1. Scientific Presentations
Intro to Oral Presentations

2. What are you trying to accomplish in any presentation?
"In science one tries to tell people, in such a way as to be understood by everyone, something that no one ever knew before. But in poetry, it's the exact opposite." - Paul Dirac ( )

3. What is required for communication in science?
“Cleverness, beauty, originality, and style (although extremely important in the design of experiments) are not required in scientific writing. What is required is a clear, logical, orderly presentation of your question, how you planned to answer it, what your results were, and what you concluded .”
Ambrose et al
Do you agree?

4. Objectivity in Science
“Objectivity in science is obtained not by the individual scientist, who is always subjective, but by the scientific community as a whole.”
Milton Rothman

5. Scientific Papers
Written
Oral
Poster

6. Elements Title Abstract or summary Introduction or Background
Methods & materials
Results
Discussion
References/Literature-cited

7. Oral Presentations Meetings Symposia Seminars
Proceedings are not usually primary…
Not widely published
Often review in nature
Usually preliminary
Rarely peer review or limited
Minimal editing

8. Communicating in Science
Know your audience
Know your purpose
Spend time writing down your thoughts

9. Tips: Before Presentation
Check location, lighting, audiovisuals ahead
Notes
Become comfortable w/ material & possible questions - Practice! Practice! Practice!
Slides
Organize similar to paper, but simpler
Time limit

10. Tips: About the Presentation
Tell as a story
Be enthusiastic
Guide audience: tell purpose beginning, middle & end
Endings
Humor
Anticipate problems
Appropriate dress

11. Tips: During Presentation
Look at your audience
Speak up
Concentrate on audience understanding
Do not be afraid of pauses

12. Poster Presentations Generally only a subset of the final publication
Often preliminary in nature: Why?

13. Poster Presentations Appearance of poster Content
Characteristics of well-designed
Presentation

14. Poster Appearance Layout Balance Graphics & text Appealing
Eye catching, not overpowering
Color: uniform or w/ meaning
Flow
Balance
Weight
White space
Text vs. graphics
Graphics & text
Readable
Serif vs san sarif

15. Poster Content
Logical order
Intuitive
Concise
Graphics…

16. Poster Content: Graphics
What is this figure supposed to accomplish?
Make only one point
Clear descriptive titles…
Omit extraneous info
Redundancy & simplicity improves understanding
Graphs represent data (scale, 3D, etc.)

17. Poster Characteristics
Characteristics of a well designed poster:
Self explanatory
Minimal text
Short title
Clear statement of purpose
Major portion = results
Bullets vs. paragraphs
M&M (example next slide)
Citations minimal
Handouts (optional)

18. Methods & Materials Using graphics: Using words:
Airway epithelial cells were isolated from the trachea of Sprague Dawley rats. Cells were used by enzymatic digestion with trypsin and then plated on Transwell inserts that were suspended in DMEM containing the supplements previously described to create an air-liquid interface similar to that which is found in the airways. This method allowed the normal differentiation of the epithelial cells into a pseudostratified mucous epithelium and allowed secretions to be collected from the surface of the cells and components from the underlying media to be analyzed.

19. Presenting Your Poster
Summarize high points in a few min
Tendency: prepare too much or too little
Modify based on listener
Know everything on your poster

20. A great site to visit… http://www.ncsu.edu/project/posters/index.html
General setup & printing of poster for Powerpoint
Info for both full size and small handout versions
“Good Graphics”
Poster samples
Includes good & bad points, debates
Sample evaluation criteria
Tips on accessibility to a wide audience:
Poster presentations: 0.5, 2, 5 minutes:

21. Some other interesting resources from links off of Hess’ site
Common problems…
From the various resources supplied you will see that there are many problems that are common. We can learn a lot from the mistakes of others.
From:

22. Another interesting site…
From:

23. Poster Information Converting publications to posters
: Normal Cutin
Wild type
Deficient Cutin
Water Loss Due to Transpiration is Not Greater in cd Mutants with Cutin Deficiency
(a) Sets of two ripe fruits of M82, cd1, cd2 and cd3 3 weeks following fruit detachment; (b) percentage weight loss of M82 and cd fruits over a 10-week period. Lines are as follows: , , , ,
Adapted from: Isaacson T, et al. (2009) Cutin deficiency in the tomato fruit cuticle consistently affects resistance to microbial infection and biomechanical properties, but not transpirational water loss. The Plant Journal 60, 363–377

24. Poster Information Converting publications to posters
Poster instructions
Actual Poster Session
Use of PowerPoint
Peer review
Poster draft prints
Later: critique previous poster samples