Introduction

Our second 5-minute oral presentation provides an opportunity for you to work on the skill(s) you identified in the reflection you wrote following Oral Presentation #1, as well as an opportunity for you to continue to practice clear and effective communication of an application related to our topic of data and decision making.

There are three possible paths for choosing your presentation topic:

  1. You may select one of the seven topics discussed in the article What Educated Citizens Should Know About Statistics and Probability present it with added details
  2. You may select a topic or example from the article Unintentional Lies in the Media: Don’t Blame Journalists for What we Don’t Teach that was not covered in “What Educated Citizens Should Know About Statistics and Probability”. Note that this article was written by Dr. Utts as a follow-up to the article mentioned in #1.
  3. A real-life example of Simpson’s Paradox that is not one of the examples we saw in today’s activity.

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Expectations

The aim of your presentation is to educate our class on your chosen topic. Similar to Oral Presentation #1, you are expected to:

  1. Organize your presentation around a single topic and follow a logical structure
  2. Utilize strategies for effective scientific presentations, such as stating the main point in the title, using contradictions for dramatic effect, and telling a story.
  3. Take no long than 5-minutes.
  4. Avoid digressions, distractions, erroneous statements, and contradictions

You should present your information as if it was entirely new the class, even if you think that some people in the class might already be familiar with the intricacies of the topic.

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Additional Details

Topic Sign-up:

To ensure a variety of presentation topics, you should fill out this form by the end of the day on Tuesday 9/19. If several students sign up for the same (or very similar) topics I may ask you to switch to a different topic. Any switching decisions will be based upon a first-come, first-serve mentality, so please fill out this form as soon as you’ve settled on a topic.

Assessment:

  1. Organization and content - 4 pts
    • Did you clearly articulate your main points? Was the presentation organized and easy to follow? Was your information accurate?
    • Did you present the right volume of information? Was the presentation of examples vivid and easy to grasp?
    • Did the presentation have a clear introduction, conclusion, and logical progression?
  2. Delivery - 4 pts
    • Was the pace of speaking appropriate? Did you vary your pace to emphasize key points?
    • Was the speaking volume appropriate? Did you engage with the audience using gestures, eye contact, facial expressions? Did you appear nervous or read directly from your slides?
    • Did you keep verbal tics (“like”, “uh”, “um”, etc.) under control so that they weren’t distracting?
  3. Personal Growth - 2 pts
    • Was it clear that you’ve practiced the things you laid out as areas of improvement in your reflection to Oral Presentation #1?