Research Poster Checklist by C Kohn, Agricultural Sciences, Waterford WI

Reviewer Names: Hour Date:

Reviewed Names :

INSTRUCTIONS: For each item, write Y (“Yes!”), S (“Sort of”), or N (“Not really”). Write this description after each line.

I. Title: Does your title have… a. The study subject (the plant, animal, organism, or whatever it is that you worked with) b. The independent variable and the dependent variable(s) c. The results of the experiment d. Your names, class, hour, and school (names should be in alphabetical order by last name)

II. Introduction: does your introduction include… a. Relevant background information (with 3+ credible sources cited parenthetically) b. The experimental (research) question c. The hypothesis d. The rationale, or reason for your hypothesis e. A brief overview of how you tested your hypothesis

III. Methods: does your methods section include… a. A cook-book recipe-style description of how you will conduct this experiment? b. A diagram, picture, or flow chart describing your work in a visually simpler way? c. A materials list with specific items and details?

IV. Results: does this section include… a. A graph/chart/table with the anticipated results with… a.i. A legend explaining all symbols or abbreviations a.ii. Labeled x axis and y axis a.iii. A caption with a description and also includes the important trends in the data

V. Discussion: does this section include… a. Your hypothesis, restated b. Whether or not your hypothesis was supported by your data (whether it was right or wrong) c. The significance of your results – did your error bars overlap? What does this mean? Did your observations match your data, or does your data fail to tell the whole story? d. Your final stance – is this hypothesis right or wrong, or do we need more info or time to determine this?

e. What’s next? Where do we go from here? (Another experiment? The same experiment with some modification? How can we wrap up this question?)

VI. Bibliography: does this section include… a. All major sources, listing the… a.i. Author’s name (last name first, first name last) a.ii. Date of publication a.iii. Name of document a.iv. Publishing agency a.v. Website and date accessed (if from online) b. Alphabetized listing by author’s last name (e.g. Arthur, J. would precede Baker, T.)

VII. General a. Would the reader get a complete picture of what you intend to do? b. Could the reader repeat your experiment based on this paper without asking questions? c. Is it obvious and clear that you know what you expected to find and is this stated in the paper? d. Does the discussion present possible results based on evidence and not “hunches”? e. Have you plagiarized material? Are you stealing ideas or giving proper credit? Are all sources cited both parenthetically and in your bibliography?