1. How To Give A Scientific Seminar Michelle Chow Ocean Discovery! Sebastopol, CA

2. Overview Verbal and Nonverbal Communication “How To” on Project Presentations

3. Nonverbal Communication “body movement and expression” Face audience Make eye contact Appropriate facial expressions Body movement (pacing, swaying) Dress appropriately

4. Verbal Communication Speak at a reasonable pace Intonation (tone of voice, use of voice) Pause when needed Avoid excessive use of “um” or “like” or “so”

5. Suggestions for Practicing Practice at least three times!!! Get feedback from your peers. Before you start to speak take a few seconds to organize your thoughts, notes and equipment.

6. Appearance of your slides “ You want people to focus on your message” Use a simple design for your slides. This is a professional seminar. Text must not fade into background. Choose an appropriate font that can be read from the back of the room. Size 32 – 36 for bulleted text Size 44 – 48 for titles

7. Each slides does not need to have a title. Especially if a title is redundant or obvious. Spread bullets apart to avoid reader’s brain overload. Paragraph—spacing—6-12 pt after paragraph. Pictures and graphs should take up the whole slide. Axes text and statistics hard to read from back of room.

9. Michelle’s Don’t List Clip art when not appropriately used (which is most of the time). Slides and lines that zip in and out of space. Please have all your text on the slide at the same time. All slides should transition appropriately (use no transition or fade at fast speed) No music, unless you are studying dolphins and are recording their mating calls.

10. Planning the package Know your audience Define terms Provide an overview if complex Integrate text and images –map of study area, distribution –understand overall idea/theory/topic –images of organism/scientific name –repeat the question if necessary

11. Planning the package Clear purpose/logical sequence Consistency in style and language Bulleted information Prompts for speaker and audience Time yourself: 1 frame /minute Leave time for questions Don’t read your talk

12. Techniques that help Memorize opening sentence Note cards Tough question? –anticipate questions that poke holes –anticipate future direction questions –repeat the question –“That’s a good question” –“I don’t know but…”

13. Advice to Fellows Practice within a group and then between groups. Bring laser pointer into class to demonstrate how to use it correctly Remind students they will be using a microphone

14. More advice Everything presented verbally or visually should have a clear role in support of the central thesis or theses of the talk. If anything doesn’t do this, remove it. borders, animations, clipart, etc

15. Listener’s Responsibility No talking Listen closely Think of at least one question to ask speaker Stay awake (no sleeping) and engaged during the talk

16. Presentation Title your name School affiliation city state

17. Introduction Introduce topic, big picture. Why? Explain how you reached your questions/hypotheses. Define scientific terms. Use scientific names for organisms. Visual Aids (slides of organisms) List questions your study addresses.

18. Methods Summarize methods = Use methods as an explanation of how you addressed your questions. Visual Aids (pictures of study sites or setup is most effective). Organize methods to help audience easily follow your research.

19. Flow Chart for Presentation Organization

20. Results Use tables and/or figures to present data. Avoid verbalizing too many numerical values (especially without visual aids). Show audience only data and results that are important in addressing your questions. Remind audience how each method or result fits back to the questions of your study.

21. Discussion Talk about results with respect to: Your study’s questions Past research Make logical conclusions about your research findings. Visual Aids (refer back to tables and figures used in results)

22. Conclusions Visual Aid = Outline of questions from introduction with acceptance or rejection of null hypothesis. Big picture Future research Acknowledgements

23. Your brain starts working the moment you are born, and doesn’t stop until you have to speak in public.