**Note for writer: My term project topic is Recycling, and the grade that I choose to present to is middle school students, which are studentsin the 6th grade. The hands on activity that all the students can participate is going on a recycling scavenger hunt where all the students can associate with one another or compete with who can recycle the most. You can also find other hands on activities as well!
For this component, you will be creating a narrated 8-10 slide [excluding the Title slide and Reference slide(s)] PowerPoint presentation (PPT) suitable for presentation to students from grades Kindergarten to 12 (K12). The presentation will also include a hands-on activity for the students to participate in. The presentation will need to be applicable to Environmental and/or Occupational Health (EOH) topics; it also must be professional, entertaining, factual, and suitable for the audience for which it is intended.
To explain, the presentation needs to be:
Professional: Remember – You are representing the University of South Florida College of Public Health in this presentation to others. The content should be organized, and the text should be clear and readable, grammatically correct and with no typographical/spelling errors. Images used should be placed so as not to cover text. In-text citations and references should be provided as appropriate – including, as necessary, the credit for images used
Be sure that there is nothing offensive or alienating in your presentation. We live in a multicultural world, so avoid slang terms or other words that might be misconstrued as insulting. While you may (and should) advocate for Public Health concepts (e.g. healthy living, reduced pollution), you may not advocate for political/religious/social constructs that may be considered controversial. This is not the appropriate platform for such advocacy.
Entertaining: Much as you probably do not enjoy presentations with each slide having just black text on a white slide – neither will your audience. Both text and images should be used. Text should be given in brief sections – bullet points are fine but should not make up the entire presentation, but neither should each slide just be paragraphs of text. Use of colors is also fine – jut be aware that some people have vision, color, and or attention deficits – so try to not overwhelm slides with too much color and graphics. Look to achieve a balance
Information coupled with anecdotes and examples make the information easier to comprehend. Videos are fine to include, but so long as they are no longer than 2-3 minutes and are suitable for the intended audience. Be attentive to copyright issues in using images and videos.
Factual: All the information you present should be accurate and timely. Any opinion(s) you offer must be clearly marked as such. If you say 30% of a population does something – make sure you are correct and can provide a citation/reference for that statement.
Suitable for the audience intended: Keep in mind the intellectual AND emotional maturity of the audience. Smaller children will generally have a shorter attention span than older students, and slides changes should be made in awareness of their needs. Language/images should also be chosen in accordance with the general vocabulary of the intended age/grade.
Presented to an audience: You will have to make an actual presentation. Since we are still maintaining social distancing and access to K12 schools is limited or non-existent, you should present to Family or Friends or Stuffed Animals or Pets or whomever else you can find. You can present in person or via a video chat – whichever is safe for all parties involved, but YOU MUST HAVE 5 PICTURES OF YOU MAKING YOUR K12 PRESENTATION. The pictures can all be of just you or can include your audience. Audience pictures are usually quite fun, but please get their permission first! TAKE NOTE: your presentation pictures will be submitted with your Term Project Report (see instructions for Term Project Report). Just do not forget to take pictures of yourself when you are making your actual presentation.
The PPT for the K12 Presentation should include:
A Title Slide. It should include the grade the presentation is intended for (e.g., “Miss Simple’s 3rd grade class”; “8th Grade presentation”, etc.), your name and your class/section number.
The topic (6-8 slide minimum): Your topic information and its relevance to EOH. Your topic and its relevance should already have been approved by your instructor (See Part 1- Term Project Topic instructions). In your PPT, you will explain to your audience what your topic is, how it relates to EOH, and what your audience can do to either help solve the problems related to your project, or to continue the positive aspects in EOH associated with your topic. For example, if your topic is worksite safety, you should be explaining what workplace safety is; how it is conducted; who oversees it; and either what your audience can do to be safe in their workplace, how to make workplaces safer for others, or both.
The activity (1-2 slide minimum): Your hands-on activity and its relation to EOH. For your presentation, you will have to come up with some activity that will involve/engage your student audience. The term “hands-on” should be the guideline for what the activity is. You should be picking something that will have the students handle something, create something, move something, or at least move amongst themselves. They should not just be sitting at their desk coloring a page, completing a worksheet, or answering questions. REMEMBER – worksheets, Kahoot quizzes, coloring sheets, and similar are not considered hands-on activities. However, keep in mind that your audience may be young children in a classroom; activities involving large messes, fire potential, or very smelly things may be very ill-advised and even contrary to school rules.
Google can be your friend here. There are numerous sites for educators as to grade-appropriate, e.g.,
In your PPT, you will need to provide a slide listing all the components necessary for the activity. You will also need to provide instructions as to how to perform the activity.
References (1-2 slides): You will, of course, have to use outside sources to provide factual information to your audience. You will also need to use in-text citations and provide a reference list. You should follow APA formatting for the citations and reference list. DO NOT simply use a URL as a reference; there are APA rules for referencing websites and should be followed. It is preferred that you use Peer-Reviewed literature for your sources of factual information. You may use governmental/institutional sources (e.g., CDC, EPA, ASTDR) as appropriate, but no more than 2 from non-governmental sources (e.g., Sierra Club, Teachers’ guides, etc.). DO NOT USE WIKIPEDIA AS A REFERENCE. Wikipedia is a secondary source – go to the references and look to find what applicable reference you should review. Be aware that the references may be outdated or incorrect due to newer findings, so be sure to check for timeliness of the information.
Ideally you will have several images in your presentation. Images that are taken from outside sources (i.e., not Clipart provided within the PPT software) should have a source URL available. You may use any number of governmental or non-governmental sources for your images, but be sure that the source link is still appropriate for the presentation.
Your PPT must be narrated. The narration for the PPT can be performed by either voice-over narration embedded in the PPT or by providing a written transcript of what you would be saying for each slide, submitted as a Word or PDF document. The narration/transcript should be long enough to explain what is on each slide – for voice-overs, this is roughly about 20 minutes total.
**Note to writer: Please follow all directions and I will be narrating the PowerPoint, just make sure it is a PowerPoint where I can narrate it for about 20 mins!
