Presentation Preparation

Hello!

Last week I finally finished my research paper in its entirety, and submitted it for consideration by the College Board. After frantically spending the few nights before my submission reading over my paper and removing any identifying characteristics (my name, school, contact information), I sent my paper to a few friends and family members who had no prior knowledge of my research project to ensure that my literature review properly explained the background of my topic and conclusion followed logically from the introduction and results. After a few edits to the formatting and in-text citations, I felt comfortable submitting it as my final paper and using it to begin writing my presentation.

Looking at the rubric of the College Board presentation, I have found it to include several specific requirements that one would not normally think to include in a presentation, mainly in terms of the “reflection” section of the rubric. This section requires me to explicitly include in my presentation the process by which I thought through my research methods, results, and then conclusion, similar to how I have shown my research development through blog posts.

With regards to my actual powerpoint slides, I have been focused on limiting each of my slides to only a few bullet points, and writing out a detailed script to fill in the missing parts. Last year we were taught to limit the information in our powerpoint slides to ensure that we were essential as speakers (if everything you say is in the slides then there is no point in you presenting). Using short bullet points both keeps the audience engaged and gives me a small indication of what I am going to say next. An interesting template is also instrumental in keeping the audience’s attention, and I decided to import one into Google Slides that fit my topic, eventually deciding on a medicine-themed template.

The rubric indicates that a strong presentation should make use of visual aids. The best place to include this would be when showing the data obtained in the study as a graph. Unfortunately, my data is not well suited to a graph, and I am currently considering using a chart instead (this is what I used in my research paper, see below).

Results

Table 1: Criteria Evaluation levels

Criteria being considered	Places with protocol	Places without a protocol
Obesity	None	25%
Substance abuse	None	0%
Sleep apnea	None	0%
Cognitive Impairment	None	63%
Asthma	None	13%
Conflicting medications	None	50%
Other common criteria (reported from short answer questions)	None	Pre-hospital pain level (13%), Complexity of the surgery (13%) Urgency of the pain and how rapidly the medication need to take effect (50%) Patient’s physical ability to control the PCA pump (50%)

Table 2: Burden on and value to the Healthcare system

Question	Places with protocol	Places without a protocol
Does your hospital have a PCA pump prescription protocol	None (0%)	None (0%)
Do you feel that a procedure/protocol that all staff must go through prior to prescribing a PCA pump would be beneficial for patients?	None	100%
Would the protocol be a burden?	None	75%

Since this is the week of practice presentations, I will use the feedback I get from my practice run to modify my slides/visual aids for the final presentation (next week!). Hopefully this final step in my research project will be a success, and in my next blog post, I will discuss the completion of my presentation slides, my feelings about my practice presentation, and my preparation for my final presentation.
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