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Research Exhibition Guide: Overview

Find everything you need to prepare and succeed.

What is Research Exhibition?

 

The ninth annual Research Exhibition Day will take place on June 5th in the Central Penn Conference Center! What is the Research Exhibition? Research Exhibition offers you a unique opportunity to demonstrate your research and communication skills. Do you have an assignment that incorporates research? Research Exhibition is the perfect time to demonstrate your presentation skills...for prizes of course!

The Research Exhibition will be held at the Conference Center in ATEC for in-person poster presentations on June 5th from 3 - 5 pm. Virtual participants will submit their presentations in Blackboard using VoiceThread.

Winners will be announced and prizes awarded on June 10th.

Important Dates

For all:

  • April 22nd - Registration will open. If you are working as a team only one person needs to register but include the names of the other team members. If you are doing multiple presentations (doing this for multiple classes) please register for each presentation. We rely on the registered entries to plan. 
  • June 2nd  - Registration will close.
  • June 10th - Winners announced.

For In-person Poster Presentations:

  • June 3rd - Poster Assembling Party! We'll have poster boards and supplies available at the library.
  • June 5th - Posters presented in the Conference Center in ATEC 3-5pm. Please arrive by 2:45pm for your table assignment.

 

For Virtual Submissions:

  • The Library will enroll you in a Blackboard course where you can submit a recording of your presentation. Submit by 11:59 PM on June 4th.

How It Works

First Things First

1. Gather all information from your instructor regarding topic selection. Your instructor probably will provide a broad topic, then you will need to narrow it down into a manageable research question.

2. Register your topic (use the Register tab in this guide).

Research

3. View the research tutorials in the How to Prepare tab - these will be invaluable to you.

4. Begin your research. Start researching early. Collect all your research materials in one place, like a citation manager or a OneDrive folder. Think beyond just looking at articles in EBSCOhost and Gale; explore books and films as well.

5. Organize your research into coherent thoughts and sentences that other people will be able to easily follow and understand. Begin thinking about how the research could best be visually displayed on a poster - what information should be text and what graphs or images you should use.

6. At any point during the process, direct your questions to your instructor or a librarian.

Create Your Poster

7. Pick up your trifold poster board once a librarian contacts you.

8. Organize the information on your poster. Make sure to follow the guidelines found in the template (see the Template tab in this guide). Also be sure to look over the judging rubric (in the Judging tab of this guide). There will be a Poster Building Party on Monday, June 3rd in the Library.

9. Before attending Research Exhibition Day, go over all of your research one more time so that you will be able to answer any questions that the judges may ask you.

Create Your Handout

10. Summarize your major points on an 8.5" x 11" handout. See the Handouts tab for more information.

Research Exhibition Day - June 5th

11. Today's the day! Your poster will be exhibited in front of an audience. Please arrive in the Conference Center in ATEC with your handouts by 2:45pm for table assignment and presentation. Dress professionally and have a brief one to two minute speech prepared to explain your research to others.

First Things First

1. Gather all information from your instructor regarding topic selection. Your instructor probably will provide a broad topic, then you will need to narrow it down into a manageable research question.

2. Register your topic (use the Register tab in this guide).

Research

3. View the research tutorials in the How to Prepare tab - these will be invaluable to you.

4. Begin your research. Start researching early. Collect all your research materials in one place, like a citation manager. Think beyond just looking at articles in EBSCOhost and Gale; explore books and films as well.

5. Organize your research into coherent thoughts and sentences that other people will be able to easily follow and understand. Begin thinking about how the research could best be visually displayed in a virtual presentation - what information should be text and what graphs or images you should use. You can create your presentation using PowerPoint, Piktochart, or any other slide-based presentation tool.

6. At any point during the process, direct your questions to your instructor or a librarian.

Create Your Presentation

7. Organize the information into a slide presentation. Make sure to follow the guidelines found in the template (see the Template tab in this guide). Also be sure to look over the judging rubric (in the Judging tab of this guide).

8. Prepare your presentation. Create a script for each slide individually. Your entire presentation should have a maximum of 12 slides and a maximum of 10 minutes running time.

Choose 1 of 3? options:

You will present using VoiceThread in Blackboard

9. Upload the slide presentation into VoiceThread in Blackboard. Narrate each slide individually.

 

Submission Timeline

June 4: Submit your presentation (including narration) in VoiceThread by 11:59pm.

June 5: Judges will review your VoiceThread recording, and submit questions about your presentation by 11:59pm.

June 6: Respond to the judges' questions in VoiceThread by 11:59pm.

June 7: Judges will finalize their scores for each presentation.

June 10: Winners announced

Chat with a Librarian

Contact the Library

The Library is open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday,  & Friday from 10AM - 5PM and Wednesday from 1PM - 8PM.

If you need help from the librarian or need to access the library resources outside of those hours let us know!

Call or text 717-728-2500 or email Library@centralpenn.edu to make an appointment.

Remember the Learning Hub is also open with lots of great faculty and staff willing to help with tutoring, advising, and general questions.