Posters—Old Tool, New Tech

As a means to encourage student engagement and satisfaction in a large introductory organic chemistry class, students were tasked with the creation of instructional posters relating an organic compound to the North Carolina State Fair. Students had the freedom to choose what compound to represent and how to connect this compound to the state fair, as long as the final product was a digital poster suitable for sharing with other class members, and targeted to an audience of fair-goers. This report details the design and outcomes of the project with an emphasis on student choices and student perceptions of the completed works. Content analysis of the students’ reflections of work revealed that most students expressed positive feelings toward the assignment and appreciated the opportunity to engage in creative pursuits related to the material being covered in class.

Section: ■ Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Local and Timely Class Project Promotes Student Engagement in a Nonmajors’ Course: Organic Chemistry at the North Carolina State Fair

Ciccone

Gallardo-Williams

2020

“…Poster presentations have been used as a teaching tool in chemistry classes since the beginning of the 20th century. 7 Poster sessions have been incorporated in chemistry lecture courses as a means to visually present the result of a one-time project 8 or in place of a written exam. 9 Poster presentations have been used to replace written laboratory reports in introductory undergraduate chemistry courses.…”

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confidence: 99%

Impact of an In-Class Biochemistry Mini-conference on Students’ Perception of Science

Gerczei

2016

The work presented here is the summary of a 3 year study that aimed to uncover how students’ perception of science changes with the chance to participate in a mini-conference that is incorporated into the biochemistry lecture course. Students were asked to work in groups of 2 or 3 and research a topic that is related to the material covered in class. Their research was presented during the last lecture of the course, and the presentation was conducted similar to a conference poster session. The students’ grades on this assignment were entirely based on peer evaluation and not on evaluation by the instructor. A survey was conducted before and after this assignment to gauge how the experience changed students’ perception of science. The study was conducted with both STEM majors and non-STEM majors to allow comparison of how these two groups of students were affected by the experience.

“…The methods used for creating and presenting posters have also evolved with the advent of computer technology, allowing students to create digital posters with easily accessible software such as PowerPoint . The creation of digital posters offers opportunities not possible with paper posters: they can be transported easily and presented virtually in an online environment .…”

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confidence: 99%

“…9 Finally, the visual nature of posters lends itself to promoting chemistry as an interesting and rewarding field of study; Sullivan describes an annual poster contest for high school students that also functions as a recruiting tool for his department. 12 The methods used for creating and presenting posters have also evolved with the advent of computer technology, 13 allowing students to create digital posters with easily accessible software such as PowerPoint. 8 The creation of digital posters offers opportunities not possible with paper posters: they can be transported easily and presented virtually in an online environment.…”

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confidence: 99%

Providing Students with Interdisciplinary Support To Improve Their Organic Chemistry Posters

Widanski¹,

Thompson²,

Foran-Mulcahy³

et al. 2015

A two-semester-long interdisciplinary support effort to improve student posters in organic chemistry lab is described. In the first semester, students’ literature search report is supported by a workshop conducted by an Instruction Librarian. During the subsequent semester, a second workshop is presented by the Instruction Librarian, an English professor, and the Assistant Director of the college’s Learning Center. In that workshop, the students are shown PowerPoint applications to enable them to produce digital posters. They also learn the conventions of scientific poster layout and design, scientific writing style, use of graphics, and correct ACS documentation. The interdisciplinary support culminates in a poster competition at the end of the second semester. The digital posters created not only exemplify professional scientific design and content; they are also easily transported, presented, and stored and eliminate the expense of printed posters.