Assignment objectives
This assignment develops your skills in reading, understanding, and critically evaluating scientific literature in groundwater-related topics. You will select, review, and present one paper to the class. This is to demonstrate your ability to learn on your own topics that we did not cover in class using the basic principles that you learned in the class. Some main objectivs of this reading assignment are to:
- challenge you,
- stretch your mental capabilities,
- display the applications of what we covered in the class,
- and help you to decide on what you want to learn next.
Paper Selection
You need to select one paper.
- A list of suggested journal papers and USGS technical reports is provided on Canvas.
- You may also select:
- Any USGS technical report.
- A research or review paper from a Q1 journal or from the following journals: Advances in Water Resources, Environmental Modelling & Software, Environmental Research Letters, Earth’s Future (AGU), Geophysical Research Letters (AGU), Hydrogeology Journal, Hydrology and Earth System Sciences (EGU), Journal of Contaminant Hydrology, Journal of Hydrology, Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies, Nature Water, Water Resources Research (AGU).
- Requirement: The paper must have a groundwater component.
- For papers outside this list, obtain instructor approval.
Note: For long reports (e.g., USGS reports) or lengthy book chapters (e.g., Hydrogeology of Florida), you may review only a selected portion—quality of analysis is more important than covering the entire document.
Presentation Content
Prepare a 25-minute presentation covering these three components:
- Paper Overview
- Dataset characteristics
- Study objectives and hypotheses
- Analytical and numerical tools used
- Critical Evaluation
- Reading difficulty (easy/hard and why)
- Importance of the results or methods
- Agreement or disagreement with authors’ conclusions
- Reflection and Next Steps
- Knowledge gaps you identified
- Skills or training needed to replicate or build upon the work
Note: You do not need to recite theory or copy formulas except where needed for explanation.
Submission and Participation Requirements
You are required to watch and engage with at least 4 presentations as follows:
- Before presentation week:
- Record your presentation and share your video link in Paper Review discussion post on Canvas.
- Do not upload the video directly on Canvas (because Canvas will not accept the large video), but only share the video link.
- You may choose one of the following methods:
- Record a live YouTube video using OBS software (Tutorial) and share the YouTube link.
- Record using PowerPoint (Tutorial) or your preferred software
- During presentation week:
- Watch and engage with at least four classmate presentations
- Ask at least one question per presentation
- Prioritize unanswered questions or those with fewer than four responses
- After presentation week:
- Respond to all questions you receive
- Complete and submit the grading rubric for each presentation you reviewed
Grading
The paper review counts as 10% toward your final grade. You do not need to submit a review report. Your grade will be based on your presentation and participation activities as follows.
- Presentation (12 points)
- Participation (4 points)
- Ask one question for each of the four presentations (2 points)
- Answer at least four questions (2 points)
- Peer Evaluation (4 points)
- 1 point per submitted grading rubric
- 0.5 points: Quantitative responses (Questions 1–3)
- 0.5 points: Meaningful qualitative response (Question 4)
- No credit for superficial responses (e.g., giving full marks to all questions for all students)
- Late Submissions: