Posting Posters Promotes Pedagogy

Mike Sandiford et al
Geology and Geophysics

What It Is
In the Department of Geology and Geophysics Mike Sandiford, Ross Both, John Foden, Vic Gostin and Brian McGowran have developed poster components for some of their courses.

"Posters encourage independent research, they have as much to do with self-education as with teaching", comments Ross Both.

Why We Did It
Poster sessions are nowadays an integral part of many academic conferences, across a wide variety of disciplines.

Recently posters have been used in teaching as a way of providing a refreshing change from standard essays, while at the same time requiring a similar rigour in research and organisation of ideas.

How It Works
The main ingredients in successful poster design are a cogent, well connected argument that can be clearly expressed in point form, and accompanying illustrations/photos providing relevant support.

How to start: Pick topics that have a strong visual component. Students may develop their own ideas from those given.

Give specifications on poster size and presentation. The reference at the end of this article has excellent suggestions. This reference, or any similar one, may also provide students with the background reading they need to understand the expectations of this new format.

The poster session: At the poster session students, staff and invited guests can circulate around a large room and question the presenters. Typically the class is divided in two, with half the students presenting and the other half viewing, swapping after a set time (perhaps 45 minutes).

Suggestions for discussion during the poster session could include (from Kemp and Clark, 1992):

• Briefly explain what you have tried to show in your poster.
• How are these ideas significant to Geology?
• Are there any common misconceptions about this topic?
• Please explain the technical words that you have included in your poster.

What Students Thought
Posters are a superb resource for educators, especially those in a highly visual area such as geology and geophysics. Students enjoy doing them, and at the same time develop skills in presentation and argument essential to their post university professional work.

Reference Kemp, K.M. and Clark, J.A. (1992). Teaching Geology Using Poster Assignments, Journal of Geological Education, v.40, pp 398-403.