Presentation Skills (for Senior Division oral presentations)

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Presentation Skills(for Senior Division oral
presentations)

• Mercer Science and Engineering Club
• 3 Creek Rim Drive
• Titusville , NJ 08560

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Overview

• What to do first
• Starting a conversation
• The Pitch What to talk about
• Target Audiences
• Dressing for success
• Display Tips
• How to practice
• Building confidence
• What Judges Look For

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What to do first

• Make a plan
• Make sure you understand your project
• Write things down
• Choose proper attire

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Starting a conversation

• Learn how to start a conversation
• Write some opening lines
• Practice, practice, practice
• Memorize these
• Make the opening natural and easy to speak
• Make it short and to the point
• Introduce yourself, then your project

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The Pitch What to talk about

• Start with a verbal abstract
• Make a list of questions and answers
• Provide more detail
• Be prepared to discuss any aspect of the project
• Not every judge has the same background or
  interest
• Review questions with parents, mentors and
  teachers

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Target Audiences

• Judges
• Select award winners
• Engineering and scientific backgrounds
• Start simple but be prepared to go into depth
• Teachers and Mentors
• Grade your projects for class
• Have followed your progress
• Students and Parents
• Unfamiliar with project and terms
• Simplified explanations

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Dressing for success

• Professional attire
• Use for future interviews
• Do not wear
• Jeans
• Flip flops
• Sneakers

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Display Tips

• Utilize the entire space
• 30 inches deep
• 48 inches wide
• 108 inches high (from floor to top of project)
• Avoid Clutter

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Display Extras

• Too much stuff
• Pictures are better

Minimal is good One item is best
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Items Not Allowed at Project or in Booth

• Living organisms, including plants
• Taxidermy specimens or parts
• Preserved vertebrate or invertebrate animals
• Human or animal food
• Human/animal parts (e.g teeth) or body fluids
  (e.g. blood, urine)
• Plant materials (living, dead, or preserved)
  which are in their raw, unprocessed, or
  non-manufactured state (Exception manufactured
  construction materials used in building the
  project or display)

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Items Not Allowed at Project or in Booth

• Laboratory/household chemicals including water
  (Exception water integral to an enclosed
  apparatus or water supplied by the Display and
  Safety Committee)
• Poisons, drugs, controlled substances, hazardous
  substances or devices (e.g. firearms, weapons,
  ammunition, reloading devices)
• Dry ice or other sublimating solids
• Sharp items (e.g. syringes, needles, pipettes,
  knives)
• Flames or highly flammable materials
• Batteries with open-top cells
• Awards, metals, business cards, flags,
  endorsements and/or acknowledgements (graphic or
  written)

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Items Not Allowed at Project or in Booth

• Photographs or other visual presentations
  depicting vertebrate animals in surgical
  techniques, dissections, necropsies, or other lab
  procedures
• Active Internet or e-mail connections as part of
  displaying or operating the project
• Glass or glass objects unless deemed by Display
  and Safety Committee to be an integral and
  necessary part of the project (Exception glass
  that is an integral part of a commercial product
  such as a computer screen)

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Items Not Allowed at Project or in Booth

• Any apparatus deemed unsafe by the Scientific
  Review Committee, the Display and Safety
  Committee, (or Science Service at INTEL)
  (e.g. large vacuum tubes or dangerous
  ray-generating devices, empty tanks that
  previously contained combustible liquids or
  gases, pressurized tanks, etc.)

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Audio/video Presentations I

• Designed to augment oral and board presentations
• Use AV presentation when explaining related
  aspect of the project
• Types of video presentations
• Video clips
• Animated sequences
• Examples of tools
• Powerpoint
• Windows Media Player

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Audio/video Presentations II

• Practice answering questions using AV
  presentation similar to using your board in the
  oral presentation
• Keep audio aspects to minimum so it does not
  interrupt oral presentation or neighbors
• AV presentation used to show
• Video clips that show non-standard procedures or
  results
• Animations that would take too many static images
• Very large or small objects

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How to practice

• Oral presentation practice must be spoken, not
  read
• Start by speaking to a mirror
• Move onto speaking to individuals parents,
  teachers, students
• Practice in front of a class

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What Judges Look For

• Students understanding of the project, its
  results and techniques employed in
  experimentation
• Quality of research, planning, construction,
  execution and presentation
• How well the student presents the project
  (Senior division)
• How well the board presents the project
• What did you learn
• Who did the work
• Future plans

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Getting Students Involved

• Get students to critique presenters
• Students learn how to listen
• Students learn how to write evaluations
• Write short paragraph summarizing presentation
• Grade critiques for extra credit
• Is the critique constructive?
• Did the critique miss key items presented?
• Did the critique point out areas that are
  unclear?
• KISS
• Have non-science fair students present on topics
  of their choice

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Summary

• Start with a good project and results
• Dress for success
• Start a conversation Introduce yourself
• Extemporize dont memorize
• Practice, practice, practice
• Explain your project as many times as possible to
  as many people as possible