Scientists, teachers, entrepreneurs and leaders who deliver complex information might want to take some lessons from a 90-second video on how hurricanes form, produced by ABC News. Chief meteorologist Ginger Zee explains hurricanes clearly, simply and visually. Here’s how she does it.
1. No jargon
Jargon makes a presentation very difficult to follow for anyone who is not an expert on the topic. When Zee does use a term that few people might understand, she defines it in a few words. For example,
“Hurricanes start as a group of thunderstorms moving west from off the west coast of Africa…Riding along the trade winds and rotating counterclockwise, thanks to the coriolis effect, a result of the earth’s rotation.”
The coriolis effect is important to explain, but it’s a secondary point. Zee doesn’t need to go into the physics of it. If she had offered the technical definition of the coriolis effect, she would have lost her audience. For the record, the technical definition of the coriolis effect is: an inertial force that acts on objects that are in motion relative to a rotating reference frame. Got it?
2. Short, simple explanations
The physics behind hurricane formation is extraordinarily complex. How does a storm turn into a hurricane? According to this essay in Physics World, “The moisture gradient at low levels sets up a negative radial temperature gradient in the clouds, causing air at inner radii to become more buoyant and therefore rise relative to air further out.” And that’s just the beginning. The explanation goes on for eight pages and 3,500 words.
Zee keeps her explanation simple by relying on a technique that I’ve written about in previous columns: the rule of three. She says a storm will keep growing into a hurricane as long it has three key ingredients. They are, according to Zee’s graphics:
#1 Water temps at or above 79 degrees.
#2 Ocean water vs. Land. (“Hurricanes don’t like land. They need open water to survive,” says Zee).
#3 High pressure above.
ABC’s expert took only 14 seconds to explain the three key ingredients of a hurricane.
3. Visual animations
“Now let’s talk about the eye of the hurricane,” Zee says as she steps in the middle of the storm. “The most intense wind speeds are found right here, in the eye wall.”
Zee is not really in a storm, of course, but thanks to green screen animation, it looks like she is. The viewer can even hear the thunder in the background.
ABC has an entire design department, and you don’t. But you do have access to presentation software tools like PowerPoint and access to mostly free sound-effects like thunder and lightning. Photographs, animation and sound will make any science presentation come alive.
If you’d like to step up on the creative scale, consider experimenting with Prezi, a software tool that allows you to show relationships to objects on the screen, and to zoom in and out of the slide. For example, with Prezi, an instructor can show a rotating photo of a hurricane and zoom into the eye without leaving the frame. Prezi is an increasingly popular option for sales and marketing professionals as well as educators.
Broadcast journalists are trained to explain complex ideas, simply. It’s not a skill that’s always taught in science class or business school. And for that reason, taking a lesson from experts who are good on television might pay off. Your audience will appreciate simple, clear and visual explanations.