Notes on Student Presentations

Notes for Students

Making a scientific presentation is a challenge for many students, so it is an important learning experience.

Goals

There are many goals in making a presentation on a scientific topic:

1. First and foremost, you are seeking to present information that is technical. Make sure that your presentation has **sufficient technical depth**.
2. If you are presenting about a specific discovery or advance, you need to **put the contribution in context**.
3. You need to explain its **significance**, also called the **contribution** of the research.

References

Here are some excellent references for putting together a scientific presentation:

The best resource that I know of is the website and book of Michael Alley, who developed the assertion-evidence approach to scientific presentations and has a website, some videos, and a book that discusses the technique. He also has some templates that you can use:

• Website: http://www.craftofscientificpresentations.com
• Book: http://www.springer.com/us/book/9781441982780
• Presentations: http://writing.engr.psu.edu/courses/presentations.html

Good Blogs on Giving Talks

I reviewed more than a dozen blogs about giving talks, and thought that these were the best:

• "How to give a dynamic scientific presentation", Elsevier.com, Marilynn Larkin, August 2015. (Marilynn Larkin is an award-winning science writer and editor who develops content for medical, scientific and consumer audiences.)
• Tips for giving a successful scientific presentation, Milka Kostic, January 2017 in Cell's Mentor column. (Milka Kostic is the former Senior Editor of Cell Chemical Biology and Structure. She left Cell Press in 2017.)
• Good article at the World Bank
• "Scientific presentations: A cheat sheet" Nature Jobs Blog, Andrew Gaudet and Laura Fonken, January 2017. (Andrew and Laura are postdocs at the University of Colorado, Boulder)
• "Mastering Your Ph.D.: Giving a Great Presentation", Patricia Gosling and Bart Noordam, Science, Oct 2006.

Presentations on Scientific Presentations

For people who don't like reading that much:

• Karl Browman's June 2014 talk on giving talks, Department of Biostatistics & Medical Informatics University of Wisconsin – Madison

• http://mcnair.ucsb.edu/documents/HowtoCreateaResearchPresentation_000.pdf
• https://dornsife.usc.edu/assets/sites/605/docs/Tips_10_minute_Scientific_PowerPoint_Presentation_Meds_490.pdf

Notes for Faculty

What to present

• Have students give presentations early in the course: it helps to integrate the class.
• Have students present a paper
• Have students present final projects

The presentations

• Have students submit their slides at least 4 days before the presentation, so you can offer criticism with enough time for the students to improve them.
• Force students to turn in draft presentations by having a grade assigned for turning them in (1 point)
• Format really doesn't matter.
• Give students a time limit
• Enforce the time limit