BISC 455 Presentation Guidelines

Your talk should be 10-15 minutes in length. You can use overheads or PowerPoint, but keep in mind that if you do a PowerPoint presentation you will have to arrange to borrow the equipment from the LIDC, and transport it up to the classroom yourself. Your mark will not be affected by using overheads versus PowerPoint.

Here are some guidelines for how to put together your presentation (as well as some important points to consider when you read ALL of the papers!):

Introduction (10 MARKS)

• What is the broad context of this research? Explain the general theory being tested and review previous studies.
• Why was this experiment done? Understand why and how this particular experiment is relevant to current theory.
• What are the hypotheses being tested?

 Methods (2 MARKS)

 Give a brief overview of the methods used in the experiment.

• Report key information, i.e. sample size, subject information, types of behavioral tests used.
• You do not have to go into too much detail here – try to summarize the experimental design into something that is easy for the audience to understand. If the experimental design is complicated, you could use a flow chart, diagrams, or a timeline rather than text to explain the procedures.

 Results (5 MARKS)

 Summarize the key results of the experiment.

• Present and clearly explain relevant graphs and tables.

 Discussion (8 MARKS)

 Compare results to the original hypotheses.

• How were the results interpreted? What were the main conclusions?
• Why should we be interested in this study?
• Can you think of examples for future research in the area?
• Criticism – i.e. limitations of experimental design, interpretation of results, validity of conclusions.

Overall Presentation (5 MARKS)

• Interesting to audience
• Presentation structure (i.e. logical progression through various sections, flow)
• Easy to understand
• Eye contact, clear speech, etc.