Data Presentation: The Board
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Participating in a science fair is a good opportunity to become familiar with a specific topic and carry out some experiments in the field. However, communicating the work and passion that has been put into the project can be a challenge. The more you participate, the more occasions you have to develop good communication skills. Depending on the career path you choose, those skills can prove to be very useful!
At science fairs, you take advantage of many tools to assist with your communication efforts. Your best buddy will be...your display board! The board should be attractive, very understandable and tell the story of your project. The board is a support to your oral presentation, so both the speech and the visual should be planned at the same time and then streamlined. This article gives you tricks to design a board that will be a useful support to your presentation. For some additional tips please refer to the display board gallery.
Remember, your board should be able to sell your work without you even being there!
Contents |
Tell a story
A scientific project is a highly exploratory experience. As the project unfolds, your thoughts and ideas will evolve. Nevertheless, you must present a definite and polished picture of your work. All "unfinished business" would have to be presented very succinctly in the Future work section; your presentation should emphasize the work that has been accomplished.
It is a good idea to start by pondering what the meaning of your project is-in its final incarnation. You can write down or sketch out a diagram of the following:
- The problem(s) that justified your project to be pursued,
- The objectives of your project,
- If applicable, any hypothesis that is relevant to the problem(s) at hand,
- The methodologies that have been used,
- Main results and their interpretation.
The answer to those questions constitutes the logical structure of your project; a story line of sorts that relates your work! On your board, your illustrations should be visually organized along this story line.
You can divide your board into sections, if your diagram or story line contains multiple independent "small stories". Each section can be identified easily by help of a visual cue. As well, it is easy to follow the sequence of your presentation if you use title-separators, such as Background, Objectives, Hypotheses, Methodology, Results and Conclusions.
For the sake of simplicity, each illustration should convey a single concept. This concept is summarized in a brief sentence which constitutes the title of the slide. Except for labels, the rest of the slide should contain scarcely any text.
Only show material which supports your story. If there are topics that are relevant to your project, but that do not directly inserts in the story line, you can prepare extra slides that you keep on the presentation table or in a binder.
Be Attractive
Even a good project will not be appreciated fully if it does not impact the mind of the viewer.
To demonstrate the completeness of a project, one can use many different tools when presenting the data. Each person finds a certain presentation more appealing, so diverse tools can be used to attract to a broader audience.
Some presentation formats can exert fascination on the viewers:
- High-quality images give an impression of realism,
- Three-dimensional (3D) representations and mock-up models allow to grasp structural constitution,
- Movies and animations reveal the very dynamic nature of an object of study,
- Interactive objects, like machines, games and puzzles, put the viewer in personal relation with the study.
The originality or novelty aspect of your project can also be reflected on your board and in your presentation. Data can be presented in the light of a non-conventional perspective, preferably in your introduction or conclusion.
Even if it does not seem very serious, you can try to come up with a theme for your board. Having a visual theme will make people remember your project as unique and original.
If anything, your board should avoid being monotonous, repetitive and faint. For instance, do not include long runs of text (for instance for a description or an explanation). The board should be as visually pleasing as possible. Replace such text with a diagram or a flowchart.
Also, use colors!... but choose wisely and in moderation. Before making your board posters, decide on a palette of a few main colors. The human eye is more sensitive to certain colors (green and red, in contrast to blue) and reacts in a special way to some color. Think about road signs: red means danger or interdiction, yellow is associated with warning, etc. Intrinsically, people will pay more attention to something in red!
Aim for readability
All text should be consistent in font typefaces, sizes and colors. You can obviously have different fonts for titles, general text and labels, but always use the same appearance for each.
All text should be easily readable from a reasonable distance. Avoid exotic fonts, scribbles and small fonts.
For photographs and convoluted graphs, highlight the details of interest with arrows or colored boxes.
Each panel should not be too crowded; leave some blank space around illustrations to allow the eye to relax. However, too much space left between panels will make your illustrations look lonely.
There should be a short caption labeling each image, even if it is referred to somewhere by text. It should also serve as a very brief summary of the concept behind the picture, diagram or graph, as it is what people tend to read when skimming over your project.
Use uniform backgrounds for your panels; use preferably dark text over a light background.
If possible, use dark outlines for graphics and sketches. The human eye is very sensitive to edges of objects.
See Also
Poster presentation at the Eastern Kentucky University.
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