This week, Module 5, we will be looking at various ways of sharing our own research. We will cover the idea of posters and academic papers as well as have an opportunity in the labs to practise presenting a poster.
On Monday we have a special visitor, Maira Quintanilha will be coming to give us a short presentation on how she made her poster that WON at the AIHN graduate student competition.
Here is a brief bio of Maira:
Maira Quintanilha began her Master in Science program at the Department of Agricultural Food and Nutrition
Sciences at University of Alberta in
the Fall of 2009 after completing a Bachelors degree in Nutrition and Food
Science and the Integrated Dietetic Internship Program from the Federal
University of Goiás in Brazil.
During
her Masters degree at the University of Alberta, Maira has received many awards
and scholarships including the Dr. Elizabeth A. Donald MSc Fellowship in Human
Nutrition, second place in the 2011 Alberta Institute for Human Nutrition
graduate poster competition and two Graf tuition awards. She was also a
finalist in the prestigious Nestlé Student and Trainee Competition at the
Canadian Nutrition Society Conference in 2010. Her research interests include
health promotion, building a school environment that facilitates healthy
choices, and nutrition education. She defended
her Masters thesis in August 2011 and is currently working on her process to
become a Registered Dietitian in Canada.
HOMEWORK: There is a slight change as Marie Claude will be giving a guest lecture in the next class so FOR FRIDAY: please bring to class a paper/article that you have to read for one of your other classes
Lecture Part I: Effective Posters
How to Create an Effective Poster Presentation: Guest Lecture by Maira Quintanilha
View more presentations from Jessica Laccetti.
Lecture Part II: Academic Essay Writing
Group Essay Writing Activity:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/16FhezNuYEFECx8lDy7ctaT2EDkIxoUjDnZquqbwPxS8/edit?hl=en_US
•Remember
to comment on the blog with any core questions/ideas pertaining to lectures
(see Participation on the syllabus)
Note: I have had a few students ask me about a CV. It is like a résumé, but more detailed. Here is what Colorado State University says:
How a CV is Different from a Resume
Many job search committees for teaching, graduate school, international or research positions request a CV to get a fuller picture of your academic experiences, accomplishments and interests than a resume can provide.
A resume lists your education, experience and skills. Your CV allows you to go beyond listing your relevant experiences and accomplishments; you can also convey the substance of those experiences and accomplishments.
Unlike a resume, which is usually about one page long, CVs vary in length, from about two to five pages, depending on the applicant's relevant experiences.
What happens if we are not taking any courses this term that are requiring us to use/read articles...are we able to bring an article of interest within out field?
ReplyDeleteYou can clearly see posters with too much text. I would not want to read these posters. If I'm preparing a poster I'm going to check out this "student success center". In regards to poster background it's good to have contrast so it's visually appealing.
ReplyDeleteLike any other student I am a fan of procrastination.
I'll also have to contact Karen colvack for poster help if needed.
Maira's poster presentation was really enlightening. I had no clue that so much work and planning went into the text alone. It's also interesting that your clothing can take away from your poster. Looking back, there are definitely ways I could have improved my posters in the past. Very informative!
ReplyDeleteMaira was very knowledgable in the area of poster writing. It is great to learn about what an academic poster is from someone who has seen such success writing them. Great talk!
ReplyDeleteMaira's presentation was really helpful! I had never considered a word limit for my posters. The bad posters she showed with too much text definitely were overwhelming. I also never thought of the colours of my clothing would take away from my poster.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I have prepared a poster presentation in the past, I did not know a lot of important aspects of poster making. Maira's lecture cast light on many poster requirements.
ReplyDeleteWhen creating a poster, consider different colour and text sizes; avoid red and green text because your audience may contain some colour blind individuals.
It was interesting that clothing takes away from the appearance of the poster.
I hope to be as successful as Maira!
For your poster presentation, know your audience. If they are experts in the feild, you can use more specific terms that they will understand. If the audience is a little less knowlegable in your poster topic use terms that are easier for people to understand and explain the poster more thoroughly.
ReplyDeleteGreat information on how to create a poster that is eye-catching and relevant. Good to have lots of tips on how to make a poster that is easy to read and has the right amount of information on it,- takes a lot of the guess work out of it! Also interesting to know about what colors and poster orientation is best.
ReplyDeleteGreat to have a "how to" session on poster making before our poster presentation in the lab. Lots of helpful tips, such as knowing your audience, having easy to read fonts and colors, and having an appropriate amount of texts and images. I also never considered how what you are wearing may effect your presentation! Good to know.
ReplyDeleteAll of my previous posters were the standard high school-picture and diagram heavy research, quantitative posters. It was really interesting to look at a more qualitative example-when you don't have a ton of stats to spit out, I guess it makes sense that you have to be really concerned with word count and content. Another good choice for a guest lecture-a prize winning poster maker!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed today's class. Maira's lecture was very informative and I think it will be of great use in this weeks lab. I also found the essay template useful, we created an essay as a class about a lollipop. It was nice to see the different perspectives of individuals in the class.
ReplyDeleteThis presentation made me really consider what to put in my posters. It's very important to integrate your ideas into your poster in a way that will be easily read by a general audience. Big fonts, and attention grabbing graphics make your poster stand out, and make your message more likely to stick into peoples minds.
ReplyDeleteI think the most important point is to keep the text count down. If there are too many words, most people won't even bother looking at your poster!
Maira's lecture was extremely informative! Her presentation was fantastic and very knowledgeable. I especially liked that she showed us different examples of what not to do and what TO do.
ReplyDeleteThe only question I have for this lecture is how academically challenging your material should be? Or in other words, how 'smart' or 'dumbed down' it should be for people who many not have much knowledge and expertise in your field of study? I believe that posters should appeal to people of all intellect, but there is a certain point when you maybe need to use very scientific words/material to effectively convey your topic.
She listed so many things I wouldn't even think of when making a poster! The orange colour thing was something pretty interesting, I wouldn't think of going to check out successful posters and such. I think it is a good thing to not have too much text, but if you are doing a scientific poster, wouldn't it be sort of hard to limit your text?
ReplyDeleteMaira's presentation was very useful! I will definietly use some of that information in the future! Big fonts and graphics are important as long as they aren't too distracting! Maira said that she thinks that it is okay to do light font on dark background but I have been taught to never ever do that! I think I'll stick to dark font on light background just to be safe!
ReplyDeleteWith all of my presentations I always prioritize ease of understanding over completeness of information. It is hard sometimes to let go of all the work you've done researching and omit, sometimes important, informations but in the end the most important thing is what your audience walks away with not showing your audience how much work you've done. I think this was what Maira was alluding to with limiting the amount of text on your poster.
ReplyDeleteMaira gave us a lot of useful tips on how to make a good and impressive poster. It include proper colour, front, image and concise context. Don't forget, well knowing your post content is also very important and it will reflect on your talking or communicating with audience.
ReplyDeleteMaira was an excellent presenter and she covered many important topics around poster-making. I definitely agreed with her on many points, including that you should be able to read a poster from five feet away. I also thought her poster was fabulous, even if it wasn't very eye-catching at first glance. It's very clear that she won the judges over with her professional presence and speaking.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, my lollipop broke apart upon opening the wrapper...:(
Last time I did a poster presentation was in high school and I'm honestly not a fan of it because I wasn't sure on how much content to be on it. Back then I thought more text/content is better because it show's how much effort I've done. I prefer doing a presentation using power point. But now I just realized there are some things you'll never graduate from. With Maira's lecture, I know how to make a poster properly in the future. It will save me so much time from doing extra (unecessary) work when really you're only supposed to summarize the main points down to 800 - 1000 words and adding a few images. All the details can be explained by us, the presenters.
ReplyDeleteHow you present your poster plays a huge role in having a successful poster presentation. You can have a great looking poster, with very interesting content, but if you can't speak about it confidently people won't be as intrigued. Try to catch their attention by being passionate about the topic.
ReplyDeleteI think Maira`s presentation had a good deal of information that showed how to make a poster and all the precautions that needed to be taken while making a poster. Definately usin the information for the lab tom when discussing poster presentations.
ReplyDeleteMaira's lecture on poster presentations was very informative. I appreciate the details she provided (such as word count and font) to clearly demonstrate what is effective. I will be bringing my notes from her lecture into my lab this week. Also Jess, excellent idea to ask Maira to present --great thing to see students educating/inspiring students!
ReplyDeletePoster presentations are usually pretty tedious since you have such limited space to put in a lot of information. But what I got from Maira's presentation is that's the point of a poster; to say what you need to say concisely within limitations. It makes you focus more on the important points instead of "beating around the bush" and getting off topic. I thought the picture with the man who wore the same color as his poster was quite funny! I never really thought about what you should wear during a presentation. Apparently, that's important too. Overall, a very information lecture.
ReplyDeleteI really appreciated all of Maria's points. It was nice to have a student lecturer with so much knowledge and success in poster presentations. She made preparing a poster much easier with clear guidelines.
ReplyDeleteI really appreciated all of Maria's points. It was nice to have a student lecturer with so much knowledge and success in poster presentations. She made preparing a poster much easier with clear guidelines.
ReplyDeleteI think Maira did an amazing job today. Its nice to hear from fellow peers. I think we should have more talks by students.
ReplyDeleteI am in the CSL lab and am confused about Pecha Kucha. Our lab was cancelled last week, and I didn't realize we were expected to have a Pecha Kucha ready for this weeks lab. Will we be learning about Pecha Kucha in class?
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed today's lecture. I will be starting a poster in my Biology 208 lab tomorrow, so this was great timing.
Thanks!
cemckenz@ualberta.ca
Maira's lecture today is very useful. She told us every detail of how to make an eye-catching and effective poster oresentation. Before the lecture, I had no idea of making a poster presentation. Now, I know that making an effective poster consists of many factors and each factor is needed when making a poster presentation. For example, having a good title can raise the interests of the readers and having proper font size and color can let them be willing to spend some time reading the poster.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, it is great to have Maira as a lecturer since she is student as we are and can give information from our points of view. I do hope we can have some more student lecturer in the rest of the term.
Maira's teaching about how to create an effective poster presentation is very practical! She listed out excat content and words limitation, also she recommanded some useful software for us to download and use in our poster presentation. The most impressive part is her sharing of experience such as keep your eyes opened and be aware when you choose color and images. Further, she pointed out some common mistakes, such as too much words etc. She is a very thoughtful person with plenty knowledge and we can tell that she always do her best for what she want. Nice model for me!
ReplyDeleteMaira's presentation was excellent, I don't think many of us consider the work it takes to produce an effective poster. If I were to make one, I would like to take the light font on dark background approach. Making posters is rewarding, and it would be an awesome feeling to make one that you actually found to be visually pleasing as well. What I didn't quite catch was whether or not it was mandatory to include references on your poster? That would take away from the visual appeal, but I understand if it were necessary.
ReplyDeleteI haven't done a poster before,but I think there are many similarities between a poster and powerpoint.In both cases,we want to show informations in a attacrting and effecient ways. Just like what Maria did, use fewer words to summary the idea of your information,but not losing any key point.
ReplyDeleteToday, Maira gave us a really useful and informative lecture on how to make an effective scientific research poster. I created one before for my biology class, but I had a really hard time doing it. After today's lecture, I learned that in order to make a successful scientific presentation, you have to first know your audiences. It is very important so you can have an idea to just talk about general things or to go in detail. Also, the poster should be brief and eye-catching, because it is less likely to attract people if there're too much information on the poster.
ReplyDeleteAll in all, today's lecture is really rewarding!
Maira gives lots of useful information about how to create a eye-catching and formal poster, actual I did a poster before, but I think I should do much better after today`s lecture. Every week lab is challeng to me....A such exceting class!
ReplyDeleteMaira knew a lot about poster presentation as evident when she told us that her first entry into the poster competition concluded with her winning 1st place. She really gave us a great presentation. Hopefully I can use what she talked about today to improve my poster presentation.
ReplyDeleteI liked Maira's presentation today on posters. She said that she didn't have very much experience, but she knew a lot about what posters should/shouldn't look like. I liked her definition of the poster as an 'illustrated abstract' because it places importance on the physical appearance of a poster. Aesthetic appeal is what makes a report and a poster different. You want people to be drawn to your poster by color and composition. This is why you have to make sure your poster does not contain too much information or images, or distracting colors which take away from your posters appeal.
ReplyDeleteMaira gave a clear and informative lecture today. I never knew that there are words limit that we need to consider when making a poster, I often include too many words inside and thus it is hard for people to read my writings. Moreover, choosing image is important, it has to be eye-catching but also highly relates to the text that we are presenting. Furthermore, she told us many small tips like using a light color background should use dark color text. Overall, she is a good speaker and I can see how professional she is as her poster won! I am looking forward to create my own poster!
ReplyDeleteI think Maira addressed some really important points in creating a scientific poster. Sometimes its what you don't have on the poster that makes it look aesthetically pleasing! It also has real affect on how your audience perceives your professionalism. I am sure the information provided today will really assist me in my future research!
ReplyDeleteMaira's poster presentation was really helpful and I learned a lot from her speech.First, what she impressed me most was her confidence and passion about her majoy.Next, she gave us many tips on how to address a scientific poster in terms of the text,title,steps ect. Last but not least, her attitude was really great when she was doing her poster.I mean, she knows how to draw people's attentions and interests. Hope I would address a perfect poster after practice.
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ReplyDeleteI have learned from Maira to create an attractive and informative poster today. I never know there is so much to concern before making a great poster, such as using less word and inserting mass of images to impress audience. The word limit is a problem for me, because it is hard to use less word to highlight the key point. Maira's presentation teaches me how to make a professional poster and I will definitely go through the sample before attending to the lab this week.
ReplyDeleteThis lecture on creating a "winning" poster was really great! It will definitely be useful if any of us need to create a poster either in summer research, a future course, or grad school. A great addition to the material we've already learned about in class!
ReplyDeleteMaira's lecture was very informative! I never knew so much went into designing a poster that can adequately portray your information. Knowing the limits on word count for certain sections of the poster will definitely prove useful when I have to design a poster for my research project in NUTR 400/401. Looking forward to applying these tips!
ReplyDeleteHer lecture was very informative and knowledgeable. Her posters were very interesting and well organized. Some posters are boring but her poster was very easy to read and catchy. Some pictures and diagram helped to grasp eye and didn't make boring. Her lecture helped me a lot and I learned a lot too. It's going to help my future courses and career.
ReplyDeleteI really appreciated Maria's lecture about how to prepare a poster and how to present it to audience. I did not knew that the student success centre actually had resources for us to use especially in areas of how to create a poster, possible template etc. Marai emphasized the importance of choosing designs for our poster including background color, and the extend of content and image. She provided us with great tips to go about choosing our poster, the way we should present and the type of clothing we should consider wearing- keeping in mind that our "poster" should be the centre of attention. Overall, given that I didn't knew how to create a poster, i am now equipped with tools and resources, and i am sure it will help me in the future.
ReplyDeleteMaria's presentation was very knowledgeable. I have done many posters before and I know the amount of work and effort that are needed to put in to have a successful poster. I did not know that the Student Success Centre had resources to help students create a great looking poster with just the right amount of information. I will definitely keep all of Maria's tips in mind when I do my next poster.
ReplyDeleteI really found Maria's tips and advice on poster making and presenting was very useful. I especially found it to to be useful in the lab where we had to create our own posters in very limited time. My group definitely took her pointers, such as not cluttering the poster with too many pictures or too much text, into consideration when creating our own posters. I definitely found the presenting of the posters to be nerve wracking but I attempted to use Dr. Doughty's pointers in combination with Maria's to enhance the presentation.
ReplyDeleteThis was a very interesting and useful lecture. Poster making is something I have done before and know I will be doing quite frequently in the future. This lecture felt relevant to me and my work, and I was very happy Maira came to share her knowledge with us.
ReplyDeleteMaria's presentation was very interesting. I really appreciate the simple facts that influence the quality of a poster. These tips help in the lab as well as with my CLS placement group Sustain-SU. I'm hoping to use these techniques when advertising for events such as Party With A Purpose and for promoting the group itself.
ReplyDeleteI also really enjoyed the lollipop lecture. Thanks for the free candy. It was a really neat idea to incorporate in with essay writing. Way to keeping things entertaining Thanks Jess!
Mairas' lecture on Monday was very interesting and useful. It is great getting a lecture on making an effective poster. I'm pretty sure most of us in the class will end up making posters sometime in our life. I have a tendency to put a lot of information on a project ; to project a sense of knowing & way to show i done my research. So i learned something to change up my routines. Also, another pointer i found very important is to put all the attention on the poster, and not yourself. It's always good to look professional when you are presenting a poster, but don't over do it.
ReplyDeleteAfter doing the poster creating lab today I realized that a lot of people have a different idea of what is aesthetically pleasing and easy to read. All of my groups members had different style directions that we wanted to take for the poster and it took us longer to come to an agreement on what we should do than actually creating the poster. Just thought it was interesting...
ReplyDeleteMaira had some great points about how to communicate your research through a poster presentation. It makes sense that less is more when you're trying to get the main message across to someone who is standing several feet away and may only have a few minutes to read over the content. An eye-catching layout and a concise but interesting title are key! It's also important to dress neutral and not try to coordinate with your poster!
ReplyDeleteThis lecture helped me a lot for the lab this week! Probably the biggest thing I took away was to not over-crowed with text. Posters are a great way to communicate and show your research. It's so much less boring than a paper, because you can be creative.
ReplyDeleteMaira gave a very interesting and relevant presentation on making a poster. I had never thought about how too much text can destroy your poster until she showed us the bad examples! I think it is important to do everything on your poster in moderation, from number of words to number of pictures and brightness of background colour. I'm glad we had this presentation, I feel much more prepared to make academic posters!
ReplyDeleteMaira had many good tips on how to make a great poster. The old saying " Less is more" applies to posters to most of the time. Even though you spent hours on your research and are proud of it, don't show EVERY single detail for it will look too crowded and not very pleasing and the audience will move on without getting much or any information from it. Also with pictures its nice to have a few but too many also becomes distracting from the main point. She explained to us how this can be a much more fun and effective method of presenting research if done properly.
ReplyDeleteIt has been great to get to know what a real poster is. It is supposed to be compact yet informative. Honestly, I have never been considering about how could a poster help me carry out a more attractive presentation. However, the most difficult part while making an original poster is to select what you should put onto it.Based on what Maira told us, even if we have much to say regarding our own up-to-date research findings, it is not appropriate to present e a lengthy poster in front our audiences. Instead, the type of information should be highly selective. On top of that, to make our poster more creative and vivid, it is recommended for us to include several relevant images or graphics, this way, some unavoidable abstractive contents can be demonstrated more clearly.
ReplyDeleteThe above is written by Duo Zhi...
ReplyDeleteMaira's presentation is informative. And it gave us useful tips for our poster. To be honest,I didn't know how to do a poster before this class. Maira gave us an ideal post sample. After this lecture, I noticed too much text would destroy my poster. When I do my poster, I should be careful about it.
ReplyDeleteMaria had a very interesting presentation regarding academic posters. It is important to have appropriate font size, colours (avoid red & green), and self-explanatory figures. We used her pointers to make an effective poster presentation in lab!
ReplyDeleteMaira's presentation was wonderful. She gave us lots of useful tips for making a eye-catching and formal poster. If you want to make a good poster, you should know your audience first and do not put too much information on it. It can be made formal and creative.
ReplyDeleteI found Maria's lecture on creating posters to be very helpful. I would never have considered that poster size,color, number of images and amount of text would be such important factors in determing poster success. I was also surprised to learn that the clothing that one wears while presenting his/her poster is very important. Thanks for the great tips Maria!
ReplyDeleteA lecture about how to creat an effective poster presentation,Hmm,definitely we can learn some important skills from it.I can`t agree any more with that a good poster presentation shouldn`t with too much text.I think nobody would feel well with much text displayed in front of you.It is really terrible experience to read thousands words in one pages.I prefer more pics to demonstrate what speaker wants to share with us.
ReplyDeleteI learned from Maria's lecture that a visual presentation such as a poster requires a lot of thought and preparation because there are many factors that come into play when catching viewer's attention. It's important to look at the entire package and evaluate using various perspectives.
ReplyDeleteThe key to a good poster presentation is to not use a lot of technical jargon.
ReplyDeleteIt is tempting to sound very educated in your field and use high level knowledge terms but always keep in mind that the purpose of poster presentations is to teach the public about a certain topic.
You can't always count on each member of the audience having a degree in english writing.
As well I learned from Maria's presentation how important format, font, background and visual appeal are. Otherwise the audience won't pay any attention to your presentation!!
I don't know if I agree with all the advice you gave but your presentation was interesting!
ReplyDeleteIts great to know there are actually resources on how to make a good poster, and im glad i learned about the importance of research and observing other posters!
ReplyDeleteMaira's presentation was really interesting. She had some really good examples of to do and what not to do. It really requires a lot of prepartion to make a good professional poster.
ReplyDeleteA big thank you to Maira for coming to class to teach us about poster presentations on Monday. I learned a lot of things I didn't previously know and - more than anything - she opened my eyes to the resources we have available to us as undergraduate students on campus when we need help with this type of project. I'd have never thought so hard about particular colours, spacing, text, clothing, and content (or lack of) before having seen this presentation, so I'm very happy that she made herself and her great work available to us.
ReplyDeleteThanks Maira for the great advice on making posters. I definitely will remember to properly space my test, what font and size to use, what kind of colors to have and to make sure to dress accordingly to my poster (I didn't know that what color we had on our clothes could detract attention away from the poster).
ReplyDeleteI appreciated Maira’s presentation, she gave us many useful tips. What I got out of her presentation was that you should carefully consider your topic and spend time making your poster. I like that she encouraged us to use Student Services because it is an important resource. The lab didn’t reflect this, it was difficult to read the article and then quickly put a presentation together in forty minutes. That said I was impressed by some of my classmates who were able to make professional posters and present well after this short period of time.
ReplyDeleteMaira's presentation really got me thinking about effective poster designs. Remember the terrible posters you made in elementary school that were covered in glitter and crammed with junky photos you copied and pasted from Google? I keep stopping in the halls of the Bio Sci building to check out featured posters so I can get a feel for what works… and what doesn’t.
ReplyDeleteMaira's presentation was really helpful in making a appropriate and good poster. There are so many things that you want to avoid such as too much text, inappropriate text size and colour, etc. I definitely took her advice when we made a poster in lab. I made sure to put an appropriate amount of images, readable font sizes and good amount of text. It was kind of difficult to limit the amount of text because there is just so much information you want to include. I tried my best to briefly discuss the details and only include what was important.
ReplyDeleteI was surprised to learn that people still made posters for classes and was wondering how people would be able to see what was written on the posters if you were presenting one in front of a class full of people. Then, I went to my lab and found out that a poster presentation could be posted on a PowerPoint slide as opposed to being printed. How innovative is that!
ReplyDeleteI also learned a lot about how to make a good looking poster and took some mental notes while other students presented their posters.