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Speak from your heart
Case Rijsdijk
Astronomer, educator and science communicator, South Africa
Astronomy is a friendly (many would say 'cool') and uncontroversial science, unlike nuclear power, genetic engineering, etc.. I really believe that humans have always had an affinity for the night sky, wondered what's up there and really want to know the answer to a few fundamental questions, such as:
- Where have we come from,
- Where are we going,
- Are we alone, and
- How do astronomers know: what do they do to answer these questions?
My favourite way of sharing my passion for astronomy and physics, to try and address the above, is by giving presentations. These are great for mass communication but they are not as easy to prepare as most people think: they are very difficult and take lots of time. There are several things that I think make for a good presentation:
- Know what you are going to talk about: you are going to get difficult questions, make sure you fully understand what you want to say: it would be wise to prepare some answers beforehand. You will get questions about God and religion - avoid getting into debates, but give a firm, uncontroversial and confident response, and move on to the next question! When answering questions, be confident and if you don't know, say so! Fudging answers doesn't work: no-one expects you to know everything.
- It takes a lot of time to prepare a good talk - usually a week or so (working on and off). Select a topic, and source your material carefully. I often run through the talk several times (I talk to my screen!). Come back to it several times and edit, add and delete stuff. Get it right and don't talk for more than about 40 minutes or so. Leave time for questions. It is also important to practice to make sure that your delivery is right. When I gave the Bernard Price Memorial Lecture, I practised in the venue in afternoon and spoke in an empty auditorium just to get the 'feel' of the place!
- I use PowerPoint exclusively now and virtually the entire presentation consists of images, movie clips and animations. I talk about the slides and don't use too many with lots of words on them - they put people to sleep! And if you have wordy slides do not read them to the audience - they can do that for themselves! Talk about the words - use them as "cues" to remind you. The advantage of this is that the same images can be used for different levels of audience - words need to be changed!
- There are many outstanding images readily available as well as video clips and simulations - use them.
- Respect your audience and try and talk at their level*: don't dumb it down! They will know that you know what you are talking about, which is why they have come to listen to you! But they are not stupid - they may well be experts in something you are not! (* With a little experience you can judge this quite quickly.)
- Arrive early and set up and make sure you have everything in place. If you move around when you talk, like I do - tell people this, also anything else that helps to put them at ease: I always tell them how much I enjoyed putting the talk together.
- Avoid using TLAs (three letter acronyms!) We use them all the time within our community, your audience is usually not part of that community. If you do use them explain them carefully first - but I still think it is easier to talk of the Spherical Aberration Corrector rather than the SAC! It also stops you talking to quickly!
- Try and think of a catchy title for your talk. The Life and Death of Stars sounds much more exciting than The Hertzsprung-Russel Diagram Explained!
- Always acknowledge colleagues and sources of material, either verbally or in a slide at the beginning.
- Finally, you must really want to give this talk - your enthusiasm, or lack of it shows, and it is infectious!
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