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Next REU Workshop: Summer 2024
Making a Research Presentation This online workshop teaches undergraduate researchers, such as in a summer Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program, how to create an effective research presentation. In this workshop, you will first learn effective strategies for the structure, spoken words, and delivery of a research presentation. Next, you will learn the assertion-evidence approach to create effective visual aids for such a presentation. As preparation for the workshop, you are to view 13 minutes of short films, which are listed below. During the workshop, you will take a Kahoot to demonstrate your understanding of the principles taught in those films. You will also receive many insights on what distinguishes the best research presentations in engineering and science. After the workshop, your REU site director will receive verification of your participation. This workshop on research presentations is taught by Professor Michael Alley from the College of Engineering at Penn State. The author of The Craft of Scientific Presentations (Springer, 2013), Alley has been teaching these type of workshops for more than 20 years. |
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Preparation Assignment for Workshop (13 minutes)
Before the workshop, please spend 13 minutes viewing the three films below. The first film presents an excellent example of a 3-minute research presentation that targets a wide audience. From this model talk, much can be gleaned about the structure, spoken words, and delivery of a strong research presentation. The second film discusses why you should challenge PowerPoint's defaults, which pull down many research presentations in engineering and science. Presented in the third film and in the accompanying text is a new approach that uses cognitive psychology principles to overcome the weak defaults of PowerPoint. This approach leads to presentations that not only are better understood by audiences but project more confidence from speakers. During the workshop, you will play a Kahoot that tests you on the content of this preparation assignment. |
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Model Research Talk: In this short research talk, notice how Dr. Ramsey begins with the familiar before moving to the new. Also, notice how he uses an imaginative (but valid) analogy to explain his work. Finally, notice how he does not explain all details of his work--instead, he presents only those details that the audience needs.
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Why PowerPoint's Defaults Are Weak: A high hurdle for scientific presenters is that PowerPoint's defaults are weak. This film discusses three weaknesses of those defaults and explains how those defaults prevent audiences from understanding the content given on the slides. |
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Assertion-Evidence Principle 1: Build your talk on messages, not topics. |
Assertion-Evidence Principle 2: Support your messages with visual evidence, not bulleted lists. In most presentations, bulleted lists simply serve as notes for the speaker. You can do better. Instead of reading bulleted lists, the best speakers draw their spoken words from either making transitions to or explaining the visual evidence on the slides.
Assertion-Evidence Principle 3: After practice, deliver your presentation by fashioning sentences on the spot. Rather than reading or memorizing your presentation, you should give your presentation extemporaneously. Speaking extemporaneously does not mean that you "wing it." Rather, you practice multiple times until you can give the talk in a natural manner. Although the exact wording of your talk will be different on each delivery, the overall "story" of the talk will remain the same. |
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Additional Resources on Research Presentations
The following short films provide additional resources to help you make an excellent research presentation. |
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Structure of a scientific presentation: In this film, notice how Rachel Perini begins her talk in a memorable way that builds credibility, how Jess Spoll maps her talk in a memorable way, how Amel Awadelkarim uses images to keep her audience on track with her content, and how Rachel Perini provides closure.
Assertion-Evidence Principle 3: Explain your visual evidence by fashioning sentences on the spot, but only after planning and practice. Model Research Talk: Michelle Kehs, a PhD student in mechanical engineering from Penn State, gives a research talk on the optimized control of a buoyant wind turbine. Such turbines operate hundreds of meters in the atmosphere where the wind currents are stronger. Michelle studied in the laboratory of Professor Hosam Fathy. (Handout) |
Assertion-Evidence Principle 2: Support your messages with visual evidence, not bulleted lists. Instructions for using an assertion-evidence template. Projecting Confidence: This film presents four strategies for projecting confidence in a research presentation. |
Workshop Day and Times
In the 2023 offering, all NSF REU sites for engineering and biological sciences received an invitation to send summer REU students to this free online workshop on making an effective research presentation. On 13 July 2023, more than 125 students across the country attended. The workshop focused on best practices in a presentation about scientific research. Included in the workshop was a Kahoot that focused on important messages from the preparation assignment. After the workshop, REU Site Directors received a list of students who participated.
In the 2023 offering, all NSF REU sites for engineering and biological sciences received an invitation to send summer REU students to this free online workshop on making an effective research presentation. On 13 July 2023, more than 125 students across the country attended. The workshop focused on best practices in a presentation about scientific research. Included in the workshop was a Kahoot that focused on important messages from the preparation assignment. After the workshop, REU Site Directors received a list of students who participated.
