Division: C03 Crop Ecology, Management & Quality

Title: Division C-3 MS Graduate Student Poster Contest Guidelines for 2015

Lead Community Sponsor:
Cosponsor:
Community Cosponsor:
Format: Poster Topical Session
Keywords: C3 Division, MS Graduate Students and Poster Competition

Session Description: The MS Graduate Student Poster Contest for Division C-3 (Crop Ecology and Management) at the ASA-CSSA-SSSA Annual Meeting in Minneapolis, MN offers students opportunities to increase their visibility within the Society, to be honored by Division C-3 representatives for particularly exemplary posters, and to receive expanded professional interaction plus formal feedback from judges on their posters. The top 3 MS students in the contest will be recognized during the Division C-3 Business Meeting to honor their achievement. Cash awards will be mailed soon after the meetings conclude.

 

Graduate students are required to formally enter the competition when submitting their Title-Summary notification. The student must be the lead author of the contest entry. Graduate student contestants do not need to be members of the Crop Science Society of America to participate, but at least one of the co-authors must be a CSSA member. Information presented in the Division C-3 Graduate Student Poster Contest is to be original and unique. If a topic has been used by the author in another presentation at previous scientific meetings, or in a prior publication, additional data must be included to constitute a unique presentation.  All posters will be half size (44.5” x 44.5”).

 

Since abstracts are submitted separately, and will be forwarded to judges prior to the meeting, abstracts are not required to be printed on the poster in order to save space for greater detail in other sections.  Reference citations should be included where appropriate, especially to defend or refute results previously seen in literature (not necessary to create a full literature review in the Introduction section).

 

The following criteria and point allocation will be used by judges to evaluate the posters:

 

Poster Content	Points (Total = 100)	Criteria
Abstract	20	An informative abstract that is concise, and calls attention to all relevant subject matter in the paper/presentation
Intro./Conclusions	10	Content, clarity, format, and grammar
Project Development	20	Rationale, hypothesis, objectives, organization, methods, and application to crop management and ecology
Project Results	15	Balance in quantity and quality of information presented in support of the study’s objectives, capability for rapid viewer absorption of essential results, and accompanying grammar and style
Appearance	15	Engaging title, attractive layout, legible font size for all text, well-designed tables and figures, clear and relevant photographs, and logical progression
Physical Presence and Oration	20	Interaction and mannerisms with poster viewers and judges including volume, confidence, enthusiasm, enunciation, and response to questions

 

We hope that the student posters in the Division C-3 Graduate Student Poster Contest will set the standard for communication and content excellence at the ASA-CSSA-SSSA Annual Meeting.  Do your part to prepare an exceptional poster for this year’s meeting.