Effective Presentation Skills

This project was aimed at helping planetarians improve their live presentation skills. Planetarians recorded themselves presenting live programs, reviewed the recording for their own reflections, and submitted the recording to be included in the collection. Over nineteen hours of recordings were collected. Clips were compiled to provide tips which would be helpful for the beginner and seasoned presenter alike. The compiled video provides examples of various techniques important for presenting live planetarium programs.

We'd like to express our gratitude to the brave presenters who submitted recordings. Many of the presenters were very outspoken about what a great experience it was to participate in this project. Perhaps another benefit of producing this video, will be the encouragement of others to record their live programs and reflect on them.

Index:  Length of the Video:  41 minutes

• 0:00  Opening and welcome
• 0:56  Introductions to planetarium programs
• 8:10  Using models
• 11:00  Making predictions
• 12:40  Transition to the night sky
• 14:29  Tip for using a pointer
• 15:01  Finding Constellations (orientation)
• 19:32  Transition from city to country sky
• 22:23  Constellations (explaining the concept)
• 24:37  Showing the passage of time
• 26:12  Checking for understanding
• 28:15  Constellation stories
• 31:21  Responding to spontaneous questions
• 32:26  Managing audience participation
• 33:16  Handling technical difficulties and suprises
• 36:45  Ending the planetarium program
• 40:14  Acknowledgments and credits

Credits

Presenters:  Rickey Ainsworth, Bob Bonadurer, Matthew Bourjaily, Jean Creighton, Dave DeRemer, Geoff Holt, Larry Mascotti, Michael Neece, John Rummel, Amy Sayle, Mickey Jo Sorrell, Daniel Tell, April Whitt

Hosts:  Bob Bonadurer, Jean Creighton

Planning & Production Team:   Bob Bonadurer, Jean Creighton, Dave DeRemer, Geoff Holt, Chris Janssen, Gary Sampson, Ted Williams

Special thanks to the Madison Metropolitan School District TV Studio staff for the use of their studio. And special thanks to GLPA for sponsoring this project.

[Note that we hope to provide the full recordings of the contributed programs in the future.]