6 tips for teaching students to create awesome science posters Follow FizzicsEd Articles: Comments 0 Making it stand out! Go to any primary classroom or high school science lab and you’re bound to find a number of science posters stuck around the room. Often, these science posters are taken from newspaper lift outs or freely provided posters from a classroom science supplier. Whilst these posters are great (we’ve got some hanging around our office too!), your students could also be creating science posters that effectively communicate their knowledge of the science topic you’re studying too! Presenting the context to students doesn’t just have to be as part of an assessment component; the ability to create a science poster is an important skill for scientists wishing to summarize their research findings at conferences to attract discussion or even win funding for further research! So with this in mind, the following lists some ideas that students can use to help out their thoughts together… 1. Make the content obvious What makes a boat float – a primary informational poster presented at the Peninsula Community of Schools STEM event in 2016 Can the audience work out what the content is about with a glance? If your audience can’t work out what your science poster is about in less than 10 seconds perhaps your students will need to revise how they are presenting their content. 2. Know your audience With the above in mind, who is the student’s audience anyway? Is the audience the general public, a group of academics, their fellow classmates, an assessing teacher… who is it? From here they can tailor their message to suit the audience’s needs using just a few simple questions: – how educated is the audience? – what is the background of the audience? – what would make the audience want to read the science poster? – what is the outcome they’re trying to achieve? This is the heart of science communication in many ways… your student’s science poster should be specifically made to communicate their message in the most effective way – even if it is just to your own class! 3. Font size matters! I KNOW SCIENCE STUFF I KNOW SCIENCE STUFF I KNOW SCIENCE STUFF I KNOW SCIENCE STUFF I KNOW SCIENCE STUFF I KNOW SCIENCE STUFF Which font size above works for you? Work on the idea that if you can’t read the poster from 4 meters away the science poster is likely to have less impact. Perhaps your students are trying to squish too many words in? Keep the font consistent and use headlines & bullet points where appropriate too. 4.More imagery, fewer words Primary robotics poster at the Peninsula Community of Schools STEM event in 2016 What would rather check out… a block of text or images? Such a simple question but this really is the key to a good science poster. Yes, you need to convey important data however a science poster needs to grab the attention first. Your students could use graphs, tables or even use free infographic builders such as Canva or Piktochart to make their method easily understood. 5. Acknowledgements are important Who contributed to your research? Did anyone fund the research? Where did the research occur? Even at the school level, your students should mention who they worked with and where they got their information. 6. Sometimes, simple is best! Microbes poster at Mt Keira Demonstration School The poster above was an artistic way that upper primary students chose to present their vocabulary list. To the side of the scientists were booklets that the students had created with dossier pages on bacteria, viruses, fungi, algae and more. Highly effective and the interactivity prompted further investigation… it certainly was a fantastic classroom poster to see whilst visiting the school on a digital microscopy incursion! Putting a science poster in part of an assessment task needn’t be dreary either. Maybe your students could compete against each other in using their science poster to win a pretend pitchfest in a classroom version of Dragon’s Den or Shark Tank? With the right rules in place and a set marking rubric this certainly could be a bit of fun and would drive students forward to create some fantastic posters! Happy teaching, Ben Newsome. NEW Primary science teaching book! “Be Amazing! How to teach science, the way primary kids love” Want more ideas for teaching science? Subscribe to the FizzicsEd Podcast! Find out about STEM teacher PD run by Fizzics Education Love Science? Subscribe! Join our newsletter Receive more lesson plans and fun science ideas. PROGRAMS COURSES SHOP SCIENCE PARTIES Calendar of Events HIGH SCHOOL Science@Home 4-Week Membership 12PM: March 2024 Feb 26, 2024 - Mar 29, 2024 12PM - 12PM Price: $50 - $900 Book Now! PRIMARY Science@Home 4-Week Membership 2PM: March 2024 Feb 26, 2024 - Mar 22, 2024 2PM - 2PM Price: $50 - $900 Book Now! Light and Colour Online Workshop, Jan 18 PM Jan 18, 2024 2PM - 3PM Price: $50 Book Now! Light and Colour Online Workshop, Jan 18 AM Jan 18, 2024 9AM - 11AM Price: $50 Book Now! Lego Robotics, Sydney Olympic Park Jan 2024 Jan 24, 2024 9AM - 12PM Price: $50 Book Now! Creative Coding, Sydney Olympic Park Jan 2024 Jan 24, 2024 1PM - 4PM Price: $50 Book Now! Creative Coding, Sydney Olympic Park July 11 2023 Jul 11, 2023 9AM - 4PM Price: $100 Book Now! Fizzics Education STEAM Day: Robots vs Dinosaurs, Lalor, Apr 14 Apr 14, 2023 9AM - 12PM Price: $45 - $50 Book Now! Creative Coding, Sydney Olympic Park April 14 2023 Apr 14, 2023 9AM - 4PM Price: $100 Book Now! Science@Home After School 4-Week Membership: March 2023 Mar 06, 2023 - Mar 31, 2023 4PM - 5PM Price: $40 - $1200 Book Now! Featured Articles STEM Funding for Regional & Disadvantaged Schools Topics Agriculture [4] Eastershow [2] Maker Space [11] Scicomm [141] primary education [46] STEAM [9] virtual [2] gamification [1] Asia Pacific [1] Art [17] Edchat [223] Maths [14] Scied [34] literacy [6] Higher education [4] Child online safety [1] Esports [1] Easter [1] Augmented Reality [4] Edtech [68] Media [18] Science [6] secondary education [44] teacher [1] dis [0] biotechnology [1] curriculum [2] AussieED [1] Education [207] Museums [31] Science News [4] Christmas [1] Vacation care [1] Film [1] computational thinking [2] high [1] Awards [13] Educhange [5] Music [2] Social Media [8] experiments [6] middle school [2] Inquiry-based learning [5] digital technologies [5] Earth science [1] Big History [1] Environment [37] NASA [6] Soils [1] seasonal [1] Artificial Intelligence [3] List [1] Games [1] Medicine [1] Biology [43] Events [45] National Science Week [3] Space Science [27] competitions [12] Sustainability [8] Student investigation [2] Social Emotional Learning [1] CAST test [1] Books [3] Farming [1] Outdoors [36] Sport [8] careers [10] UN SDGs [4] collaboration [1] Engineering [4] US Education [1] China [1] Food [4] Outreach [35] STEM [217] Physics [6] Global [2] K to 2 education [1] Virtual reality [2] citizen science [1] Churchill Fellowship [19] Gaming [7] Ozscied [2] Teaching [262] Chemistry [5] International [1] Photography [1] Play [1] Cleveland [1] Gifted [7] Podcasts [119] Television [2] design thinking [8] Chinese student visits [1] Parenting [4] preservice teaching [5] Club [4] History [4] Pop Culture [4] Toys & Gadgets [1] project-based learning [5] Science & Technology Camps [1] Lesson ideas [1] Comedy [2] Coding [14] Indigenous [3] Preschool [24] Video Conferencing [40] family [2] Design [2] Lab Tech [1] math [1] Cooking [3] Kids [36] Remote Education [16] Virtual Excursions [9] Inclusive education [6] Oceans [5] Leadership [1] Electricity [1] Dinosaurs [7] Kids Parties [5] Robotics [10] Edutech [26] Classroom management [1] video conference [1] special needs [1] scholarship [1] Apps [11] Distance Education [50] Kitchen Chemistry [7] Safety [2] Distance Learning [19] Student encouragement [2] online [4] image [1] Africa [1] Load More Topics
Making it stand out! Go to any primary classroom or high school science lab and you’re bound to find a number of science posters stuck around the room. Often, these science posters are taken from newspaper lift outs or freely provided posters from a classroom science supplier. Whilst these posters are great (we’ve got some hanging around our office too!), your students could also be creating science posters that effectively communicate their knowledge of the science topic you’re studying too! Presenting the context to students doesn’t just have to be as part of an assessment component; the ability to create a science poster is an important skill for scientists wishing to summarize their research findings at conferences to attract discussion or even win funding for further research! So with this in mind, the following lists some ideas that students can use to help out their thoughts together… 1. Make the content obvious What makes a boat float – a primary informational poster presented at the Peninsula Community of Schools STEM event in 2016 Can the audience work out what the content is about with a glance? If your audience can’t work out what your science poster is about in less than 10 seconds perhaps your students will need to revise how they are presenting their content. 2. Know your audience With the above in mind, who is the student’s audience anyway? Is the audience the general public, a group of academics, their fellow classmates, an assessing teacher… who is it? From here they can tailor their message to suit the audience’s needs using just a few simple questions: – how educated is the audience? – what is the background of the audience? – what would make the audience want to read the science poster? – what is the outcome they’re trying to achieve? This is the heart of science communication in many ways… your student’s science poster should be specifically made to communicate their message in the most effective way – even if it is just to your own class! 3. Font size matters! I KNOW SCIENCE STUFF I KNOW SCIENCE STUFF I KNOW SCIENCE STUFF I KNOW SCIENCE STUFF I KNOW SCIENCE STUFF I KNOW SCIENCE STUFF Which font size above works for you? Work on the idea that if you can’t read the poster from 4 meters away the science poster is likely to have less impact. Perhaps your students are trying to squish too many words in? Keep the font consistent and use headlines & bullet points where appropriate too. 4.More imagery, fewer words Primary robotics poster at the Peninsula Community of Schools STEM event in 2016 What would rather check out… a block of text or images? Such a simple question but this really is the key to a good science poster. Yes, you need to convey important data however a science poster needs to grab the attention first. Your students could use graphs, tables or even use free infographic builders such as Canva or Piktochart to make their method easily understood. 5. Acknowledgements are important Who contributed to your research? Did anyone fund the research? Where did the research occur? Even at the school level, your students should mention who they worked with and where they got their information. 6. Sometimes, simple is best! Microbes poster at Mt Keira Demonstration School The poster above was an artistic way that upper primary students chose to present their vocabulary list. To the side of the scientists were booklets that the students had created with dossier pages on bacteria, viruses, fungi, algae and more. Highly effective and the interactivity prompted further investigation… it certainly was a fantastic classroom poster to see whilst visiting the school on a digital microscopy incursion! Putting a science poster in part of an assessment task needn’t be dreary either. Maybe your students could compete against each other in using their science poster to win a pretend pitchfest in a classroom version of Dragon’s Den or Shark Tank? With the right rules in place and a set marking rubric this certainly could be a bit of fun and would drive students forward to create some fantastic posters! Happy teaching, Ben Newsome. NEW Primary science teaching book! “Be Amazing! How to teach science, the way primary kids love” Want more ideas for teaching science? Subscribe to the FizzicsEd Podcast! Find out about STEM teacher PD run by Fizzics Education
This website uses cookies to improve user experience. By using our website you consent to all cookies in accordance with our Cookie Policy.
Thank you for looking to subscribing to our newsletter 🙂 Through this service you’ll be first to know about the newest free experiments, science news and special offers. PLUS: Get a free Kitchen Chemistry Booklet with >20 experiments, how to use variables plus a handy template!
Please fill out the details below and an email will be sent to you. Once you get that just click on the link to confirm your subscription and you're all done!