Present Your Research

Presenting Your Research

One important aspect of academic literacy is the ability to communicate research findings to audiences, particularly of community members who may not be familiar with specialized knowledge of your research area such as technical jargon. 

It has been a tradition at the University of Alberta to give international research internship participants an opportunity to communicate their research projects to the campus community. This has typically taken the form of research poster symposiums held between July-September, with alternate presentation opportunities offered to visiting researchers on campus in March at the annual Festival of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities (FURCA). There have also been 3MT videos created by past research internship participants.

Inspired by Three Minute Thesis, or 3MT for short, a spoken word thesis competition that started at the University of Queensland, Australia, our research internship participants are expected to summarize their research projects in a presentation that is three minutes in length. No more, and no less!

Requirements

The specific requirements for 3MT are the following:

  • Participants must have the consent of their supervising U of A faculty member to share the research
  • Participants are allowed three minutes only;
  • Participants are restricted to spoken words only (so no singing or dancing!);
  • Participants can only show one static slide (so no animations, music and electronic media);
  • Participants are expected to contextualize their research presentations for a non-specialist audience. i.e., how would you explain your research to a child or grandparent who does not study your field?; limiting the use of technical jargon or scientific terms that only someone else in the research area would know.

Preparing a 3MT requires scripting a research narrative as a story with emotional as well as intellectual impact. It is important to find ways to establish interpersonal rapport with non-specialist audiences, as a lot of research is funded by grants and writing grant proposals requires you to explain your research to non-specialist audiences as well as experts in your field. Before you prepare your own 3MT, check out some winning 3MT presentations for reference (there are many on Youtube and other video hosting sites).

Judging Rubrics

The criteria for judging the content and communication for our 3MT video presentations are borrowed from the Queensland criteria (The University of Queensland, 2021).

Content
  • The presentation provided clear background and significance to the research question
  • The presentation clearly described the research design/methodology for your study (or projected)
  • The presentation clearly described the findings and implications of the research (or projected)
  • The presentation can be about any stage of the research cycle, such as research question deliberation, literature review, research design, preliminary findings, or completed project

Communication
  • The oration was rehearsed in advance and delivered clearly
  • The language was appropriate for a non-specialist audience
  • The one-page static slide using the designated slide template was well-defined and enhanced the presentation
  • The presenter conveyed enthusiasm for their research and captured and maintained the audience’s attention

 

Questions? Contact intern@ualberta.ca.