Poster Assignment instructions

Purpose

In most cases, the ultimate goal of research is to be disseminated which usually includes publishing in a peer-reviewed journal. However, there are a number of ways research can be disseminated. A common way is to present at a conference either as a presentation, or as a poster session.

In a poster session, students, faculty, or other researchers display a research poster similar to what you may have done when you are in high school for a science project, and are present to discuss the project with attendees at the conference. A poster is designed to be a summary and overview, yet thorough enough for the viewer to know what the project is about and the details of the results, etc. It should include the basic parts of a research report such as an introduction, hypotheses/methodology, results, discussion, and conclusion. It usually includes only a sample of the most relevant sources in a research paper. If the poster is overly detailed and wordy, the information gets lost.

Instructions

For this assignment, you will use one of the fun topics given below to create a pretend research poster. You will add or “make up” most of the information since it is fictitious and pretend. You will also make up your references (4 to 5) which can also be fun or silly (such as Santa Clause, 1701, How to make toys…, or other fun reference). Do format everything in APA. Be sure to include the information that would normally be included in a research poster, even though you are making it up. See the examples of posters in Canvas to guide you. You can create your poster in any format you prefer (Word, PowerPoint, publisher, Google, etc.), but it must be viewable to the public. Therefore, it might be a good idea to convert whatever you have to a PDF, or other standard format.  Your poster should be attached to your assignment, not as an external link such as Google drive, or Dropbox.

Be sure to ask your instructor if you have questions about assignment.

All parts of the paper must be in current APA format

Note: Your assignment will be checked for originality via the Unicheck plagiarism tool.

Research Topics (choose one)

OPTION 1: SPARKLY UNICORNS AND ICE CREAM

A researcher wants to know if there is a correlation between people who believe in sparkly unicorns, and those who are more likely to choose tutti-frutti ice cream over other flavors. Design your research poster to reflect a fictitious design and results for this study.

OPTION 2: BUGS AND WARRIORS

In the story of “A Bug’s Life”, Flik the ant finds a group of misfit “warriors” to help defend his colony from the evil grasshoppers because the colony does not defend itself. They instead pay the grasshoppers to avoid them attacking. A researcher observes the behavior of both groups, and begins to see a pattern that the misfit group seem to be more ready to defend the colony than the native ants, even though it is the ants’ home. The hypothesis is that both groups and lack self-efficacy and believing they can defeat the grasshoppers, but the misfit group seems to be more willing to defend the ants because they believe they can do it and that they are helping others by doing so. Design a study that compares the two groups between misfits and the ants with the variables of their willingness to fight compared to their self-efficacy scores.

OPTION 3: HAPPY COWS

A farmer hires a psychologist to conduct industrial organizational research on productivity factors of his cows. He believes that the cows who have friends, hobbies, and go to church regularly are happier than those who are not, and therefore the happy group produces more milk than the unhappy groups. Design your research poster around this study.

OPTION 4: ALIEN SPACESHIP RACES

Based on previous studies in sport psychology, researchers have found various correlations between athletes’ performance and whether or not they drink energy drinks. A group of spaceship racers from Mars have been experimenting with consuming newly developed radioactive energy pellets before their races. Some say that it gives them more energy and focus, and they are able to perform better in their races than when they do not take the radioactive energy pellets. Design your poster around this hypothesis.