Transcript Poster session presentation

SCIENTIFIC POSTER DESIGN
AND ORGANIZATION
By Lauren and Jessica
WHAT IS A (SOCIAL) SCIENTIFIC
POSTER?
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A scientific poster is a large document that
communicates your research through a combination
of text, table/charts, and images.
A poster (vs. a talk) enables you to more
personally interact with people who are interested
in your research but, at the same time, does not
require your presence.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of
this medium?
EXAMPLE OF POSTERS
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http://www.flickr.com/groups/368476@N21/po
ol/
www.phdposters.com/gallery.php
Find an example of a poster that works well–
what makes this poster effective?
Find an example of one that does not work as
well– what makes this poster ineffective?
Special bonus game (!!!)
MECHANICS: SET UP YOUR SLIDE
To begin a poster, make a new slide and
set your dimensions in Page Setup.
Make your slide 36”x48” (or
48”x36”).
MECHANICS:
HOW TO SET UP YOUR SLIDE
1. Open PowerPoint, select Blank Documents, and then PowerPoint
Presentation; then select Blank.
2. In the top menu click on View and then Slide. (Normal view is
unnecessary because the poster consists of a single slide.)
3. Go File > Page Setup…, then enter the width and height (36” x 48”)
of the poster in inches. You will see an error message saying the
page is larger than the printable size—that is fine, just click out of it.
MECHANICS: MAKE TEXT BOXES
All textual info can be made in a text box. You can alter
size and shape, and drag the boxes around the page by
its edges.
The Formatting palette is the most useful. (View>
Formatting Palette).
The font should be large enough for people to read
(between 18 and 48 pt.) and the text should be as
concise as possible. You don’t want a lot of text.
AVOIDING COMMON TEXT MISTAKES
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Make sure to keep the visual effect in mind– the poster should
not be too dense (neither with images nor text).
Title should be in sentence case (not titlecase), and not too
long.
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Use italics or bold instead of underlining key text.
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Don’t use dark backgrounds.
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Use alignment tool, don’t align by sight. (show example)
AVOIDING COMMON IMAGE
MISTAKES
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Your poster will be very large, so use high-resolution images.
A web image is only 72 dpi. Your images need to be at least
300 dpi. Take your own photos, or scan a hard copy.
It is always best to use your own photos! (Make sure your
camera is set to take high-res pictures)
Cite your sources—do not plagiarize images. There are
several places to find open-source images:
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Fotopedia
Flickr (and look for creative commons licenses)
You can make charts and graphs in PPT or Excel.
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Create your own graphs using “shapes” in the PPT menu
Or present your data in Excel (save graph as image).
General Organization
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Introduction / Thesis
Background
Methods
Results
Conclusions
Sources
Introduction / Thesis
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Introduction should (very) briefly present the topic.
The most important aspect of your introduction is to
present your thesis (statement of problem or
research question).
Thesis should be direct and succinct.
Introduction/ Thesis
Background
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Why does the problem matter?
Has anyone else looked at this problem?
What are some of the related findings?
Be sure to cite references.
Background
Methods and Data
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How are you answering your question, testing your
hypothesis, or fulfilling your statement of purpose?
What data did you use for your study?
What are the methods you are using to analyze
your data?
What are the drawbacks?
Data and Methods
Results
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What did you find?
This should be purely descriptive.
Pictures and charts are particularly important for
this part.
You still want to describe your images.
Aside from thesis, this is the most important part.
Results
Conclusions
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Wrap it up
Do you accept or reject your hypothesis?
How do you answer your question?
Conclusions
Sources
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You must cite the sources of any images or sources
you reference.
Posters are like papers and plagiarism rules apply.
Follow standard in-line citation procedures. For
details see
http://abacus.bates.edu/~ganderso/biology/resou
rces/writing/HTWcitations.html.
Sources
Things To Keep in Mind
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You have no more than 10 minutes of someone’s
attention
The more pictures the better
The less text the better
Leave lots of white space
Have a border