After all the research on your country for Thinking Day, your scout troop wants to show off the facts. But designing an easy to read display for World Thinking Day – or any presentation, be it in school or scouts – takes careful editing.

Think of this display as your billboard of the country you’ve selected. If you drive by a billboard on the street or highway, what grabs your attention? Often it’s a large image or text. In fact, the old standard for billboards is seven words or less – because you have such a short time span in which to capture the reader.

Designing a display means more than just posting visually appealing pictures. It means writing in a condensed format. It means having small blocks of large text. Remember that while you want to show off your research, you also want people to grab nuggets of information. As an adult, you wouldn’t read paragraphs of text at a display at a trade show or health fair. Why would you expect squirrely girls to do it?

Think:

• Short sentences
• Large type
• Bullets or numbered items
• Large images – a 4 x 6 photo is a minimum, larger is better (though cost can be a factor with larger prints)

Remember: Less actually is more! Let the girls share their knowledge verbally rather than have it on display. It will be better retained.

If you’re new to World Thinking Day and are looking for a sample display, look no further than this cheat sheet. I credit my child’s second-grade teacher for this, as she is having her students do a culture report on another country:

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