NUTSHELL NOTES "Teaching tips in a nutshell" - The University of Colorado at Denver's One-page Newsletter for Teaching Excellence

Figure 1. Sources of radiation. The class topic was radon gas in the home; this illustration served to place radiation contributed by radon in perspective. Red emphasizes the primary topic.

If you use the boldest, brightest colors sparingly, then your overhead will indeed provide emphasis rather than distraction. Color can also help to show gradational relationships (study Figure 3). Use of color does add complexity to design because light must pass through colored film on its way to the screen. Some colors, like dark blue, are attractive on the printed page but may prove to be too opaque for projection. You may also compose your graphic on the computer against a black background (Figure 3) so that peripheral white light is reduced. In this case, choices of font sizes and colors are critical to insure good projection. Initially, do a test film in your classroom with Helvetica font in various colors on black background; make note of combinations that produce good results, and then stick with these.

Figure 2. Map of radon distribution in the United States. This illustration followed Fig. 1 in lecture. Use of red to emphasize radon concentrations above 4 pCi/L (pronounced peek-o-curies per liter) is consistent with use of red to stress radon in Fig. 1.

 
 

Color overheads are within your easy reach. For printing overheads directly from your own computer files, an excellent Postscript® printer is in the Media Center in the lower level of the Auraria library. It was procured to serve faculty & teaching staff in preparing such overheads. Design help is also available there. (Contact Carolyne Janssen at 556-2455.) Alternately, color copy machines exist in the library and in the Tivoli student center (second floor). These produce overheads at about $3.00 each from color illustrations and even from color photographs.

Figure 3. Classification of landslides based on moisture and speed of movement of materials. Students should have black & white copies of complex overheads. This one shows relationships; consider how the definitions of white outlined terms would be perceived if provided only by words instead of as a graphic.