description (2.5 points)
2c: how decisions impacting the basin are made (e.g., consensus, voting, vetos, etc.) (2.5 points)
2c: management philosophy (e.g., sustainable development, IWRM) (2.5 points)
3) A critical evaluation of management plan, incorporating course topics and scientific evidence (30 points)
4) Appropriate type and number of sources, properly cited within the writing and at the end of the essay (20 points)
6) Mechanics: organization, length, writing style, grammar, spelling, etc. (10 points)
7) Presentation style & effectiveness (10 points)
8) Acceptable Turnitin Score (10 points)