In review, the project

Produce something useful or interesting by means of a chemical process.
Conduct an experiment to improve your product by altering one aspect of the process.
Report on your results.

In review, project grading

Be ambitious in planning your project. Experiments which are original and require some skill or challenge will earn points.  Experiments involving multiple trials, and showing a clear relationship between variables, are better than those involving only limited trials.  Effective, engaging communication earns points.  By contrast, projects which seem hastily completed or poorly communicated will lose points.  Projects must involve an experimental component.

30 points:  (Introduction, Background chemical principles) State your hypothesis (an expected relationship between some measurable aspect of the production method, and some measurable definition of improvement, together with a brief theoretical defense of why you expect that relationship.  Fill in the details specific to your own project.).

Justify your hypothesis.  Research and explain any chemical principles related to your project. There is probably more than one chemical principle related to your project, and you will earn more points by discussing several of them.  Explanations which are comprehensive and effectively communicated will earn points.  Explanations which are limited in scope, shallow in depth or poorly communicated will lose points.  Use scientific vocabulary correctly.  At least one of the chemical principles described should be directly related to your hypothesis.  Communicate this relationship clearly.

20 points:   (Experimental design) Present a description of the methods you followed to make your product.  Describe the experiment you completed to improve your product.  A hypothesis should be presented in terms of independent and dependent variables, indicating what aspect of the product you hoped to improve, and what change you made in your procedure to improve that aspect.  The dependent variable must be measurable on a continuous scale.  (if the dependent variable is subjective, you may need a panel of judges to provide quantitative data… keep them blind to the experimental design).  Review the tips at the top of this sheet on gaining points through ambitious planning.

20 points:   (Results)  The final report should include some evidence that you actually did what you claim—provide a sample of the finished material, or a video/photographic account of the process.  Choose an appropriate graphical form to summarize your results.   Review all you’ve learned about good graphical presentations.  In particular, choose a scatter plot with a best fit line when both variables are continuous variables, and a relationship exists.  Choose some other type of plot when one of the variables is not continuous. Ambitious research plans may involve a series of related experiments, presented in multiple graphs.

10 points:  (conclusions) Present an analysis of your experiment.  Did your change have the expected result?  Relate this back to the chemical principles identified in the “chemical principles” section.  Have you discovered a new chemical principle which may not have been thoroughly discussed in the earlier section?  Are there limitations to your experimental design which weaken   What further experiments would you try, time permitting, to improve your product even further?

10 points for creativity and visual quality of the overall presentation.  Projects which are original, eye-catching, or especially well organized will earn points.  Projects which appear sloppy, disorganized or hastily completed will lose points.  Review the following pages for tips on poster design.

10 points for evidence of substantial research, including five or more relevant research citations in MLA format.  Review MLA standards carefully.

How to Construct and Present a Scientific Poster

What is a Poster?

Posters are one medium for presenting scientific information. Oral presentations and written articles are the other two most common means of conveying scientific data. There are many similarities between written reports, oral presentations, and posters. All of them attempt to convey technical information in a clear and precise manner. Each format varies primarily in the media used to convey the material and the formality level of the presentation. In general, oral presentations are the most visual and usually least formal. Written reports tend to be the most formal and least visually-oriented with posters somewhere between the two. You may see some examples of posters in the halls of the Fisher. Compare a few of these. What do they have in common? How do they differ? Are some clearer than others? Some more interesting? Why is this?

A poster is simply a static, visual medium (usually of the paper and board variety) that you use to communicate ideas and messages. The difference between poster and oral presentations is that you should let your poster do most of the 'talking'; that is that the material presented should convey the essence of your message. However, that does not mean that you can disappear from the public during a poster presentation. You have to 'stand-by-your-poster'! Your task as the presenter is to answer questions and provide further details. A poster is an odd combination of oral presentation, written lab report, and visual abstract. In practical terms it is a visual synopsis of your experiment that gives an outline of what you have done while the poster presenter is expected to fill in the details. It is NOT is a laboratory report stuck on cardboard!

Poster Content

The sections found in a laboratory report are also found in a poster. However, these sections should be much briefer than what you would include in a written report.

• A Title page or a large heading, telling others the title of the project, the people involved in the work and their affiliation (i.e. SU biology department).  Don’t be shy about the font size here. Go large-36-48pt or higher.
• An Abstract of the project stating what you set out to do, how you did it, the key results and the main conclusions. Like in the lab report, this should be limited to 150 words. At scientific meetings some posters include abstracts while others do not. Please include one in yours!
• An Introduction that includes a clear statement of the question or hypothesis you tested, the rationale for choosing such a question, and the justification for the particular prediction that you made. Ideally, try to keep your introduction to a paragraph or less. Using bullets and an outline form is a perfectly acceptable format for a poster introduction. As in a lab report, your introduction should try to answer the question: “why should I care that you did this?”.
• For this particular assignment, your introduction should include a somewhat more detailed review of relevant chemical principles.  (justify your hypothesis)
• An Experimental Design section that explains what you did. You can leave out some of the gory details here (unlike in a written report). You, as a presenter, can fill in these details. However, the independent and dependent variables should be clear as well as your sample size and procedure. Often you can include a diagram or photo of the apparatus that you used. This really cuts back on the text, increases clarity, and makes for a much more visually interesting poster.
• A Results section. Here you do NOT necessarily need to include a narrative or text portion to the results. If possible, present it in a colorful figure or, less interesting, a table. Use the figure caption to point out the important results you found.
• A Conclusion or Discussion section, listing the main findings of your investigation, and their relevance. This too may be in a bulleted format (like a powerpoint presentation) rather than a narrative text.
• A Literature Cited section that includes all papers cited in the text. Try not to go overboard here. (but minimum of five is required for this assignment)

Your poster must be no SMALLER than 24 by 24 inches and no larger than 48 x 48 inches.

The purpose of poster presentations is not to have boards upon boards of information. Better to hand out a report in that case. Since you are presenting your poster in class, you will have limited space (which is also true if you were presenting at a scientific conference). Whatever size you choose, make sure that you use all available space efficiently. There shouldn’t be blank or “dead” areas on your poster. At the other extreme, don’t try to include everything but the kitchen sink in your poster. Use large fonts (18-24pt) that are easy to read. Stay away from Haettenschweiler, Monotype Corsiva, and other funky, hard-to-read fonts.

The Most Common Mistakes in the Fine Art of Poster-making

• Treating a poster as a full paper tacked to cardboard. Don’t simply tack a lab report (even a slightly abbreviated form of one) to cardboard. This is not what a poster should be.

• No pictures. People are incredibly visually-oriented animals. Some posters are full of text with hardly any visual aids. Try to avoid this. When flipping through a magazine, do you see endless text without pictures? If you do, are you inclined to read those pages or skip them? Consider this when creating a poster. If possible try to include at least one photograph. Consider diagrams, photos, or drawings of your experimental setup or photos or drawings of your study organism to jazz up your poster. Well placed lines that separate section headings might serve as an interesting graphic that also directs attention to the appropriate places.

• Tables that would be better presented as graphs. Graphs are usually more aesthetically pleasing, visually interesting, colorful, and easier to grasp than tables with the same information. If you can present the results in a graph—do so. Tables should be reserved for occasions when you have a SERIOUS amount of data to show. Never include raw data tables in a poster.

• Using 10pt halloween font (don’t).  Use the easiest to read fonts in the largest size that is practical. ARIAL is a good font since it is easier to read from a distance. Twenty point font is fairly easy to read from a distance. Try that size.  Answer the question-could your grandmother make out your axis labels at 4 feet away?

• Not being prepared to discuss the research. Have a five-minute summary of your project ready to present. Remember that you are there to fill in the details. Try to think like a proposal reviewer. What problems might a reader find with your experiment? Try to develop an answer to expected questions. Do background reading so that you can elaborate on points.  Remember YOU are the expert on your experiment! Prepare well.

Other points to ponder:

• If you are pressed for space, you can often include your entire results embedded within the caption of a graph

Poster Presentation Checklist

Introduction

_______        CLEAR TESTABLE hypothesis? (that series of changes to your procedure will result in an improvement in your product....fill in the details here specific to your particular research, your own choice of independent and dependent variables, and what you are regarding as an “improvement”).

_______        Justify hypothesis? (Extensive background chemical principles discussion)

Experimental Design

_______        Could your experiment be repeated by another based on your information?

_______        Did you avoid trivial detail?

_______        Did you include some photos or images?

_______        Is your project original and ambitious?

Results

______Figures and/or tables in the appropriate format?

______Legend (ONLY when necessary)

______Figure caption

______Title

______Axis labels with units, appropriately scaled

______Values for units on axis

______Dependent and independent variables on appropriate axes

______Was the information properly SUMMARIZED (don't show raw data or individual trial results)

______Were tables understandable? (don’t use tables at all if a graph will suffice)

______Did they have proper row and column headings?

______Was there a caption for the table?

______Was the table titled?

______Are all units indicated somewhere on the table?

Conclusions:

______Was your hypothesis supported or rejected?

______Did you relate your results back to the fundamental principles of chemistry?

______Have you addressed the other questions presented under the “conclusions” section of the rubric?

Citations

_____ At least five for this assignment, MLA format

Organization

______Did you have a title, introduction, design, results, and conclusions, and MLA citations?

______Are the text panels and images of the poster arranged in a logical, eye catching way?

______Is the poster an appropriate size?

______Were the labels large enough to read?

______Did you choose contrasting colors so that they were readable?

______Did you provide any visual aids for parts of your presentation other than the

           results?

______Did you provide a sample of the material you made, or video of the process?