The Art of Presenting Science (2023-IV)

Target audience

It is best to follow this course in your second year, so you already have something to present, and ample opportunity afterwards to put the skills to practice.

Course description

When you present, you expect your audience to be attentive throughout your talk - after all they love science, don’t they? Sadly, this is rarely the case. We blame this on the short attention span of our audience. But, if that is the case, how come that the same audience can easily watch movies for hours on end? Apparently the short attention span just does not exist, and actors and playwrights have found a way to engage their audience better. If so, why not use their tools to learn how to present better? That is exactly what this course will do for you! In this three-day course you will learn to engage your audience with theatrical skills and shape your content with storytelling tools. The result is that you will master your performance skills and let your content take centre stage!

Learning objectives

During this course you will learn to use the fifteen signals necessary for effective communication in such a way that you maximize attention at the start of your presentation. By changing style during transitions, you will become able to keep attention alive. Story tools will help you to design your presentation in a captivating manner. To support your story best, you will learn to make effective slides and learn to guide the attention to the slides and back to you. Last but not least you will learn how to respond to questions effectively. The result is that you will be the main act on the stage and your content the main character. 

You will learn:

• to use the fifteen signals necessary for effective communication on stage. 
• to get attention at the start of your presentations and to keep the audience attentive by using style and transitions. 
• to activate your audience by making them curious from the start, right to the end of your talk.
• to design a presentation using story tools and supportive slides that allow you to be the main act on the stage, the content the main character in your story.
• how to respond to questions effectively. 
• to reach your audience by making the signals you send in normal communication effective at a distance.
• to involve them with the content, using the same techniques that make us care about Romeo and Juliet.
• how to address different audiences.

Instructional method

The main method in the course is that you will find the tools yourself and test them so you are convinced of their effectiveness. To that aim various methods will be applied, such as theatrical exercises, individual presenting exercises, group discussion, peer review, story design exercises and interactive lecturing. 

Trainer

You will be trained by one of the professionals of Artesc.

Group size

6 to 7 participants

Number of credits

1.4 EC

Course schedule

Study load

In addition to the scheduled sessions, you should take into account an extra study load of approximately 18 hours in total. This study load generally consists of homework assignments in preparation for the next session.

Course certificate

You will receive a course certificate after attending the course sessions and completing all the course requirements.

Cancellation and No-show policy

This course is free for GSLS PhD candidates. However: free of charge does not mean free of responsibility. Once you have signed up for a course, we expect you to attend. For every late cancellation or no-show we have had to disappoint others who would have liked to attend. This is our policy:

• You may cancel free of charge up to 4 weeks before the start of the course. After this date you can only cancel if you have a GSLS PhD candidate to replace you in the course. Send the name and contact information of your replacement to pcc@uu.nl, at least 2 working days before the start of the course;
• We expect that you actively attend the full course, but at least 80%. It is mandatory to attend the first session. If you are absent the first session you cannot follow the remaining of the course;
• Not meeting the above requirements means you will be charged a no-show fee (€ 315). We will send the invoice after the course has ended. We are unable to make any exceptions, unless you have a valid reason (i.e., illness or death in the family 1^st/2^nd degree or partner). Your supervisor has to send an e-mail to pcc@uu.nl indicating the reason.

Unfortunately we don’t offer this course for participants not part of the GSLS. Our courses tend to be fully booked by GSLS PhD candidates.

This course offered me a broad set of tools that will make my future presentations more exciting and interesting for both me and my audience

I learned how to bring myself into a presentation, to speak in a way that makes people listen. I also learned to really make contact with my audience and not just deliver information

Even though I thought I could already present pretty well, this course taught me many useful tips and tricks that can get your audience to really listen to what you are saying. This will greatly increase the impression you make.