From paste-up to power-up

Supporting students to design a research poster

Abstract

This paper describes the evaluation of a single teaching intervention, a poster design seminar, facilitated by a professional designer, for a 2nd year undergraduate ecology class. We provide some evidence that the intervention enhances students' understanding and practice of visualisation skills. We also recommend the use of readily available and accessible tools (such as PowerPoint) to reduce the amount of time needed for technical support. Our experience leads us to suggest that including the teaching of visualisation skills in the undergraduate science curriculum may be a simple strategy to help future scientists to become more effective and independent visual communicators.