Advice from Liz Roepke, Peer Research Advisor
You may have noticed or even attended the Summer Research Symposia this last week, for the Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences or for Math & Sciences. The first time I went to a poster session as a first-year student, I was overwhelmed! At every session there are so many intelligent, well-spoken students presenting research they’re proud of.
At the time, I probably understood about ten percent of what each poster was saying. Even now that I’ve attended many more symposia and presented a few of my own posters, there are plenty of topics and posters that go completely over my head.
But that’s okay. A well-designed and well-written poster can tell you a lot about the background information, what the presenter found, and (most importantly) why you should care. Since it’s not my field of study, I’m going to need to know what Modified Quinine Derivatives are, or why I should spend the next five minutes learning about Reverse-Engineering Linear Algebra.
Someday in your college career you may present a poster for your professors and friends. Maybe you’ll even present at a national conference in your discipline, which Puget Sound students often do. So when the time comes, just remember: the only poster in the room you have to completely understand is your own!
P.S. For more student-created work, including posters, theses, and more, visit http://soundideas.pugetsound.edu/student_research/ .
Liz Roepke ’15 is a geology major and Peer Research Advisor at Collins Library.