Performance Skills

Dr Iona Beange

Ice-breaker

• Get into groups of 5• Tell the others – your name and something

interesting about your name.

Dr Iona Beange

• ICONZ Communications Officer• Science Communicator

• PhD Neuroscience• Bsc Hons in Biomedical Science

Career

University of EdinburghSchool of Biology - Public Engagement Wiki - Heather McQueenwww.wiki.ed.ac.uk/display/SBSIntranet/Public+engagement

Eusci – Science Magazinehttp://www.eusci.org.uk/

Biopod - podcasting

ASCUS (Art-Science collaborations)http://www.ascus.org.uk/

Sci-Fun

Organisations

• Edinburgh International Science Festival

• National Museums Scotland

• Botanic Gardens• Dynamic Earth• Observatory

• Historic Scotland• Camera Obscura• Mining Museum• Surgeons Hall

Museum• Royal Society• Royal Society of

Chemistry

Welcome To ILW

• Tuesday – Performance Skills• Wednesday – Science Journalism• Thursday- Preparing a story for Film or TV

• Showcase – Thursday Afternoon

Plan for Today

• Using your voice• Presentation Prep Time• Giving Constructive Criticism• Trying out a presentation• Adapting to your audience• Performance Styles• Evaluation

Performance Skills

More than just words……

What affects the degree of trust and belief people have in a speaker?

I did not have sexual relations with that women(Bill Clinton)

More than just words……

7% VERBAL – the words you use 38 % VOCAL – how you use these words55 % VISUAL – how you look

Research by Albert Mehrabian

Pre-course

• Prepared a short (2 min) talk on a topic of your choice.

A few things to consider

Volume

• INCREASE – to create drama or highlight importance

• DECREASE – to cause audience to concentrate, create a sense of anticipation

• CHANGE – to differentiate or emphasise points.

Speed

• Slightly slower than 120 Words per Minute (conversation)

• SLOW – importance, gravitas, calmness, disappointment, sadness

• FAST – excitement, anger, anxiety• PAUSES – time for ideas to sink in, dramatic effect, signal

end of section, – Comma = 1 beat (say ‘comma’ internally)– Full Stop = 2 beats (say ‘end of sentence’ )– Paragraph = full stop + 2 beats = 4 (say ‘new paragraph’)

Pitch

• A high pitch nasal sound = nervous• Use changes in pitch to emphasise points or

show a change of section• Avoid monotone

Pronunciation

• Remember your dental sounds (t’s and d’s) – Donuts

NOT ‘Onus’

• Inflection – rise and fall of pitch – Yes – definite– Yes – Uncertain– Yes – meaning no

Pauses……

• Very powerful ...... Attention grabber• They need to be much longer than you think –

try counting to 5 or even 10.

Preparation Time (10min)

Use this time to finish preparing you talk.Or to add in some of the things I’ve just talked about.

Giving constructive feedbackFeedback = self-awareness and encouragement to develop.

1. Start with something positive

2. Be specific – as well as ‘you were brilliant / awful’, try to pin point what it was that they did that made it that way.

3. Refer to things that can be changed.

4. Suggest what they could have done differently.

5. Be descriptive – tell the person what you saw and what effect it had on you, ie your tone of voice made me feel that you are really concerned about this topic.

6. Own the feedback – use the word ‘I’ eg I thought, I felt

Give your 2 min Presentation

• 2 people comment on presentation style • 2 people comment on content • Swap tasks between talks

• 2 min talk• 5 min feedback time

How special am I?

Up to 15 million adults – nearly half the workforce – are holding jobs despite having the reading and writing skills expected of children leaving primary school, a new report reveals today.There are about 12 million people in employment with literacy skills and 16 million with numeracy skills at level 1 or below – equivalent to the levels of 11 year olds and younger, the committee found (The Guardian, 24 Jan 06)

Adaptation

The average person has less knowledge of your subject than a standard grade (G.C.S.E) pupil.

The 12 year old test

“If one cannot state a matter clearly enough so that an intelligent twelve year old can understand it, one should remain within the cloistered walls of the University and laboratory until one gets a better grip of one’s subject matter”(Margaret Mead, Anthropologist and teacher, Redbook Magazine, 1963)

Constructivism

The most important single factor influencing learning is what the learner already knows. Ascertain this and teach him accordingly(Ausebel)

Find the audience’s level and work upwards (in appropriate steps)

Vocabulary

Words can have different meanings eg Material– Children – fabric for clothes– Scientist – elements, compounds– Novelist – plot and characters– Builder – wood, stone, brick– Comedian – jokes and sketches

Vocabulary

• Words which sound the same can have different meanings:

- nucleus, - nucleoid- nucleotide.

Junk the Jargon!

Misconceptions

Photosynthesis

Misconception: Plants get their food from the ground

Fact: Their main carbon source (food and building block) is CO2 from the air.

Explaining Concepts

• Use simple definitions– pH is a scale from 0 to 14 that tells how acidic or

not acidic something is

• Use analogies– The earth is like an apple – it has a core on the

inside and a very thin skin on the outside

Imagery

Technique Description Example

Simile and metaphor comparing something familiar with the thing being explained.

The tangled chains of polymers are like miniature spaghetti

Analogy using something familiar to describe an element of something unfamiliar

The immune system is like the police force

Onomatopoeia the words sound like what they describe

splash, crack, sizzle

Assonance repetition of vowel sound to set meaning or mood

On a proud round cloud in white high night

Alliteration same sound at the start of a group of words

cool, calm, collected

Research – Garry Blakely

SimplificasaurusSynthesis and characterisation of novel packed-bed

absorbents for the desulphiding reaction

1) Identify your target audience and what they already knowIntelligent 12 year old

2) Recognize words which may be unfamiliar to them or liable to misconceptions

Synthesis and characterisation of novel packed-bed absorbents for the desulphiding reaction

3) Generate a list of alternative words for the jargonSynthesis = making, creating, building, inventing

4) Select the most appropriate wordsSynthesis = inventing

5) Construct your new statementInventing chemicals that clean up smelly gases

Adapt Garry’s Talk

a) Summarise the talk in a few sentences. b) Use the Simplificasaurus to construct a

summary suitable for your target audience.

Group Feedback

Communication Styles

Flashy• Short on details • Long on big concepts. • High entertainment value. • Fairly large audience

Communication Styles

Sales Pitch

• More details, including graphs and statistics,• Aren’t meant to entertain. • Smaller audience with opportunity for

interaction• The purpose is usually to persuade.

Using Slides

Several minutes per slideOrA few seconds per slide

Professor Lessig

• Few words - emphasizing what he was saying.

Dick Hardt, Sxip Identity

• Lot’s of slides very quickly

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrpajcAgR1E

Presenter’s Comfort

• Turtle type = slow but steady, deeply into topic

• Hare type = enjoy a quick pace.

• Choose what suits you.

Audience’s needs

• Help the audience understand • Help the audience remember• How long is their attention span?

Fiona

• Bright club

Group Discussion of Styles

Recap

• Using your voice• Giving Constructive Criticism• Adapting to your audience• Presentation Styles

Evaluation

1)

2)Orange (Continue): What was the best part of the session, which we should ensure we do again next year?

Pink (stop): What was not so good about this session?

Green (start) Do you have any suggestions for changes/additions if we repeated this session in the future?

Optional Content

7 Virtues of Good Science Communicaton

1. Simple – avoids jargon, uses simple language 2. Targeted – hits the audience level3. Efficient – avoids extraneous detail4. Accurate – can be expanded without contradiction 5. Familiar – relates complex ideas to simple things we

already know6. Sequential – moves in steps from familiar to

unfamiliar7. Hooks – uses devices to grab attention or enhance

understanding.

Images

Less is more!

Kidney

Graphs

Sometimes very effective

Alternatives

Achieving a shared goal – free universal healthcare in Ghana (Oxfam document)

• Oxfam and Unicef

Alternatives

Oxfam International, Poland. Highlighting the disproportionatecarbon footprints of rich countries,

Alternatives

Let the numbers tell the story….

Oxfam annual report and accounts

Sometimes photos are best

1 in 3 children do not complete school