On the evening of March 19, more than 500 members of the McGill community gathered in celebration of student work at the fifth annual Undergraduate Poster Showcase. Hosted each March by the Office of Science Education (OSE), the Showcase invites students from across the University to share their scientific research, field work, in-class assignments, passion projects and more.
To support student learning, the Showcase is entirely non-competitive, and all presenters participate in workshops to hone their science communication skills. Students also connect with dedicated alumni mentors, including past presenters and McGill Faculty of Science graduates.
Wide range of topics covered
Since its inception in 2018, OSE has served as a space for inquiry, collaboration, and innovation within the Faculty of Science. Opening the Showcase, OSE Director Marcy Slapcoff emphasized the core values underpinning OSE initiatives, including propagation of diverse knowledge and experiences, and the importance of intellectual curiosity. Presenters at the Showcase embodied this intellectual curiosity, and attendees were presented with a diverse array of research topics, hypotheses, and discussions. Poster topics ranged from the neuroscience of musical memory to exoplanet topography to multilingualism and self-identity.
This year, the Showcase welcomed a special group of presenters: students who participated in the Barbados Field Study Semester, a joint program with the University of the West Indies (UWI), which focuses on sustainability and environmentally driven decision-making.
- Isabella Serrette, current UWI Environmental Science student, and Emma Bergeron Quick, McGill Environment student, shared their work on the invasive New Guinea flatworm in Barbados.
- Kachantae Kamilah Faith Brathwaite and Yashua Zoser Holder travelled from Barbados to present their poster entitled “BioTrash to Cash.”
- Jack Kelley, Simon Lindsay-Stodart, and Saulė Zaprauskis studied coral species diversity and cover in breakwaters to better predict and model reef communities on the island of Barbados.
- Connor Gunn and Leia Swayze characterized the presence and diversity of tick species on Barbados to inform health professionals on tick epidemiology, pathogenicity, and control methods.
Faculty of Science tradition
New to the Showcase this year was the “Creative Space,” a relaxed room dedicated to non-poster presentations. Throughout the evening, Jaeyoung Chong, an accomplished cellist and versatile musician pursuing a Doctorate in Music Performance at McGill, provided the inspirational musical ambiance.
Meanwhile, students in the ORCHID (Open Research Collaboration Honouring Independent Discovery) program engaged attendees in a series of creative presentations, demonstrations, and conversations. The creative presenters were supported by my colleague Tong Wang, Science Education Fellow, and the team at Building 21, an experimental research space at McGill that encourages scholars to transcend traditional disciplinary boundaries.
In his closing remarks, Dean of the Faculty Science, Professor Bruce Lennox, noted the remarkable dedication and enthusiasm that students displayed towards their work and recognized the Undergraduate Poster Showcase as a “tradition in the Faculty of Science.”
Join the mailing list for the Undergraduate Poster Showcase and view the posters presented at the 2024 event.