Nassau Community College Impacts of Road Deicers on the Environment PPT

Tips/notes on poster construction:

1. First choose your topic. It needs to be one of the Labs/activities that we did during the semester. If you can’t think of one, please ask and I will give you one!
2. Download the template from  or use a template you found online. Just be sure you follow the rubric! Also—please do not pay for a template, there are plenty of free templates available!
3. Fill out the basic information on the template, following the rubric: school logo, class information, name(s), etc. Also fill out the Title. It should be descriptive and specific to what was done, and where; not just two or three words Example: “Eutrophication” is not an acceptable title! Instead: “The Effects of Excess Nitrogen and Phosphorous on Terrestrial and Aquatic Communities”
4. Place the photos on your poster
   1. Some of the Labs/activities have photos uploaded to our Course page in the “Labs” tab. For this exercise, you can find images on Google image (although you would not do this on a professional poster—you would only use your own photos!)
   2. One photo, centered in the Results section should be a pictorial representation of your Data/Results: a graph, chart, or table
   3. One photo should be depicting actions/techniques done for this research or equipment used.
   4. Other photo(s) can be “beauty shots”—aesthetically pleasing photos related to the research you did.
5. Once your photos are placed, you can easily fill in the Introduction and the Methods/Materials section: get this information from the Lab handouts themselves. If you don’t have paper copies, they are uploaded to the “Labs” tab on 
   1. You must summarize all of the information in 2-3 sentences for each section—be brief and not too wordy!
   2. Be VERY careful, especially in the Methods/Materials, that you are specific to what WE did for the Research. Sometimes the Labs as they are written are very generalized and may include equipment/methods we wound up NOT doing. For instance, for the Green Pond exercise, basking traps are listed as being used for the activity, however, we wound up not using those, rather only baited hoop traps. Points will be taken off if you don’t accurately describe what WE did.
   3. Use 3rd person past tense: do not use “I”, “we”.
6. For your Results section: If you did not write down the results/data, they are uploaded to the “Labs” tab on For the text, simply describe/summarize the chart or table or graph.
7. Discussion and Conclusion section: describe the results, speculate about the results in this section. Also, for this section, you bring everything full circle and describe the significance, often globally, or the research you carried out. For instance, for the UV Radiation, you may state how this research is important given that the Ozone Layer is essential for all life to exist on Earth, and we need to continue following the guidelines of the Montreal Protocol.
8. For your Acknowledgments section: for this section, you briefly thank anyone who helped you or was involved. Generally, the Institution is thanked, your fellow students, your Professor, and/or anyone who funded the research