Chapter 11: They Snooze, You Lose

Chapter 11 Synopsis: Engaging Senses
       

              In Chapter 11, Dr. Burmark focuses on engaging the audience through their senses. As a science teacher the senses are very important when conducting experiments, but I never thought of adding senses to a presentation to foster learning.

The first sense mentioned is vision and hearing. Dr. Burmark states, “When the most minds are still paying attention- we want to engage the visual sense by displaying a compelling image ” (196).  I agree with Dr. Burmark because if you don’t engage the audience within the first ten minutes with a visual, chances are your going to lose their attention, that’s when an anchor image comes in to help your engagement of the audience. Images will help captivate the audience with the information your presenting.

            The next sense Dr. Burmark mentions is the sense of smell. Before reading this chapter I never knew how a presenter could use the sense of smell to captivate the audience. Dr. Burmark states, “Smell can evoke memory” (203). By using the sense of smell in your presentation your able to captivate and help trigger memories. As an educator you can use the sense of smell to help students to bring prior knowledge to the lesson your covering. Dr. Bur mark mentions that smell can foster positive moods, and help form a memory association from the past.

Dr. Burmark states, “Taste is probably the most underused of the senses” (204). As a science teacher I try to use the sense of taste when using foods as experiments, for example, when using sugar and salt in an experiment I have students describe the taste and texture of each substance. By using their senses the students are able to distinguish the difference between each substance.

            The sense that helps students learn better is the bodily-kinesthetic sense. After reading this topic I learned that by adding movement into my lesson or presentations I able to help my audience learn more. To help improve learning during presentations, the presenter should have the audience members move around during the presentation, this will help foster learning, and help the audience members to retain the information.

            By including multiple senses in your classroom, this will help stimulate learning for the best.

Burmark, L. (2011). They snooze you lose: The educator’s guide to successful presentations. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass