Project Presentations

The project is worth 15% of your final grade and 20% of the project grade will involve oral presentation of your work. For example, the project will most likely be worth 100 points, and the presentation will be worth 25 points.

The presentations will be Wednesday May 2nd and Friday May 4th. Each group will have 15 minutes (sect. 001) or 7 minutes (sect. 002) to present their work, and then there will be 5 minutes (sect 001) or 3 minutes (sect. 002) for questions from me, or from other members of the class. You must use transparencies or a personal computer, and I recommend preparing 7-12 slides (sect. 001) or 6-10 (sect. 002). All members of the group must be present and in front of the class during the presentation.

The presentation should follow this outline:

I.

Problem description. Do NOT copy the project as it was given to you. Summarize it in your own words. This should take 1-2 slides.

II.

Approach. Do not spend a lot of time going through the math. Just say, for example, we used the Laplace transform for various values of a, b, and c. Then described how and why you varied a, b, and c. This should take 2-3 slides.

III.

Results. You may want to show a lot of graphs or tables at this point. But make sure there is a summary slide which lists your conclusions about the graphs or tables.

Some general suggestions:

1.

Make the lecture simple, and do not include too many details. If someone is interested in your work, they can read the full report.

2.

Realize that your audience is the other members of the class.

3.

Do not put up a slide with very complicated drawings or millions of numbers. Less is More.

4.

Begin with a slide containing the title of the project, and the names of the people in the group.

5.

Use a large font, or write large enough so people can see in the back of the room. I would use no more than 12 lines per slide.