1. A Relevant and Descriptive Title
Your Name, Partner’s Name, Partner’s Name & Partner’s Name
Teacher’s Name, Name of Class
Licking Heights High School
Abstract
This section of the poster will be the first thing that someone would read and should give an overview of the ENTIRE experiment. You should begin with stating the purpose of the experiment (what was being investigated). You should give a brief summary about what was tested, what the results were, and what those results mean.
Someone should be able to read this section of your poster and have a good idea about what research you did and what your results showed. This is what makes a research poster so much better than a report or a formal lecture.
This should be in paragraph form using complete sentences. NO bullets!
Procedure
Your procedure should be a detailed, step-by-step set of instructions of what was done throughout the course of your experiment.
This can be numbered, but each step should be a complete sentence.
You should describe any procedure that was used during the course of the experiment.
Be sure to describe what data was collected, including units, how the data were recorded, and for how long.
You should also include a captioned picture or diagram of your setup to reinforce your procedure. This should help to communicate your procedure to someone who is reading it.
Remember, another student should be able to read your procedure and be able to replicate your experiment EXACTLY!
Results
Begin with a few bullets that summarize the major trends in your experiment.
Include all pertinent tables, graphs, and photographs. Each table should be numbered (Table 1, 2, 3 etc.) and be given a title.
Graphs and photographs are numbered (Figure 1, 2, 3, etc) and are given a title.
Be sure that graphs contain appropriately labeled and scaled x and y axis and a key when necessary.
You should discuss ONLY what you observed happen in this section. You should not interpret the results in this section!
Discussion
This is the section in which you will interpret the results of your experiment. You have already stated what you observed happen in the “Results” section, now it is time to explain WHY this occurred.
Be sure to revisit the original hypothesis and discuss whether or not your data support it.
DO NOT regurgitate data values that are listed in a table, or shown in a graph. Instead, summarize the important trends!
You should explain why your observed the trends discussed above in terms of the background information you included! Here is where you show me that you UNDERSTAND how your results are connected to what we are studying.
You should address any sources of error that may have occurred and how they may have impacted your results. Be specific! Don’t just say student/human error! You should provide discussion about how this error may have impacted your results, pose improvements that would correct for the source of error, and predict how this correction would impact the experimental results.
Table 1: Title
Background
You should begin this section with RELEVANT background information about the topic that you have investigated.
It should demonstrate an understanding of important key terms and concepts and how they relate to the investigation. This is where you show me that you understand how your investigation relates to what we are studying.
This should can be in bulleted (using complete sentences) or paragraph form. Be informative, but brief! You may include helpful diagrams, but be sure to explain their significance.
Photo/Diagram of Experimental Setup
References
Include any references you have used to gather information for this lab.
Your textbook and lecture notes count!
Use MLA formatting.
Materials
This should be an itemized list of what materials and equipment you used in your experiment.
You may bullet in this section and do not have to write in complete sentences.
Make sure to include amounts when appropriate.
Figure 1: Include a caption below your picture or diagram explaining what is being shown.