THE POSTER SESSION: a TOOL for EDUCATION, ASSESSMENT, and RECRUITMENT a Ethel R

- MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTER EDUCATION

THE POSTER SESSION: A TOOL FOR EDUCATION, ASSESSMENT, AND RECRUITMENT a Ethel R. Wheland , Timothy W. O'Neilb Jeffrey D. Adler\ and Kathy J. Liszkab aDepartment ofMathematics, University ofAkron, Akron, Ohio; bDepartment of Computer Science, University ofAkron, Akron, Ohio; CDepartment ofMathematics and Statistics, American University, Washington, DC [email protected] ABSTRACT Various techniques have been employed by instructors to encourage student involvement in their own educational process. Traditional dependence on written exams or term papers does not always thoroughly assess student mastery of concepts. A student poster session is an alternative assessment tool that can complement quizzes and exams. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that a poster session has clear benefits to participants and organizers and to outline the process of organizing such an event. INTRODUCTION Research clearly shows that successful students need to be involved in their own education. To this end, techniques such as group learning, collaborative learning and inquiry have been employed by instructors in an attempt to get away from the "chalk-and-talk" lecture style of teaching and appeal to different kinds of learners. Additionally, as others in similar situations have noted [2,3,5], the traditional reliance on written exams or term papers does not always thoroughly assess student ability . At our university, we have found that a student poster session is an alternative assessment tool that allows us to rely less on quizzes, exams, etc. This type of assessment could be used at any level from senior high school through more advanced courses at the university level. A wealth of advice on making effective poster presentations exists, some in the literature, most available on the web. We have conducted such an event several times, improving it each time. The main purpose of this paper is to convince the reader that a poster session is viable and has clear benefits, and to help interested parties to avoid some of our own cycles of trial and error in developing this assessment tool.

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GOALS The Department of Mathematics initiated poster sessions for students with certain definite goals in mind. Computer science faculty saw value in using this format, but had different objectives. In this section, we explain our differing motivations. Mathematics In mathematics, there are some classes, such as linear algebra. that appear to lend themselves to the traditional methods of presentation and assessment, particularly when the course being taught is a prerequisite to higher-level courses and instructors need to cover every topic in the course description. In an attempt to engage students in a different way as they learned linear algebra, they were asked to create posters on topics of interest, with a display of posters taking place in class toward the end of the semester. Refreshments were provided and colleagues were invited to this low-key event to view the exhibits. The quality of these presentations was higher than expected and student response overwhelmingly positive. with several noting that they learned a lot by working in depth on one topic.

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The following year, a poster session was held for abstract algebra students, with the posters displayed at the student union as part of a campus-wide event. Many were impressed with the "high quality of work". This ongoing success led to the creation of a department-wide poster session in 2000. The departmental goals were to encourage students at all levels of mathematical maturity to prepare and present posters to their peers and to the campus-wide community at large; to give students the chance to discuss mathematics with scientists other than their professors; to show students the breadth and depth of applications of mathematics; to provide an interesting event to which area high school teachers could bring their most talented students; to show the wider community the excellent work that our students were doing; and to show that mathematics is more than just "chalk-and-talk". Computer Science The motivation of the Department of Computer Science is somewhat different. One undergraduate requirement is a senior capstone course, in which students are expected to complete some substantial piece of work. Since 2004, students have been required to complete senior projects, as individuals or in small groups. With the project requirement in place, the computer science faculty decided upon a poster session as a venue in which to present this work. Students are given a wide range of choices in the format for presenting their capstone project; posters, laptop demonstrations, and robotic exercises. The benefits to the students are clear and well documented [1, 6], including the practice of communicating and responding to questions about their accomplishments, as well as listening to feedback. In particular, students share ideas, see the accomplishments of their peers and derive some insight into their own abilities and successes by that comparison. Such a poster session also gives interested parties the opportunity to see what work is underway in the department [8], Of course, with such an event in place for the students from the capstone course, it made sense to open it up to the program at large. Graduate students are encouraged by their advisors to create a poster illustrating their thesis or project topic. Undergraduate computer science students in the university honors program are invited to present their senior honors projects. Thus was born a major event for our computer science department, with between 40 and 50 students participating in a typical year.

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BENEFITS Planning an event such as a poster session is time consuming, but there are many benefits to students, faculty, and the department. Preparing for, and presenting at the poster session instills students with a deeper understanding and appreciation of their topics. Additionally, as noted in [7], completion of such a project also helps develop an awareness of research itself, the skills to do research, and an enthusiasm for continued learning. A long-range benefit for students is that they can cite their participation as documentation of their active involvement in their own educational process. As noted previously, the event promotes collegiality among students. They have the opportunity to talk with one another about their topics and the courses they are taking. Equally important, students get the chance to interact with faculty members other than their own instructors and can get information about other classes. Along the same lines, exposure to university faculty outside their department promotes ideas for joint research across disciplines and research projects for undergraduate students, both priOFities in our programs. The poster sessions serve as recruitment tools. For example, during the 2007 mathematics poster session, the Department of Mathematics hosted the monthly meeting of an association of local high school mathematics teachers on campus. These educators were encouraged to bring their most talented mathematics students with them to the meeting. They had the opportunity to visit the poster session and meet department faculty and majors. As another instance of recruitment, undergraduate students have talked with graduate students about their thesis presentation posters, and started viewing the master's degree programs as viable options. Each year, leaders from business and industry are invited to the poster session in order to judge the quality of the posters. This gives community-wide exposure to our programs and access to potential employers for our graduating students. An additional benefit is the feedback from business and industry on curricula content.

EVENT ORGANIZATION In this section, we present the myriad details that go into preparation for a successful session; running a session; and the post session follow-up. Preparation Checklist The process starts early with reserving space. Getting the space we needed for our event required a formal request to the scheduling

144 -MATHEMATICSAND COMPUTER EDUCATION- office, at least four months in advance. At this same time, it is also advisable to begin a publicity campaign toward the end of the prior semester, with an initial flyer to students and colleagues. This has two potential benefits. First, it gets students thinking about the event far in advance, so that they can plan on participating and consider potential presentation topics. Second, it gives faculty the opportunity to support the event in the classes they teach the next semester, by advertising it in their class syllabi and/or giving class credit to students who participate. As early as feasible, invite guests from the campus administration, industry and local schools before their calendars fill up with other commitments. Get in touch with the career center or advising office, not only for help with business contacts, but also to give them the opportunity to advertise their services to participating students at the event. This is also a good time to begin identifying and recruiting judges for the event. Additionally, consider the method which the students will use to sign up for the event. Reactivate any online registration mechanism or prepare a template for the students to use when submitting an abstract for their poster. As part of this registration, ask the students about any special needs they will have, most notably unusual space requests or access to electrical outlets to run computer equipment. Many tasks need to be addressed about a month to six weeks before the event. Some things to consider: • Prepare and mail a packet of information to the judges. Include maps, parking passes, and a sample set ofjudging criteria. • Organize pUblicity for the event with the school and town newspapers, radio and television stations, and university electronic bulletin boards. • Prepare information for students on how to set up posters. This may involve preparing to speak directly to classes, setting up a web page with tips or displaying sample posters in a common area, like the department office. Also, provide information on proper dress and behavior for presenters at this time. • Make arrangements to borrow, rent, or purchase non-perishable items for the event: tables and chairs, poster boards, name tags, participation certificates, prizes, etc. You may also consider a guest sign-in book for event-day registrations. • Decide on refreshments for the event. Think about something simple like pizza for lunch for student participants; lunch reservations at fancier facilities for judges and other V .I.P .s; coffee, punch and cookies for visitors. Also, recruit colleagues to

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host lunch for the V.I.P.s while you remain at the event, or vice versa. • Request student assistance with some long-range details, most notably for compiling abstracts and formatting them into an event program. In return for their aid, give student groups, such as the Computer Science Club, the opportunity to have their own table of information at the event, to advertise their activities and help recruit new members. Finally, about one week before the event, the following must be addressed: • Print and distribute flyers in the building and around campus. • Print the booklet of abstracts as a formal event program, with enough copies not only for the attendees, but for the participants. Print other needed items, such as jUdging rubrics. • Buy perishable items, such as food, and other last-minute items. • Begin gathering power strips if student presenters have requested them. • Recruit volunteers from student groups to help set up and take down tables, manage the registration table and help with refreshments. In our case, we also arranged for a computerized evaluation system for accumulating on-the-spot reactions of visitors for later examination. • Arrange to have photographers on hand to capture the event.

Event Day Details Organization and use of floor space includes: reservation of space near electrical outlets for computers and other electronic devices; a robot demonstration will need additional space, away from the flow of traffic during the event. The registration area should be easily accessible, and refreshments should be placed to encourage consideration of exhibits. Toward the conclusion of the event, convene the judges to select prize winners. Be sure to request the judges' summaries and do not forget to take photographs of the prize winners. Follow Up Acknowledge the participation of student volunteers, visitors and judges. Return borrowed items (e.g. power strips) and pack away left over supplies. The retained judging summaries provide an excellent source of external feedback regarding the event and could also provide the judges' perception about the academic prognm. The guest registry

146 - MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTER EDUCATION- provides insight into who comprised the audience. Finally, other data (such as that gained through a computerized evaluation system) are analyzed to gain insight into other perspectives on the event.

PRESENTATION DESIGN While this paper is not about how to make a poster, in the interest of completeness we include materials that we have developed to share with our students. Potential organizers of a poster session might find it useful to have actual tools to work with and share with their students. The interested reader can consult [4] and [9], among others, for further details. Poster Construction Students may have no idea of how much information to include on a poster, how technical or readable the presentation should be. We have seen the need to explicitly convey the basic principles of poster design to students. We suggest giving students written guidelines, which are themselves presented in the form of a miniature poster. See the appendix for an example. Suggested Topics Students have been encouraged to come up with their own topics for their posters, since research is part of the process. However, it is advisable to have some topics readily available for students who are stymied about what to present. Following is a list of sample student project titles that have been presented at past poster sessions. Mathematics • The postman problem: the shortest route the postman will travel While covering every path at least once. • The design of honeycombs: determining the most efficient shape for a honeycomb. • Option pricing with virtual arbitrage. • The human cough: the relationship of the radius of the trachea to the velocity of expelled air. • Impossible geometric constructions. • Wallpaper and Frieze groups. • Numerical simulation of the radial growth of nanofiber coatings. • Quadratic extensions ofp-adic fields. • Factorization of composites, and certificates of primality. • Two-dimensional heat transfer and thermal stress analysis in the float glass process. • Mathematics in masonry.

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Computer Science • Making technology accessible to people with disabilities. • A study in dead reckoning with robotics. • Open chat server with file sharing abilities among authenticated users. • Arbitrary size parallel Sudoku creation. • Asymptotic analysis of sort routines in an image filter. • A framework for object recognition using genetic algorithms. • Computer forensics: entering the suspect's digital world. • Bioinformatics: A probabilistic PCR simulation.

ASSESSMENT AND FEEDBACK Poster sessions may serve as more than an educational tool. For instance, if a department is charged with generating an assessment report to determine the effectiveness of a program, statistics from the session may provide valuable data. In our case, to collect such information, we placed a laptop at a convenient location for visitors and participants to anonymously complete a brief survey. The intent of the survey is to collect feedback on the success of the event, as well as more specific information on how to improve future events and for a gauge of effectiveness on specific areas such as advertising.

CONCLUSIONS Organizing a poster session can enrich those courses that include a research component, either as a required or an optional part. Many students enjoy their research projects, and enjoy preparing and presenting their posters. The event itself makes your program more visible, especially to the people who matter most: prospective college students, students Who are prospective majors, high school teachers, and college administrators.

Acknowledgements: The authors wish to express their appreciation to Professors Jeffrey M. Riedl and Timothy S. Norfolk, of The University of Akron, Department of Mathematics, for their helpful suggestions for improving this paper.

148 Participating in a poster session? Here is TITLE Content: Your poster should present a a suggested fonn for your poster. The (use at least 24 point type!or headings) summary, emphasizing your main point top center panel should contain. your Bob Student and without too much teclmical detaiL project TITLE, and your name(s), Calculus II Presentation is important, so feel free to your course, and your professor's Professor Smith include examples, pictures, diagrams, or whatever else will help to get your point name. Below that, have an ABSTRACT I Optional Picture or diagram across. of your project. ~ If your presentation is not a poster, then Don't forget all your name(s) ~ discussjts fonnat with your professor. ~ ~ Your other panels can have various ABSTRACT Style: Use large type. lots of white ~ :t.. titles like: Sketch of Proof, space, and a well balanced layout. It ) ~ """ Connections, Applications, Open should be visible from perhaps 20 feet 8 ~ Problems, Conclusions. A brief summary describing your project. away. i(1) ~ ~ ~ ~ fj o (1) ~ .... ;J:.:: ()'Q ~ Materials: You should use tri-fold Don't use the lower portion of the poster if Note: The page you are using now is :I poster board (white is best) that is either you are going to display objects on the table in essentially all text. Don't do that. ~, 21 or 25 inches high. The larger size front of it. will probably be easier. A typical width Otherwise do. is 48 inches. The cost is under 10 dollars at a discount store. - MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTER EDUCATION

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