Rowan Report Goes Back to School

I’m sure you don’t read my postings to hear about my kids, but a colleague suggested that a recent story about my daughter’s science fair project was proof that the advice I push on this blog doesn’t just apply at the workplace.

First, some background. PowerPoint is so ubiquitous that it’s permeating our education system. Now, I’m a huge fan of technology, but this scares the hell out of me. You may remember this post about business schools now asking applicants to use PowerPoint instead of admission essays. And I recently read a story about PowerPoint in high schools. A teacher implied it is useful in teaching kids how to “walk an audience through” an argument. I imagined students staring at a list of bullets and reading them one-by-one to the class or admission board.

Back to my second grader’s science fair. At this age, the project is all about getting the kids interested in research and science. Lots of web surfing, lots of pictures, lots of facts. You get the idea.

Back when I was in school, each kid had to supply his/her own display board. But these days, the school supplies the cardboard displays; all the students have to do is pick blue, red, white, yellow or black.

Guess which color I recommended. (hint)

The science fair is the elementary school equivalent of the workplace PowerPoint presentation. And just like us adults who pick bright, distracting templates for our presentations, her schoolmates picked yellow and red and blue. Hers was the only black display.

Now, I can’t say that color had any impact on the judges’ marks. We weren’t too concerned about winning anyway. I won’t tell you it was the prettiest thing you’ve ever seen. And I won’t tell you it was the most brilliant project (one genius kid simulated a complicated “prime number generator” and mocked me when I asked him about it). But I can say that it stood out from every other project. I even heard a kid say it looked “looked cool.”

If I were a scientist, my daughter’s project might have been more scientifically impressive (and she’d have a better shot at Ivy League colleges). But I’m not a scientist.

Neither are most of you. You work with important issues, but your facts and figures are not enough to compete with all the other facts and figures out there. If you want to stand out, delivery matters. And “looking cool” doesn’t hurt, whether you’re displaying a school project or your organization’s materials.