| 11 | | At the beginning of the semester, you will be asked for a title and an abstract. Try to make the title a little titillating, as it is designed for a public audience. For some reason, audiences are most attracted by talks about black holes and extraterrestrial life (at least, the numbers correlate that way). The abstract is simply a small paragraph describing your talk that will be used on the website and in the fliers for your lecture. While the beginning of the semester is still quite early, it might be a good time to start thinking about your talk so you have ample time to make slides, practice it, etc before the big day! |
| | 11 | While we generally have a large group and can't physically move around a room or do an activity, we strongly encourage you to be interactive in your talk! Some ways you can do that is to poll the audience and/or ask them to raise their hands in response to a question, tell an appropriate joke, ask them to meet or talk to their neighbor, do a demonstration, use a prop, and act out concepts! If you want to discuss any ideas further or ask an opinion about if something will work with our audience, don't hesitate to reach out. |
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| | 13 | === Titles & Talk Description === |
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| | 15 | At the beginning of the semester, you will be asked for a title and an one paragraph description of the topic of your talk. Try to make the title a little intruiging, as it is designed for a public audience. For some reason, audiences are most attracted by talks about black holes and extraterrestrial life (at least, the numbers correlate that way). The abstract is simply a small paragraph describing your talk that will be used on the website and in the fliers for your lecture. While the beginning of the semester is still quite early, it might be a good time to start thinking about your talk so you have ample time to make slides, practice it, etc before the big day! |
| 19 | | In Pupin 301, the lecture hall where we hold these talks, we have several resources at your disposal: 5 chalk boards, a digital projector, a DVD/VHS player, a video camera to project books and other non-digital images, a speaker system and a wireless microphone. The speaker system is set to work with the wireless microphone (but you do not need it if you project your voice well) as well as the output headphone jack from your laptop. You will need to bring a laptop, dongle, pointer and presentation. If you do not have a laptop or laser pointer, we can use the ones purchased for the astronomy lab by the department, but please let us know in advance that this is what you plan to do. |
| | 23 | In Pupin 301, the lecture hall where we hold these talks, we have several resources at your disposal: 5 chalk boards, a digital projector, a DVD/VHS player, a video camera to project books and other non-digital images, a speaker system and a wireless microphone. The speaker system is set to work with the wireless microphone (but you do not need it if you project your voice well) as well as the output headphone jack from your laptop. You will need to bring a laptop, dongle, pointer and presentation. If you do not have a laptop or laser pointer, we can use the ones purchased for the astronomy lab by the department, but please let us know in advance that this is what you plan to do. If you'd like to use props but don't have them handy, we can work with you to see if we can borrow them. |