Application of a poster exercise in an advanced undergraduate geography course

Abstract

This paper discusses the nature and application of a research poster exercise in senior (e.g., final year undergraduate) university classes. The exercise consists of three components. First, students are involved in a piece of supervised research in which they set their own research question; design, execute and evaluate research strategies; and communicate the synthesised results of their activities to an audience. Second, the exercise is structured in such a way that it provides students with an introductory opportunity to explore the bureaucratic and competitive structure of the modern research environment. Third, student proficiency in oral, written, and graphical presentation of research results is refined. Expanding on earlier work on the use of posters in the teaching of geography at the tertiary level, the paper gives special emphasis to the rationale for conducting the research and to practical dimensions of poster production.