Today, we presented our projects to students at a REU program in CUNY. One of the aspects of presentations I am noticing is that we have much more that we want to say than we have time to under the time limit.
One strategy I learned from Stephen is to make “backup slides” for extra information I want to present but do not have time to during the main presentation. The format is as follows:
[1] -> [2] -> … -> [Thank You!] -> [B_1] -> [B_2] -> … -> [B_n]
What happens is that we end the presentation on time. However, we anticipate specific questions and create additional slides after the end of the presentation to answer these questions, providing additional information.
For example, due to the time constraint, our group incorporated a backup slide explaining the potential positive and negative implications of using the 3D scanning technology we tested for fingerprint scanning. When one student asked for implications, we were able to move onto that slide and explain in more detail.
While I am answering questions, another issue I need to be aware of is how long I take to answer each question. When a student asked us why we used resin printers, I explained all the relevant measurements that contributed to the printers’ precision related to the size of fingerprint ridges. However, since Stephen signaled me to finish my answer faster, I should consider whether others need to know low-level details or whether I should simply give a succinct, high-level explanation.