Workshops for Communicating Math

I am developing workshops for mentoring the creation of undergraduate math presentations. Thus far, I have run workshops for writing talks and posters as part of the University of Michigan's LoG(M) program and their summer REU program. I share a version of my materials here. Feel free to use or modify them for use at your own school. Please contact me to tell me about your experience!

Workshop on Research Talks

This workshop has two parts.

• During the first session, we discuss examples of research talks and students begin planning their own talks (lesson plan, worksheet). I incorporate some of the "techniques" modules below into the lesson (the TIME module works well).
• One or two weeks later, students have written a draft of their talks and have recorded the first part of it. We meet again for peer review activities (lesson plan, worksheet).

Giving feedback: The most valuable feedback on the final talk is from the audience themselves: did they understand the point the speaker was trying to make? This form can be used to collect that kind of feedback, as well as teach the (student) audience one strategy for effectively listening to talks. The form uses Ravi's "Three Things" exercise.

Workshop on Research Posters

This workshop has two parts.

• In a highly interactive session, we discuss effective poster presentations and students start to develop their own posters (lesson plan, worksheet). I incorporate some of the "techniques" modules below into the lesson (the jargon module works well).
• One or two weeks later, students have completed a draft of their posters and have practiced talking about it. We meet again for peer review activities (lesson plan, worksheets for conversation, content, and visuals).

Giving feedback. This form can be used to collect feedback from people attending the students' poster session.

Techniques for Communicating Math

These short modules can be incorporated into a workshop on either research talks or posters.

• Use jargon with careful intent (lesson plan, worksheet)
• Spend TIME explaining key concepts (lesson plan, worksheet)
• Use black boxes to say less but still get the idea across (lesson plan, worksheet)
• Use a motivating move to make your research interesting and explain it in a non-technical way (lesson plan, worksheet)