Poster Development and Presentation to Improve Scientific Inquiry and Broaden Effective Scientific Communication Skills

Abstract

We have redesigned a tried-and-true laboratory exercise into an inquiry-based team activity exploring microbial growth control, and implemented this activity as the basis for preparing a scientific poster in a large, multi-section laboratory course. Spanning most of the semester, this project culminates in a poster presentation of data generated from a student-designed experiment. Students use and apply the scientific method and improve written and verbal communication skills. The guided inquiry format of this exercise provides the opportunity for student collaboration through cooperative learning. For each learning objective, a percentage score was tabulated (learning objective score = points awarded/total possible points). A score of 80% was our benchmark for achieving each objective. At least 76% of the student groups participating in this project over two semesters achieved each learning goal. Student perceptions of the project were evaluated using a survey. Nearly 90% of participating students felt they had learned a great deal in the areas of formulating a hypothesis, experimental design, and collecting and analyzing data; 72% of students felt this project had improved their scientific writing skills. In a separate survey, 84% of students who responded felt that peer review was valuable in improving their final poster submission. We designed this inquiry-based poster project to improve student scientific communication skills. This exercise is appropriate for any microbiology laboratory course whose learning outcomes include the development of scientific inquiry and literacy.

Integration of Scientific Competence into Gross Anatomy Teaching Using Poster Presentations: Feasibility and Perception among Medical Students

“…An even more positive attitude toward research and scientific methodology was previously described for fifth‐year German medical students in traditional or problem‐based curricula (Pruskil et al, 2009). Rauschenbach et al (2018) reported that 72% of students felt that their scientific writing skills had improved as a result of engaging with a scientific project.…”

“…), might not be expected from a single project, it could still deliver valuable data in addition to the already available facts (Fang and Meyer, 2003; Solomon et al, 2003; Abu‐Zaid and Alkattan, 2013). As the method of poster production could also be applied to other pre‐clinical or clinical‐theoretical subjects, including microbiology (Rauschenbach et al, 2018), it might be conceivable that such long‐term effects will be measurable once scholarly research activities have been integrated into the teaching concepts of all undergraduate disciplines.…”

“…To further these scientific motivations, all students are given the opportunity to collaboratively compile their observations (research results), and ultimately create and present a scientific poster that reflects their body donors' pathologies as recommended by McLean et al (2013). The production and presentation of scientific posters is a proven format for rapid communication within the research community and has already been successfully used to test scientific skills (Brown, 2018; Rauschenbach et al, 2018).…”

Quality Improvement and Safety in US Pharmacy Schools

“…8 This application has also been shown to further enhance student experiences when their work is culminated into a poster. 16,17 However, the limited amount of literature to support the completion of projects and posters may also introduce the potential for selection bias because the authors were only able to select from a small pool of literature data. Further research is needed to fully assess this impact.…”

Inquiry-Driven Bioinformatics Laboratory Research Module: Metagenomic Study of Student Oral Microbes

“…A poster presentation was scheduled at the end of the semester within the laboratory time. Poster presentations have been shown to increase student learning, engagement, and improve communication skills ( 35 – 37 ). Besides the common project flow, each student was assigned either a particular technique to explain in more detail such as Sanger sequencing, NGS, TOPO cloning, use of dilution curves for PCR sensitivity and linearity in amplification; or a particular type of microbes and a particular factor to assess correlation with the microbes present such as ethnicity, gender, and diet.…”