Ignite-style Presentation Session for Shad Valley 2009

McMaster annually hosts Shad Valley students for one month during the summer. The integrated science program (starting this summer), iSci, was asked if they wanted to contribute. So, in that capacity, I volunteered to lead one 3-hour session to conclude the topic of communication and the media. I chose to make the students the communicators: they would create and deliver a 5 minute presentation during the session. The catch? The slide presentation would contain 20 slides, and each would display for 15 seconds. This is the ‘ignite‘ format of presentation, and it’s not easy!

The students were game, however, and whipped up presentations (on whatever they wanted to talk about). Obviously, the biggest issue was timing – making sure they were able to speak ‘around’ the 15 second slides. Some spoke too fast to cram information in, and others didn’t have enough to say. Another sticking point was the 20 slide requirement – this was interpreted by many as meaning that their presentation required 20 different ‘ideas’: “I can’t think of 20 things to say!”. This is a common problem with – to borrow from Tufte – the cognitive style of powerpoint presentations. I tried to reinforce the notion that you can share an idea that will take more than 15 seconds; that is, change the slide, but maintain the idea. It was a tough sell!

The presentation below was what I delivered (in the ignite style) to show them how to create theirs.