10.4 Activity - Share Your Poster

10.4.1 Introduction

It’s almost time! Prepare for your final presentation by thinking about how to describe the great work that you’ve done this semester in both written and oral form. Assume that your audience has a basic scientific background but does not know a lot about your particular field. Provide enough context to give your listener a reason to care about your project and each of the results you will describe. You have five minutes to get your story across so have a plan and practice.

10.4.1.1 Activity 1 – Share Your Poster

Estimated time: 20 min

10.4.1.2 Instructions

  1. Convert and/or download your poster as a .png file in full resolution. Make sure you look at the .png file and confirm the poster is high enough quality that even small text can be read.

  • In Google Slides:

    1. Go to File > Download > select PNG image or JPEG image.

    2. Locate the downloaded file on your computer. By default, most computers will download files to the “Download” folder or the Desktop.

  • In PowerPoint:

    1. Enter the File tab to the top of the window, to the left of the Home tab

    2. Select Save As

    3. Select This PC

    4. In the field underneath the file name, select the .png or .jpg format

    5. Select save

    6. Locate the saved file on your computer. By default, most computers will save the file in the same location as the original PowerPoint (.pptx) file.

  1. Have one person on behalf of the group create a New Topic on your instructor’s chosen forum below with the title of your poster as the topic title and your .png file as the contents in either the:

    1. C-MOOR Academy Discussion Forum’s Look at This! category if every member of your group agrees to share your work publicly.

    2. Class category on the C-MOOR Academy Discussion Forum (if applicable) to keep your work private

    3. The forum or outlet of your instructor’s choice

  2. Have each person in the group reply to your topic using your own words answering your choice of 2 of the following 5 questions, with the question included as part of the post. Your answers should be specific and refer directly to your research poster:

    • What was your favorite part about doing the research project and why?
    • What was something about your project or the research process that surprised you and why?
    • What is one specific skill in biology and/or research that you learned through this project? Give an example how you used this in your project.
    • What is an example of a challenge that you had to overcome during this research project?
    • What is one thing you learned from this project that you can take forward in your future work? How do you see it being helpful in your chosen field?

10.4.1.3 Questions

1. A copy of your written answers here:


2. Provide the URL of your Discussion Forum post (if applicable)


10.4.2 Activity 2 – Present Your Poster

Estimated time: 40 min

10.4.2.1 Instructions

  1. Create a plan for a 5 min presentation taking into consideration:

    1. Who will speak when

    2. What each person will cover

  2. Practice your presentation

    1. In your group

    2. To the class

10.4.2.2 Questions

Create a bullet point outline of who will speak what when:
Overview (question, background, hypothesis)
Approach (dataset, general methods)
Results (detailed methods, notable results)
Conclusions (summary, next steps)


10.4.3 Grading Criteria

  • Submit your work on your LMS (Blackboard, Canvas, Google Classroom) or refer to your instructor’s choice.

10.4.4 Footnotes

Resources

Contributions and Affiliations

  • Valeriya Gaysinskaya, Johns Hopkins University
  • Frederick Tan, Johns Hopkins University
  • Sayumi York, Notre Dame of Maryland University

Last Revised: January 2026

All materials CC-BY unless noted otherwise.