Materials & Methods

1. Results – General Tips Focus on ONE primary message throughout your poster. If a figure or piece of text does not reinforce your main message, leave it out. Introduction This is where you should get your reader interested in your study, while putting your study in the context of published primary literature. You should provide just enough background info so the reader can understand the rest of your poster. You should state the goal of the study, the general approach you used to examine the problem, and introduce the study system/location. The objective of your poster is to communicate a clear message and support it with a combination of figures, tables and short blocks of text. When you first write a draft of your poster text, it is helpful to do this in Word (instead of PPT), because it is easier for your advisor to edit it in that format! Some people think you should have the abstract on the poster… check to see what the guidelines are for your conference. Consider making a shortened version or not including it at all. No more than 200 words. Results – Figures & Legends Provide descriptive figure legends that could stand on their own (i.e., the legend could convey the point of the figure, even if the reader skipped all other sections). Remember: Table legends go on Top (i.e. above tables) Figure legends go on Bottom (i.e. below figures) Photos can also be utilized throughout the poster. They provide color and interest – but make sure they are relevant! • Conclusion • Briefly remind the reader of hypothesis and primary results, and quickly state whether your hypothesis was supported. The majority of this text should focus on INTERPRETING the results. For example, discuss why your results are interesting , how they support (or refute) other published work, and what future research directions will be taken. • No more than 200 words. • A few notes on formatting (in general): • Avoid using dark backgrounds (this wastes ink – and can end up making some figures hard to read). • Avoid using red and green on charts – makes viewing difficult for color-blind people • Make sure EVERYTHING on your poster can be easily viewed from 6 feet away. • You entire poster should be <800 words (not including legends). (FYI - this poster has ~800 words) • Make sure your text boxes are aligned vertically & horizontally (go to View > Gridlines for help!) Your title should make a strong impact.Your Name and Your Coauthors,Dept of XXX, University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX, 79968 • Results - Organization • Always refer to supporting charts or images in the text of your results. • I like to break up the results into multiple sections, each with its own paragraphs of text, figures and legends, and even its own “box” (outlined like this one if you want!) or a line separating columns (like the blue one to the left!) • You can have multiple boxes that include results. They could have brief titles distinguishing what part of the results your are talking about • Short-term incubations • Long-term incubations • Or summarize the main points of each section: • Y significantly inhibited X • Y is a function of Z • Etc. Results – What to write? For each section – or group of figures -briefly summarize the main trend/result. E.g. There was a significant difference between A and B – or – Y increased with X etc. In addition to these specific results, you could add more qualitative/descriptive text. E.g. B tended to be greatest when the wind was blowing from the north. No more than 200 words for the entire results section (not including legends) Acknowledgements Thank your funding agency – and anyone who helped in the lab or field. You can also include logos of your school and sponsor somewhere on your poster. For example: This study was funded by the UTEP Undergraduate Research Mentoring (URM) Program (National Science Foundation DBI-0933979). Special thanks to XXX for field and lab assistance. Materials & Methods Briefly describe materials and method. You do not need all the gory details. This section could include: figures , tables, maps or flow charts., depending on the relevance to your study. You should state which statistical analyses you used. No more than 200 words. Literature Cited (use proper scientific format) Frey K.E. and McClelland J.W. (2009) Impacts of permafrost degradation on arctic river biogeochemistry. Hydrological Processes 23(1): 169-182. References used in making THIS poster: Purrington, C. Advice on designing scientific posters. http://www.swarthmore.edu/NatSci/cpurrin1/posteradvice.htm Hess, G., K. Tosney and L. Liegel. Creating Effective Poster Presentations :Define Your Message http://www.ncsu.edu/project/posters/NewSite/DefineMessage.html