Oral Presentations

When you register for the HORIZONS event, you will need to choose to present your work as a poster or as an oral presentation. If you choose an oral presentation, please review the following:

• What Will the Oral Presentation Format Look Like at HORIZONS?

  The oral presentation session of HORIZONS will look a lot like an academic conference. Presenters will each be given in advance the time slot and room in which they will be presenting. Individual presenters and pairs (2 students) will prepare a 12-minute presentation. After their presentation, the presenter should be ready to engage in about 3 minutes of Q&A from the audience. The Q&A will be moderated by a faculty/staff moderator who will be present in the room. Note: Groups that plan to present as an entire group are allotted 20 minutes for the presentation and 10 minutes of Q&A.

• Who Can Participate?

  If you completed a research or creative project during the academic year 2023-2024, you can participate. Students who received Richter Memorial Funding will be given priority to participate, if space becomes an issue.

• How Long Should My Presentation Be?

  Individuals and pairs should prepare a 12-minute presentation and be ready for roughly 3 minutes of Q&A from the audience.  Groups that plan to present as an entire group are allotted 20 minutes for the presentation and 10 minutes of Q&A. A faculty moderator will be in the room to help facilitate the Q&A after each presentation.

• What Format Can My Presentation Take?

  Your final presentation should be formatted according to the following guidelines. Your presentation will be ready in the room that you are assigned to on the day of the event.

  Slides

  Most students will simply use Google Slides or Powerpoint to create a presentation. You are welcome to incorporate a mix of text, pictures, graphics, etc to these slides -whatever you wish. Convert your slidedeck to a PDF before uploading to the HORIZONS Submission form.

  Remember that the time limit is 12 minutes. Also, keep in mind that you should have notes prepared to accompany your slides -- do not read directly from your slides during your presentation!

  Video

  If you wish to create a slidedeck that incorporates video (for dance, art, or other visual arts projects), make sure that your presentation is created in Google Slides first. Upload the video (under Insert in the menu bar) and then save the entire presentation as a PDF. This will save the video as a clickable link within your PDF presentation. On the day of the event, you will scroll through your slides and when you get to the video slide, you will click on the image to bring up the video.
  

  Make sure to account for the length of the video(s) in your overall time limit (12 minutes). Also, keep in mind that you should have notes prepared to accompany your slides -- do not read directly from your slides during your presentation!

• How Should I Organize My Presentation?

  The typical organization for an academic presentation varies by discipline, but the below is a good guideline. Ask your faculty mentor if you’re not sure what organization you should use. Here is an example from the social sciences to give you an idea:

  1. Introduction - you, co-researchers, faculty mentor(s), funding source, title of project
  2. Hook - get us interested in what you will say
  3. Research Question - what problem or issue did you study and why does it matter?
  4. Methodology - how did you go about investigating this question?
  5. Background/Literature Review - what have other people said about this topic in the past?
  6. Discussion of Data/Results - share the most important things you found out or learned. Note: If your project is still in-progress, you can share what results you expect to find and/or what you have learned thus far
  7. Analysis - what else should be done, or how could this be applied to other work?
  8. Conclusion - summarize very briefly what you said
• How Can I Design an Awesome Presentation (with slides)?

  Research shows that images help with memory and learning. Use this to your advantage by finding appropriate images that help you make your point. All visuals (text and images) should be clear, simple, and free of clutter.

  Try to use some visuals and keep long text-heavy slides to a minimum.
  
  Graphs should be clearly labeled and as simple as possible. Think hard about the best format for each graph. A graph in a presentation should have a title that refers to the variables shown on the graph. Graphs are generally preferable to tables.
  

• Who Should I Expect Will Be In Attendance (i.e. who is the presentation for)?

  The audience for HORIZONS will be varied; it could include students and faculty from across all disciplines, parents, staff, administrators, and alumni. Assume that no one knows anything about your topic and let that guide the language (and lingo) you use. Minimize the use of acronyms and unnecessary technical terms, and omit unnecessary details. When acronyms are used, clearly define them at appropriate times. Think about: how will you get and keep your audience’s attention and interest?

• How Should I Prepare In Advance?

  You should always practice your presentation in full a few times. You might feel silly delivering your presentation to your cat or your roommate, but you need to do it and do it again. Practice to ensure that your presentation fits within the time parameters and that it flows. Also remember to prepare for the Q&A! What questions might you receive? Think those through and how you would answer them.