Elevator Speech Contest to be held this spring

The Entomology, Plant Pathology and Agronomy and Horticulture departments have joined forces to organize and host the first Elevator Speech Contest for graduate students this spring 2019.

The Agronomy and Horticulture Graduate Student Association invites all Agronomy and Horticulture graduate students to participate as speakers. Both rounds will be open to the public to watch the talks and cheer on the participants.

The goal is for students to communicate their science research in a short, three-minute presentation to a broad audience.

There will be a preliminary round within each department. The Plant Pathology students will present 4–5 p.m. Jan. 7, site to be determined. Agronomy and Horticulture students will present 3–5 p.m. Jan 11 in Room 150, Keim Hall. Entomology students’ preliminary presentations took place Nov. 5.

The final round, featuring the top five speakers from each department, will be 2–4 p.m. Feb. 21. The venue is yet to be determined.

Participants are asked to:

• Present research within a maximum of three minutes.
  
• Use a maximum of one PowerPoint slide as support.
  
• Make research fun and understandable to a broad audience.
  
• Impress your audience. Speeches will be graded by a panel of faculty judges.

• An opportunity to practice public speaking and scientific outreach
  
• An opportunity to practice explaining science to a general audience
  
• Fun and the chance to foster community between three IANR departments
  
• A meaningful outreach entry in a student's CV
  
• Prizes will be awarded to the top speakers