Title: Step 4 - Read - A Student's Perspective on Designing your Presentation
Course: The Art of Effective Scientific Communication

The PowerPoint

by Naveen Jain

Animations/Transitions

Animations are nifty. Animations help keep your audience awake and can help you emphasize sections of your presentation for the audience with visual cues. Not to mention animations are downright fun the play with. Specifically, you can use animations to introduce text which you don’t originally want on the screen by using Entrance animations. Or you can make your pictures come to life with Motion Paths. Moving diagrams can be your best friend when presenting. However, animations require patience and, above all else, persistence.

PowerPoint 2007 Lesson

1. Click on Animations.

2. Under Animations, click on Custom Animation.

3. Select any Slide Element (textbox, picture, chart, etc.).

4. Click Add Effect.

Tips

· Do not become animation-happy. A few animations sprinkled throughout your presentation can be helpful for emphasizing your points on the way. However, if you soak every slide with every type of selectable animation, you are going to give your judges a headache.

· Having a running slideshow next to your project board can be an easy way to help your judges understand more about your project. If you go to Animations and find Automatically After in Transition To This Slide, you can force your PowerPoint to advance in intervals of your choice.

· You can check AutoPreview in Custom Animation so you can check how changes appear in your slideshow. You may need to Re-Order your animations frequently to make sure what you want on the screen appears when you want.

Slide Design

When using Microsoft PowerPoint, you should make use of the built-in Design feature. If you are trying to manually change each slide to match your given color scheme, you may be in over your head. You can mix up your slides as well by using many Layouts. Whenever you select New Slide in Insert, you will be given the chance to mix and match Layouts as you please. Nobody wants to see a bland PowerPoint with a picture on the right and text on the left for every slide.

PowerPoint 2007 Lesson

1. Click on Design.

2. In Themes, select a design.

Tips

· Minimize the amount of text on each slide. This is much easier said than done. Keep in mind that the text on your slides should form a simple roadmap for you to work with. They should not give full out explanations. That’s what your oral speech is for. You will have to abbreviate, paraphrase, and clip your presentation frequently.

· Microsoft PowerPoint has many neat designs for you to choose from. Many, however, do not realize that the color scheme is not fixed. If you click on Design and go to Colors in Themes, you can change up the color scheme to your liking. You can even make your own custom color scheme with Create New Theme Colors, but this process is meticulous and best avoided.

Areas of Emphasis

The timed presentation can be exacerbating for many presenters because they feel rushed to jam in as much information in as possible. DO NOT DO THIS. Approach the timed presentation like you are giving a narrative of your scientific experience. The judges will appreciate if you paint them a picture of your project instead of digging into every last scientific detail. By spending time developing the basis for your research, you can help wean your judges into more difficult concepts and end with a real bang.

Tips

· You need to cut down your methodology. This can be the hardest part for many students who have memorized procedure after procedure and want to show off some acquired knowledge. Judges will not be impressed by your use of the newest cell culturing technique. Emphasize your Applications and Results section for some real impact.

· You can give yourself some emphasis support by developing your PowerPoint to emphasize individual sections over others. I recommend using pictures and diagrams to shorten up your Methodology. Do not skimp up on your Hypothesis and Purpose Statement by cramming them onto a single slide.