THIRD
YEAR LABORATORY
SCIENTIFIC
POSTER PREPARATION
GUIDELINES
GENERAL
POINTS
A
scientific poster is a communication tool which combines
a fixed visual display with a verbal discussion of scientific
information. Most scientific meetings include poster sessions
in their program; during these sessions each presenter stands
next to their poster, to discuss the presented work on a
one-to-one basis and to answer any questions. Posters enable
a group of scientists to present their findings concurrently,
while allowing the audience to view many presentations and
to quickly obtain essential information on topics of interest
to them.
Posters
differ from other forms of scientific communication (e.g.
written reports or orally presented papers) in that there
is often a 'competitive market' for the attention of the
reader. They are not just reports laid out on a large sheet
of cardboard - you need to use your imagination to exploit
the full 2D presentation capabilities of the medium in order
to entice the viewer to view more of your work and to further
discuss it with you. Posters normally contain very little
textual detail, the text mainly serving to support the graphic
material.
Your poster should be aimed at the level of an average
third year physics student so that, after viewing
it and talking to you, they should be able to understand
what you did, the physics that's involved and the significance
of your results.
You should be as concise as possible, do not give unnecessary
details or long winded descriptions. Concentrate on essentials,
show that you understand what you did and can pick out the
significant features. Spend your time on thinking and planning,
rather than on fancy features and artistry - 'beautiful'
presentation will not make up for obvious lack of content
or weakness in understanding.
Information
on poster design, with various references and relevant sites,
can be found at:
http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/asl/guides/bio/posters.html
while good, short advice on poster presentations is at:
http://lorien.ncl.ac.uk/ming/Dept/Tips/present/posters.htm
and a full tutorial on designing posters can be found at:
http://www.kumc.edu/SAH/OTEd/jradel/Poster_Presentations/PstrStart.html
ORGANISATION
Your
poster should be A1 size (594mm x 841mm) i.e. equivalent
to two columns, each of four A4 (landscape) sheets. It should
consist of approx 20% text, 40% graphics and 40%
empty space (do not cram the poster full with information!).
The poster can be printed on one sheet (if you have access
to a large format printer) or be made from separate smaller
sheets pasted onto a (coloured?) backing board. Posters
should be laminated (e.g. at the 'Union
Shop' - Blockhouse). The laboratory will pay printing and
laminating costs (up to a total of $25) on production of
receipts. All submitted posters become the property of the
Third Year Laboratory.
The
poster material should be organised in sections (see below)
presented in a logical sequence which is easy for the viewer
to follow (e.g. top?bottom, left?right, with the abstract/overview
at the top and conclusions at the bottom).
Try
to keep text to a minimum; use short sentences (or sentence
fragments) and paragraphs to convey your message. The text
font size should be legible from at least 1.5m (18 pt),
with larger (at least 32pt) section headings; bold text
is easier to read from a distance. Don't use too many different
fonts as this can distract the viewer's attention, as can
too many bright clashing colours.
Graphics
(photos?), large enough to be clearly discernible from 1.5m,
should be used wherever possible. Label graphs directly
(no legends, keys) and use colour, rather than patterns,
to distinguish different data sets and areas of interest.
Avoid combining red and green for those viewers who may
be red/green colour blind. Make sure you use an adequate
font size for graphics labels to be legible from 1.5m.
The
following sections will normally appear (in various guises)
in a scientific poster:
-
Abstract or Overview 1-2 paragraphs
Here
you might try to capture the reader=s interest with a
puzzle, a paradox or new and interesting information.
Give a very selective overview of the topic, relating
your topic to the wider context of other work; define
any special terms or jargon.
The
remaining sections, forming the body of the poster, can
be divided into >boxes= whose layout (or other clues)
should lead the viewer through the poster in a logical
sequence.
-
Method
of attack (method/apparatus) 1-2 paragraphs
Very
briefly describe the procedures and equipment you used.
Where possible, make use of block diagrams and neat line
drawings to illustrate experimental design, with various
components clearly identified.
-
Results
/ analysis - largest section
A brief qualitative description of the results is helpful
here. Include the theoretical relationships necessary
to understand and analyse the results. Your experimental
data and theoretical predictions should, wherever possible,
be presented in graphical form. The graphics should be
independent of the text to the extent that just a brief
glance at them alone, without reading the supporting
text, is sufficient to convey to the viewer the
essence of what you've achieved. To this end, graphs
should always have their axes clearly labelled with units
and dimensions correctly shown and with errors represented
by error bars (or rectangles). If a comparison
of non-graphical results proves necessary, the results
should be presented in a table.
-
Discussion / conclusion 1-2 paragraphs
Compare
your results with the predictions of relevant theoretical
models or with other accepted measurements. Try to explain
any discrepancies between your results and what is expected.
Discuss the sources of error in your experiment and any
other shortcomings in the apparatus or techniques. Try
to propose possible future experimental improvements and
suggest ways to minimise the dominant errors, upgrade
the apparatus, methods etc. Summarise the physical insights
gained from the experiment. State clearly your findings,
their reliability and any scientific implications you
can draw from the results.
At
conferences, some authors make a one-page handout that
presents their poster plus some further information or
data. Sometimes printed copies of a report are pinned
under the poster for the viewer to take, if sufficiently
interested in the poster.
