At least at Casa Free-Ride: the day before the project board is due.
That day (or, to be more precise, this day) is the day that reminds everyone of just how laborious a process it is to:
- create visually attractive (or logical and legible) representations of the data
- locate and organize all the raw data if you have kept your project notebook in the same fashion in which you keep your notebooks for sketching and stories (which is to say, not necessarily on sequential pages — but at least dated)
- type up descriptions of your experiment if you are not a frequent typist (neither of the Free-Ride offspring is)
- draw actual conclusions from your data
- work out how to fit everything you want to show and say on the three-panel project board without making that project board look too busy or too sparse, and without inducing eye-strain
Also, we’re hoping to hit the trifecta of functioning erasers, functioning printer, and functioning can of spray adhesive to get all the pieces properly assembled. (Thank goodness that data collection wrapped up yesterday.)
Hold a good thought for us.
I don’t think it gets easier when the poster’s done in Illustrator and the target audience is at a professional meeting. What kind of illustrations best represent the data? How to interweave text and illustrations? (And the biggie — how to say what’s needed in text and know when to shut up and let the illustrations do the talkiing?)
This is a good exercise for the Free-Ride offspring, even if it does involve tricky stuff like spray adhesive.
So, what happened? You are leaving us on tenderhooks!
Did the whole fair rise up in spontaneous applause at the scientific genius of the Free-Ride offspring? Did an aquarium burst, causing a gush of water that dissolved Sprog-the-Younger’s plaster body, revealing its painted-ghost nature?
Curious minds want to know!