The art of research posters

An interesting change happened this term and it’s one worth sharing. After three years of running the student research program, Sokratis, which is open to all students from Year 7 to 11 and is based on topics of students’ own interest, we had a breakthrough.

The quality of the research posters the students produced was so much better!

After identifying their topic, connecting with a mentor (a member of staff or a Year 12 student), writing a research question and locating reliable information, students spend the bulk of the year working through their research. I have worked with my brilliant colleagues from the Conde Library Team, Spencer Toohey and Tessa Zwar, and Victoria Adamovich, the Pymble Institute Research Associate, to populate an online learning module with a range of resources – including support for different ways to create research posters. The various modules move students through all stages of the research process to arrive at a concluding point in October when posters are due and the Showcase is created in Conde Library.

We’ve been talking about what happened to lift the standard of posters. Posters in the 2025 Showcase are reflecting more conventional features, such as boxes of information and eye-catching tables and graphs, but also audience-engagement tools such as rhetorical questions and voting opportunities. We placed a paper pocket next to each poster along with blank feedback cards and invited the visiting staff, students and parents to share their thoughts with the student researcher. Ultimately, we put the improvement down to persistence and consistency as we have not done anything very differently, but the parts of the research journey are starting to click together. We would like to note that, like good research, good research learning takes time, patience, good examples and effort. We’re excited to see what 2026 brings!

Who won? The Best Poster Design was won by a Year 8 student with her topic, How do illustrative techniques in Japanese manga shape the emotional experiences of readers? Congratulations to the student and mentor team behind this research project and to all those who participated.