Research Activity: Small Groups Create Power Point Software Presentation

Research Activity: Small Groups Create Power Point Software Presentation
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Creating a Small Group Presentation

This lesson requires the use of the computer lab for around a week. Students will complete research and make a Power Point presentation showing the research.

Assessing with a Rubric

To assess the presentation, a rubric should be used. Criteria for the rubric could be amount of slides completed, spelling and grammar, works cited, use of color and creativity, content, presentation skills including voice and eye contact, use of clip art and/or photos.

Steps to the Lesson

Step 1 – Students are paired up into teams.

Explanation of PowerPoint Presentation

Step 2 – Give students the prepared rubric. Explain the task to the students. Students need to create 7-11 slides. The last slide needs to be a works cited page. All sources must be listed correctly on this slide. If students do not know how to make a proper works cited page, a review may be in order.

Step 3-- Each team selects a topic of interest from the course of study of another class, such as science, math, social studies, health, music, art, etc. For example, topics could be the Civil War, weather, the digestive system, the color theory, the history of Jazz, etc.

Students Create Outline of Slides

Step 4 –Once students have selected a topic, they decide what they want on each slide. This should be written in an outline form before they go to the computer lab.

  • The first slide should include the topic and the names of the team.
  • Middle slides should each focus on one specific item or topic. For example, many soldiers used the musket in the Civil War. Information about muskets and photos/clip art should be one slide.
  • Make sure that the last slide is the works cited page.

Cite Information and Photos Correctly

Step 5 – Send students to the computer lab. Make sure that as students collect information and photos that they are adding these sources to the works cited.

Students can drag photos or pictures directly to the Power Point slides. However, content for the slides should be written in their own words and not copy/pasted.

Present PowerPoint Presentation

Step 6 – Students should present their PowerPoint slides to the class. Grade the presentation using the rubric.

This is an interesting way to teach research techniques and using technology in the classroom. Most students enjoy using the computers and creating the presentations.