presenting science molly s. costanza-robinson, ph.d. middlebury college environmental chemistry 270...
TRANSCRIPT
Presenting Science
Molly S. Costanza-Robinson, Ph.D.Middlebury College
Environmental Chemistry 270
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; try not using any!
Use short, bulleted phrases to keep you on track
Rehearse: It helps you…
Organize your talk Is the order of your slides logical? Do you know what comes next? Prioritize the information
Stay within time constraints Is your 15 min talk really 25 min? Can you concisely describe an idea?
Stay calm and confident interruptions won’t throw you off allows for spontaneous thoughts
Consider your audience
What do they already know? What do you want to teach them that is
new? What will be of interest to them?
Consider your purpose
To demonstrate your understanding of environmental chemistry
To link our classroom learning to a specific case study
To guide your classmates through the important aspects of the case study
Hourglass Structure
Start broad: importance of topic Get more specific: background science Even more specific: methods & results Broaden out again: conclusions & 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
http://www.cai.cam.ac.uk/students/study/engineering/engineer05/images/sliderule20.jpg
Color Choices: contrast Color Choices: contrast is good!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 PASTELSM.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
Don’t go overboard
M.A. Daugherty
A bit much, yes?
Outline
Presenting Using power point to present Presenting science
Scientific Conventions
Appropriate units Specific & quantitative Appropriate conventions
Symbols (m), subscripts (NO3), superscripts (people/km2)
Tables
County good moderate USG unhealthyBennington Co 289 69 1 0Chittenden Co 292 71 2 0
Rutland Co 276 86 3 0Addison Co 101 20 1 0
Windham Co 60 0 0 0
Help your readers focus on what you deem important
Graphs
Organic matter
Macro-invertsfish
Walters et al., Environ. Sci. Technol. 2008, 42, 2316-2322.
Annotations can help readers quickly grasp the important distinctions
Graphs II
Walters et al., Environ. Sci. Technol. 2008, 42, 2316-2322.
Way too much dataWay too small to see
Is there a betterApproach?
Walters et al., Environ. Sci. Technol. 2008, 42, 2316-2322.
Site 1 Site 6
Tro
phic
posi
tion
% of ΣPCBs0 20 40 60 80 100 0 20 40 60 80 100
• Di and tri PCBs decrease up the foodchain at both sites• Penta PCBs increase up the foodchain at Site 1; trend
unclear at Site 6
Trophic Trends for PCB Classes at Two Sites
% of ΣPCBs
Acknowledgments
All the speakers I’ve heard present All the people who have given me
feedback on my presentations