How to conduct a team meeting and develop a thesis:

Dr. Matthews has asked you, in your teams, to pull together the information you have uncovered in your individual research and to develop your team's thesis statement. The first steps are sharing information with your teammates, challenging each other as needed, and then agreeing upon a thesis statement. This will be the central argument in your upcoming presentation.

Team Reporting & Thesis Development

1. Meet with your teammates to share the points of your research.
   
   
   • Before you meet, download a copy of the Rank Template attached to Dr. Matthews' email.
     
     
   • When it is your turn to present:
     
     
     1. Distribute the brief summary of your research that you prepared.
        
        
     2. Give your teammates several minutes to review your summary before you begin, and then walk your teammates through the key points.
        
        
     3. If there are any areas about which you are unsure, be sure to highlight them and ask questions of your teammates to improve upon your ideas.
        
        
     4. Take note of any important issues you need to address.
        
        
   • When it is your turn to listen:
     
     
     1. Skim the summaries your teammates distribute to you, noting any questions and sharing them at an appropriate time. Remember: as you listen, you are trying to determine the accuracy of your teammates' hypotheses--whether the feature would cause the earthworm to improve the soil, and whether the earthworm could survive the change.
        
        
     2. Part of your role as an observer is to gently and respectfully challenge–as a “devil’s advocate” – the ideas and assumptions that your teammates are presenting. The goal is to make everyone feel more confident and comfortable with their opinions.
        
        
     3. Research that indicates that a certain change will not be viable is just as important as research that leads to a positive recommendation. So be sure to keep your eye on accuracy, clarity and quality of evidence--not just the conclusions that your teammates draw.
        
        
     4. Remember: In a scientific test, one cannot prove one's hypotheses to be true; scientific hypotheses are tested to see if they can be proven to be false. In this rotation, you will not adequately test your hypotheses, but only make predictions about what might happen based on text-based information (your research), prior knowledge, and reasoning. Your objective is to identify any major risks that your proposed changes would pose for the earthworm's survival.
        
        
   • As you discuss your team's ideas, fill in the Rank Template, indicating each feature to be changed and listing the benefits and risks of each change. Add lines to the template as needed to list every idea presented.
     
     
2. Once all the team members have finished sharing their individual research summaries, your next step is to determine as a team which features, if any, you recommend changing and in what ways.
   
   
   1. Review your Rank Template to ensure that all of your team's ideas are listed.
      
      
   2. For each feature, assign a "Benefit Rating" and a "Risk Rating." The Benefit Rating should capture the impact that the change will have on the earth's soil; the greater number of benefits, or the bigger the benefits, the higher the Benefit Rating should be. The greater the risks are to the viability of the earthworm, the higher the Risk Rating should be.
      
      
   3. Determine an overall rating for each change proposed by subtracting the Risk Rating from the Benefit Rating. If benefits outweigh risks, then the rating will be positive, and a higher rating suggests that the idea has great benefits with minimal risks. If risks outweigh the benefits, then the rating will be negative, and the more negative the rating, the more it suggests that the idea has significant risks without significant benefits. If risks and benefits match each other, then the rating will be zero, and you will have to decide as a team if the benefits justify the risks involved.
      
      
   4. Use the rating for each change to prioritize which changes you would recommend to be pursued further. For changes with equal ratings, you and your team should discuss the specifics of the recommendation and make a judgment as to whether the change should be recommended.
      
      
3. Work as a team to develop a thesis statement for the project. Basically, you need to answer the final question that Mr. Clark posed: “Given all of your thoughts, do you recommend I fund a project to re-engineer the worm to improve soil quality? Why or Why not?”
   
   
   1. Review the questions from Mr. Clark's initial email, going through them one-by-one, and ask for team members’ input on each section.
      
      
   2. Based on your discussion and on your completed Rank Template, answer Mr. Clark's final question.  Use your rated changes to decide if there are enough beneficial changes that outweigh the risks involved, which would lead you to recommend that the superworm project move forward. If you your recommendation is against the project moving forward, write this clearly in your thesis, along with a summary of your evidence for why this is the case. On the other hand, if you do think it merits further research, please state why, and list the features you believe are worthy of additional research.
      
      
      • Be careful when evaluating others’ research; research which contradicts the hypothesis is just as valuable as research that supports it. You need to weigh all of the information you and your teammates have collected in order to make a recommendation.
        
        
      • Avoid characterizing what you’ve found as being conclusive or definitive (providing a solution or final answer). Because you have only gathered information and not conducted any experiments, you cannot possibly have any conclusive evidence. Talk instead about what conclusions you’ve drawn from your research as just one step in a longer process, and talk about how your research will help figure out what work still needs to be done.
      
      
   3. For more guidance on how to write a thesis statement, click on Writing in the General Skills Resources in the left menu; see the section on Writing a Thesis Statement.

• Do listen carefully to each teammate's report to see if it will help you respond to Mr. Clark's questions. Think about whether each piece of information makes you lean toward or against funding further research into modification of the worm, and, more specifically, funding research about the particular change your teammate is proposing. What is your opinion before hearing each person present? How does each report affect your view about funding for the project? Do your teammates have sufficient evidence for their claims?
  
  
• Don't present too much information. You should summarize your research to hit key points that your team needs to know to develop the team thesis statement. You should choose your points carefully, and make sure you only address what everyone needs to know.
  
  
• Don't present conclusions without evidence. Make sure to tell your team why you have drawn any conclusions you have drawn.
  
  
• Don't present your research without saying what you have concluded. You should be deciding whether or not you believe changing each feature you research would be viable for the worm and valuable for the soil. If you have gathered information but haven’t analyzed it, you haven’t done your full job.



• Don't treat the reporting process as a time to present your findings as final, with no opportunities for improvement. The purpose of this session is not to insist you are correct, but rather to get feedback from your teammates that can improve the quality of your argument and help you present your results more effectively.
  
  
• Don't minimize the value your research brings to the overall presentation if you think that the superworm should not be funded. Research that shows that a feature is likely to negatively impact the earthworm is just as valuable as research which might lead to a positive recommendation. The most valuable thing to share with your teammates in this task and in the final presentation is more information, no matter what conclusion is drawn from it.

• Do use your Rank Template to guide the conclusion in your thesis. Your thesis should be supported by all of the evidence you gathered, so the best way to form your thesis is to work from the evidence. Even if you want to recommend that the superworm project be pursued, follow your ratings if they suggest otherwise.
  
  
• Do use judgment when considering the rating of each proposed change. Some ratings may come out equal, requiring further team discussion about those items.
  
  
• Don't be overly subjective in your ratings. Don't suggest higher ratings for proposed changes just because they are your own, and don't be extra critical or judgmental of others' ideas. Your goal is to provide Mr. Clark with an objective recommendation; be objective each step of the way.
  

There are no new content-specific resources relevant here, but you are always welcome to revisit prior tasks and review any relevant resources you may need.