a presentation about science

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How to make a scientific presentation

Scientific presentation outlines

Questions to ask yourself before you write your talk, 1. how much time do you have, 2. who will you speak to, 3. what do you want the audience to learn from your talk, step 1: outline your presentation, step 2: plan your presentation slides, step 3: make the presentation slides, slide design, text elements, animations and transitions, step 4: practice your presentation, final thoughts, frequently asked questions about preparing scientific presentations, related articles.

A good scientific presentation achieves three things: you communicate the science clearly, your research leaves a lasting impression on your audience, and you enhance your reputation as a scientist.

But, what is the best way to prepare for a scientific presentation? How do you start writing a talk? What details do you include, and what do you leave out?

It’s tempting to launch into making lots of slides. But, starting with the slides can mean you neglect the narrative of your presentation, resulting in an overly detailed, boring talk.

The key to making an engaging scientific presentation is to prepare the narrative of your talk before beginning to construct your presentation slides. Planning your talk will ensure that you tell a clear, compelling scientific story that will engage the audience.

In this guide, you’ll find everything you need to know to make a good oral scientific presentation, including:

• The different types of oral scientific presentations and how they are delivered;
• How to outline a scientific presentation;
• How to make slides for a scientific presentation.

Our advice results from delving into the literature on writing scientific talks and from our own experiences as scientists in giving and listening to presentations. We provide tips and best practices for giving scientific talks in a separate post.

There are two main types of scientific talks:

• Your talk focuses on a single study . Typically, you tell the story of a single scientific paper. This format is common for short talks at contributed sessions in conferences.
• Your talk describes multiple studies. You tell the story of multiple scientific papers. It is crucial to have a theme that unites the studies, for example, an overarching question or problem statement, with each study representing specific but different variations of the same theme. Typically, PhD defenses, invited seminars, lectures, or talks for a prospective employer (i.e., “job talks”) fall into this category.

➡️ Learn how to prepare an excellent thesis defense

The length of time you are allotted for your talk will determine whether you will discuss a single study or multiple studies, and which details to include in your story.

The background and interests of your audience will determine the narrative direction of your talk, and what devices you will use to get their attention. Will you be speaking to people specializing in your field, or will the audience also contain people from disciplines other than your own? To reach non-specialists, you will need to discuss the broader implications of your study outside your field.

The needs of the audience will also determine what technical details you will include, and the language you will use. For example, an undergraduate audience will have different needs than an audience of seasoned academics. Students will require a more comprehensive overview of background information and explanations of jargon but will need less technical methodological details.

Your goal is to speak to the majority. But, make your talk accessible to the least knowledgeable person in the room.

This is called the thesis statement, or simply the “take-home message”. Having listened to your talk, what message do you want the audience to take away from your presentation? Describe the main idea in one or two sentences. You want this theme to be present throughout your presentation. Again, the thesis statement will depend on the audience and the type of talk you are giving.

Your thesis statement will drive the narrative for your talk. By deciding the take-home message you want to convince the audience of as a result of listening to your talk, you decide how the story of your talk will flow and how you will navigate its twists and turns. The thesis statement tells you the results you need to show, which subsequently tells you the methods or studies you need to describe, which decides the angle you take in your introduction.

➡️ Learn how to write a thesis statement

The goal of your talk is that the audience leaves afterward with a clear understanding of the key take-away message of your research. To achieve that goal, you need to tell a coherent, logical story that conveys your thesis statement throughout the presentation. You can tell your story through careful preparation of your talk.

Preparation of a scientific presentation involves three separate stages: outlining the scientific narrative, preparing slides, and practicing your delivery. Making the slides of your talk without first planning what you are going to say is inefficient.

Here, we provide a 4 step guide to writing your scientific presentation:

• Outline your presentation
• Plan your presentation slides
• Make the presentation slides
• Practice your presentation

Writing an outline helps you consider the key pieces of your talk and how they fit together from the beginning, preventing you from forgetting any important details. It also means you avoid changing the order of your slides multiple times, saving you time.

Plan your talk as discrete sections. In the table below, we describe the sections for a single study talk vs. a talk discussing multiple studies:

The following tips apply when writing the outline of a single study talk. You can easily adapt this framework if you are writing a talk discussing multiple studies.

Introduction: Writing the introduction can be the hardest part of writing a talk. And when giving it, it’s the point where you might be at your most nervous. But preparing a good, concise introduction will settle your nerves.

The introduction tells the audience the story of why you studied your topic. A good introduction succinctly achieves four things, in the following order.

• It gives a broad perspective on the problem or topic for people in the audience who may be outside your discipline (i.e., it explains the big-picture problem motivating your study).
• It describes why you did the study, and why the audience should care.
• It gives a brief indication of how your study addressed the problem and provides the necessary background information that the audience needs to understand your work.
• It indicates what the audience will learn from the talk, and prepares them for what will come next.

A good introduction not only gives the big picture and motivations behind your study but also concisely sets the stage for what the audience will learn from the talk (e.g., the questions your work answers, and/or the hypotheses that your work tests). The end of the introduction will lead to a natural transition to the methods.

Give a broad perspective on the problem. The easiest way to start with the big picture is to think of a hook for the first slide of your presentation. A hook is an opening that gets the audience’s attention and gets them interested in your story. In science, this might take the form of a why, or a how question, or it could be a statement about a major problem or open question in your field. Other examples of hooks include quotes, short anecdotes, or interesting statistics.

Why should the audience care? Next, decide on the angle you are going to take on your hook that links to the thesis of your talk. In other words, you need to set the context, i.e., explain why the audience should care. For example, you may introduce an observation from nature, a pattern in experimental data, or a theory that you want to test. The audience must understand your motivations for the study.

Supplementary details. Once you have established the hook and angle, you need to include supplementary details to support them. For example, you might state your hypothesis. Then go into previous work and the current state of knowledge. Include citations of these studies. If you need to introduce some technical methodological details, theory, or jargon, do it here.

Conclude your introduction. The motivation for the work and background information should set the stage for the conclusion of the introduction, where you describe the goals of your study, and any hypotheses or predictions. Let the audience know what they are going to learn.

Methods: The audience will use your description of the methods to assess the approach you took in your study and to decide whether your findings are credible. Tell the story of your methods in chronological order. Use visuals to describe your methods as much as possible. If you have equations, make sure to take the time to explain them. Decide what methods to include and how you will show them. You need enough detail so that your audience will understand what you did and therefore can evaluate your approach, but avoid including superfluous details that do not support your main idea. You want to avoid the common mistake of including too much data, as the audience can read the paper(s) later.

Results: This is the evidence you present for your thesis. The audience will use the results to evaluate the support for your main idea. Choose the most important and interesting results—those that support your thesis. You don’t need to present all the results from your study (indeed, you most likely won’t have time to present them all). Break down complex results into digestible pieces, e.g., comparisons over multiple slides (more tips in the next section).

Summary: Summarize your main findings. Displaying your main findings through visuals can be effective. Emphasize the new contributions to scientific knowledge that your work makes.

Conclusion: Complete the circle by relating your conclusions to the big picture topic in your introduction—and your hook, if possible. It’s important to describe any alternative explanations for your findings. You might also speculate on future directions arising from your research. The slides that comprise your conclusion do not need to state “conclusion”. Rather, the concluding slide title should be a declarative sentence linking back to the big picture problem and your main idea.

It’s important to end well by planning a strong closure to your talk, after which you will thank the audience. Your closing statement should relate to your thesis, perhaps by stating it differently or memorably. Avoid ending awkwardly by memorizing your closing sentence.

By now, you have an outline of the story of your talk, which you can use to plan your slides. Your slides should complement and enhance what you will say. Use the following steps to prepare your slides.

• Write the slide titles to match your talk outline. These should be clear and informative declarative sentences that succinctly give the main idea of the slide (e.g., don’t use “Methods” as a slide title). Have one major idea per slide. In a YouTube talk on designing effective slides , researcher Michael Alley shows examples of instructive slide titles.
• Decide how you will convey the main idea of the slide (e.g., what figures, photographs, equations, statistics, references, or other elements you will need). The body of the slide should support the slide’s main idea.
• Under each slide title, outline what you want to say, in bullet points.

In sum, for each slide, prepare a title that summarizes its major idea, a list of visual elements, and a summary of the points you will make. Ensure each slide connects to your thesis. If it doesn’t, then you don’t need the slide.

Slides for scientific presentations have three major components: text (including labels and legends), graphics, and equations. Here, we give tips on how to present each of these components.

• Have an informative title slide. Include the names of all coauthors and their affiliations. Include an attractive image relating to your study.
• Make the foreground content of your slides “pop” by using an appropriate background. Slides that have white backgrounds with black text work well for small rooms, whereas slides with black backgrounds and white text are suitable for large rooms.
• The layout of your slides should be simple. Pay attention to how and where you lay the visual and text elements on each slide. It’s tempting to cram information, but you need lots of empty space. Retain space at the sides and bottom of your slides.
• Use sans serif fonts with a font size of at least 20 for text, and up to 40 for slide titles. Citations can be in 14 font and should be included at the bottom of the slide.
• Use bold or italics to emphasize words, not underlines or caps. Keep these effects to a minimum.
• Use concise text . You don’t need full sentences. Convey the essence of your message in as few words as possible. Write down what you’d like to say, and then shorten it for the slide. Remove unnecessary filler words.
• Text blocks should be limited to two lines. This will prevent you from crowding too much information on the slide.
• Include names of technical terms in your talk slides, especially if they are not familiar to everyone in the audience.
• Proofread your slides. Typos and grammatical errors are distracting for your audience.
• Include citations for the hypotheses or observations of other scientists.
• Good figures and graphics are essential to sustain audience interest. Use graphics and photographs to show the experiment or study system in action and to explain abstract concepts.
• Don’t use figures straight from your paper as they may be too detailed for your talk, and details like axes may be too small. Make new versions if necessary. Make them large enough to be visible from the back of the room.
• Use graphs to show your results, not tables. Tables are difficult for your audience to digest! If you must present a table, keep it simple.
• Label the axes of graphs and indicate the units. Label important components of graphics and photographs and include captions. Include sources for graphics that are not your own.
• Explain all the elements of a graph. This includes the axes, what the colors and markers mean, and patterns in the data.
• Use colors in figures and text in a meaningful, not random, way. For example, contrasting colors can be effective for pointing out comparisons and/or differences. Don’t use neon colors or pastels.
• Use thick lines in figures, and use color to create contrasts in the figures you present. Don’t use red/green or red/blue combinations, as color-blind audience members can’t distinguish between them.
• Arrows or circles can be effective for drawing attention to key details in graphs and equations. Add some text annotations along with them.
• Write your summary and conclusion slides using graphics, rather than showing a slide with a list of bullet points. Showing some of your results again can be helpful to remind the audience of your message.
• If your talk has equations, take time to explain them. Include text boxes to explain variables and mathematical terms, and put them under each term in the equation.
• Combine equations with a graphic that shows the scientific principle, or include a diagram of the mathematical model.
• Use animations judiciously. They are helpful to reveal complex ideas gradually, for example, if you need to make a comparison or contrast or to build a complicated argument or figure. For lists, reveal one bullet point at a time. New ideas appearing sequentially will help your audience follow your logic.
• Slide transitions should be simple. Silly ones distract from your message.
• Decide how you will make the transition as you move from one section of your talk to the next. For example, if you spend time talking through details, provide a summary afterward, especially in a long talk. Another common tactic is to have a “home slide” that you return to multiple times during the talk that reinforces your main idea or message. In her YouTube talk on designing effective scientific presentations , Stanford biologist Susan McConnell suggests using the approach of home slides to build a cohesive narrative.

To deliver a polished presentation, it is essential to practice it. Here are some tips.

• For your first run-through, practice alone. Pay attention to your narrative. Does your story flow naturally? Do you know how you will start and end? Are there any awkward transitions? Do animations help you tell your story? Do your slides help to convey what you are saying or are they missing components?
• Next, practice in front of your advisor, and/or your peers (e.g., your lab group). Ask someone to time your talk. Take note of their feedback and the questions that they ask you (you might be asked similar questions during your real talk).
• Edit your talk, taking into account the feedback you’ve received. Eliminate superfluous slides that don’t contribute to your takeaway message.
• Practice as many times as needed to memorize the order of your slides and the key transition points of your talk. However, don’t try to learn your talk word for word. Instead, memorize opening and closing statements, and sentences at key junctures in the presentation. Your presentation should resemble a serious but spontaneous conversation with the audience.
• Practicing multiple times also helps you hone the delivery of your talk. While rehearsing, pay attention to your vocal intonations and speed. Make sure to take pauses while you speak, and make eye contact with your imaginary audience.
• Make sure your talk finishes within the allotted time, and remember to leave time for questions. Conferences are particularly strict on run time.
• Anticipate questions and challenges from the audience, and clarify ambiguities within your slides and/or speech in response.
• If you anticipate that you could be asked questions about details but you don’t have time to include them, or they detract from the main message of your talk, you can prepare slides that address these questions and place them after the final slide of your talk.

➡️ More tips for giving scientific presentations

An organized presentation with a clear narrative will help you communicate your ideas effectively, which is essential for engaging your audience and conveying the importance of your work. Taking time to plan and outline your scientific presentation before writing the slides will help you manage your nerves and feel more confident during the presentation, which will improve your overall performance.

A good scientific presentation has an engaging scientific narrative with a memorable take-home message. It has clear, informative slides that enhance what the speaker says. You need to practice your talk many times to ensure you deliver a polished presentation.

First, consider who will attend your presentation, and what you want the audience to learn about your research. Tailor your content to their level of knowledge and interests. Second, create an outline for your presentation, including the key points you want to make and the evidence you will use to support those points. Finally, practice your presentation several times to ensure that it flows smoothly and that you are comfortable with the material.

Prepare an opening that immediately gets the audience’s attention. A common device is a why or a how question, or a statement of a major open problem in your field, but you could also start with a quote, interesting statistic, or case study from your field.

Scientific presentations typically either focus on a single study (e.g., a 15-minute conference presentation) or tell the story of multiple studies (e.g., a PhD defense or 50-minute conference keynote talk). For a single study talk, the structure follows the scientific paper format: Introduction, Methods, Results, Summary, and Conclusion, whereas the format of a talk discussing multiple studies is more complex, but a theme unifies the studies.

Ensure you have one major idea per slide, and convey that idea clearly (through images, equations, statistics, citations, video, etc.). The slide should include a title that summarizes the major point of the slide, should not contain too much text or too many graphics, and color should be used meaningfully.

25 Useful Presentation Topics for Science

By: Author Shrot Katewa

We are mostly asked questions about Presentation Design. But, sometimes, we do have our patrons reaching out to us to seek help with the “content” that needs to be created even before we begin with the design of the presentation.

So, today we are sharing a few really easy-to-cover super useful presentation topics for Science. This is especially helpful for all those teachers and parents who are looking to increase the curiosity of aspiring students and children.

So, let’s dive right into it –

A Quick Note Before We Begin – if you want to make jaw-dropping presentations, I would recommend using one of these Presentation Designs . The best part is – it is only $16.5 a month, but you get to download and use as many presentation designs as you like! I personally use it from time-to-time, and it makes my task of making beautiful presentations really quick and easy!

1. Big Bang Theory – Origin of Our Universe

As a kid, I was always curious about how we came into existence! How the planet Earth was created? How did it all start? This is a great topic to really generate and at times, even quench the curiosity of your students or children. While it is a great topic for presentation in class, it is also an equally good topic for a dinner conversation with your kids.

2. DNA structure

Our DNA is the very core of our life. If the Big Bang Theory is how the universe came into being, DNA is where our personal journey begins. While the structure of DNA is quite fascinating, the impact it has on our lives and how it affects our characteristics is mind-boggling!

It is another great topic for a Science Presentation. Do keep in mind, use of visual aids will most likely improve comprehension and retention among your audience.

3. Gene Editing & Its Uses

In case you choose to go with the previous topic of DNA, Gene Editing serves as a perfect extension of that topic even though it can be a great topic in itself. Sharing insights on Gene Editing and how it works, can showcase the capacity of human endeavors and its resolve to make things better.

4. Important Discoveries of Science

Okay, so this can really be a fun topic. As a kid, it was always fascinating to know about some of the world’s greatest discoveries and inventions.

Be it Penicillium or the first flight by the Wright Brothers, such topics allow you to take your audience on a journey and relive the times in which these discoveries and inventions were made. The thing that I like the most about this topic is that it doesn’t have to be completed in one session.

In fact, this can be turned into a knowledge series of multiple sessions as the list of discoveries is endless.

5. Aerodynamics

Most kids and students are really fascinated with planes. But, only a few really understand the basic principles of how a plane works. Explaining Aerodynamics can be an interesting topic.

It also allows you to introduce props such as a plane and practical exercises such as creating your own plane and analyzing its aerodynamics. The introduction of visuals for such a topic can greatly enhance the learning experience.

So this is a topic that most of the kids and students would have at least heard of, most might know about it a little. But very few would really understand how gravity truly changed our concepts not just on Earth, but also beyond our Planet in our Solar System.

Gravity alone is responsible for the tectonic shift of mindset that the Earth was the center of our Solar System to the fact that the Sun is the center of our Solar System around which the rest of the planets revolve. That and much more!

Explaining the stories of Galileo who first challenged this assumption and how Newton turned everything we knew upside down (almost literally!)

7. Photosynthesis

Another interesting Science topic for a presentation.

How do non-moving organisms produce and consume food? How Photosynthesis is not just limited to trees but virtually drives all lifeforms on Earth through the transfer of energy.

Also, touching upon the fact how Photosynthesis has led to the revolutionary discovery of Solar cells and how it is potentially going to be powering our future.

8. Artificial Intelligence – Boon or Bane

When it comes to Artificial Intelligence, there is a lot that we can do to engage the curiosity of our kids and students. It is an evolving part of Science as we haven’t fully applied and utilized AI.

One of the reasons this can be a great topic is because it engages your students or kids to really think. You may consider forming 2 teams and allowing an open debate on how AI could be a boon or a bane – a great way to promote cross-learning.

9. Ocean – The Unknown World

Our Ocean is what sets our planet Earth apart from the other planets in our solar planet. It is not only one of the main factors contributing to life on earth, the Ocean holds a world of its own with hidden creatures which have only recently been explored.

There is a lot to cover when it comes to the Ocean. Don’t limit your imagination to just lifeforms as you can even talk about treasures troves contained in the ships that sank!

10. Astronomy

So I have a confession to make. Which is this – Astronomy astonished me as a kid, and it amazes me even now! There have been countless nights that I gazed at the stars in the sky in amazement trying to locate a planet, and falling stars and other man-made satellites in the sky.

This is not just an amazing topic for a presentation, but if you could get hold of a telescope for a practical session, it will make a night to remember for the kids and the students!

11. Light and its effects

This is another topic that can turn into a great practical session!

Presentations can be accompanied by a trip to the physics lab or even using equipment like a prism to take the session experience of your audience to a totally different level! Experiencing the various colors that form light is one thing, but understanding how it impacts almost every single thing in our day-to-day activities makes us admire it.

12. Atoms – Building Blocks of Matter

While there is a whole universe outside of our Planet, there is a completely different world that exists when we go granular inside any matter.

There are literally billions and billions of atoms inside just our human body. Each atom has its own world making it as diverse as you can imagine.

How these atoms interact with each other and what makes an atom can be a really engaging topic to bubble the curiosity of the students or your kids!

13. Sound & Waves

Another super interesting presentation topic for Science for kids and students is to understand how Sound works.

There are several things to cover as part of this ranging from simple waves to frequency and resonance experiments. Sound is not just a good topic for a presentation but also for experiments and physical demos.

14. Technology

Technology as a topic has a lot to cover. As we all know that technology touches each of our lives on a daily basis, students can find this topic relatable quite easily. The canvas for exploration and presentation is quite broad giving you a wide range of technology topics to present from.

15. Human Brain

Many believe that we only use 10% of the capacity of our human brain. We have to date only barely managed to understand how our brain works.

Even the parts that we have gathered an understanding about, we don’t quite fully understand. The human brain has remained a topic of astonishment for scientists for a long time. It is only logical to conclude that if presented effectively, this can be a good presentation topic on science.

16. Evolution

When Charles Darwin presented his Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection in his book “The Origin of Species”, it took the world of science by storm.

How the species have evolved over a period of millions of years is quite interesting. There were quite a few interesting learnings that Darwin had and he shared that as a summary. This is something that has been also covered in the TV series Cosmos by Neil Degrasse Tyson.

I highly recommend giving this TV series a watch to get inspiration for some topics for presentation.

17. Magnetism

The majority of the kids have handled and spent hours in awe playing with a magnet. Many try to understand how a magnet really works! But, only a few are able to really understand the science behind it.

Magnetism can be a really fun topic to give a presentation on. Additionally, this topic also allows enough space to display, experiment, and have fun with real magnet and iron filings to showcase the effect of magnetism.

18. Electricity

Electricity is pretty much everywhere.

Today, if there is no electricity, the region is considered underdeveloped or backward. The discovery and the use of electricity is probably one of the greatest inventions of the 20th century.

It has been single-handedly responsible for industrialization, powering growth, and the development of the human race.

19. Steam Engine

Steam Engine was the first step of the human race towards powered locomotives.

From the discovery of the steam engine to how it was responsible for creating a time standard and time zones along with the stories related to it, can all be very fascinating and take you back in time to relive history!

A perfect presentation topic for science students.

20. Science of Medicine

No list of presentation topics for Science would be complete without mentioning medicine and its benefits.

The discovery of medicines and drugs has been responsible for nearly doubling the average human age. The impact is far-reaching with several pros and cons that constitute an interesting topic for presentation.

21. Periodic Table

Students often find this topic very dull. However, if you can help them understand the beauty and significance of this periodic table, it can be an amazing topic.

To really understand how Mendeleev could predict the existence of various elements even before they were discovered, is mind-boggling!

The periodic table is such a perfect table that explains how the elements are arranged in a well-structured manner in nature. This topic can be turned into a very interesting topic but a bit of effort and some out-of-the-box thinking may be required.

22. Buoyancy

Okay, so we all may have heard the story of Archimedes in a bathtub and how he shouted “Eureka” when he managed to solve the problem that was tasked to him. He did this using the Buoyancy principle.

While this story is something we relate to buoyancy the most, there is a lot more than we can truly learn and apply using this principle. This can be a very helpful topic for a presentation as well as a practical science experiment.

23. Health & Nutrition

Health & Nutrition is a very important aspect of our life. Its importance is often not completely understood by kids and students alike. Presenting about Health & Nutrition can go a long way to benefit the students to maintain a very healthy life!

24. Our Solar System

Our Solar System is a topic that is mostly taught since you join the school.

However, while most of us know about our solar system, there are enough mysteries about it to capture and captivate the attention of your audience. Questions like – why is Pluto not a planet anymore?

Or other questions such as – are we alone in this universe or even topics around the Sun as a star or even the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter can all lead to great engaging presentations and discussions.

25. Stem Cell

Stem cell research has become cutting-edge medical research. Thus, it is often a hot topic for discussion but is often not completely understood.

This topic will also provide you an opportunity to engage your audience in a debate that could be centered around the ethics of stem cells and their application.

This is a perfect topic as this allows your students or kids to learn and share their opinion with others.

Science is a vast world. Even though there are several other topics that can be covered, we decided to list topics that are relatively common such that it widely applies to a large set of people. If you have shortlisted your presentation topic and are looking for help to create a visually appealing presentation that captures the attention of your audience, be sure to reach out to us!

Our goal on this blog is to create content that helps YOU create fantastic presentations; especially if you have never been a designer. We’ve started our blog with non-designers in mind, and we have got some amazing content on our site to help YOU design better.

If you have any topics in mind that you would want us to write about, be sure to drop us a comment below. In case you need us to work with you and improve the design of your presentation, write to us on [email protected] . Our team will be happy to help you with your requirements.

Lastly, your contribution can make this world a better place for presentations . All you have to do is simply share this blog in your network and help other fellow non-designers with their designs!

Home Blog Education How to Prepare Your Scientific Presentation

How to Prepare Your Scientific Presentation

Since the dawn of time, humans were eager to find explanations for the world around them. At first, our scientific method was very simplistic and somewhat naive. We observed and reflected. But with the progressive evolution of research methods and thinking paradigms, we arrived into the modern era of enlightenment and science. So what represents the modern scientific method and how can you accurately share and present your research findings to others? These are the two fundamental questions we attempt to answer in this post. 

What is the Scientific Method?

To better understand the concept, let’s start with this scientific method definition from the International Encyclopedia of Human Geography :

The scientific method is a way of conducting research, based on theory construction, the generation of testable hypotheses, their empirical testing, and the revision of theory if the hypothesis is rejected. 

Essentially, a scientific method is a cumulative term, used to describe the process any scientist uses to objectively interpret the world (and specific phenomenon) around them. 

The scientific method is the opposite of beliefs and cognitive biases — mostly irrational, often unconscious, interpretations of different occurrences that we lean on as a mental shortcut. 

The scientific method in research, on the contrary, forces the thinker to holistically assess and test our approaches to interpreting data. So that they could gain consistent and non-arbitrary results. 

The common scientific method examples are:

• Systematic observation 
• Experimentation
• Inductive and deductive reasoning
• Formation and testing of hypotheses and theories

All of the above are used by both scientists and businesses to make better sense of the data and/or phenomenon at hand. 

The Evolution of the Scientific Method 

According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy , ancient thinkers such as Plato and Aristotle are believed to be the forefathers of the scientific method. They were among the first to try to justify and refine their thought process using the scientific method experiments and deductive reasoning. 

Both developed specific systems for knowledge acquisition and processing. For example, the Platonic way of knowledge emphasized reasoning as the main method for learning but downplayed the importance of observation. The Aristotelian corpus of knowledge, on the contrary, said that we must carefully observe the natural world to discover its fundamental principles. 

In medieval times, thinkers such as Thomas Aquinas, Roger Bacon, and Andreas Vesalius among many others worked on further clarifying how we can obtain proven knowledge through observation and induction. 

The 16th–18th centuries are believed to have given the greatest advances in terms of scientific method application. We, humans, learned to better interpret the world around us from mechanical, biological, economic, political, and medical perspectives. Thinkers such as Galileo Galilei, Francis Bacon, and their followers also increasingly switched to a tradition of explaining everything through mathematics, geometry, and numbers. 

Up till today, mathematical and mechanical explanations remain the core parts of the scientific method. 

Why is the Scientific Method Important Today? 

Because our ancestors didn’t have as much data as we do. We now live in the era of paramount data accessibility and connectivity, where over 2.5 quintillions of data are produced each day. This has tremendously accelerated knowledge creation.

But, at the same time, such overwhelming exposure to data made us more prone to external influences, biases, and false beliefs. These can jeopardize the objectivity of any research you are conducting. 

Scientific findings need to remain objective, verifiable, accurate, and consistent. Diligent usage of scientific methods in modern business and science helps ensure proper data interpretation, results replication, and undisputable validity. 

6 Steps of the Scientific Method

Over the course of history, the scientific method underwent many interactions. Yet, it still carries some of the integral steps our ancestors used to analyze the world such as observation and inductive reasoning. However, the modern scientific method steps differ a bit. 

1. Make an Observation 

An observation serves as a baseline for your research. There are two important characteristics for a good research observation:

• It must be objective, not subjective. 
• It must be verifiable, meaning others can say it’s true or false with this. 

For example, This apple is red (objective/verifiable observation). This apple is delicious (subjective, harder-to-verify observation).

2. Develop a Hypothesis

Observations tell us about the present or past. But the goal of science is to glean in the future. A scientific hypothesis is based on prior knowledge and produced through reasoning as an attempt to descriptive a future event.

Here are characteristics of a good scientific hypothesis: 

• General and tentative idea
• Agrees with all available observations
• Testable and potentially falsifiable

Remember: If we state our hypothesis to indicate there is no effect, our hypothesis is a cause-and-effect relationship . A hypothesis, which asserts no effect, is called a null hypothesis. 

3. Make a Prediction 

A hypothesis is a mental “launchpad” for predicting the existence of other phenomena or quantitative results of new observations.

Going back to an earlier example here’s how to turn it into a hypothesis and a potential prediction for proving it. For example: If this apple is red, other apples of this type should be red too. 

Your goal is then to decide which variables can help you prove or disprove your hypothesis and prepare to test these. 

4. Perform an Experiment 

Collect all the information around variables that will help you prove or disprove your prediction. According to the scientific method, a hypothesis has to be discarded or modified if its predictions are clearly and repeatedly incompatible with experimental results.

Yes, you may come up with an elegant theory. However, if your hypothetical predictions cannot be backed by experimental results, you cannot use them as a valid explanation of the phenomenon. 

5. Analyze the Results of the Experiment

To come up with proof for your hypothesis, use different statistical analysis methods to interpret the meaning behind your data.

Remember to stay objective and emotionally unattached to your results. If 95 apples turned red, but 5 were yellow, does it disprove your hypothesis? Not entirely. It may mean that you didn’t account for all variables and must adapt the parameters of your experiment. 

Here are some common data analysis techniques, used as a part of a scientific method: 

• Statistical analysis
• Cause and effect analysis (see cause and effect analysis slides )
• Regression analysis
• Factor analysis
• Cluster analysis
• Time series analysis
• Diagnostic analysis
• Root cause analysis (see root cause analysis slides )

6. Draw a Conclusion 

Every experiment has two possible outcomes:

• The results correspond to the prediction
• The results disprove the prediction 

If that’s the latter, as a scientist you must discard the prediction then and most likely also rework the hypothesis based on it. 

How to Give a Scientific Presentation to Showcase Your Methods

Whether you are doing a poster session, conference talk, or follow-up presentation on a recently published journal article, most of your peers need to know how you’ve arrived at the presented conclusions.

In other words, they will probe your scientific method for gaps to ensure that your results are fair and possible to replicate. So that they could incorporate your theories in their research too. Thus your scientific presentation must be sharp, on-point, and focus clearly on your research approaches. 

Below we propose a quick framework for creating a compelling scientific presentation in PowerPoint (+ some helpful templates!). 

1. Open with a Research Question 

Here’s how to start a scientific presentation with ease: share your research question. On the first slide, briefly recap how your thought process went. Briefly state what was the underlying aim of your research: Share your main hypothesis, mention if you could prove or disprove them. 

It might be tempting to pack a lot of ideas into your first slide but don’t. Keep the opening of your presentation short to pique the audience’s initial interest and set the stage for the follow-up narrative.

2. Disclose Your Methods

Whether you are doing a science poster presentation or conference talk, many audience members would be curious to understand how you arrived at your results. Deliver this information at the beginning of your presentation to avoid any ambiguities. 

Here’s how to organize your science methods on a presentation: 

• Do not use bullet points or full sentences. Use diagrams and structured images to list the methods
• Use visuals and iconography to use metaphors where possible.
• Organize your methods by groups e.g. quantifiable and non-quantifiable

Finally, when you work on visuals for your presentation — charts, graphs, illustrations, etc. — think from the perspective of a subject novice. Does the image really convey the key information around the subject? Does it help break down complex ideas?

3. Spotlight the Results 

Obviously, the research results will be your biggest bragging right. However, don’t over-pack your presentation with a long-winded discussion of your findings and how revolutionary these may be for the community. 

Rather than writing a wall of text, do this instead:

• Use graphs with large axis values/numbers to showcase the findings in great detail
• Prioritize formats that are known to everybody (e.g. odds ratios, Kaplan Meier curves, etc.)
• Do not include more than 5 lines of plain text per slide 

Overall, when you feel that the results slide gets too cramped, it’s best to move the data to a new one. 

Also, as you work on organizing data on your scientific presentation PowerPoint template , think if there are obvious limitations and gaps. If yes, make sure you acknowledge them during your speech.

4. Mention Study Limitations 

The scientific method mandates objectivity. That’s why every researcher must clearly state what was excluded from their study. Remember: no piece of scientific research is truly universal and has certain boundaries. However, when you fail to personally state those, others might struggle to draw the line themselves and replicate your results. Then, if they fail to do so, they’d question the viability of your research.

5. Conclude with a Memorable Takeaway Message 

Every experienced speaker will tell you that the audience best retains the information they hear first and last. Most people will attend more than one scientific presentation during the day. 

So if you want the audience to better remember your talk, brainstorm a take-home message for the last slide of your presentation. Think of your last slide texts as an elevator pitch — a short, concluding message, summarizing your research.

To Conclude

Today we have no shortage of research and scientific methods for testing and proving our hypothesis. However, unlike our ancestors, most scientists experience deeper scrutiny when it comes to presenting and explaining their findings to others. That’s why it’s important to ensure that your scientific presentation clearly relays the aim, vector, and thought process behind your research.

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'Advancing Your Scientific Presentations' teaches you how to create more memorable and engaging presentations to your scientific peers. In the course, you will discover how you can develop your research story - the foundation of your presentation - using narrative tools, how to build a slide deck that supports and enhances your presentation, and how to prepare to deliver your presentation on the day.

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How to prepare a scientific presentation

Putting together a scientific presentation might be a pretty challenging undertaking. However, with careful preparation and planning, it can turn into a rewarding experience.

In this article, we’ll discuss the purpose, presentation methods, and structure of an excellent scientific ppt, as well as share essential tips on how to introduce a scientific presentation, so dive in!

What’s a scientific presentation

A scientific presentation is a formal way to share an observation, propose a hypothesis, show and explain the findings of a study, or summarize what has been discovered or is still to be studied on the subject.

Professional scientific presentations aid in disseminating research and raise peers’ awareness of novel approaches, findings, or issues. They make conferences memorable for both the audience and the presenter.

Presentation methods

The three major presentation methods that are frequently used at large conferences include platform (oral), poster, and lecture presentations. Although appearing seemingly different at times, they all have the same requirements and difficulties for successful execution, and their main prerequisite is you, the presenter.

An effective presenter should have led the research, taken part in the analysis, and written the abstract and manuscript, which means the presenter should be fully knowledgeable about the topic at hand.

Scientific presentation structure

For the majority of scientific presentations, it is advisable to follow the traditional structure:

Title → Introduction/Background → Methods → Results → Discussion → Conclusion → Acknowledgements.

1. Introduction

The main elements that make up the introduction include the background of the study, the research problem, the significance of the research, the research objectives, research questions, and/or hypotheses.

The background is the premise upon which the study’s problem is built. It usually consists of one or two sentences.

After the background usually comes the research problem, which is made up of one or two sentences with clear statements. These can be anything from conflicting findings to a knowledge gap your scientific presentation PowerPoint addresses.

The justification part should briefly outline how the findings will contribute to the problem’s solution. It can also discuss the possible implications of the study in not more than two sentences.

Next comes the purpose of the study, which has to outline your goals and relate to the study’s title.

You may wrap up the introduction by listing the objectives of your study, research questions, or hypotheses. The study’s objectives describe the specific steps that must be taken to accomplish the goal. Please note that the objective can be turned into a research question and a research question, in turn, into a hypothesis.

2. Methodology

This section of your presentation should include a relevant study area map. It is recommended that you adequately describe the research design and use diagrams like flowcharts whenever possible.

Additionally, explain the procedures for obtaining the data for each objective, research question, and hypothesis. Finally, state the statistical analysis procedures used.

3. Results and discussion

An oral presentation will always include both the results and the discussion. However, the slides will only contain the results.

You can use tables and figures together, but they shouldn’t be applied to the same data set.

The results of your scientific PowerPoint presentation have to be organized in the same order as the objectives, research questions, and hypotheses. Still, describing and discussing the obtained results should be done off-head.

During your presentation, explain the findings in the tables and figures, pointing out any patterns. Also, discuss the results by assigning reasons to patterns, comparing the results with earlier research, and offering interpretations and implications for your findings.

4. Conclusion

Your presentation’s final section should offer closing remarks on the study’s key findings, not restate the results. Discuss the findings and their implications and make recommendations for additional research briefly and concisely.

If you include in-text references in your slides, always provide external references on a separate slide.

Prepare your title slide before beginning the research’s introduction section. Your name, your institution or department, the title of the presentation, and its date should all be included on the title slide.

Last but not least, your second slide should include the scientific presentation outline.

3 things to pay attention to when creating a scientific presentation

Color is a powerful tool for setting a pattern. It can make it easier for the reader or the audience to follow you and comprehend the connection between the subjects you are presenting.

According to our design experts, you have to create a natural flow of information and emphasize information that the reader has to see first (e.g., title or main image). Secondary data has to be less prominent, not to take priority. This all can be achieved through colors. Striking colors will quickly grab the audience’s attention. Meanwhile, a grayscale will be more discreet, making it ideal for secondary information.

Pro tip: Select one or two primary colors for your presentation, then use them repeatedly on the slides.

2. Typography

Font selection is crucial for the overall success of your presentation. Therefore, make sure your text is simple to see and read even if the person is sitting a considerable distance from the screen. Separate paragraphs and headings and stick with three different fonts at most (e.g., Helvetica, Gotham).

Remember that your audience will be looking at the slides while you are speaking, so avoid putting too much text on them.

Pro tip: Use a different font for your headline but ensure it doesn’t create the “comic sans” effect.

Visual aids such as charts, graphs, and images are indispensable for effectively conveying information and grabbing the audience’s attention, but you must choose them carefully.

Make sure to move from this to this:

Pro tip: If there’s a diagram, chart, or other visual that you don’t plan to walk your audience through, cut it.

Here’s a good scientific presentation example to follow:

Now that you know how to make a scientific presentation and what to pay attention to when creating one, let’s move on to the scientific presentation tips from the best designers of our professional presentation services .

Top 10 tips on how to present a scientific paper

Tip #1: Know your audience

View the presentation as a dialogue with the audience rather than a monologue, and always consider the interests and expertise of your audience. This will help you tailor your scientific presentation to their level of knowledge and interests.

Tip #2: Make use of PowerPoint

PowerPoint is an excellent tool for presenting scientific research if appropriately used. Generally, this involves inserting a lot of relevant visuals and minimum words with a font size of 24 points and above.

Tip #3: Tell your audience about your research rather than its background

Focus on discussing the research that you are directly contributing to. The background information should only include the bare minimum. People don’t attend conferences to hear a review of previous work. They do so to learn about new and intriguing research, so use the allotted time to your advantage.

Tip #4: Practice and rehearse

Always practice your presentation of science thoroughly before giving it to anyone. By doing so, you’ll gain a better understanding of the material and make sure your presentation flows smoothly.

Tip #5: Keep to the time limit

A basic rule of thumb is to keep your presentation to 80% of the allotted time. If you are given 55 minutes to deliver your presentation, prepare 45 minutes worth of information: 15 minutes for introduction, 25 for the main aspects of your presentation, 5 to summarize and conclude, and leave the last ten for a Q&A session.

A well-done abstract, a set of carefully chosen viewgraphs, a brief “cheat sheet,” and an outline (perhaps placed in the corner of each viewgraph) should all help you stay on track throughout your presentation.

Tip #6: Don’t read from the slides

Reading from slides is commonplace in various fields, but do you really find it interesting to hear someone read their conference presentation? If reading is an absolute must, then our experts advise you to do it in such a way that no one in the audience notices it. Writing your text in a conversational tone and reading with emotion, conviction, and variations in tone is a great trick to achieve that.

Tip #7: Summarize the key points

Reiterate your main message and briefly touch on your main points in your conclusion. By doing so, you can ensure that your audience will remember the most crucial details of your presentation.

Tip #8: Use effective communication techniques

When delivering your presentation, use appropriate body language and effective communication techniques. These include maintaining eye contact with the audience, speaking clearly and at a reasonable volume, and conveying enthusiasm about your work. Remember, genuine enthusiasm accounts for 90% of a speaker’s success.

Tip #9: Engage the audience

Always ask questions and use polls or other interactive tools to interact with your audience and encourage discussion.

Tip #10: Dress for success

When preparing to give a scientific presentation, dress up professionally. This will help convey two crucial messages: you respect your audience and are willing to conform.

Wrapping up

Following the above science presentation structure and tips, you can create clear, informative, and engaging slides that effectively communicate your message to the audience. However, if you’re still wondering how to start a scientific presentation or need a PowerPoint makeover , don’t hesitate to contact our dedicated design experts!

At SlidePeak, we know that building a visually captivating presentation may be a real challenge for researchers and scientists. That’s why we’ve developed several services, including presentation redesign and creation from scratch by qualified scientific, technical, and medical designers who can make your work stand out both in science and creativity.

With over a decade of experience in presentation design, SlidePeak is trusted by thousands of researchers and scientists worldwide. So, submit your scientific presentation order today, and let dedicated experts turn your ideas into professional slides that will help you make an impact!

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Creating a 10-15 Minute Scientific Presentation

In the course of your career as a scientist, you will be asked to give brief presentations -- to colleagues, lab groups, and in other venues. We have put together a series of short videos to help you organize and deliver a crisp 10-15 minute scientific presentation.

First is a two part set of videos that walks you through organizing a presentation.

Part 1 - Creating an Introduction for a 10-15 Minute Scientfic Presentation

Part 2 - Creating the Body of a 10-15 Minute Presentation: Design/Methods; Data Results, Conclusions

Two additional videos should prove useful:

Designing PowerPoint Slides for a Scientific Presentation walks you through the key principles in designing powerful, easy to read slides.

Delivering a Presentation provides tips and approaches to help you put your best foot forward when you stand up in front of a group.

Other resources include:

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Scientific Presentation Guide: How to Create an Engaging Research Talk

Creating an effective scientific presentation requires developing clear talking points and slide designs that highlight your most important research results..

Scientific presentations are detailed talks that showcase a research project or analysis results. This comprehensive guide reviews everything you need to know to give an engaging presentation for scientific conferences, lab meetings, and PhD thesis talks. From creating your presentation outline to designing effective slides, the tips in this article will give you the tools you need to impress your scientific peers and superiors.

Step 1. Create a Presentation Outline

The first step to giving a good scientific talk is to create a presentation outline that engages the audience at the start of the talk, highlights only 3-5 main points of your research, and then ends with a clear take-home message. Creating an outline ensures that the overall talk storyline is clear and will save you time when you start to design your slides.

Engage Your Audience

The first part of your presentation outline should contain slide ideas that will gain your audience's attention. Below are a few recommendations for slides that engage your audience at the start of the talk:

• Create a slide that makes connects your data or presentation information to a shared purpose, such as relevance to solving a medical problem or fundamental question in your field of research
• Create slides that ask and invite questions
• Use humor or entertainment

Identify Clear Main Points

After writing down your engagement ideas, the next step is to list the main points that will become the outline slide for your presentation. A great way to accomplish this is to set a timer for five minutes and write down all of the main points and results or your research that you want to discuss in the talk. When the time is up, review the points and select no more than three to five main points that create your talk outline. Limiting the amount of information you share goes a long way in maintaining audience engagement and understanding. 

Create a Take-Home Message

And finally, you should brainstorm a single take-home message that makes the most important main point stand out. This is the one idea that you want people to remember or to take action on after your talk. This can be your core research discovery or the next steps that will move the project forward.

Step 2. Choose a Professional Slide Theme

After you have a good presentation outline, the next step is to choose your slide colors and create a theme. Good slide themes use between two to four main colors that are accessible to people with color vision deficiencies. Read this article to learn more about choosing the best scientific color palettes .

You can also choose templates that already have an accessible color scheme. However, be aware that many PowerPoint templates that are available online are too cheesy for a scientific audience. Below options to download professional scientific slide templates that are designed specifically for academic conferences, research talks, and graduate thesis defenses.

Step 3. Design Your Slides

Designing good slides is essential to maintaining audience interest during your scientific talk. Follow these four best practices for designing your slides:

• Keep it simple: limit the amount of information you show on each slide
• Use images and illustrations that clearly show the main points with very little text. 
• Read this article to see research slide example designs for inspiration
• When you are using text, try to reduce the scientific jargon that is unnecessary. Text on research talk slides needs to be much more simple than the text used in scientific publications (see example below).
• Use appear/disappear animations to break up the details into smaller digestible bites
• Sign up for the free presentation design course to learn PowerPoint animation tricks

Scientific Presentation Design Summary

All of the examples and tips described in this article will help you create impressive scientific presentations. Below is the summary of how to give an engaging talk that will earn respect from your scientific community. 

Step 1. Draft Presentation Outline. Create a presentation outline that clearly highlights the main point of your research. Make sure to start your talk outline with ideas to engage your audience and end your talk with a clear take-home message.

Step 2. Choose Slide Theme. Use a slide template or theme that looks professional, best represents your data, and matches your audience's expectations. Do not use slides that are too plain or too cheesy.

Step 3. Design Engaging Slides. Effective presentation slide designs use clear data visualizations and limits the amount of information that is added to each slide. 

And a final tip is to practice your presentation so that you can refine your talking points. This way you will also know how long it will take you to cover the most essential information on your slides. Thank you for choosing Simplified Science Publishing as your science communication resource and good luck with your presentations!

Interested in free design templates and training?

Explore scientific illustration templates and courses by creating a Simplified Science Publishing Log In. Whether you are new to data visualization design or have some experience, these resources will improve your ability to use both basic and advanced design tools.

Interested in reading more articles on scientific design? Learn more below:

Data Storytelling Techniques: How to Tell a Great Data Story in 4 Steps

Best Science PowerPoint Templates and Slide Design Examples

Free Research Poster Templates and Tutorials

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• 01 December 2021

How to tell a compelling story in scientific presentations

• Bruce Kirchoff 0

Bruce Kirchoff is a botanist and storyteller at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in North Carolina, USA. His new book is Presenting Science Concisely .

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

You have full access to this article via your institution.

Structuring your presentations with care can help you to clearly communicate to your audience. Credit: Getty

Scientific presentations are too often boring and ineffective. Their focus on techniques and data do not make it easy for the audience to understand the main point of the research.

If you want to reach beyond the narrow group of scientists who work in your specific area, you need to tell your audience members why they should be interested. Three things can help you to be engaging and convey the importance of your research to a wide audience. I had been teaching scientific communication for several years when I was approached to write a book about improving scientific presentations 1 . These are my three most important tips.

State your main finding in your title

The best titles get straight to the point. They tell the audience what you found, and they let them know what your talk will be about. Throughout this article, I will use titles from Nature papers published in the past two years as examples that will stand in for presentation titles. This is because Nature articles have a similar goal of attempting to make discipline-specific research available to a broader audience of scientists. Take, for example: ‘Supply chain diversity buffers cities against food shocks’ 2 .

A great title tells the reader exactly what’s new and precisely conveys the main result, as this one demonstrates. A more conventional title would have been ‘Effect of supply chain diversity on food shocks’, which omits the direction of the effect — so mainly scientists who are interested in your research area will be attracted to the talk. Others will wonder whether the talk will be a waste of time: maybe there was no effect at all.

Collection: Careers toolkit

Another example of a good title is: ‘Organic management promotes natural pest control through altered plant resistance to insects’ 3 .

This title ensures that the audience members know that the talk will be about the beneficial effects of organic crop management before they hear it. They also know that organic management increases plant resistance to insects. This title is much better than one such as: ‘Effects of organic pest management on plant insect resistance’. This title tells the audience the general area of the talk but does not give them the main result.

Finally, look at: ‘A highly magnetized and rapidly rotating white dwarf as small as the Moon’ 4 .

Good titles can just as easily be written for descriptive work as for experimental results. All you need to do is tell your audience what you found. Be as specific as possible. Compare this title with a more conventional one for the same work: ‘Use of the Zwicky Transient Facility to search for short period objects below the main white dwarf cooling sequence’. This title might be of interest to astronomers interested in using this facility, but is unlikely to attract anyone beyond them.

‘But’ is good — use it for dramatic effect

The contradiction implied by the word ‘but’ is one of the most powerful tools a scientist can use 5 . Contradictions introduce problems and provide dramatic effect, tension and a reason to keep listening.

Without such contradictions, the talk will consist of a bunch of results strung together in a seemingly endless and mind-numbing list. We can think of this list as a series of ‘and’ statements: “We did this and this and ran this experiment and found this result and . . . and . . . and.”

Contrast this with a structure that begins with a few important facts, tethered by ands, and then introduces the problem to be solved. Finally, ‘therefore’ can introduce results or subsequent actions. That structure would look like this: ‘X is the current state of knowledge, and we know Y. But Z problem remains. Therefore, we carried out ABC research.’ The introduction of even one contradiction wakes up people in the audience and helps them to focus on the results.

Collection: Conferences

A paper published earlier this year on SARS-CoV-2 and host protein synthesis provides an excellent example of the narrative form using ‘and’, ‘but’ and ‘therefore’ 6 . In the example below, I have shortened the abstract and simplified the transitions, but maintained the authors’ original structure 6 . Although they did not use ‘but’ or ‘therefore’ in their abstract, the existence of these terms is clearly implied. I have made them explicit in the following rendition.

“Coronaviruses have developed a variety of mechanisms to repress host messenger RNA translation and to allow the translation of viral mRNA and block the cellular immune response. But a comprehensive picture of the effects of SARS-CoV-2 infection on cellular gene expression is lacking. Therefore, we combine RNA sequencing, ribosome profiling and metabolic labelling of newly synthesized RNA to comprehensively define the mechanisms that are used by SARS-CoV-2 to shut off cellular protein synthesis.”

In this example, background information is given in the first sentence, linked by a series of conjunctions. Then the problem is introduced — this is the contradiction that comes with ‘but’. The solution to this problem is given in the next sentence (and introduced by using ‘therefore’). This structure makes the text interesting. It will do the same for your presentations.

Use repeated problems and solutions to create a story

Use the power of contradiction to maintain audience engagement throughout your talk. You can string together a series of problems and solutions (buts and therefores) to create a story that leads to your main result. The result highlighted in your title will help you to focus your talk so that the solutions you present lead to this overarching result.

Here is the general pattern:

1. Present the first part of your results.

2. Introduce a problem that remains.

3. Provide a solution to this problem by presenting more results.

4. Introduce the next problem.

5. Present the results that address this problem.

6. Continue this ‘problem and solution’ process through your presentation.

7. End by restating your main finding and summarize how it arises from your intermediate results.

The SARS-CoV-2 abstract 6 uses this pattern of repeated problems (buts) and solutions (therefores). I have modified the wording to clarify these sections.

1. Result 1: SARS-CoV-2 infection leads to a global reduction in translation, but we found that viral transcripts are not preferentially translated.

2. Problem 1: How then does viral mRNA comes to dominate the mRNA pool?

3. Solution 1: Accelerated degradation of cytosolic cellular mRNAs facilitates viral takeover of the mRNA pool in infected cells.

4. Problem 2: How is the translation of induced transcripts affected by SARS-CoV-2 infection?

5. Solution 2: The translation of induced transcripts (including innate immune genes) is impaired.

6. Problem 3: How is translation impaired? What is the mechanism?

7. Solution 3: Impairment is probably mediated by inhibiting the export of nuclear mRNA from the nucleus, which prevents newly transcribed cellular mRNA from accessing ribosomes.

8. Final summary: Our results demonstrate a multipronged strategy used by SARS-CoV-2 to take over the translation machinery and suppress host defences.

Using these three basic tips, you can create engaging presentations that will hold the attention of your audience and help them to remember you. For young scientists, especially, that is the most important thing the audience can take away from your talk.

Nature 600 , S88-S89 (2021)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-03603-2

This article is part of Nature Events Guide , an editorially independent supplement. Advertisers have no influence over the content.

This is an article from the Nature Careers Community, a place for Nature readers to share their professional experiences and advice. Guest posts are encouraged .

Kirchoff, B. Presenting Science Concisely (CABI, 2021).

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Gomez, M., Mejia, A., Ruddell, B. L. & Rushforth, R. R. Nature 595 , 250–254 (2021).

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Blundell, R. et al. Nature Plants 6 , 483–491 (2020).

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Download references

Competing Interests

B.K. receives royalties for his book, which this article is based on.

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How to Present a Science Project

Last Updated: August 17, 2023 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Meredith Juncker, PhD . Meredith Juncker is a PhD candidate in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center. Her studies are focused on proteins and neurodegenerative diseases. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 53,296 times.

After creating a science project , you’ll likely have to present your work to your class or at a science fair. Try to give yourself a few weeks to plan and put together your presentation. Outline your main points, make note cards, and practice ahead of time. Make a clear, neat display board or PowerPoint presentation. When it comes time to present, relax, speak clearly and loudly, and avoid reading your presentation word for word.

Putting Together Your Presentation

• Finish up your experiment, research, and other aspects of your project.
• Get the materials you’ll need for your display board.
• Start to imagine how you’ll organize your information.

• An introduction to your topic or the problem you’ve addressed.
• How the problem impacts the real world (such as how a better understanding of the issue can impact humans).
• Your hypothesis, or what you expected to learn about through your experiment.
• The research you did to learn more about your topic.
• The Materials that you used in your project.
• Each step of your experiment’s procedure.
• The results of your experiment.
• Your conclusion, including what you learned and whether your data supports your hypothesis.

• When writing your speech, try to keep it simple, and avoid using phrases that are more complicated than necessary. Try to tailor the presentation to your audience: will you be presenting to your class, judges, a higher grade than yours, or to an honors class?
• Writing out your presentation can also help you manage your time. For example, if you’re supposed to talk for less than five minutes, shoot for less than two pages.

• For example, if you've made a volcano, make sure you know the exact mix of chemicals that will create the eruption.

Creating Your Display Board

• When you purchase your board, you should also acquire other materials, like a glue stick, construction paper, a pencil, markers, and a ruler.

• Consider using the top left corner for your topic introduction, the section under that for your hypothesis, and the bottom left section to discuss your research.
• Use the top right corner to outline your experiment’s procedure. List your results underneath, and finally, put the section with your conclusion under the results.

• Be sure to use a dark font color that’s easy to see from a distance.
• You can also write everything out by hand. Draft your lettering in pencil before using a pen or marker, and use a ruler to make sure everything is straight.

• Before gluing anything, make sure you plan out each section’s position and are sure everything will fit without looking cluttered. Use rulers to make sure everything is positioned evenly.

• Consider including 1 slide for each section, like 1 for the title of your project, 1 for your hypothesis, and 1 that outlines each main point of your research. If a slide becomes too dense, break it down by concept.
• Limit the text to 1 line and include a visual aid, like an image or a graph, that demonstrates the concept or explains the data. [6] X Research source

Giving a Great Presentation

• Take the time to iron your clothes and tuck your shirt in to avoid looking sloppy.

• It’s a good idea to use the restroom before you have to present your project.

• It can be really hard to resist, but try to avoid saying “um” or “uh” during your presentation.
• Speaking when you have a dry mouth can be difficult, so it’s a good idea to keep a water bottle handy.

• Remember it’s better to be honest if you don't know how to answer a question instead of making something up. Ask the person who asked the question to repeat or rephrase it, or say something like, "That's certainly an area I can explore in more detail in the future."

Community Q&A

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• ↑ https://www.opencolleges.edu.au/informed/teacher-resources/science-fair-projects/#sciencefairpresentation
• ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KVTLT6QeTE
• ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHXidlH-dBw
• ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3hT6Ocf39w
• ↑ https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/science-fair/judging-tips-to-prepare-science-fair

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Scientific research points to a best practice for creating presentations. But, interestingly, the research also shows that most presentations go against these research findings!

We have come to expect a low level of engagement from PowerPoint presentations: they are usually slow, tedious, confusing, and, ultimately, deal-breaking. It seems okay to deliver something average, because the person before you just delivered something average…

Indeed, few people give honest or helpful feedback to presenters, so we tend to just grin and bear it. Yet we often dread having to sit through presentations, and the phrase “Death by PowerPoint” exists for good reason.

But times are changing. Awareness of presentation design agencies is increasing, and alternative software is emerging: both factors are now influencing how presentations look and behave.

Indeed the standard of PowerPoint is also changing, with Microsoft adding features regularly to the 365 version, yet few people can use it really well. No matter what your ability is with the software, you can still do a lot of simple things to transform your presentations!

In this article, we want to focus on how scientific presentation guidance can help you to build a better presentation:

• 3 rules of brain science
• 3 steps to a great presentation structure

Get both of these areas right, and your audience will have a much better experience. And so will you!

3 Brain Rules:

These are essential when it comes to presentations:

Brain rule #1: Respect the limits of working memory

The human brain learns by transferring information from its working memory into its long-term memory.

Since the aim of every presentation is to be remembered (at least it should be!), we need to make the most of what working memory can and can’t do. The main hurdle is that working memory has a limited capacity: it can only hold a certain amount of new information at any one time. So this means you can’t just present everything, in any old way, and expect your audience to get it.

There are a number of methods you can employ that will assist in the transfer of your information from working memory to long-term memory. One of them being the use of templates for scientific presentation that already have a definitive structure which will not allow you to overload your audience with text. Visually appealing PowerPoint templates are a great way to organize your presentation and make it more clear and engaging for the audience.

Scientific methods to help your slides be easier to recall:

Coherence principle – be clutter free!

Learning improves when multimedia is free from extraneous information. This may sound obvious, but make sure you remove all objects, pictures, animation, logos, gloss and shine that do not contribute to your message. This applies to everything, including charts – check out Edward Tufte’s “ChartJunk” . One simple bit of advice to follow is to not show both data labels and an axis: by keeping only one, you can visually clean up the number of lines, text and objects within the chart. Cleaner looking charts are faster to understand, and they look and feel better too.

Spatial Contiguity – use space judiciously!

Learning improves when words are placed near relevant pictures.

For example, a pie chart with a legend takes longer for the brain to understand than a pie with labels on top of the slices (or close by).

You may find that legends look “tidier”, but your audience’s brains will find them tougher to digest. It’s just a little thing, but these little things really add up!

Redundancy principle

This proves that learning reduces when information is redundant – such as reading verbatim from your slides.

Your audience doesn’t need to both read and listen to information – we look at this in more depth in the next brain rule. Other redundancies could be visual items like a logo. It takes up screen space and is ultimately ignored by the viewers - so you may need to question whether you need it at all? And if it’s not being ignored, well, that’s even worse as it’s distracting your audience! Either way, (apart from keeping marketing/compliance happy) you probably don’t need it on every slide.

Brain rule #2: Address the visual & verbal channels

Humans use separate brain channels to process visual input and verbal input. So, let’s relate this fact to presentations:

A typical presentation is ineffective because the majority (if not all) of its content is Text with Narration . So during a presentation, the audience is overloaded by two sources of information hitting just one channel: the verbal channel.

Note: it’s often assumed that text is processed by the visual channel, since we read with our eyes, but in fact it’s internally processed by the ears as we listen to ourselves read.

Therefore both text and narration go via the verbal channel, overloading that one channel and creating a split attention effect.  Your audience will attempt to listen and read at the same time. It’s just not possible to do both simultaneously (even if people think they can!) and attention will be lost.

The human brain is at its most effective when it processes information simultaneously via both the visual and verbal channels. Therefore there’s one sure-fire way to make your presentation better, and that is to address both channels in a complementary way!

Simply put , use images and narration.

However, be careful, as using the wrong image can do more harm than good! It is way too easy to adopt the “yeah yeah, I know, add images” mantra. Many people think adding images is the answer to creating great presentations: but it’s very common for presentations to contain narration, text and poorly targeted images. This renders slides equally ineffective at communicating with your audience.

Poorly targeted images do more harm than no images – they provide conflicting visual and verbal information. What’s more, visuals that are decorative are highly likely to prompt the brain to wander…

…for example, since we can’t control what each individual will start day dreaming about, use photographic imagery with great care. Photos may look amazing in slides, but your audience will often remember the photos, and their feelings/thoughts associated with them, rather than your message!

To sum up, it’s been shown that people have 6x better recall when both verbal and visual channels are used in perfect harmony! This is called ' Dual Coding Theory '.

Brain rule #3: Guide your audience’s attention

Whilst it’s important to get audience attention as early as possible, you’ll also need to hold it. And that’s the hard part.

Remember that your audience will usually be thinking of 101 different things when they sit down for your presentation (and expecting another ‘Death by PowerPoint’ experience!)

So as your presentation progresses, and you reach the nitty-gritty slides, there are a number of important measures you can employ to assist the mind to process the information on your slides.

You can make things much easier on your audience’s working memory by presenting new information in a way that follows a familiar pattern . Familiar devices would be things like a graphical pattern, a recognised order, a recognisable structure or concept. By tapping into your audience’s prior knowledge, their working memory is much more likely to be able to process and transfer your new information into long-term memory.

Signalling principle is another useful and technique – it shows that learning improves when attention is focused on important parts of the presentation.

This could be through the simple use of arrows or icons to direct attention to the important area of the slide. Or it could be the use of a particular colour for your key points, whether for shading or for text. Headlines themselves are a good signal and will help your audience to understand a complex slide by telling them what they need to know first. Remember to use them sparingly: you don’t want to overload either!

Graphics & visuals are great when you need to simplify a complex idea, something abstract or a highly detailed system or process. 

An illustration may be easier for the mind to understand than a lengthy text explanation, but some graphics may still be difficult to understand immediately.

In such cases where the visual is not perfectly intuitive, you can use a technique we mentioned earlier: the Spatial Contiguity principle. By adding text to the relevant parts of the visual it describes, you can effectively guide attention and assist learning. You can also use animation to introduce parts of the diagram bit by bit.

Animation: Whilst it is proven that animation commands attention, we do not want the movement to distract from the key messages in the narration or on the slide.

For this reason, we recommend using animation only where necessary: i.e. to control the flow of information (e.g. content to appear in sync with narration). 

Of course if you’re creating a video-type presentation, using motion animation, then the timing needs to be fast and dynamic – waiting for a drawn-out animation to finish is a very bad thing indeed.

Simply put , your animation must serve a strict purpose.

Now you know some of the science, follow these 3 steps to help you reach your presentation goal.

If you can engage, connect, and make your audience want to act, then you know you’ve given a good presentation.

Step 1: Choose story thread

The first few slides of your presentation are key. Generally, you will have your audience’s attention at the very start – but it won’t last long if you don’t show them relevance! Your job is to keep their attention.

You do this by ensuring your initial slides make them want to focus on the rest of your story. Your opening needs to set the scene, establish your story and show your audience that your presentation is relevant to them. By getting your audience interested, they are more likely to participate in your story.

We typically use 4 slides to set the scene. With ‘Call to action’ (4) being the most important of your presentation. It’s your purpose slide, and is the reason you’re presenting.

It may feel strange to state your purpose so early on, but it’s a highly effective technique. Your audience wants to know your purpose and their purpose – so tell them.

We credit Cliff Atkinson from Beyond Bullet Points for this highly effective structure

Addressing the audience’s needs will help you connect with their emotions, persuade them they want to participate in your story, and focus them on the path forward.

Step 2: Plan priority & sequence

Your next step is to validate and expand on the opening slides. This is the meat of your presentation – and with a lot of information to pass on, this is where it can get messy!

If you present your audience with an unstructured, unprioritised series of slides, the limited capacity of their working memory will be overwhelmed and they won’t take much in.

Plan your key messages

So plan a hierarchy of ideas, and then work out which are your priority messages. This helps to guide your audience to exactly where they should focus their working memory.

You need to employ a system which will help you clarify your content by prioritising your slides strategically.

2-4 key messages is typical, and 3 is common: you don’t want much more than that. Each key message should tie in closely with your call to action. If your key message doesn’t back up your purpose, then it’s unlikely to be the right message for your audience.

Carefully plan the words you’ll use and the angle of the key message. Keep your audience at the heart of your messages: they should benefit from everything you tell them.

We recommend using a ‘tree diagram’ to map the priority of your points.

• Level 1: each of your key messages is Level 1.
• Level 2: at the next level, you have slides that support your Level 1 key messages with evidence, explanation or detail.
• Level 3: these slides in turn support each Level 2 slide if necessary.

Any information that doesn’t fit into this system of supporting your key messages probably shouldn’t be in your presentation. Get rid of it!

In slide sorter view, your presentation will start to look like this:

Step 3: Write your headlines

Once you’re happy with Steps 1 and 2, you can then start going into the detail. Each slide should integrate seamlessly into your story by using the right headline, narration and carefully designed graphics.

If even one aspect goes out of sync, you risk losing your audience’s attention as their brain tries to figure out exactly what’s going on!

The way you should write your headlines is quite different to the way they’re often written. You’ll recognise ineffective headlines like ‘Who we are’ or ‘Financial report’. This kind of headline doesn’t help. A headline should tell your audience something. It’s a waste of time and space to use your headline to simply sum up the subject area you’re about to cover in your slide. This won’t focus your audience at all. You need to make the most of your headlines.

Your headline should cover the key message of the slide , so make sure your most important point is in there. Not only will you prepare your audience for what’s to come but, if they switch off and miss what you’re saying, at least they’ll take the key point from your headline!

If you want scientific proof of the value of well written headings, click to read more: How the Design of Presentation Slides Affects Audience Retention.

When you compile your slides you need to:

• Write your headlines first They should be concise and written in complete sentences, with subject and verb in active voice. They should be clear, direct, specific and conversational. They should also be relevant and link your ideas across slides, so the story flows.
• Then plan your narration Keep your narration in the notes area and not on the slides! Also keep your slides free from unnecessary text, and make sure your narration is relevant to each headline.
• Then add graphics that match your headlines & narration The visuals are the trickiest to get right. Most presentations use ‘decorative’ visuals that might look great, but don’t add substance. Such visuals are distracting and will draw focus away from the point you’re trying to make.

Visuals should match your goal, whether your presentation is to inform or motivate, or to sell or persuade - each of these goals will dictate which type of graphic will work best on your slides. You also need to take into account the visual literacy of your audience - measuring both their applicable prior knowledge as well as their individual visual ability.

Look at your slides in slide sorter view. Read the headlines across the top and see if your story flows from one slide to another. If it doesn’t, rewrite your headlines!

Further Presentation Tips:

Passion & purpose:.

Believe in yourself and your subject matter. Give yourself a goal and be passionate about it. This is incredibly important. If you’re not passionate, then it’s much harder for the audience to believe you.

Remember the audience is on your side: they don’t want you to fail, so take support from them and deliver the message you have planned with confidence.

Try not to sit or stand still with your head down just reading from notes. Move around, gesticulate, use facial expressions and other body language to help the communication process.

Perfection:

Mistakes are human, understandable and no big deal. It’s how you recover from mistakes that shows your professionalism.

Your audience won’t even notice some mistakes (e.g. content order) so don’t worry, don’t mention it and simply move on. They may notice other mistakes (e.g. information error) so do mention it, apologise, and move on. Feeling less stressed about perfection makes mistakes less likely to occur.

Know your audience. Show them as early as you can that you understand who they are, and what challenges they face. Look at trends, competition, and key issues. Make sure your presentation is targeted to them. If you have a new audience for your next presentation – retarget that presentation too.

That’s it!

We hope that you’ll feel better equipped to not only create scientifically improved presentations, but also to understand why it’s so important to adhere to presentation science.

About the Author

Philippa Leguen de Lacroix is the co-founder and director of UK presentation design company Presented. Presented specialise in improving presentation design with science. Presentations are then more memorable, and create a far more enjoyable experience for the audience.

Continue to: Top Tips for Effective Presentations

See also: Presentation Method Mastering Soft Skills to Deliver Impactful Presentations How Can AI Help in Creating Winning Presentations?

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FAQs About Science & Technology Presentation Templates

What exactly are science & technology presentation templates.

Science & Technology Presentation Templates are professional, pre-designed slides that you can utilize when presenting topics related to science and technology. These templates can include fields such as data analysis, biotechnology, computer science, mechanical engineering, or technological innovation and development. They tend to include thematic graphics, patterns, charts, and diagrams.

The key advantage of using these templates is that they can significantly save your time while ensuring an aesthetically pleasing, engaging, and efficient presentation. With the help of these templates, you can make complex scientific and technical concepts easier to understand and more appealing to your audience.

Where Can These Presentation Templates Be Used?

Science & Technology Presentation Templates are prolifically used across different spheres where scientific and technical data is presented. This can include academic institutions, scientific research centers, tech-startup companies, corporate meetings, webinars, and conferences. These can be especially handy for educators, students, researchers, and professionals in the science and technology sector.

They can be used for project presentations, thesis defense, company pitches, explaining research results, presenting new technologies or data analysis, or other business presentations in the tech sector. Besides, such ready-to-use templates can also prove beneficial for informational, educational, or promotional content related to science and technology on various digital platforms.

How Can One Edit These Templates?

These Science & Technology Presentation Templates are usually highly customizable and user-friendly. You can easily edit them according to your needs using common presentation software like Microsoft PowerPoint, Google Slides, or Apple Keynote. Text, images, and data can be added or altered directly within the slide. Font styles, sizes, colors, and slide backgrounds can also be modified with ease.

Apart from this, elements like graphics, icons, charts, tables, or diagrams are generally adjustable too. Thus, providing you with ample flexibility and creative freedom to tailor the presentation as per the necessity of your content, maintaining the integrity and coherence of the science & technology theme.

What Makes A Good Science & Technology Presentation Template?

A good Science & Technology Presentation Template should be clear, concise, and engaging. It must facilitate a convenient way to present complex scientific and technical data in an easily understandable form. High-quality graphics, suitable color schemes, use of appropriate charts, diagrams, and a clean, logical layout are attributes of an effective template.

Besides, the design of the template should resonate with the theme of science and technology. The template should also be highly customizable to allow for the easy incorporation of specific details, modification of design elements, and the option to create a compelling narrative that could hold your audience's attention.

Are These Templates Compatible With All Systems and Devices?

Most of the Science & Technology Presentation Templates are developed to be compatible with widely-used presentation software like Microsoft PowerPoint, Google Slides, and Apple Keynote. So, whether you're working on a PC, Mac, or even on a mobile device, it's usually very straightforward to use the templates.

However, some intricate templates might have certain features or animations that can only be fully utilized with specific software. It's always a smart move to check the details provided by the template distributor about the compatibility and requirements before making a selection. In general, though, using these templates shouldn't pose much of a challenge in terms of software or hardware compatibility.

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Free Science Templates for PowerPoint and Google Slides

Make your presentations and lessons stand out with these free templates for Science .  

Download them to use with PowerPoint or edit them in Google Slides and start creating!

Geometrical shapes and volume formulas free PowerPoint Template and Google Slides Theme Ready to dive into geometry and volume? This template is perfect for this type of Math. Paper like backgrounds, highlighters, pen, ruler and a compass are featured in this free theme, along with some geometric shapes and their […]

Geometrical Shapes and Volume, free school template.

Modern with neon accents Free PowerPoint Template and Google Slides Theme Jackson is a modern template with neon color accents and can be used for presentations abut technology – a new product launch, software development, or any other tech-related topic -, for a presentation about a new modern art exhibit, […]

Jackson Modern Neon free slideshow template.

World Oceans Day Free PowerPoint Template and Google Slides Theme Celebrate World Oceans Day with this free PowerPoint template and Google Slides theme! This template features a beautiful blue color scheme and ocean-themed images, making it the perfect way to create presentations about the importance of our oceans. The template […]

World Oceans Day free PowerPoint template.

Free Earth Day animated template for Google Slides and PowerPoint. You can use this PowerPoint template and Google Slides theme to raise awareness of environmental issues. It features beautiful visuals and resources of planet Earth, which you can customize freely to make the presentation your own. Earth Day is an […]

Earth Day free ppt and Google Slides template.

Free interactive choice board and mini theme + morning meeting / daily agenda slide for Google Slides and PowerPoint. This free interactive choice board and mini theme with morning meeting / daily agenda slide is perfect for the little ones. Let’s learn about the importance of bees with this black […]

Bees are awesome. Interactive choice board and mini theme.

Free education templates for Google Slides and PowerPoint. 17 different layouts. Utilize them in PowerPoint or Google Slides. Or customize them, save them as JPEG and use them in Google Jamboard or Microsoft Whiteboard. – Or print them out! – This bundle includes: – Frayer model– Weekly planner– Station rotation– […]

School Bundle 06. Templates for education.

Free PowerPoint template and Google Slides theme. Microscope template with interactive slides. If you are teaching about cells, bacteria or anything microscopic, this template might work! I’ve included a couple of slides with activities for elementary students: drag the names of the parts of a flower or a plant to […]

Biology free presentation template.

Free PowerPoint template and Google Slides theme. Cardiovascular research and risk factors thesis presentation template. A free medical template to present about the circulatory system, medication treatments, coronary or cardiovascular diseases or to talk about the importance of donating blood. It’s also a great template for pharmaceutical presentations. DOWNLOAD POWERPOINT […]

Free medical slides theme.

Free PowerPoint template and Google Slides theme. Weather template with animated icons. Sometimes I receive some special requests that immediately light a sparkle in my head. This template was one of those! And it was really fun to make! If you are teaching about meteorology, well, this is perfect! Even […]

Animated weather forecast slides backgrounds.

Free PowerPoint template and Google Slides theme. Unbox your lesson with this template! It comes with an agenda slide. Are you ready to unbox your ideas? This template is perfect to get them out of your head and share them with your colleagues or classmates! And not only you can […]

Unbox your ideas presentation template.

Free PowerPoint template and Google Slides theme. Under the sea slides backgrounds. A while back someone asked me for an “under the sea” template, and little by little I’m trying to catch up. Stingrays, whales and fishes along with some algae and corals set the scene for this template. I […]

Sebastian, ocean slides theme.

Free PowerPoint template and Google Slides theme. Jungle theme for presentations. I received a lot of requests for a jungle theme, so here it’s Bravestone. It has lots of green, leaves, a swamp, monkeys, hippos, and snakes. Also, an old piece of paper (I stained a sheet of paper with […]

Bravestone, jungle backgrounds presentation template.

Free Fun Template for PowerPoint or Google Slides Presentations Koch Koch is a fun template to motivate, achieving goals, conquering worlds, setting records and going beyond. Also works for presentations or school lessons about space, planets, astronauts, NASA missions, a spaceship launch, Apollos’ missions or the moon landing. A free pptx […]

Koch Free Template for Google Slides or PowerPoint Presentations

Free Template for PowerPoint or Google Slides Presentations Carlina Carlina is specially made for presentations about clean energy, environmental stewardship, renewable energies, recycling, ecology, nature or sustainable economy. Go green with this free presentation template for Google Slides or PowerPoint. – Thank you Carlina for letting me name it after […]

Carlina Free Environmental Template for Google Slides or PowerPoint.

Free Template for PowerPoint and Google Slides Presentations Starman Starman is a fun theme featuring astronauts in space. Perfect for presentations about galaxies, NASA missions, the universe or if your next lecture is out of this world! DOWNLOAD POWERPOINT OPEN IN GOOGLE SLIDES

Starman Free Space template for Google Slides or PowerPoint

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Scientific Thinking

Scientific thinking presentation, free google slides theme and powerpoint template.

Delving into the realm of scientific thinking has never been as visually captivating as it is now! Thanks to this Google Slides and PowerPoint template, zooming into the world of science has never been easier and more exciting. This sensation is heightened by the themed stickers of scientific equipment like microscopes and test tubes plastered on the slides. Science students and researchers can now make their presentations stand out by incorporating this creative and original touch. Not only do the stickers add a nifty aesthetic vibe, but they serve functionality purposes as well. With this novel theme, audiences can actively engage with scientific concepts by visualizing the actual tools utilized in scientific thinking.

Features of this template

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Science Presentation Templates

Make impact and impress your class with an informative science presentation that will inspire and inform your audience, and help advance the field of science.

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Register for the oss 25th anniversary event, real data and real solutions in math 527.

• Tweet Widget

On a cloudy afternoon this past December, a group of McGill students gathered in a downtown Montréal boardroom to give a data science presentation to Citera, a sustainability analytics company. This presentation wasn’t for an internship or any other extracurricular activity – it was part of one of McGill’s newest and most innovative courses:  MATH 527 , Statistical Data Science Practicum.

It’s a six-credit, two-semester course taught by Dr. José Correa and Professor Eric Kolaczyk of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics. In its first iteration for the 2023-2024 academic year, MATH 527 employs a flipped classroom model, with class sessions focusing primarily on group discussions and projects rather than lectures. Its central organizing principle is the data science life cycle, encountered first in the Fall semester from a statistics-centric perspective, before shifting in the Winter semester to the perspective of a statistician working in the larger data science environment.

Read the full story here.

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Public presentation on the Bluestone Dam renovation held at Concord University

ATHENS, WV (WVNS) — A presentation about the Bluestone Dam was held at Concord University on Tuesday, April 16, 2024.

The presentation was hosted by Concord University’s Environmental Geosciences program in room 400 of the science building on Tuesday, April 16, 2024 at 12:00 p.m.

The event was also open to the public, and people could participate through Zoom as well. Classroom teachers were welcome to use the Zoom link to show the presentation in schools.

Topics that were discussed during the presentation included what it is like to have a career as a geologist working for the Army Corps of Engineers, an introduction to the history and purpose of the Bluestone Dam, and the ongoing geological engineering work to assess the bedrock foundations of the dam.

Staff with the Army Corps of Engineers, Aidan Hodge, John Vaught, and Kelli Gagnon, were involved in the presentation. Both Vaught and Hodge are Concord University Environmental Geosciences program alumni.

The Bluestone Dam, located near Hinton in Summers County, is a major flood-control installation located on the New River. The dam is 2,048 feet long, 165 feet tall, and controls water flow from a 4,620 square mile drainage area.

Out of all the dams in the Mountain State, the Bluestone Dam has the largest flood storage capacity. It also gives flood protection, not only for Hinton, but also for other areas that are in the Kanawha Valley and have thousands of houses, businesses, and industries such as Charleston, West Virginia.

The Bluestone Dam, which is more than 70 years old and had its 50th anniversary in 1999, was believed to have prevented more than $1.6 billion in flood damages as of its anniversary. However the amount of flood damages prevented because of the dam have only went up through the years.

Improvements were made to the dam since 2000 to increase safety and the stability of the dam’s foundations. Some improvements include using concrete to reinforce the toe of the dam, decrease bedrock erosion by covering the dam’s spillway with concrete, and better anchoring the dam to bedrock.

Thorough geological work is needed to focus on details in the bedrock that the dam is built on. Throughout the year, multiple samples of sandstone will be examined in labs at Concord University to evaluate properties of the bedrock.

The electron microprobe in Concord University’s developing Materials and Rare Earth Element Analysis Center will be one of the labs included in examining the bedrock of the dam.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WVNS.

Voyager’s Science Papers Presented at American Geophysical Union

Science papers and poster presentations on Voyager's encounter with Neptune were scheduled Dec. 4-5, the first two days of the 5-day 1989 Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union at San Francisco.

Members of the Voyager science teams from various institutions in addition to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, have been analyzing Voyager 2 data since the August encounter in preparation for first publication of their papers in Science magazine in December.

Dr. Edward Stone of the California Institute of Technology, project scientist for the Voyager 1 and 2 missions, is to chair the day long sessions, and additionally planned public presentation on the encounter at the Cathedral Hill Hotel Tuesday night, Dec. 5.

The spacecraft made its closest approach to Neptune Aug. 25, observed the large moon Triton few hours later and then continued downward from the ecliptic plane for the final part of its mission, to search for the end of the sun's influence in space.

During its final planetary encounter at Neptune, Voyager 2 passed by the swirling blue cloud-tops of the planet at little more than 3,000 miles. It sailed past icy, pink and blue Triton, returning images of the surface of the moon and at least two 5mile high geysers.

Voyager science data has determined Neptune's rotation of 16 hours, 7 minutes. It revealed probable interior of mixture of liquified gases, melted ice and melted rock with an outer layer of hydrogen, helium and methane.

Voyager also revealed that Neptune is the densest of the four giant outer planets, about 64 percent denser than if it were composed entirely of water.

Earth-based telescope observations had hinted for years at cloud systems on Neptune, but Voyager 2's cameras returned spectacular images of southern latitude storm system, called by scientists the Great Dark Spot.

About as large as Earth's diameter, 8,000 miles across, the storm circles Neptune in retrograde direction, opposite the planet's rotation. It is in an atmospheric zone with winds of more than 700 miles per hours.

The Voyager 2 spacecraft found six new moons and confirmed that Neptune does have complete rings, not just ring arcs, as had been thought.

The most surprising find, however, were the volcano-like geysers on the frozen surface of Triton probably driven by gaseous nitrogen.

Stone said it is surprising that geysers would be active in the moon's surface temperature of minus 400 degrees Fahrenheit and surface pressure of only 14 microbars, or 14-millionths of the sea-level pressure on Earth.

The Neptune encounter marked the end of the Voyager 2 planetary exploration phase and the beginning of its interstellar mission. Voyager 1 completed its planetary exploration phase as it left Saturn in 1980 and is currently searching above the ecliptic plane for the outer boundary of the solar wind.

The Voyagers are controlled, and their data returned, through NASA's Deep Space Network complexes in California's Mojave Desert, near Madrid, Spain, and near Canberra, Australia.

The Voyager project is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., for NASA's Office of Space Science and Applications.

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Bickford and Liggett to Present on Approaches to Non-Native Phragmites Management in Public Webinar

GLSC researchers present results of multi-year investigation into Phragmites control method.

Wes Bickford and Kaira Liggett (GLSC, Ann Arbor, MI) presented recent findings from research at a public webinar hosted by the Great Lakes Phragmites Collaborative on April 16. Their presentation, “Multi-year cut-to-drown management of Phragmites populations can control flooded patches,” was open to the public. They described work funded by the USGS/US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) Science Support Partnership program testing the efficacy of cut-to-drown management of Phragmites as a viable control option. The work was led by Wes Bickford with co-investigators Kurt Kowalski (GLSC, Ann Arbor) and Michelle Vander Haar (USFWS).

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