The Scientific Presentation
Tutoring Tips
The following information is from a handout on Tutoring Science Communication developed by Graduate OCTs Meredith Course and Alex Dainis.
As a communication tutor working with a science student, you will most often be acting as a non-specialist helping a specialist. This makes you the perfect person to sit in as their audience, and make sure that they’re presenting a clear, succinct, and accessible narrative.
Ask your tutee their A.G.E.:
- Who is their Audience?
- What is their Goal?
- Where will they be (Environment)?
Use storyboarding (one point per sticky note!) to help students create a good narrative. Basic narrative structure looks like a “bowtie,” starting and ending broadly, with a few arguments making up the body (image below). Technical evidence and methods can then be inserted to support each argument. This structure can be used for any audience; simply modulate the depths of the “data dives,” and the broadness of the beginning and end.