The following is being sent on behalf of Dr. Yvonne Lawley:

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Agronomy Club – Fall 2023 

Are you a graduate student with an agronomy related research project at the University of Manitoba? Would you like to know more about the range of agronomy research being conducted at the University of Manitoba? Are you looking for a supportive place to test drive the agronomy data you have been working on to see how well you are able to explain your results? If so, I invite you to come and join us for the weekly meeting of a new group being lead by Dr. Yvonne Lawley in association with the Fall 2023 offering of Advanced Crop Production (PLNT 7660).  We will be meeting Friday afternoons at 2:30 starting October 6th.

Interested graduate students should contact Dr. Lawley by email at yvonne.lawley@umanitoba.ca by Friday September 22. Students that are interested in presenting their research should include their presentation topic and their 1^st and 2^nd choice dates from the schedule below.

Who can join Agronomy Club? 

• Graduate students’ registered in Advanced Crop Production (PLNT 7660) 
• Graduate students not registered in PLNT 7660 that want to present selected data from their agronomy related thesis that they have recently working on.  
• Graduate students not registered in PLNT 7660 that want to know more about current agronomy research going on at the University of Manitoba and want to meet other graduate students studying agronomy. 
• Professors, PDFs, technicians are welcome to participate when they are able to.  

Format:  

• Presenters will give an overview of their research project, objectives and hypothesis, methods and then focus on selected data that they have recently been working on. See the following table with specific formatting suggestions.  
• The group will discuss questions posed by the presenter or audience during or at the conclusion of the presentation. Once you get into the data portion of the presentation, the goal is to have a conversation lead by the presenter and moderated by Dr. Lawley.  

Expectations: 

• Commitment to attend on a regular basis. If you have signed up but can’t make it, let Dr. Lawley know in advance. 
• Be a respectful community of learners. We are all at different places in our programs. We are all looking for constructive input and feedback.  
• Be prepare for your presentation and review it with your advisor ahead of time.  

Goals: 

• Strengthen connections between students studying agronomy at the University of Manitoba 
• Increase your exposure to the range of agronomy research topics, methods, experimental designs, and analysis tools. 
• Practice discussing how research fits into the bigger picture of Prairie agriculture, asking questions, and thinking on your feet. This experience should build skills that help you at your thesis defense.  

Suggested Presentation Format:

Plan for a 20-30 minute presentation, expecting questions and discussion along the way to fill 45 minutes. We will hopefully have 10 minutes for questions/discussion/wrap up at the end. You do not need to follow this table as a rigid formula, but these elements should be included in your presentation. 

Introduction	What is the reason for doing your project? What terminology do we need to know to follow you when you get to the data section? Set up the data sets you will introduce later in your presentation.	3-5 slides
Objectives and Hypothesis	What questions do you want to answer for your entire project? What specific hypothesis do you have for the data you will present?	1 slide
Methods	What are your treatments and measurements for the overall project? Which ones will you focus on for this presentation? Identify the experimental design and experimental units. What approach have you taken for your statistical analysis? Name the experimental design for the experiment, your experimental unit, and the distribution of the data you are presenting.  You are encouraged to show an example of the code you are using in SAS.	3-6 slides
Data	Select a portion of your thesis data to present. We won’t have time for you to present everything. Choose a few related measurements or something you have been recently working with. For this presentation, you need to know your data but you don’t have to come with all the answers!	10-12 slides
Summary and Next Steps	What do you know now that you didn’t know before? What do you need to do or know next?  Include questions you have for the audience about next steps or implications to stimulate discussion	1-2 slides

Agronomy Club Schedule – Fall 2023 

Week	Available  Dates	Presenter	Topic
1	Oct 6
2	Oct 13
3	Oct 20
4	Oct 27
5	Nov 3
6	Nov 10
7	Nov 17	Fall Term Break	-
8	Nov 24
9	Dec 1
10	Dec 8

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Dr. Yvonne Lawley
Associate Professor of Agronomy and Cropping Systems
Department of Plant Science
University of Manitoba

222 Agriculture Building
66 Dafoe Rd
Winnipeg, MB R3T 2N2
(Tel) 204-474-6504
(Fax) 204-474-7528

yvonne_lawley@umanitoba.ca