Presenting Science Molly S. Costanza-Robinson, Ph.D. Middlebury College Caveman Chemistry FYSE 1329 Spring 2011

Outline Presenting Using power point to present Presenting science

Outline Presenting Using power point to present Presenting science

Presenting Enunciate and project your voice Make eye contact with your audience Avoid nervous habits Reading is not presenting  2 notecards are allowed. Use none?  Short, bulleted phrases keep you on track

Rehearse: It helps you… Organize your talk  Is the order of your slides logical?  Do you know what comes next? Stay within time constraints  Is your 15 min talk really 25 min?  Can you say what you mean concisely? Stay calm and confident  interruptions won’t throw you off  allows for spontaneous thoughts

Consider your audience What do they already know? What are you excited to teach them? What will they be interested to learn?

Consider your purpose Convey your scientific understanding Teach your classmates something new & interesting When possible, link your new science to science that has become familiar

Hourglass Organization Start broad  overview/history of technology Get more specific  science, examples, your experiment Broaden out again  Summary, “take-home message”

Outline Presenting Using power point to present Presenting science

Slide rules Spend at least 1-2 min. per slide Use <5 bullets per slide Use 24 pt font or larger derule20.jpg

Color Choices: contrast is good! BLACK BLUE GREEN RED Don’t use light colors like YELLOW white on black white on blue yellow on blue Don’t use PASTELS M.A. Daugherty

Avoid too many words If you have very long sentences being projected on the board, I can guarantee that no one will be listening to the words that you are actually speaking. They will be reading, and your emphasis will be lost. Keep it short Use phrases Force people to listen to you

Avoid distractions Although this is cool it distracts from the science Just enough “design” to be pleasing

Powerpoint advantage: visuals Photos Diagrams Colors content/uploads/2010/04/technology_stockxpertcom_id _size1.jpghttp:// content/uploads/2010/04/technology_stockxpertcom_id _size1.jpg; 2jyD3BxFU/s1600/95171_Technology.jpg

Outline Presenting Using power point to present Presenting science

(Scientific) Conventions Appropriate units Specific & quantitative Appropriate conventions  Symbols (  m), subscripts (NO 3 ), superscripts (people/km 2 ), arrows  Citations in small font (<18) at the bottom of the slide

Final Slides Acknowledgments (help, $) Further Reading Questions

Questions?