Performance Skills

1. Performance Skills Dr Iona Beange

2. Ice-breaker • Get into groups of 5 • Tell the others – your name and something interesting about your name.

3. ICONZ Communications Officer Science Communicator PhD Neuroscience Bsc Hons in Biomedical Science Dr Iona Beange

4. Career

5. University of Edinburgh School of Biology - Public Engagement Wiki - Heather McQueen www.wiki.ed.ac.uk/display/SBSIntranet/Public+engagement Eusci – Science Magazine http://www.eusci.org.uk/ Biopod - podcasting ASCUS (Art-Science collaborations) http://www.ascus.org.uk/ Sci-Fun

6. Organisations • Edinburgh International Science Festival • National Museums Scotland • Botanic Gardens • Dynamic Earth • Observatory • Historic Scotland • Camera Obscura • Mining Museum • Surgeons Hall Museum • Royal Society • Royal Society of Chemistry

7. Welcome To ILW • Tuesday – Performance Skills • Wednesday – Science Journalism • Thursday- Preparing a story for Film or TV • Showcase – Thursday Afternoon

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

9. Performance Skills

10. More than just words…… I did not have sexual relations with that women (Bill Clinton) What affects the degree of trust and belief people have in a speaker?

11. More than just words…… Research by Albert Mehrabian 7% VERBAL – the words you use 38 % VOCAL – how you use these words 55 % VISUAL – how you look

12. Pre-course • Prepared a short (2 min) talk on a topic of your choice.

13. A few things to consider

14. Volume • INCREASE – to create drama or highlight importance • DECREASE – to cause audience to concentrate, create a sense of anticipation • CHANGE – to differentiate or emphasise points.

15. Speed • Slightly slower than 120 Words per Minute (conversation) • SLOW – importance, gravitas, calmness, disappointment, sadness • FAST – excitement, anger, anxiety • PAUSES – time for ideas to sink in, dramatic effect, signal end of section, • Comma = 1 beat(say ‘comma’ internally) • Full Stop = 2 beats (say ‘end of sentence’ ) • Paragraph = full stop + 2 beats = 4 (say ‘new paragraph’)

16. Pitch • A high pitch nasal sound = nervous • Use changes in pitch to emphasise points or show a change of section • Avoid monotone

17. Pronunciation • Remember your dental sounds (t’s and d’s) – Donuts NOT ‘Onus’ • Inflection – rise and fall of pitch • Yes – definite • Yes – Uncertain • Yes – meaning no

18. Pauses…… • Very powerful ...... Attention grabber • They need to be much longer than you think – try counting to 5 or even 10.

19. Preparation Time (10min) Use this time to finish preparing you talk. Or to add in some of the things I’ve just talked about.

20. Giving constructive feedback Feedback = self-awareness and encouragement to develop. • Start with something positive • Be specific – as well as ‘you were brilliant / awful’, try to pin point what it was that they did that made it that way. • Refer to things that can be changed. • Suggest what they could have done differently. • Be descriptive – tell the person what you saw and what effect it had on you, ie your tone of voice made me feel that you are really concerned about this topic. • Own the feedback – use the word ‘I’ eg I thought, I felt

21. Give your 2 min Presentation • 2 people comment on presentation style • 2 people comment on content • Swap tasks between talks • 2 min talk • 5 min feedback time

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

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

24. The 12 year old test “If one cannot state a matter clearly enough so that an intelligent twelve year old can understand it, one should remain within the cloistered walls of the University and laboratory until one gets a better grip of one’s subject matter” (Margaret Mead, Anthropologist and teacher, Redbook Magazine, 1963)

25. Constructivism The most important single factor influencing learning is what the learner already knows. Ascertain this and teach him accordingly (Ausebel) Find the audience’s level and work upwards (in appropriate steps)

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

27. Vocabulary • Words which sound the same can have different meanings: - nucleus, - nucleoid - nucleotide.

28. Junk the Jargon!

29. Misconceptions Photosynthesis Misconception: Plants get their food from the ground Fact: Their main carbon source (food and building block) is CO2 from the air.

30. Explaining Concepts • Use simple definitions • pH is a scale from 0 to 14 that tells how acidic or not acidic something is • Use analogies • The earth is like an apple – it has a core on the inside and a very thin skin on the outside

31. Imagery

32. Research – Garry Blakely

33. SimplificasaurusSynthesis and characterisation of novel packed-bed absorbents for the desulphiding reaction • Identify your target audience and what they already know Intelligent 12 year old 2) Recognize words which may be unfamiliar to them or liable to misconceptions Synthesisand characterisation of novel packed-bed absorbents for the desulphiding reaction 3) Generate a list of alternative words for the jargon Synthesis = making, creating, building, inventing 4) Select the most appropriate words Synthesis = inventing 5) Construct your new statement Inventing chemicals that clean up smelly gases

34. Adapt Garry’s Talk • Summarise the talk in a few sentences. • Use the Simplificasaurus to construct a summary suitable for your target audience.

35. Group Feedback

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

37. Communication Styles Sales Pitch • More details, including graphs and statistics, • Aren’t meant to entertain. • Smaller audience with opportunity for interaction • The purpose is usually to persuade.

38. Using Slides Several minutes per slide Or A few seconds per slide

39. Professor Lessig • Few words - emphasizing what he was saying.

40. Dick Hardt, Sxip Identity • Lot’s of slides very quickly http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrpajcAgR1E

41. Presenter’s Comfort • Turtle type = slow but steady, deeply into topic • Hare type = enjoy a quick pace. • Choose what suits you.

42. Audience’s needs • Help the audience understand • Help the audience remember • How long is their attention span?

43. Fiona • Bright club

44. Group Discussion of Styles

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

46. Evaluation 1) 2) Orange (Continue): What was the best part of the session, which we should ensure we do again next year? Pink (stop): What was not so good about this session? Green (start) Do you have any suggestions for changes/additions if we repeated this session in the future?

47. Optional Content

48. 7 Virtues of Good Science Communicaton • Simple – avoids jargon, uses simple language • Targeted – hits the audience level • Efficient – avoids extraneous detail • Accurate – can be expanded without contradiction • Familiar – relates complex ideas to simple things we already know • Sequential – moves in steps from familiar to unfamiliar • Hooks – uses devices to grab attention or enhance understanding.

49. Images Less is more!