Poster Guidelines put into a Poster Format Tyler, J.A and Biology & Biotechnology Faculty 1 Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Biology and Biotechnology Discussion Results Data with statistics should be presented in easily understood tables, graphs and/or images. Text should explain what data appear in which tables/graphs/images and which experiments generated which data. Data interpretation should not appear in this section but should appear in the discussion. Generally, if you have a choice between presenting your data as a graph or a table, select graphs because they are more visually interesting. As much as possible, make graphs of equal importance the same size. Make those graphs that are more important larger. Fitting text around your graphs can make the poster read more easily. Interpretation of the data and conclusions made from the data should be presented only in the discussion. For a poster a few short statements stating what the researchers concluded, why they arrived at those conclusions and the importance of the conclusions should provide a good Discussion. More than three or four bullet points in the Discussion typically is too many. The methods section in a poster presentation should provide an overview of the techniques used in the project and the approach taken by the researcher(s). This section will differ most between a poster presentation and a typical scientific paper. Presenters should limit the detail of the techniques used and focus more on the approach taken and why that approach is the most appropriate for the questions being asked by the research project. Bullet points in posters should read as complete sentences so that the reader clearly understands what you, the poster writer, wants them to understand. Again, images of your techniques or lab setup can help with text in the Methods section and makes the poster more visually interesting. There are no images in this method section and you can tell that it is visually boring. Methods A scientific poster should read much like a scientific paper or the outline to a scientific paper. The poster should have the same major sections as a paper including Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion. Bullet points or short sentences usually provide the best means for presenting text. Abstract Abstracts must be at least 80 words, but preferably between words. Abstract must effectively summarize the research project including specific results. A good Abstract succinctly summarizes the work providing enough detail that the audience can understand the research and be able to assess if the research interests them. Manistee River Manistee River Watershed Michigan Watershed Boundaries The introduction must provide sufficient background material for the audience to understand the goal of the research project and its value and importance in the context of the field. At the end of this section the audience should be able to understand why the researchers studied this problem and what questions the researchers aimed to answer. Pictures can help with your introduction and make the poster much more visually interesting. The picture to the right was used to show readers the location of a specific river. Overview A great picture of Dave Adams Introduction Please Note: Posters must be submitted for printing to the ATC by 5:00 on Thursday, April 14 th for Project Presentation Day. Files of the posters must not exceed 5 mb in size. This one is only 360 kb.