Dear Seniors:

As you know, you are expected to present your senior project work to the campus as a whole and to the Division of Natural Sciences and Mathematics at a formal poster presentation and reception. Your participation in this session will be one of the factors taken into consideration by the division when deciding the final project grades. The poster session allows many people to see the results of your work, and it promotes great visibility for science and mathematics on campus. This format gives people the chance to study your work in detail, and it gives you more time to discuss your work informally with others. If this is your first poster presentation, please note that it takes longer to prepare a good poster than you might expect, so read through the guidelines below and discuss your poster presentation with your advisor as soon as possible.

All posters will be displayed in the Multipurpose Room of the Bertelsmann Campus Center from Monday, May 13 – Friday, May 17. Students should hang the posters on Monday and remove them Friday morning. During this week, the room will be open to the public when not in use for classes or meetings. We will have a formal reception, with the public invited, on Thursday, May 16 from 6:00 – 9:30 PM. The Multipurpose Room will be open to us at 5:00 PM on that day so that you can arrive early and prepare for your presentation. This reception will be similar to those at professional meetings, and refreshments will be provided. Each student will stand next to his or her poster and "walk people through it" as small groups of 1 – 5 people gather to look at it. This format allows you to gear your presentation to a level appropriate for the given viewers. Also, some viewers will not want a verbal presentation, and instead will simply browse the posters.

The poster session format and the diversity of the audience demand that a poster be carefully prepared. We have attached some guidelines to producing an effective poster, which we have adapted from those distributed by the National Conference for Undergraduate Research (1999). Posterboard and glue for assembling your posters can be obtained from Maureen Hebert in the Biology lab. For those students unfamiliar with poster presentations, there are currently several posters on display on the third floors of Rose and Hegeman. Feel free to browse this display to get ideas for your poster and to talk to your advisor or other faculty members in the division if you have further questions.

A well-designed poster will attract the attention of the viewers.

• Lettering should be easily readable from a distance. All text should be printed in at least 14-point type; 16-point or larger is better.
• Use larger lettering for major headings, and even larger for the title.
• Blocks of texts, figures, and tables can be mounted individually on separate pieces of poster board, which are then mounted onto the wall or a stand.
• A quick reading of the introduction and conclusions should allow someone approaching the poster to understand the questions your project addressed and what you were able to demonstrate.
• The total dimensions of your display can be up to 4 x 4 feet. We will provide you with poster gum or tacks to mount your posters to the walls.

 A typical poster should include:

• Project Title
• Your name, program, and Bard College – You should also name your advisor, and, if you collaborated with someone other than your advisor, you should list his or her name and institution as well.
• Introduction - Give succinct statements of the project goals and appropriate background work. The level of explanation should make it accessible to a general science audience.
• Methods - Include a brief summary of the procedures you used. Diagrams of experimental flow charts or apparatus can be helpful.
• Results - Present the results in a form that is easy to understand at a glance. Frequently the conclusion drawn from any figure or table is stated in the small title above each result figure. Figure and table legends are often included to define any terms or symbols used. Long text is discouraged.
• Conclusions – In brief and succinct sentences, state the conclusions you have drawn from your work. Frequently these are listed in a bullet format.

KEEP IT SIMPLE! Someone viewing the poster should come away with the main goals and conclusions of the project, but not be overwhelmed by details. A viewer who sees many sheets of closely spaced texts is not likely to wade through it all. Try to present only the most important points of your work, saving more technical matters for individual discussions.