Communication Project DATA Lab PHY 252

DescriptionIn DATA Lab, your group has conducted experiments that other groups have not experienced. Therefore, reporting your findings is an important part of the scientific work you have done so
far. Scientific findings are reported in many ways, but there are three main media that are utilized to disseminate information in the scientific community – journal articles, poster presentations, and oral reports. While developing skills in each form is an important part of science, DATA Lab this semester will focus on the poster presentation. In doing so, we will be holding two poster presentations that will grant you the opportunity to report your labs – one E&M lab and one Optics lab.Your task is to report the results of one of your experiments – or some aspect of it – to the class.
The lab you choose is up to you, but it should be one of the two that you conducted with your
current group. This is an individual project, and each group member can pick his or her own lab and method of reporting. However, your group is one of your most valuable resources, so collaboration (sharing of data, comparing of notes, etc.) is acceptable as long as the final product from each member stands on its own.In addition, we will hold a “Communication Project Prep Day” once during the semester to give an extra opportunity to prepare before the first project is due. During this class, you and your group can collaborate and critique each other’s ideas, plan your layout, and take extra data if necessary. The more prepared you are walking into class that day, the more it will benefit you – please be sure to read the documentation regarding that day.There are many resources that detail how to present your data effectively, and you are encouraged to use whatever credible sources you can find. While there is no “template” that dictates how poster layout, we will provide some examples to help fuel the creative process.Please note: we are not ascribing value or grades to these examples, but simply demonstrating how diverse posters end up looking. It is intended to alleviate concerns of not “fitting the mold” rather than creating a mold for you.In addition to presenting, you will be providing feedback to your colleagues on their work, and completing this feeding will contribute to your grade. The rubric is available online. Because it will likely provide grading details pertinent to your work, consider reviewing it before starting your project.Creating a posterMotivation:At conferences, you will rarely see larger crowds gathered in the same place than during poster sessions. Hundreds of posters line bulletin boards, presenters standing nearby are ready to engage with attendees about their work. While the poster often has enough information to convey the Communication Project DATA Lab
PHY 2522details of the experiment, the expectation from the science community is for the presenter to discuss their research directly with interested members of the audience. Therefore, the poster is intended more as a lure for passersby, while the presenter opens discussion with those that get hooked. This environment allows for collaboration and discussion in a unique way, and when successful, the interaction between the presenter and the audience is engaging and informative. Instructions:Your task is to create a poster that presents your findings from one of your labs. Details of successful posters can be found online, but your poster should be capable of reporting the most important aspects of your work through images, graphs, and text. It should be clear what the important aspects are (at a glance), as many people will walk past a poster that is simply a “wall
of text.”Grading:We will hold a poster session in class, broken into sessions. Those not presenting in that session will engage with those that are. As mentioned, poster session success is primarily measured by engagement between presenter and audience, so it will also be your responsibility to interact with those interested. Because of this, your grade will reflect both the quality of the information included in your poster as well as your interaction with the audience.Please note, there is no expectation for you to print out professional posters or to spend a lot of time on the “beauty” of the work. We strongly encourage printing your poster in “tiled” form –instructions on how to do this are below. Other inexpensive yet effective methods include a poster board from a craft store, tri-fold stands, etc.Some helpful resources:Poster Design – http://goo.gl/IJtEtHPoster Session Tips – http://goo.gl/XKBdClHow to print your poster on a standard printer using “tiled printing” – http://goo.gl/hHHieE