Monthly Archives: December 2015

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Poster Session

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If you can remember, last year there were huge headlines on the outbreak of Ebola in Western Africa. The disease was widespread in the area and even infected some Americans and Europeans. From the news, I gathered that the disease was incredibly dangerous and if it were to spread to us, could create chaos. Although just a few people were infected here at home, American media created a sense of panic with little scientific backing. Therefore when I saw the Ebola poster at the session I was curious to see how the group would interpret this sensation that quickly faded in the minds of Americans like myself.

The poster itself was very attractive with helpful pictures, bright colors and little writing. I learned about its origin as it was originally found in 1976 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The 2014 outbreak was explained in pictures but also through the members of this poster group. Hosted in bushmeat (wild game) and lack of proper hygiene and knowledge on modern diseases, Ebola spread unknowingly and infected people rapidly and in high numbers. I learned that people were afraid to seek treatment causing the disease to spread further than anticipated.

Effective, concise and appealing, I think this poster was a success. Although I did not see in depth personal research or analysis, the major points were all there in a cohesive manner. Any questions I did have were answered by one of the poster members. My only critique would be the grammar and spelling of the poster. To reach the level of sophistication expected, I would hope that silly mistakes like those would be edited out of the final copy. Other than that, it was a great poster!

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Poster Session

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Observing all of the posters was slightly intimidating for me because my poster was about half the size of many of them. But then my critical eye kicked in, and I was incredibly dissatisfied by the amount of posters whose entire space was jam-packed with words. And many of the posters that did employ graphics/colors/images were a little light on the content side. For instance (I mentioned this in class), one poster was organized nicely and seemed engaging, and the topic caught my attention—do men have a greater tendency towards riskier decision-making? This field has been widely researched, so I was excited to see how they synthesized this material or came up with their own research to corroborate previous findings. They tested their hypothesis by measuring the amount of men vs. women who jaywalked on a particular street corner. That’s right, one street corner. For how long? Well, how long do you think four college students had the patience to sit at a street corner? They found no difference between men and women in their study. Shocking.

While quality research was often hidden underneath lines and lines of small-lettered words, low quality research was often presented quite nicely. An exception to this rule was fellow Brooklyn College students’ poster, “Behind Closed Doors…If There Are Any: A Comparison of Social Issues that Define the Upper East Side and Harlem.” Despite the lengthy title, the group’s poster was very well done in my opinion. Words did not overwhelm the poster, and graphs were utilized strategically to explain content. The poster was a thorough analysis of the impact of race and income on a variety of societal issues, including alcoholism, homelessness, mental illness, domestic violence, and substance abuse. I was impressed by how comprehensive it was. Each member clearly did his or her part, and they all knew their respective sections very well. They walked me through the poster in an informative and engaging manner. There were major trends in the research; lower socioeconomic areas are plagued more intensely by these negative factors, as expected, but having it all written and organized clearly in one place is very important. It has a stronger impact on the viewer when he or she sees that not only is East Harlem subject to fewer health resources, but also has a higher rate of homelessness, higher rates of death due to drug abuse, and higher domestic violence rates than the rest of the city. For someone interested in education, public policy, public health, or just general community service, information like this is important. I applaud their ambitious project and creative presentation.

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The Poster Session!

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This past Sunday, as you all know, was the Macaulay Poster session in the city. Going into the poster session we had our own preconceived ideas on how or what a poster should look like based on our discussions and feed back during the class. This, and also how we should be pitching our posters, what kind of dialogues should be happening between us and those interested. As a whole I think a lot of people did a really good job, but as we talked about in class a lot of the posters just had so much writing. Interesting how a crucial detail we made sure to avoid, lots of people included. Again, this goes back to how the professors of each class explained what the poster should look like. However, I did think lots of people were very engaged in their discussions about their posters regardless of how much writing was on there.

Aside from all this there was one poster in particular that caught my attention. The title of it was “WHO NEEDS PSYCHOLOGISTS when you’ve got teacher.” (Yes the Caps lock was on purpose!) I believe the poster had dealt with and talked about the relationship between the number of psychologists in a given area and the number of ADHD cases diagnosed compared to the number teachers diagnosing and recognizing ADHD in students. The content itself was impressive and very interesting but it was the elements of the poster that really drew my attention from the start. I believe a very important aspect of the posters are titles. Titles are usually the first things that are read and can be a pretty persuasive factor in determining, who, and, how many people will ask for a pitch. This poster did just that, an interesting title written in a unique way,

In addition, this poster from a Brooklyn college group, had many of the key elements we were talking about. Pictures, graphs and a nice variety of color. I still think there was a tad too much writing, but the presentation was so well done I didn’t have to read the poster!

Very Well done.

 

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Measles

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Do you really know what measles is, or what it does to you? Or, how it can be spread to others?

A poster that I really liked explained all of this very thoroughly. It first caught my attention through the color and organization. The poster had an interesting layout; it followed the measles virus, step by step. It showed how the virus infects someone, what it does to his or her body and cells, what symptoms occur, and how it spreads to another person.

The poster explained how measles causes fever and headaches at first, until white spots become visible throughout the body. Other complications, such as blindness and pneumonia, can occur as well.

The virus is also very contagious; one of the researchers said, “If someone who has measles walks into a room and coughs, there is a good chance that everyone else in that room gets measles too.”

The pitch was very detailed, yet understandable by those who don’t know much about the topic. The poster board was easy to follow, and was also a very innovative attempt at a poster design too. My only criticism is that the researchers didn’t really pose a question, like many of the other posters did.

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Ebola Explained [very well]

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There were many great posters at the session this past Sunday and as I browsed, I couldn’t help but look at them through a Branco-Lense. The ones with pictures, diagrams, color, and a small amount of words, immediately drew my attention. One in particular, Ebola Explained, caught my eye and interest; I saw it from where I was standing by my group’s poster and thought to myself, “that’s where I’m headed to next!”

Honestly, the topic was the first thing that caught my attention. Ebola was heavily covered by the media last year and while I knew that it was highly contagious and dangerous, I was curious about the details. When I finally made my way over to the poster, no one was there to pitch it. Now, I usually wouldn’t have been compelled to read over a whole poster without someone explaining it, but this one was set up in such a way, that I didn’t mind. And that is another reason (really the *main reason*) why I liked this poster so much. It had a story-like example of an ebola case running across the top, kind of like a cartoon strip. That pretty much convinced me to stay and read the rest. Words were kept at a minimum, which you’d think would be difficult when explaining something very scientific, but they managed with pictures and diagrams. Besides for making the poster more aesthetically pleasing, it also made it more approachable and simple to understand (especially for the non-premed person). They added in points about cultural influences as well, which I found really interesting.

All in all, cool topic, fun setup, great visuals, ooh la la poster.

Ebola Explained VERY WELL 🙂

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Juice dieting: just another fad?

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The poster session at the Macaulay building on Sunday was filled with a myriad of attention grabbing, colorful posters about topics that seemed either too simple or complex for an average college audience. There were posters that tried to incorporate too many details at the expense of captivating passersby. Others offered relatively little insight and simplified analysis of their data. Despite representing the latter type of poster, “Juice Diets,” a poster designed by Baruch College students caught my attention simply because of its topic.

Juice dieting has become a fairly popular, yet misunderstood trend in young people all across the country, especially in urban areas. It involves substituting all meals with a liquid meal of pressed fruits and vegetables. This diet is said to help cleanse the body as it eliminates toxins from the body. Seeing this topic on a poster interested me because I know that the diet, just like many other fads, instigates a subsequent false mentality that it is the sole decision necessary to lose weight. It simple: only drink juice and you will lose weight. Juice dieting is by no means a clear-cut method for weight loss; however, many people are not aware of that fact and therefore misinterpret its functionality.

The poster drew from a study the students conducted in which 133 college students were questioned about juice dieting and their opinions on its effectiveness. The results portrayed a mixed opinion, leaning slightly towards a belief that juice dieting was effective and trusted. However, the group’s analysis of the data was what sold the poster for me. They critiqued their own study, offering possible questions they could ask in response to the data they collected, and suggested that further research was necessary to acknowledge any adverse effects juice dieting might have on the body (juice cannot supply you with all the vitamins, nutrients, protein, etc. that you need). While the poster did not go into much depth on the “science” of juice dieting, it provided a good analysis of a new and potential solution for a topical issue.

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Does a Warmer Climate Make a Better Home?

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This poster really caught my eye at the session on Sunday. I loved the focus on the maps in the center and the overall use of color that was interesting but not overwhelming. The green and orange fit nicely with the idea of heat and plants.

The maps show how climate is changing globally but the focus of the project was on invasive plants in New York City. Perhaps the group should have focused their maps to the immediate area and how climate is changing locally

Though there was a lot of text, it was large print and legible to the reader. It was easy to follow with large, colorful titles and supplemented with transparent photos of the plants being discussed.

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“A Study for Correlation between Climate and the Invasiveness of Two Introduced Plant Species in New York City”
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Ebola Explained

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When I had was walking around the room looking at the different posters I had originally wanted to look at a fellow Brooklyn College student’s poster, but the “Ebola Explained” poster lured me in the moment I was near. This poster was right next to the poster I was looking at and a student who was presenting the poster immediately began to make a pitch towards me so I would be willing to vote for their poster.

I honestly believe that these students had one of the best pitches, since they lured me in with a simple joke about ebola. The student presenting made the poster very entertaining by starting off with the story of Tim, a man who had gotten ebola.

He even referenced over to the Measles poster while they presented about ebola, which I thought was pretty funny, since it was as if they were trying to sell me on another project that I should have taken a look at.

The majority of their poster had consisted of diagrams and photos to go along with the facts of ebola. They had mainly explained the what the different diagrams meant and how it related to ebola, which showed how knowledgable they were about their poster. They were also able to answer questions I had about their images and since the student was so lively about his project I really enjoyed hearing and learning about his poster.

Although they did not do actual hands on research like most of the other posters, the students were very dedicated about the poster they had done and wanted student’s to know that ebola is something people shouldn’t be worrying about due to its unlikeliness of spreading, and since vaccines are in the making and seem to be effective so far.

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Do you have worms in your water?

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“Maybe,” answered a pair of presenters at the 10–12:00 Sunday (12/6) poster session. Samuel Berger and Lisset Duran of John Jay College of Criminal Justice looked through logs of 311 complaints about the city’s water quality. (The database saved complaint locations as coordinates [rather than as addresses or names of buildings], and going through the data proved tedious as each point had to be then put on a map.) Most of the complaints were regarding the smell of the water, which the group then further broke down by type of odor described. They also looked at the number of callers by borough, though noted that Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Queens likely had the most callers because of their greater populations. The graphs were laid out well and were clear in showing the main points of the poster.

One of the medium-level1 311 complaints, however, was of worms in people’s water. And when the group tried calling 311 to ask about said worms, the response was along the lines of “oh, that happens sometimes,” and to not worry about it. That reveal was somehow both surprising and expected, and the duo’s delivery made it even better. A key reason I enjoyed this poster so much was that the presentation was simultaneously informative and entertaining; I’d never considered the thought of worms in my water — much less encountered any — and the group did an excellent job of balancing potential squeamishness with a sense of levity. Their pitch made me laugh at times (which I appreciated), provided an insight into how the city 311 complaint system works, and overall was just really fun.

Image of poster: Do You Have Worms in Your Water?
“Do You Have Worms in Your Water?: Analysis of Water Quality Complaints from 2011–2015 in New York City”; pictured: Lisset Duran and Samuel Berger.

Another poster whose title caught my eye was “Greenery vs. Immorality in Manhattan” by Ansh Jain, Nazir Jalili, Dennis Mejia, Gustavo Ramirez, & Ben Stannis of Hunter College. The pitch was engaging; they’d found that despite hypothesizing that there’d be more crime in areas with fewer trees (more “urbanized” areas), there was a slight positive correlation, albeit statistically insignificant, between the number of trees and crime rate. When I first saw the title I hadn’t realized the poster was about crime rates, and had almost expected them to be trying to connect amounts of greenery with people’s morals.

Image of poster: Greenery vs. Immorality in Manhattan
Not “immortality,” as a presenter was quick to note.

 

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Looking to Lose Weight?

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I was walking around the Macaulay building today looking for some interesting poster to blog about. Most posters I saw were visually appealing, but no topic really caught my attention. After a while I was beginning to think I might just have to settle for one. But just when hope was almost lost a high school buddy of mine spotted me and called out “hey Jason! why don’t you come take a look at my poster? It might help you lose some of that extra weight you got.”

Calling someone overweight may be an unorthodox way of attracting people to look at your poster, but he did manage to grab my attention. His poster covered the topic of the incredibly trendy juice diets. Basically, when someone is on such a diet they only have juiced fruits and vegetables. The idea is to remove toxins from one’s body while getting vital nutrients and consuming a minimum amount of calories.

The group aimed to ascertain whether or not people felt the juice diet was effective. They went about their mission by handing out questionnaires to about 140 college students. Their results indicated that people who haven’t already tried the juice diet would tend to continue to stay away from it (I guess people aren’t too attracted to partial starvation). The majority of people who did already try the juice diet responded that it was effective and they would try it again if need be. Clearly the results were a little mixed, but it seems the juice diet is something you should try before judging.

There may have been posters with more sophisticated research about a pressing issue, but my friend certainly knew how to draw people in. This group definitely had my vote for best pitch. Good job guys!