3 Ways To Make Your PowerPoint Presentations More Engaging In The Classroom

Since its invention in 1989, PowerPoint presentations (PPTs) have rapidly become a necessary teaching tool in our classrooms. The shift from the traditional whiteboard to the modern computerized presentations wasn’t unsurprising. It’s simple; PPTs offer many “cool” features that are lacking in whiteboards. Despite the benefits of PPTs, students often complain that they feel bored when their teachers lecture using PowerPoint presentations. So how do you transform your power PPTs into one that will engage your students instead of bore them? Here are 3 ways to do just that:

         1. Add Quizzes To Your Slides

To spice up your lessons, you can strategically add multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blank, summarize what I said, and think-pair-share questions to some of your slides. This helps students to retrieve the information they have just learned from their short-term memory which then boosts their ability to store it in their long-term memory. In their book, “Uncommon Sense Teaching”, Barbara Oakley and her co-authors emphasized the need to have formative assessment during long lectures. To make the activity even more enjoyable, I usually employ fun ways to select the students who will answer the questions. Here are a few ways I do it:

a. Pass The Ball: I let my students pass a ball or a stuffed toy around the classroom while I count from 1 to 10. The student who has the ball at number 10 has to try and answer the question.

b. Rock-Paper-Scissors: I do a rock-paper-scissors with individual students. If a student loses, he or she has to answer the question.

c. Don’t Blink: I ask students to look at me without blinking or talking. The rule is simple: “ If you blink, I will choose you”!

There are countless ways to do this. You may come up with your own fun ways to select students to answer questions you have strategically placed in your PPT slides.

         2. Use GIFs In Your Slides

Adding animated GIF images can be a great way to highlight key ideas while keeping your students engaged. Instead of using a still picture or a chart to explain the process of photosynthesis for example, you can use a GIF image that shows how the process occurs. You can find GIFs for many science-related concepts by simply searching on Google. Although GIFs are effective tools to engage your students, I would caution against overusing them. Too many GIFs (like most other things in life) may distract students’ attention. If rightfully employed, they will not only inject excitement into your lesson but make the lesson more memorable for your students.

A GIF showing the effect of climate change

3. Use YouTube Shorts In Your Slides

YouTube shorts and tiktoks are popular for a reason; they are captivating to the viewer. Teachers can take advantage of these short videos to emphasize an idea during their lessons. So how might you go about using short videos in your PPTs?

a. Use them to introduce a scientific phenomenon:

Instead of using words or still images to introduce phenomena in a lesson, I insert a short video in my PPT and play it at the beginning of a lesson. You can find and download age-appropriate videos about real-world stories or natural phenomena that are related to your topic for the day. For example, I play a TikTok video that shows how the lungfish can survive in dry soil when introducing the topic of adaptations. My students’ reactions are always priceless. I follow the video with a think-pair-share activity where I ask students to discuss how lungfish can survive in such a harsh environment.

b. Use them to show the causes and effects

I use short videos in my PPT to show for example a Parkinson’s patient ordeal or the melting of glaciers in Antarctica. The stories these videos tell help to engage my students and naturally bring up rich discussions about the topic.

Powerpoint Presentations shouldn’t be boring again with these new ideas.

I have witnessed the transformation that these small tweaks can make in my classroom. I now encourage my colleagues to give some of them a try. It takes a little more effort but the results are worth it.

How do you make your PPTs engaging? Share your ideas in the comment section below.