Presentations: 3 Ways to Add Impact

Steve Jobs transformed the world of computing and mobile communications.  It is clear that Mr. Jobs had the ability to make a true impact on his audience.  Watch any Apple unveiling event, and you can see the art of presentation at its best.

Image: Cult of Mac

When giving a presentation you want to impact your audience with the most important information.  You worked hard to find this information.  Your goal is to get your audience to clearly understand and maybe even take action on some you are presenting.

But how can we add the more impact to our presentations?

There are many ways.  Here are 3 ideas that can transform a presentation into something that could have a lasting impact:

1. The Way You Look Impacts Your Audience: YOU are the most important feature of your presentation, not your slides.  What you wear should match the style of your presentation.  Keep a good energy with your audience and positive body language throughout the presentation.  Think of a Steve Jobs Apple presentation.  If you know and believe in your main idea, show it in how you present yourself in front of your audience.  



Image: humberlife.com

2. Images Carry More Impact Than Text:  Less is more. Visuals make it almost 7 times more likely that someone will remember your presentation.  Also, research shows people can't read your slides and listen closely at the same time.  Think of the main idea you are trying to present and allow your images, graphs or words on the screen to support this. 

   

   Image: PowToon

3. Stories Make Impact: Focus on the story you want to tell.  Find a clear beginning, middle, and end that builds to a conclusion.  Thinking of your presentation as a story is not only a great way to stay organized, but a great way to engage your audience.    

   

   Image: Wienot Films

PROJECT DETAILS: Sparking Change at AISB

The most powerful weapon on earth is the human soul on fire.

-Ferdinand Foch

A spark has great potential to make a change.  Your challenge in our last project of the year is to spark a change at our school...with an idea.  

This year we explored matter and energy in various ways.  In this project you are challenged identify and help to solve a problem by considering how our school uses energy.

The driving question for this project is:

How might we change actions, systems, or objects

in our school to reduce the amount of energy

that we consume in one year?

You will create a proposal of an idea related to this question that will be presented to a principal, school business director, school director, or school board member at our school.  Your finished project must include, but is not limited to:

1. A conceptual model of idea - This could be in the form of physical models, labeled diagrams or detailed drawings.
2. A written proposal to give to your audience on the day of the project.  Using your best persuasive writing and mathematical problem solving skills the group must complete a written proposal that:
   

   1. outlines the need for the solution
   2. explains the solution (should include models)
   3. outlines the costs and benefits of the solution showing essential mathematical models that prove the validity of your idea
3. Well-planned and rehearsed presentation 5-7 minutes in length that includes all group members in some way.

Groups Doc

Unit 7: Sparking Change at AISB

Unit Goals & Resources
Vocabulary

Pale Blue Dot.  It's a picture of your home.

Can you see your home in the photo below?
[Click forward arrow at the bottom for some help]

If the Voyager I Space probe was on Snapchat, it's the pic it would have sent you some years back.  Voyager I, NASA's camera mounted hunk of metal hurling through space took the photo just before exiting our solar system.  The photo was taken from a record distance of about 6 billion kilometers (3.7 billion miles) from Earth.  Karl Sagan, a famous astronomer and author asked NASA to control the space probe to turn around and take the photo before leaving our system.  Hear his famous reflection of the picture in this video.

From all the billions of kilometers away we see our "Spacecraft Earth," the tiny planet with a built-in life support system that you were born into and that your children will more than likely call home.

In one way or another, the life support system on Spacecraft Earth provides the air you breathe, the food you eat, the water you drink.  It sustains temperatures and pressures that your body can handle.

Yet, each day we use the atmosphere as a landfill for our waste.  Factories, transportation, deforestation as well as our personal need to consume resources, all of these things are a danger to the life support system on planet Earth.

Scientists have been collecting data that shows a change in our planet's temperature, weather patterns,  and sea level.

In this next unit we will look at this data and ask the questions:

• How is the Earth's climate changing?
• How can we as global citizens limit our impact on the Earth to ensure the best home for future generations?

The main work of this unit will be designing our very own solutions that could lead to improving our school's impact on our home, our life-supporting spaceship---the Pale Blue Dot.

Special thanks to Mr. Farren for the links to Pale Blue Dot and Blue Man Group and also for the idea of "Spaceship Earth."

Newton's Law Project

Your task:

Work by yourself or with a partner to design an experiment to explore Newton’s 1st or 2nd Law.  You must identify independent and dependent variables and controls, what tools are needed to do the gathering, how measurements will be recorded, and how many data are needed to support a your hypothesis.  At the end of your experiment you must analyze your data, and reflect on your procedure and results.  

How you will demonstrate your learning:

• Each partner will be interviewed separately about the design of the experiment.
• Display data table and/or graph as well as photos and/or video on class slideshow to share experiment with classmates.
• Each person will submit a Conclusion & Reflection Form.

Grading Information and Full Rubric Here