Do you remember science fairs when you were in middle school? My daughters have had their share and they keep thinking it’s behind them now that they are in high school. Well, that may be true for my daughter who plans on an art major. However, I have another daughter who is on a math and science track. She loves science lab and the projects and experiments. However, she is not to crazy about making presentations and she would hem and haw and procrastinate until the last minute, and I end up staying up all night with her cutting and pasting things. I keep trying to tell her to get used to the process because if she plans to continue on the scientific track, she will be doing scientific posters well beyond high school.
I ran across this amusing but very helpful article on designing scientific posters that I printed out to give to my daughter. It gives some great tips on layout, content and presentation. For instance, he cautions against the very thing that my daughter is guilty of doing and that is cutting and pasting her report into the board. I work with scientists and a lot of them still do this too. It is advised that a poster’s text should be 800 word or less. A difficult feat for most scientist who can get rather long-winded when talking about their areas of interest.
The tone of the article is relaxed on the verge of being sarcastic, witty with a touch of silliness, but always full of useful information. If you have a student who may need information on scientific posters and presenting, this is a very nice article to share.
August 8th, 2008 at 12:37 am
Past the science fair stage, but this would have come in handy
August 8th, 2008 at 2:47 pm
I loved science fairs! I still do. I enjoy wandering around seeing what everyone had as a project (as usual someone would have the volcano of the year) and sharing my own. It’s always great fun. But they don’t seem to do it here in Europe as much.
August 8th, 2008 at 9:03 pm
I wish you’re daughters the best in doing what ever they wish to study.