Michigan student redesigns poster
Presenters at APHA’s 2019 Annual Meeting and Expo this fall may be using a new design for their posters, and they have a Michigan State University student to thank.
According to Mike Morrison, a psychology student at the university, by rethinking the traditional science poster, researchers will be able to share new information more easily at poster sessions.
Morrision believes that the traditional design of science posters is too difficult to read and opportunities to exchange ideas are missed.
Mike Morrison, a psychology major at Michigan State University, has redesigned the traditional science poster. Morrison revealed the design in an animated YouTube video in March.
Image courtesy Mike Morrison
Introduced in a March YouTube video, Morrison’s “better poster” presents the key finding in plain language at the poster’s center, surrounded by blank space. The placement will grab attention of passers-by and “punch it into their brain,” as Morrison said in the video.
Morrison’s simple template is also meant to be easier for students and researchers to put together.
“Even if this new design makes it easier to cure cancer faster, if it’s not easer for scientists to create than what they’re currently doing, it’s not going to happen,” Morrison said.
Researchers are already using Morrison’s design at conferences. The template is available free online.
To access the video on the better research poster design, visit bit.ly/posterredesign.
Students in West Virginia aid families
Undergraduate students at the School of Public Health at West Virginia University are helping older West Virginians raise their grandchildren.
After School Explorers and Preston County Senior Inc. partnered with the university’s Center for Service and Learning to bring public health undergraduates into the program. Three students, Miriam Rosenberg, Alison Stottlemyer and Michaela Stull, helped plan and carry out workshops for grandparents beginning in January.
“Observing how a program like Healthy Grandfamilies works has made me excited for the families that utilize the program’s resources,” Stull said in a news release.
The workshops targeted issues such as understanding technology, using social media and navigating legal issues that might come with grandparents raising their grandchildren.
Due in part to the opioid crisis, West Virginia has over 20,000 grandparents responsible for one or more grandchild living with them, making it the second highest U.S. state for grandparents rearing kids.
As family dynamics change, such programs are “a great way to support the entire family in raising our next generation,” said Susie Huggins, program director of After School Explorers, in the news release.
For more information, visit www.healthygrandfamilies.com.
Editor’s note: This article was corrected post-publication.
- Copyright The Nation’s Health, American Public Health Association
