critical goal of introductory science courses is to develop students’ understanding of key concepts and principles. Typically, introductory biology courses include two major parts—lecture and laboratory. In lab, students have opportunities to engage firsthand in scientific inquiry. However, students are exposed to the bulk of the subject matter in the lecture setting. Problems with the lecture format are well known. Instructors tend to present large amounts of information, and students tend to transcribe, but not process, what the teachers tell them. In large classes, students are inhibited from asking questions, and it is difficult for the instructor to be attuned to what students actually learn. Even when lectures are well organized, students tend not to be engaged with the subject matter in ways that lead to understanding (McKeachie et al., 1986; Cooper & Robinson, 2000; Gardiner, 1994; Vernier & Dickson, 1967).

Posters are important for distributing information about research to peers in biology and other fields. Scientific organizations meet annually and researchers attend and often present their results orally or in a poster format. Because poster presentations are becoming more commonly used at scientific meetings and science fairs, many colleges, and now high school classrooms, are requiring their students to construct posters as a method of improving written, visual, and verbal communication skills. However, many students are never taught the specific characteristics that constitute a good poster. Typically, posters provide an efficient means of conveying a brief outline of background information, methods, and discussion while being more specific about the study results. Posters are often comprised of the typical sections of a published paper (that is, Abstract, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Acknowledgments, and References). However, a poster is usually brief and lacks much of the discussion-type detail presented in .journal articles. It is left up to the abilities of the poster presenter to elaborate on other important details or implications of the research. Posters should be an artistic and colorful representation of research, that tends to demonstrate the author's creativity and pride. Posters have numerous characteristics that make them appealing to the reader, including the use of photos, graphs, tables, background, and text colors, characters used to highlight components, etc. For example, pictures (color or black and white) are a great way to convey information (one picture is worth a thousand words). Background color is of paramount importance because certain colors obscure text, inhibit reading, and thus the dissemination of the findings (for example, white text on light blue background). The exercise of constructing and presenting a poster is important because it uses an inquiry-based procedure to develop written and oral communication skills about scientific ideas in accordance with the National Science Education Standards (National Research Council, 1996). Specifically, the poster construction project addresses Content Standard A (science as inquiry through a conceptual framework) and Content Standard B (by guiding learning through orchestrating discourse among students about their projects). Our objectives are to introduce criteria for constructing posters with the style and quality of professional scientific meetings and to provide a conceptual framework for constructive critique. In this paper we will not concentrate on the specific sections of the poster, but rather the physical components that comprise it and how to format them (Figure 1). We have tested our poster suggestions and procedure (Newbrey & Bahezore, 2005; procedure available on the Web) on approximately 100 high school students who were required to construct, critique, and present their laboratory research in poster format to their peers. In addition, a large number of college students have successfully constructed a poster from these instructions using the various versions of Microsoft PowerPoint, such as PowerPoint 2000 (1999). Some of the high school students constructed posters in as little as 45 minutes, however most spent several hours putting together a good first draft using components prepared from class papers. Layout & Content When presenting at scientific meetings, the organization usually provides some specifications about the size of a poster (four feet by three feet, etc.). Scientific organizations will also provide information about the criteria used to .judge posters for competition. We have included information for judging and critiquing posters modified from the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology Annual Meeting Guidelines for presenters (Eberth, 2004), because the information provides important criteria necessary for designing a good poster and developing an assessment rubric. …

The ultimate goal of any biology teacher should be to make his/her course memorable tot students. Real memories. Long-term memories. Not just cram in the knowledge, memorize it for the test, and spit it back kind of memories. The kind of memories that come when students become emotionally involved with the material. How does this happen? We must immerse the students in projects they care about, that span time, that evoke emotions other than apathy or discontent. We must involve our students in projects that involve more than empty gestures (Berry, 1981) and constitute real work. Students are sophisticated today. They know when they are involved in work that smells like school and tastes like school-such work is demeaning to them and turns them off immediately. This sort of work leads to discipline problems, off-task behavior, and boredom. Instead, our students must be returned to the community from which they came. The only problem is that many of our students do not feel like they belong to a community because of the society we live in. No longer do we have the small close-knit communities. No longer do we know our neighbors. No longer do we have communities where we have a sense of place and belonging. Instead we are isolated beings going to and from our schools and work each day. As Wendell Berry (1981) states, Community interest also requires charity, neighborliness, the care and instruction of the young, respect of the old; thus it assures its integrity and survival. Above all it requires good stewardship of the land, for the community, as the Amish have always understood, is no better than its (p. 261). We must help our students become reconnected to their community by involving them in biological projects related to the community. What is the nature of these projects? These projects are characterized by three essential components. They must involve the students in the community in a relevant, timely way. They, in turn, foster life-long learning with real world practices. They need to be inquiry driven. By making long-lasting memories for our students, we are making biology come alive for them. When we engage them in a river study, we take them out of the classroom, into their community, to study a river that historically has impacted their community economically, socially, and culturally. Many of the students may not know the role the river plays in the milieu of the community. Use the project as an opportunity to give them the chance to inquire about it. While the focus of the project will be on the environmental impact of pollutants on the river, take the opportunity to also have students find out what the river means in terms of the community. What is its history? What about its flora and fauna? What businesses depend on the river today and years ago? What is the river's place in the community? How do different groups depend on the river? If an environmental disaster occurred on the river, how would it impact the community? How would it impact the students' lives? Throughout this project, students gather data, collect documents, explore the river, write letters to the local newspaper, present their findings at town meetings, prepare Web sites with their data, and write reflective journals about their experiences. With a project like the river project, the students can seek the expertise of specialists in whatever problems they are studying, whether it be water quality, stream bank stability, or quality of life for flora and fauna. By communicating with these specialists, students gain valuable insight into career information, enhance their communication skills, and learn real-world applications in problem solving--all skills lacking in many class learning lessons. The more real world opportunities we can provide for our students, the more prepared they will be to enter the complex, global work force of the 21st century. By having opportunities to work within their communities, they enhance their sense of place within their own community and increase their sense of ownership for the physical geography, natural boundaries, and land areas encompassing their community. …

College enrollments are expected to peak around 1982 at about 13.6 million students and to decline throughout the remainder of that decade. The number of students enrolled for degree credit in all types of colleges will reach a maximum of 11 million in 1980, and the subsequent modest growth will be due to increases in the numbers of students not in degree programs. In the two-year colleges, enrollment will increase through 1985 when it will account for 31% of the students in degree programs and an even larger percentage of the nondegree enrollment. Public colleges will enroll increasing proportions of students at the expense of the private colleges. In 1960, only 60% of degree students attended public colleges; by 1985, 80% will attend public institutions. The reasons students go to college are also changing. First, improved earning capacity no longer provides a strong incentive for attending college. Based on a 1970 report of the Carnegie Commission (Hecht and Traub 1974), lifetime earnings of a college graduate exceed those of a high school graduate by approximately $60,000-about the equivalent of the cost of college and the foregone earnings. Second, by 1980, a college education will offer less assurance of getting a job commensurate with one's educational attainment. By that time college graduates will comprise 20% of the civilian labor force; buf only 15% of the jobs will require a college degree (Best 1978). We need not limit this discussion to students pursuing degrees, for all of our educational institutions abound with students who have what Washington Post columnist, William Raspberry (1978b) calls great and unrealistic expectations. He asserts that we teach skills but fail to teach young people what those skills are likely to produce in income. Many students expect to finish a vocational program and quickly land a $25,000-a-year job. A few even prefer to remain on welfare rather than to work for less than the salary they expected. Changes in life plans will have farreaching effects on what parts of one's life are spent in school. Some futurists believe that the linear life plan-childhood, education, and employment-is becoming obsolete. The cyclic life plan (Best 1978) suggests that people might enter the work force in the teen years, work for several years, return to school for a year or two, and continue to alternate work and school throughout a lifetime. These trends seem to indicate that the student population will become increasingly diverse in interests and needs at the same time it is decreasing in size. We will be confronted with greater competition for a smaller number of faculty positions. Those of us who remain in teaching will be challenged by the task of serving this diverse population of students.