This assignment is designed to allow you to demonstrate your knowledge in the following areas:
- effective written communication of original research
- understanding data analysis techniques,
- effective organization and presentation of research in poster format.
For this assignment, you will develop and deliver a poster presentation on an experiment related to your area of research. The poster will be in the format of a poster presentation delivered at a scientific conference. For the poster you will use real data related to your independent research. For the poster, you should analyze the data set, create several figures to explain the results and present some material for a brief introduction and discussion. The experiment you write about must have a degree of complexity. That is, it must require a statistical analysis more advanced than a t-test or single factor ANOVA. There are ample examples of research posters of varying quality in the throughout the hallways of the campus buildings. We will discuss further in class the elements of a good poster. After finishing your poster, we will host a poster session during the final exam where each student will display their poster and present to the class and instructor.
You will construct the poster for an audience of other scientists in your field attending a research conference. You can assume the audience has a general undergraduate education in natural resources, ecology, or biology, but you should define any terminology specific to your research.
The poster should be 36” x 48”, created in PowerPoint or other software, and include figures, tables, and at least 4 references. The poster should be in the format of a research poster at a scientific conference and should include the following sections.
Your title should be descriptive yet as concise as possible
Your abstract should summarize the important points from every other section of your paper and should be in approximately 200–300 words, and take up approximately 5% of the poster area.
The introduction section of your poster should be concise, and should take up approximately 20% of the poster area. It should introduce relevant background information, explain the hypothesis you will be testing, and explain your predictions. Please include at least 3 citations to relevant literature in your introduction. I usually recommend using bullet points to organize the introduction and any relevant figures or photographs to describe the background information.
The methods section of the poster should up approximately 20% of the poster. I recommend bulleted points to organize the methods that touch on the following points.
- Describe the experimental design you used to test the hypothesis giving the details of your particular experimental design including treatment levels, replication, and any blocking or nesting, etc.
- Create a figure or diagram of your experimental setup to help concisely describe your experimental design.
- Explain how you manipulated treatment levels or gradients and measured the response variable.
- Describe what analyses you used use to test your hypothesis.
This is the focus of most research posters, and it should take up approximately 30% of the poster space. Figures with captions and a few bulleted summaries are usually adequate for this section. Provide one or more figures that illustrate your data (e.g., bar graph or scatterplot) including all appropriate elements as discussed in class.
- Explain any trends in your data such as comparing treatment means or a description of the correlations you found (strong/weak, positive/negative, means, differences, etc.).
- For each statistical analysis you do, report statistical information (e.g., test statistic, degrees of freedom, P-value).
The discussion section can also be bulleted and should take up approximately 20% of the poster area. In the discussion be sure to provide an interpretation of your results in the context of your original question. Do your results provide support for your hypothesis? Compare your results to other studies and discuss the implications of the findings.
In a small area in the corner of your poster (approximately 5% of the area), please use consistent literature citations according to the conventions of your discipline, or refer to the Annotated Bibliography assignment for examples. Include at least 4 appropriate peer-reviewed references.
Be sure your poster does not include large blocks of text (besides the abstract), and that all important information is easy to find. The poster should balance the use of photos, figures, and text, and guide the reader with proper headings. Text should be readable when printed (recommended font size of approximately 40 for body text using for 36” x 48” posters). Colors, fonts, and design elements (boxes, etc.) are recommend to help organize information, but keep their use minimal and professional.
You will be graded based on the following criteria for a total of 50 points.
- Abstract (3 pts)
- You will earn 2-3 points for an abstract that clearly and succinctly summarizes the important points from each section of your study, 1-2 points for an abstract that is unclear or does notadequately summarize your study, or 0-1 points if your abstract is absent or incomplete
- Introduction (8 pts)
- Introduction provides adequate background information (2 pts)
- Background information clearly leads to predictions (2 pts)
- States the hypothesis or research questions being tested (3 pts)
- State the predictions expected (1 pts)
- Methods (8 pts)
- Description of experimental design: You can earn up to 4 points for an experimental design that is clearly described and is the most appropriate for the question asked.
- Diagram of your experimental setup: You can earn up to 2 points for a diagram that is organized and clearly conveys the experimental design described in the text.
- Statistical Analyses: You can earn up to 2 points for describing analyses that are appropriate for the hypothesis and experimental setup described.
- Results and Discussion (18 pts)
- Figure or table: You can earn up to 6 points for a figure or table that includes all the necessary features (axis labels, legend, caption, error bars, etc.) and clearly conveys your findings.
- Major findings and trends: You can earn up to 4 points for clearly describing the results from your analyses and pointing the reader to the main trends.
- Appropriate statistics reported: You can earn up to 4 points for properly reporting all statistical details (test statistic, degrees of freedom, P-value, R2, etc.).
- Discussion contains clear explanation of results in context of original question (1 pt)
- Discusses areas of certainty and remaining uncertainty (1 pt)
- Compares findings to other similar studies (1 pt)
- Includes potential avenues for future research (1 pt)
- References (1 pts)
- You will receive 0.25 points for each appropriately cited reference up to 1 point.
- Style and Organization (12 pts)
- Clear logical flow with main points easy to find (6 pts)
- Appropriate amount of white space and use of color (2 pts)
- Avoids large blocks of text (3 pts)
- Consistent formatting throughout (1 pts)