Biodiversity Safari: Poster Presentations

Your team will be presenting its findings in the format of a scientific poster at your lab section's Biodiversity Safari Symposium. Poster symposia are held at most major scientific meetings, and allow more in-depth discussion of research between researchers and their audience.

There will be six poster boards (one for each team), each one measuring 48" x 36". Your team should bring its paper version of the poster and tack it to the assigned board with removable tacks provided.

NO TAPE OR GLUE OR ANY OTHER PERMANENT ATTACHMENT OF POSTERS TO BOARDS IS ALLOWED.

Similarly, teams are NOT ALLOWED to bring a 4' x 3' poster with the presentation already permanently attached. Such entries will be ineligible for the symposium. Most posters produced for professional symposia are created in a PowerPoint format. If you wish to view an effective format for a poster, a POSTER TEMPLATE can be downloaded here. Note, however, that printing this large format is usually somewhat expensive ($30-50, depending on where you have it printed). If your team wishes, you may have your poster printed professionally, but you will have to foot the bill together.

Alternatively, simply use the template above as a guideline and use common word-processing and graphics software (e.g., MS Word, MS Excel) to print your poster as "tiles" on regular 8.5 x 11 pages. These can then be assembled on the foam core boards we will provide.

Your work should essentially be presented in the standard format of a scientific paper. Some TAs will ask you to include an abstract, and others will not. This is a matter of preference, and some symposia will have guidelines about specific format. For this symposium, your poster should include

...although in actual poster symposia these sections are not always explicitly labeled. Use the standard format as a guideline. The most prominent and important section of your work should be the RESULTS and the DISCUSSION, including LARGE, CLEARLY LABELED FIGURES AND TABLES appropriate to your work. Place these in a central spot, as this is where most of the viewers will focus.

For a complete overview of effective poster presentations, don't forget to refer to Dr. Tosney's DOs and DON'Ts for scientific posters.

When you come to lab, you will have approximately 30 minutes to set up your poster on the boards provided.
Your TA will announce the commencement of the symposium. Since you worked in teams of four, you will take turns tending your poster in pairs. While one pair of the team stands by the poster and fields questions from curious colleagues, the other pair will attend the symposium and be those curious colleagues to other teams.

Each pair of team members will tend the poster for approximately 45-60 minutes (your TA will decide the duration), and then you'll switch, so that all team members can attend the poster session and ask questions.

Evaluation

As you read and discuss the posters with your colleagues, take note of the quality of the presentation. When you are finished, you will be asked to complete a Poster Evaluation Form for each entry. This will be turned in to your TA, and will be part of your grade, so be sure you evaluate critically and fairly.