Building Scientific Presentations

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Building Scientific Presentations

• Kathleen Perri

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From the perspective of an audience member, how
do you know when a presentation has been
effective ?
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Presentations are evaluated according to

• Content
• Delivery
• Organization

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Content

• Choices
• What to Present
• How to Present

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Content

• What to present
• Interesting
• Relevant
• Credible
• How to present
• Consider self
• Consider your audience

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Selecting a Topic

• What topics interest you?
• What topics interest your listener?
• What topics develop from your research?

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Selecting a Topic

• Will I find sufficient supporting materials on
  this topic?
• Do I know enough about this topic to start
  researching it and to interpret what I discover?

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Selecting a Topic

• Choose a line of research that interests you
• Origin- APSS
• Begin with two or three topics
• Worksheet-list relevant presentations or posters
• Find abstracts-read them
• Generate questions

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APSS Categories

• Circadian Rhythms/Sleep Relationships
• Circadian Rhythms Melatonin
• Sleep In Infants Evolving Issues
• Phylogeny
• Sleep and Fatigue In Medical Illness
• Basic Neuroscience Thalamocortical Systems
• Basic Neuroscience Glucose, Oxygen and Cell
  Survival
• Basic Neuroscience Hypocretin/Orexin
• Sleep and Genes A Two-Way Road
• Sleep Disorders in Children
• Parasomnia And Movement Disorders

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APSS Categories

• Sleep in Psychiatric Disorders
• Restless Leg Syndrome
• Dreams, Content and Personality Factors
• Sleep and Aging Physiology and Treatment
• Sleep Physiology and Health
• Sleep Deprivation in Animals
• Sleep, Learning, and Memory
• Vascular Disease Risk Factors and Outcomes In OSA
• Insomnia Management
• Narcolepsy
• Sleepiness and Its Consequences
• Whats New in Clinical Pharmacology

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Choose Carefully

• You will own that line of research
• Follow that line of research all summer
• After APSS conduct further research
• Follow the time line

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Developing a Topic

• The Key to any presentation is not the topic but
  how well you develop the topic.

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Developing the Topic

• How can I generate excitement?
• Is there an anecdote I can include for added
  interest, emphasis, or humor?
• Math-use equations and symbols sparingly

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Developing the Topic

• Data is Important
• But will it speak for itself ?

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Scientific presentations are serious

• Little humor or light touch will
• vary rhythm
• add interest
• keep attention

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Content

• Chose a topic that interests you
• Narrow and focus
• Familiar with the topic
• Confident in the research
• Explain the data

Audience/self analysis
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Delivery

• Aim for a conversational style of delivery!

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Elements of Effective Delivery

• Enthusiasm
• Eye Contact
• Movement and Gestures
• Vocal Variety

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Caution

• Make sure you can pronounce all the words you are
  going to use!
• Do not try to move words from your reading
  vocabulary to your speaking vocabulary!

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Delivery Styles

• Memorized
• Manuscript
• Impromptu
• Extemporaneous
• conversational style

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Three important tips

• Never read your slides
• Never read your slides
• Never read your slides

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Presentations Must Include

• Content
• Interesting, relevant, and credible
• Audience analysis
• Delivery
• Conversational style
• Enthusiastic
• Eye content
• Gestures and movement

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Organization

• Clarity and Coherence

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Three Categories

• Introduction
• Gain attention
• Overview
• Body
• Synthesize research
• Conclusion
• Summarize
• Set the direction for future research

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Organize the body

• Keep the main points separate and distinct
• You do not want a string of unrelated ideas

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Main Points are the Building Blocks
Intro overview
Main Point Supporting information
Main Point Supporting information
Main Point Supporting information
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Introduction

• Gain attention
• Create a Bond of Goodwill
• Preview main points
• Establish credibility

I will not waste your time
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Gaining Attention Interest

• Provide a case study
• Tell a story
• Personal Reference
• Amuse your audience
• Use startling statistics
• Ask a rhetorical question

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Startling Statistics

• Americans get 500 million per year
• This disease makes us lose 32 million days of
  work
• It makes us spend 105 million days in bed
• It costs over a billion dollars in
  over-the-counter drugs

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The Preview Statement

• It provides a concise preview of how you will
  organize your ideas
• It sums up the speech in a single statement.
• The preview statement crystallizes late in the
  process of preparing the speech

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Form a preview statement based on the following

• Specific Purpose To inform my audience about
  the various types of sleep apnea
• Main points
• Obstructive Apnea
• Central Apnea
• Mixed Apnea

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Form a preview statement based on the following

• Specific Purpose To inform my audience of the
  major factors that determine the value of a
  baseball card.
• Main Points
• fame of the player
• the age of the card
• the rarity of the card
• physical condition of the card.

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Form a preview statement based on the following

• Specific Purpose To inform my audience about
  various circadian outputs
• Main Points
• Melatonin
• Core body temperature
• Cortisol

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Form a preview statement based on the following

• Specific Purpose To inform my audience of the
  common methods used by stage magicians to perform
  their tricks
• Main Points
• mechanical devices
• slight of hand.

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Form a preview statement based on the following

• Specific purpose To compare various
  measurements of sleepiness
• Main Points
• Multiple Sleep Latency Test
• Epworth Sleepiness Scale
• Maintenance of Wakefulness

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Building a Clear, Coherent Presentation
Intro Overview
Main Point Supporting information
Main Point Supporting information
Main Point Supporting information
Conclusion Next area of study
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Conclusion

• Review main points
• Implications of the results of your study
• Future direction of the research

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Exemplary presentations shine in the conclusion

• Use critical thinking skills
• Take the audience to the next level.
• Provide a brief description of the next critical
  study of this line of research

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Delivering a Presentation

• Tell em what you are going to tell em
• overview
• Tell em
• synthesize
• Tell em what you just told them
• review

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Delivering an Exemplary Scientific Presentation

• Tell em what you are going to tell em
• overview
• Tell em
• synthesize
• Tell em where to go next
• Set the direction for future research

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Building a Clear, Coherent Presentation
Intro Overview
Main Point Supporting information
Main Point Supporting information
Main Point Supporting information
Conclusion Next area of study
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Connectives

• Transitions--indicate when a speaker has moved
  from one thought to another
• Internal Summaries--remind the listeners of what
  they just heard
• Internal Previews--lets the audience know what
  the speaker will take up next

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4 S Pattern of Organization

• Signpost the Idea
• State the Idea
• Support the Idea
• Summarize the Idea

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Scientific Presentations

• Contain many facts and data
• Need to summarize often

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Building a Clear, Coherent Presentation
Intro
Main Point Supporting information
Main Point Supporting information
Main Point Supporting information
Conclusion
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Presentations Must Include

• Content
• Interesting, relevant, and credible
• Delivery
• Conversational style
• Enthusiastic
• Eye content
• Gestures and movement
• Organization
• Adds clarity, keeps main points separate and
  distinct, uses connectives

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An Exemplary Presentation will

• Summarize often
• Leave the audience with a clear understanding of
  future research