ADVICE TO PRESENTERS

Oral Remarks about Your Poster to State Legislators and Legislative Staff

Keep your prepared remarks about the poster under five minutes; three minutes is probably about right. If the legislator is interested, he or she will ask more questions. Remove as much jargon as possible from your remarks. To practice this, find someone who has never taken a course in your subject (ie a parent or friend) and try your remarks out on that person. If you lose your friendly listener, rework your presentation.

Be ready for the question, "So what did you learn? / What did you get out of this?" DON'T say something like, "Well, I learned that [the name of some unpronounceable enzyme] will catalyze the decomposition of [some unpronounceable chemical] in the ground up livers of [some special strain of] rats." INSTEAD, discuss how valuable the project was to your personal growth as a scholar and as a future member of the work force.

Perhaps it helped you choose a career, or changed your thinking about a career. Tell them that your undergraduate research experience occurred because your college explicitly permitted and/or encouraged the activity within the undergraduate curriculum. You might also consider talking about the value of getting to know your faculty research advisor through your work on the project.

For additional tips for a successful poster event, click here.