Presenting Model Results to the Public

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS

Jane Kapler Smith, Ecologist, FEIS Lead Scientist
Donald E. Zimmerman and Carol Akerelrea, Colorado State University

Partners

Department of Journalism & Technical Communication at Colorado State University.

INTRODUCTION

You’re preparing a presentation for the public. What results would you like to see? What outcome do you hope for? How should you prepare? How will you know you’ve succeeded?

GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

Our program offers guidelines that have been gleaned from research on the effectiveness of computer visualization and animation in presenting model results and from discussions with educators, experts in technical communications, and modelers.

KEY RESULTS

The presentation featured in the Visualization PowerPoint presentation (text version) summarizes results from the Forest Vegetation Simulator with Fire and Fuels Extension (FFE-FVS), based on data from ponderosa pine forests in Colorado's Front Range. Line drawings and animations of fire behavior in forests stands were produced by the Stand Visualization System (SVS). This project was sponsored by the Joint Fire Science Project.

To see the examples described below download the sample presentation.

Different goals demand different approaches to communications. If you can articulate your goals, you can focus on achieving them; you will be less likely to spend your energy, and that of participants, on tangential information and activities.

The sample presentation was designed to increase public understanding and acceptance of the use of a mathematical model for managing late successional ponderosa pine forests and fire in Colorado’s Front Range.

Here are the presentation’s objectives, stated as expected outcomes:
After this presentation, participants will be better able to…

1. Understand the nature of a mathematical model
2. Compare and contrast historic forest conditions with current conditions
3. Know that fire behavior and effects vary
4. Know how number and size of trees, and continuity of tree crowns, affect risk of active crown fire
5. Compare and contrast predicted effects of management on
• which tree species dominates
• how dense the trees are and how continuous their crowns are
• risk of active crown fire

II. Audience

What individuals or groups are you trying to reach? Will they include business people, educators, students, conservationists, industry representatives, agency staff? Will they be familiar with the landscape you are describing or the model you are using?

Use information on your audience

1. to figure out how to capture and hold their interest
2. to determine how much detail to include in your presentation

The sample presentation was designed for three public groups: rural mountain residents, city residents, and college students. The experimental structure in our research required that we not adapt the presentation to each audience, but other research indicates it is a good idea to tailor presentations to specific audiences.

• Learn about the audience ahead of time. Invite some participants in person or over the phone.
• Introduce yourself to people as they arrive. Before you begin the presentation, ask people to introduce themselves.
• Link audience interests to the ideas you present.

Synergistic learning usually promotes understanding and collaboration more effectively than “one-way” lectures, so…

• Welcome questions and comments—throughout the presentation, if you can manage the interruptions and keep within your allotted time. Participants will learn from each other’s questions and comments.
• Consider including hands-on materials, demonstrations, and small group discussions.

You have asked for people’s time; respect them, and use their time well.

• Have correct, complete information. Do your homework. Know your sources. Be honest. Do your very best.
• Describe the scope of your presentation. For example, the sample presentation describes only the ecology of forests in Colorado’s Front Range dominated by ponderosa pine. Example: slide 14.
• Describe the limits of your information. Are you presenting field data or a prediction from a model? If data, do you know how accurate and complete they are? If from a model, is it validated by field data? What are the assumptions and limitations of the model? Example: slides 57-58.
  Example: slide 25.
  
• Eliminate or minimize technical terms, jargon, and acronyms. For every technical term that you do use, define it the first time you use it. Review it later.
• The idea of “crown cover” is introduced in one slide of the sample presentation and reviewed soon after (slides 24 and 27). “Ladder fuels” are treated similarly (slides 32 and 43).
  
  
• Note that the sample presentation avoids use of many technical terms. We avoided using “calibration,” for instance; “adjusted” is more easily understood (slide 25). Instead of referring to “tree density,” we stayed with “trees per acre.” We avoided using synonyms for terms, such as mosaic (we used only “patches). The name of the model was used only once.
• The sample presentation contains no acronyms.
• Provide information at several levels of difficulty. Not all participants will grasp model results, but no one should go away empty-handed. Easy but important facts in the sample presentation include tips on species identification (slides 17 and 19), differences in fire behavior (slide 38), the fact that trees can survive fire (slide 18), and the concept of a ladder fuel (slide 32).
  

IV. Organization

Use a clear outline. Remember that you are immersed in this material, but most of your audience has never seen it before.

• Provide an outline and follow it. Examples: slides 13, 16, 37, 56

• Review and summarize often. The sample presentation reviews at the end of each major section (Examples: slides 36 and 53) and at the end of the program (slides 74-76).
• Move from the known to the unknown. The sample presentation introduces the idea of a model by starting with a mechanical model (the human knee). Then it progresses to a familiar mathematical model (bar graph of precipitation pattern) (slides 10-12). Then it moves into data and models describing succession and fire behavior.
• Introduce new ideas in small steps. The sample presentation introduces the idea of succession qualitatively using animations, then quantitatively using a bar graph (slides 27-30).
  
  
  It uses “custom animation” to introduce the bar graph in several steps:

• Describe the concept
• Describe the axes
• Show the density of small trees is shown, then the density of large trees
• Describe the population of small trees with a bar graph and animation (slide 34)
• Repeat complex ideas and complex graphics. The sample presentation describes increasing crown cover first from an overhead landscape view, then from a perspective view, then from a profile view (slides 26-27, 31). If you repeat a graphic from the same view, suggest what to look for. Then be quiet as people watch.

V. Style

Connect with participants. Appeal to many learning styles. Polish slides and words so the audience gets your best.

• Show how your information is important to participants. Examples: slides 9, 47-48, and 78
  
  
• Use dialogue with participants. Ask them to predict the effects of a natural event or a management decision before you look at model predictions. They can voice their ideas or jot them down on paper. The script of the sample presentation includes many such questions. See, for example, the sections on succession and fire behavior (slides 31, 48)
• Use many senses. A PowerPoint presentation is dominated by language and visual symbols. Don’t let that limit you. Include items that appeal to other senses-- things to feel, handle, or smell. We used foliage and cones of ponderosa pine and Douglas-fir, and a cross section of fire-scarred ponderosa pine.

• Make the lettering big enough to read. Make it contrast with background colors. Put text over photos only if you can get enough contrast to make the text clear.
• Use consistent structure, labeling, and color schemes. If appropriate, use a consistent scale on graph axes. To you, it doesn’t matter that one diagram is in red and blue, the next in yellow and orange. But your audience may wonder if the color change is significant and, if so, what it means. In the sample presentation, the color indicating ponderosa pine in a graph was also used in the line drawing that illustrated the data (slide 34).
• Use the same font throughout, unless you choose a different type font for a special effect.
• Focus on relevant information and get rid of “noise.” To you, the file name listed at the top of an output file is not distracting. Your audience may try to figure out what the file name means instead of listening to you.

Your goal is to present information directly and clearly, minimizing digressions.

• Use active verbs and concise sentences.
• Notes are fine, but don't use a script to give your presentation. If some parts of the talk aren’t going well in practice, try writing out what you want to say for those sections and, after you practice a bit, put the script away. While presenting, use notes to prompt your memory and keep you on track.
• Practice staying within the time allowed.
• Practice using a laser pointer. Turn it off after you’ve pointed something out on the screen; don’t wave it around at the screen or at the audience.
• Talk to the people, not to the screen.
• Talk slowly enough, clearly enough, and loudly enough that the person in the back row can understand, even if he or she is somewhat hard of hearing.
• Be yourself. Enjoy and appreciate participants. Say “thank you.”

The Forest Service portion of this project was completed by the Fire Modeling Institute Information Team.

FUNDING ORGANIZATION

Joint Fire Science Project

PUBLICATIONS AND PRODUCTS

Zimmerman, Donald E.; Akerelrea, Carol; Smith, Jane Kapler; O’Keefe, Garrett J. 2006. Communicating forest management science and practices through visualized and animated media approaches to community presentations. Science communication. 27(4): 514-539.