Guidelines for Posters for the 2013 Science Division Research Fair
Important Dates
Tuesday, September 24 Deadline to submit the online form to report poster/title information
Tuesday, Oct. 1, 9:00 a.m. Last day to send poster to Instructional Graphics for printing
Thursday, Oct 17 Posters up
Friday, October 18, 12:30 -3:30 p.m. Exposition
Friday, Nov 1 Posters taken down
Also NOTE: Saturday, November 16 West Michigan Regional Undergraduate Science
Conference at Van Andel Institute
The Event
Each year the Science Division hosts a research exposition designed to acquaint the Calvin community
and the general public with the research activities of students within the Division. Students prepare
posters that describe their research and the posters are displayed in the Atrium (front entry area) of
DeVries Hall. The exposition is from 12:30 -3:30 PM on Friday the 18th of October when students are
asked to meet visitors and informally describe their work. (Students should be near their posters the
entire time unless they have a class.) Thereafter, the posters remain on display for approximately two
weeks.
Purpose and Audiences
The Research Fair’s purpose is threefold:
• to give students a forum for presenting and informally describing their research
• to provide students with practice opportunities for presentation activities at scientific or other
meetings
• to acquaint people unfamiliar with the Science Division with the diversity and depth of research
performed within the Division
The Calvin community and visitors are invited to attend the Research Fair. This audience consists of:
• all Calvin students, not just those in the Science Division
• parents – each year the Research Fair is held during Family Weekend
• faculty, staff, administrators
• visitors and friends of Calvin College
Note that this audience is a general audience which most likely lacks the training to understand a
particular scientific discipline in depth. Therefore, you should consider this audience in planning your
poster and be ready to explain your work in very general terms to be understandable by a collegeeducated layperson.
Specific Guidelines
1. Design your poster presentation. You should discuss format, content, and effective presentation
techniques with your professor. As you plan, remember that:
• the poster’s most important purpose is to communicate your project and results to as broad
an audience as possible
• the poster is not intended to be an exhaustive list of your research activities. Rather, it is intended
to provide an introduction and overview of the problem, the results, and the application.
• your poster should appear as a single cohesive document. Avoid using a compilation of individual
slides.
• bulleted lists, reduced wording, and pictures facilitate easy reading and good comprehension.
Pictures can show process and context
• if possible, think about how to make your poster interactive. Introduce the topic broadly – the
general appeal is likely to quickly engage a reader. Could you ask some questions to stimulate
interest? Could you ask the reader to make choices to predict outcome?
• ISRI funded students -- Please include the ISRI logo somewhere on your poster. See the Science
Division poster fair website http://www.calvin.edu/academic/science/summer/posterfair.html for
the ISRI logo.
2. Your poster minimally should include the following information:
• the problem you were trying to solve
• why that problem or topic is important, or how it’s relevant to something the general audience
can understand
• what you did to solve the problem or explore the phenomenon
• your results
• how your results relate to the problem, i.e., what’s the “take home” message
Sometimes posters have rather formal sections, i.e., Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Results,
Discussion, Acknowledgements. However, these sections might not be the best for your particular
poster. Remember, you need to communicate as if you were talking to a non-science major.
3. Poster preparation and sending to Instructional Graphics at Audio Visual for printing
• Prepare a 32” x 40” poster, using the template available on Calvin’s Instructional Graphics
Department’s website http://www.calvin.edu/admin/igs/research%20poster%20templates/
o The page is set to print at 32x40 inches. You will not need to use more than one page
o Please DO NOT create a Google Docs presentation file and then download as a
PowerPoint file as these cause problems when printing.
• Embed the fonts (PC) or send them as an attachment (Mac) if specific fonts are critical, for example
a font with scientific characters or symbols. Otherwise fonts may be substituted that do not have
the special characters.
o To embed fonts using a PC and the latest version of PowerPoint do this: SAVE
AS/TOOLS/SAVE OPTIONS/ click EMBED fonts in the file, embed all characters. (The
tools button is near the Save button).
• Name the file with your last name (e.g. “Smith.pptx”). DO NOT name the file you send
“poster” or “research poster”.
• Review the poster with your supervisor before submitting it to Instructional Graphics. This should
be done prior to October 1, 2013. After that date there is no guarantee the poster will be printed
by Instructional Graphics.
• Send your finished poster as an email attachment to posters@calvin.edu (Instructional Graphics)
for printing. If you have trouble emailing your poster, you can also bring it to the Instructional
Graphics office (Hiemenga Hall 225) on a flash drive (between 9:30am-4:30 pm)
• In the subject line of your email, put: Science Fair, professor’s last name, your last name, pc or
mac (whichever way you made your poster). If you do not use this type of subject heading, it may
get overlooked. ).
o E.g. Subject: Science Fair Warners DeVries PC
• Any questions on printing may be directed to Ellen Alderink, Instructional Graphics, 526-8614
Cost of printing the poster
1. If you had a Calvin funded Science Division fellowship, the cost of printing your poster will be
paid from a Science Division account. The Science Division account will not, however, pay for
laminating and mounting on foam core.
2. If your research was funded by an external grant, your poster should be paid for from that grant.
3. The Science Division Administrative Assistant will supply the account numbers for payment of
poster printing to Instructional Graphics.
4. If you or your professor have any questions about the cost of poster printing, please call the Science
Division Office (526-6200).