© project lead the way, inc. presentation techniques

© Project Lead The Way, Inc.

Presentation Techniques


Oral presentations provide an opportunity to share the results of research with a large audience. Here are some tips!

• Do not try to fit every detail of the research into the presentation. Provide an adequate summary, but remember the limitations of oral presentation formats. People will only be able to digest a certain amount of material in 10-15 minutes. If you stick too closely to details, the audience will lose the point of the presentation.

• Make use of PowerPoint slides. Let the audience follow along the outline of the presentation as you go. If a person temporarily loses track of the presentation, they can always catch up by looking at the presentation slide notes you provide.

• A standard format is 15 minutes for each presenter. Plan for 12 minutes of presentation and three minutes of questions. In your 12 minutes, spend around four minutes setting up the problem, two discussing the methodology, two discussing results, and four for the discussion.


• Memorize the first few minutes of the presentation word for word. This will get you started and help with the initial nervousness.

• Do not read your presentation. You will bore your audience and you will make it impossible for them to pay attention. Instead, use PowerPoint slides as a memory cue and speak spontaneously.

• Have notes prepared. If you panic and are unable to remember what you wanted to say, you can use them for backup. You can consult your notes without reading them to the audience. It is acceptable to pause between sentences and think about what you want to say next.

• Do not talk in a monotone. • Anything in a PowerPoint slide should be printed neatly in large, bold type. It is very frustrating struggling to read the slides during a presentation.


• Keep your visual aids simple. The audience has a limited amount of time to read and understand them. If everyone is struggling to understand what is on the slide, nobody will be listening to you.

• Never present a page full of statistics or text and tell the audience to read it for themselves. If it is important for the audience to read something, read it to them. If doing this makes you feel like you are spending too much time reading to the audience, you are. Present fewer pages of statistics.

• Do not assume that the audience will be able to see something just because you put it in a slide. There may be obstructions, or it may be hard to see from the back of the room. Always describe what you are presenting.

• Do not hover around the projector. Never point to anything on the projector, point to the screen. Standing by the projector is likely to block the audience's view.

•Feel free to move around, but not so much that you distract the audience.


• Rehearse the whole presentation at least once, and try to rehearse in front of an audience. Let the test audience help you decide if the talk is clear.

• Dress up for the presentation.

You will probably be nervous before the presentation. Here are some tips to help settle your nerves.

• Rehearse thoroughly. If you know what you want to say, you will feel better about saying it. Also keep these things in mind.

• Fifteen minutes goes by very fast when you're speaking.

• If you do not know the answer to someone's question, you can say "I do not know." You can also try to involve the person asking the question in speculating about the answer.

• You can direct the audience's questions to topics you know. For example, you might say "the exact details of this procedure are not essential, but if you would like to know them, we can discuss it in the question period." Try not to do this too much, because it can be annoying.


Here are some ideas for creating a presentation:

• Video tape someone you consider to be an expert. • Interview teachers, students, and administrators on their use of technology. • Create a timeline. • Create a flyer or a brochure to demonstrate what you have learned.• Do some case studies (school issues, local issues, community concerns, etc.). • Write a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) on your topic. • Use a graph or chart to show information gathered. • Create a PowerPoint presentation .• Create a homepage for your presentation with links to appropriate resources. • What ever you choose to do, do it with thought, organization, and planning.• Use eye-catching colors and materials. Always give credit for information or images collected from other sources. Be enthusiastic!


The following slides are examples of charts and graphs

that could be used to summarize complex data in a graphical form suitable for

presentation.


Of 100 AnyTown High School Students

• 67 plan to attend college

• 6 plan to enter the military

• 18 plan to seek employment

• 9 are undecided

9

6

18

67

Pie Chart


Student Scores on Assembly Modeling Exam

Third Quarter Results

16% 17%

23% 22%

61% 61%

86%

4%10%

Period 3 Period 6 Period 7

65+55-640-54

StackedColumnGraph


Solid Models Completed

1999 - 2000 School Year

26

22

46

12

18

1613

2322

9

16

October January April June

John S.Nicole G.Robert J.

Line Graph


Comparison of Career Choices

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Humanities Majors Pre-engineering Majors Business Majors

AnyTown H.S.Class of 2000

ClusteredColumnGraph


Mock-up: A physical model constructed from inexpensive materials to represent a design concept. The model created is proportional but not necessarily to scale.


Prototype: A full size, functional model of a product completed before the product is manufactured, which allows testing and analysis prior to

production.


Computer Graphics

•PowerPoint Slide Presentations

•Solid Models

•Part Model

•Assembly Model

•Animation Clips

•HTML Documents


Microsoft PowerPoint is an extremely versatile multi-media tool enabling the user to create colorful, interesting presentations.


Solid Model Examples

Part Models Assembly Models


Animation Clip From an Assembly Model

Click each image tosee the animation.


HTML: Hypertext Markup LanguageThe standard language used to create web pages.


Written Documentation

•Engineering Notebook

•Specification Sheets

•Technical Drawings

•Graphical Organizer

•Technical Report


Engineering Notebook: A document used by an engineer to record notes, sketches, and other design information.


Sample Specification Sheet


Sample Technical Drawing


Flowcharts


Graphic Organizer


A technical report is information which relates to the research, development, engineering, evaluation, production, operation, use, and maintenance of a product, process, or service.

The following text is an abstract of a 200+ page technical report.

Connecting Homes to the Internet: An Engineering Cost Model of Cable vs. ISDN

Using the World Wide Web at 28.8 Kbps (or less) can be a frustrating experience: a multimedia page that takes a fraction of a second to download at Ethernet speeds takes many seconds at modem rates. Two enhancements to existing infrastructure have the potential to deliver more satisfactory residential Internet access: ISDN telephone service, and upgraded cable TV networks. While ISDN dedicates bandwidth to each user, cable networks support a shared bandwidth approach similar to that used in computer Local Area Networks (LANs). This report describes the technologies and evaluates qualitative differences between the two approaches. The report finds that cable's shared-bandwidth approach has superior economic characteristics. Cable-based access also has better service characteristics: it can support both full-time Internet connections and higher peak band widths, such as a 4 Mbps cable service that provides thirty-two times the peak bandwidth of ISDN. Furthermore, monopoly control of residential communications infrastructure - whether manifest as high ISDN tariffs or simple lack of interest from cable operators--limits business opportunities for Internet service providers.


Evaluation of Oral and Written Presentations


Resourceshttp://www.udel.edu/chemo/C465Tips.htm

http://www.sussex.ac.uk/Users/ssfd0/presgood.html

http://www.horizon.nmsu.edu/ddl/presentation2.html

http://www.cse.ucsc.edu/~karplus/185/s96/node16.html

http://www.msu.edu

http://www.wihe.com/

http://www.sme.org

http://www.swe.org

http://www.iteawww.org

http://ncstrl.mit.edu:

http://www.stanford.edu/group/4D/4d-examples/movies

http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/gallery/photo/YF-23

http://www.smartdraw.com/info/coolex.htm