August 2016 STEM Anchor Skills (1-3) - Communication is Critical

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August  2016 STEM Anchor Skills (1-3) 

Communication is Critical

In my monthly, five-minute STEM Skill Step Up Letter, I give hints like the following on improving critical cognitive and technical skills for young adults. I will also respond to questions that you submit. To do so, subscribe to the newsletter by emailing me. I will respond to questions on the Play-Ed Corporation Facebook page when appropriate.

Communication is Critical

During career day in junior high, I watched a presentation by two chefs who surprisingly discussed an experiment they had conducted. Believing that people judge the quality of food by its appearance, the chefs prepared two meals. For one meal, the chefs used the highest quality, gourmet ingredients, but exerted little effort on presentation. They simply heaped the different dishes and desserts into serving plates.

The chefs made the other meal from inexpensive, generic ingredients. Concentrating their efforts on presentation, they decoratively prepared and arranged the dishes to maximize eye appeal. After having the same group consume each meal, the chefs measured the weight and volume of waste left in individual dishes and in the serving plates. As the chefs had hypothesized, the amount of waste was much greater for the meal prepared with the gourmet ingredients. Though the chefs did not collect any data from participants on their evaluation of the meal, I suspect the meal using generic ingredients would probably have been more highly rated, too.

As this simple experiment suggests, presentation is important. First, presentation can easily mislead. For this reason, students and adults alike should scrutinize appearances critically. When comparing two products at the supermarket, individuals should not reflexively purchase a famous brand. Reading the label may reveal that a less expensive brand or generic contains the same ingredients. In a few instances, I have found store or generic brands that actually use finer quality ingredients. More critically, presentation can mislead. Business professionals, policy makers, and scientists can use misleading language, questionable data, and visual hocus pocus to market ideas that may only be true under some circumstances, if not at all.

The second reason why presentation skills are vital is the reverse of the first: Used effectively, these skills allow us to broadly communicate our ideas, enlisting support for them. Effective presenters inspire others. They tend be viewed as leaders, too. For this reason, I urge parents and teachers to cultivate children’s presentation skills. Some suggestions for doing so follow:

1. Have students practice. First, they should do short, one-minute elevator speeches on different topics like a general self-introduction that highlights their hobbies and interests, strengths and weaknesses. Then, students should tackle more challenging topics like intended career and goals. Finally, children should practice explaining their opinion on topics like the death penalty or corporal punishment employing data the children collect and other research they conduct.

2. Once students master short speeches, they should learn longer presentation basics. First, teachers should explain the structure: introduction, body, conclusion. Second, students should learn the content of each part, writing sample presentations for practice. Introductions typically include a short speaker bio emphasizing his qualifications; a story, example or other device to rivet attention; and the thesis, main point or topic of the presentation. The body introduces three to five key points, offering examples, data, and explanation to highlight and support the points. The conclusion summarizes key points and may include a call for action or suggestion.

3. Once students have written presentations, students should practice delivering them. To help students grasp how loudly to talk, the teacher should sit in the back of the room, signaling them to increase the volume until he can hear them comfortably. Students may sometimes feel like they are shouting or talking too loudly, but they should be urged to maintain the volume. Students should be instructed on the use of visual aids, hand gestures, facial expressions, eye contact, and body movement as devices to involve the audience. Students should also receive instruction on how to employ questions to involve audience members and how to correctly respond to questions.

       4.Teachers should provide instruction on fallacies of logic and literary, argumentative, and                     statistical techniques utilized to mislead. The TED Talk by Dr. Hans Rosling linked                             below provides an entertaining introduction to some of these techniques in addition to serving             as an example of effective delivery.

"How Not to Be Ignorant About the World"

5. Teachers and students should furnish feedback on others’ presentations. If possible, the feedback should be systematically collected using a standard, written questionnaire. Please contact me if you would like a copy of one that I use.

Learning to communicate effectively is demanding, but rewarding, work. Those who invest the time and effort to acquire presentation skills will enjoy greater self-confidence and a sense of accomplishment from communicating their ideas effectively. Most importantly, skilled presenters are empowered for win-win success that benefits others in addition to themselves.



Author Profile
Dr. Gabriella is an accomplished scholar and businessman. Ivy-league educated, he has served as a lecturer or professor at universities in the U.S., Japan, and China. Currently, he resides in Japan, where he is a senior manager and active consultant. A former high-school math teacher, Joseph is passionate about teaching critical STEM skills to future generations through his company, Play-Ed Corporation.

jgabriella.played@gmail.com