The Presentation on How to Give a Presentation

Disclaimers

There is no right way to do a presentation but there are common characteristics of good presentations

Some of the stuff that I tell you might seem really intuitive, but I think it is sometimes helpful to articulate your intuitions, because then they become more clear

If I’m going too fast please tell me

Assignment Begin to outline a presentation only after you

have summarized the potential presentation in a declarative sentence that captures the central idea of the message Do this early, about 10-14 days before your

presentation date Ask yourself the question: "How would I explain

my research to a friend from another college?" Use this as a guide for developing the "story" you are

going to tell your COW audience.

Audience

Knowledgeable in general science Avoid technical detail, everyone should be able

to understand your presentation Define key terms Explain difficult concepts A bit of redundancy can be very helpful

“tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, then tell them what you just told them”

General Guidlines

Estimate about 1 minute per slide. A slide that takes less than 1 minute is probably not

as effective as it could be. If a the general content of a slide cannot be understood in 4

seconds, it is often a bad one A slide that takes longer than 2 minutes probably

contains too much information. For an 8-10 minute talk, an estimate of 8-12 slides in

addition to the title slide is probably good.

General Structure Title slide

Strive first for a title that communicates accurately the direction of the message, and then see if you can reduce the number of words while retaining clarity.

Outline This is optional. One advantage is that the audience knows where the talk is

going. One disadvantage is that the audience knows where the talk is

going. If this is used, be very careful that it does not steal your thunder

Outline of Intro

• What is glaucoma?– IOP– Secondary degeneration

• What is Oculotrophin Protomorphogen (PMG) Extract?

• What is neuroprotection?• What is ischemic-reperfusion injury?

Example

General Structure

Intro/Background (why was the project undertaken?) ***Start with a statement of purpose or significance***

Methods (what was done?) Results (what was learned?) Conclusion (what does it mean?)

Sometimes conclusion/summary can be the same as the discussion

General Structure Use the same font throughout the presentation,

recommended fonts are Times New Roman, Arial and Verdana

Titles should be ≈ 44 point font, subtitles ≈ 32 and the text ≈ 24

Usually PowerPoint will decide what is best for you Clearly label all structures, axes and symbols in a slide Provide complete references typically at the bottom of

the slide in a smaller font than the main text when using other people's work

General Structure

TemplateReadability requires good contrast in colorsMake the template consistentKeep the PowerPoint transitions between

slides simple and consistent

A picture is worth…

Represent topics pictorially rather than with lots of wordsThis really helps with clarityPictures can be understood much more

quickly than text The next four slides are early drafts of the

three slides following the next four slides

What I did

• Three groups of rats– Control

• daily placebo treatment of 2 mL of water by gastric lavage

– Low dose experimental group (LD)• daily dose of 3.3 mg of Oculotrophin PMG extract

in 2 mL of water by gastric lavage – High does experimental group (HD)

• daily dose of 6.6 mg of Oculotrophin PMG extract in 2 mL of water by gastric lavage

Example - Bad

What I did

• Duration– Each rat received the treatment for 14 days

• Ischemic-reperfusion injury– On the 7th day the IOP in the right eye of each

rat was increased to 10 times the normal pressure for 45 minutes

– The left eye of each rat was uninjured and served as a control

– Explain value of this injury

Example - Bad

What I didExample - Bad

What I did• On the 14th day the rats were sacrificed and the

eyes were removed• Histological evaluation of each eye followed

– Six, 20 μm thick, frozen sections from each eye were obtained

• three sections from the central retina spaced 200 μm apart • three sections from the inner retina spaced 100 μm apart

– All sections were then stained with cresyl violet– Four random locations, spread as far apart as

possible, were chosen and the cell density was calculated

Example - Bad

Methods

• Treatment by gastric lavage– Three groups of rats

• Low dose experimental group (LD)– 3.3 mg of Oculotrophin PMG extract

• High does experimental group (HD)– 6.6 mg of Oculotrophin PMG extract

• Control– Control treatment of water

Glaucomatous Injury Eye Removal

Gave treatment by gastric lavage

Example - Good

• Glaucomatous injury– Right Eye

• IOP increased to 10 times the normal pressure

• 45 minutes– Left Eye

• Uninjured and served as a control

Glaucomatous Injury Eye Removal

Gave treatment by gastric lavage

MethodsExample - Good

Methods

• Eye Removal– Histological evaluation of

each eye followed• 3 sections from each eye

– 20 μm thick– from the central retina – spaced 200 μm apart– stained with cresyl violet

• The density per unit area was obtained for each eye

Glaucomatous Injury Eye Removal

Gave treatment by gastric lavage

Example - Good

Effective Slides

Slides should not be crowded nor should they have too much white spaceeach slide should be designed to illustrate a

particular point or perhaps to summarize a few

The next two slides are early drafts of the two slides following the next two slides

What is glaucoma?• Secondary degeneration

– The slow loss of damaged neurons and death of previously healthy neurons that become injured by an excitotoxic cascade This is a repeat

– During ischemia excessive glutamate is released which causes the overstimulation of ionotropic glutamate (NMDA) receptors

– Overstimulation of NMDA receptors causes an influx of calcium through the NMDA receptor channel depolarizing the cell and causing voltage gated calcium channels to open

– increased calcium levels activate destructive cascades like activation of phospholipase A2, nucleases which act on DNA, proteases which disrupt ribosomes, neurofilaments and microtubules, oxygen-free radical synthesis and nitric oxide production

– All of this eventually triggers apoptosis (Check that)

Example - Bad

What is glaucoma?

• Secondary degeneration– Treatment

• Lower glutamate• Inhibit NMDA

– Ex. Betaxolol

• Lower Ca2+ levels– Phenytoin

• and Oculotrophin PMG?

Example - Bad

RGC Loss and Glaucoma

• Secondary Degeneration– The slow loss of

damaged neurons and death of previously healthy neurons that become injured by an excitotoxic cascade

Ischemia

↓ O2

↓ ATP

↑Glutamate release

Overstimulated NMDA receptor

↑ Ca2+ in cell

Prolonged depolarization

Apoptosis

Dead o

r

dying

cell

Health

y cell

Example - Good

RGC Loss and Glaucoma

• Secondary Degeneration– Treatment

• In the past 5 years research has been directed towards halting the progression of these cascades from one step to the other.

Ischemia

↓ O2

↓ ATP

↑Glutamate release

Overstimulated NMDA receptor

↑ Ca2+ in cell

Prolonged depolarization

Apoptosis

Dead o

r

dying

cell

Health

y cell

Example - Good

Effective Presentations Practice, practice, practice

Rehearsing a paper before members of one’s own department or group can make the difference between success and disaster.

If you practice enough, you will often find that it is easier to give a talk without using notes

Practice enough so that you have ‘memorized’ the framework and concepts of your presentation

Don’t memorize the exact wording that you use, that can sound forced.

Effective Presentations

What to memorize/rehearseEverything you are going to say on the first

slide Once you get past the first slide often you can just

put your mind on autopilot and before you know it you will be done with your presentation

The verbal transitions between slides These can make the difference between an

amazing presentation and a mediocre one.

Effective Presentations General Pointers

Become comfortable with some silence Effective use of pauses can really help

Put inflection in your voice in order to stress important points, don’t be monotonous

Use a pointer in order to clearly "walk" the audience through the ideas you are presenting.

Speak audibly and clearly so that even those sitting in the back row can hear

Make eye contact with the audience to help keep their interest, but not necessarily specific people