Faculty & Staff resources

Supporting students at SPARK

Faculty and staff make SPARK possible. Whether you're mentoring students through their projects, organizing sessions for your classes, or moderating presentations on symposium day, your involvement ensures students have meaningful opportunities to showcase their work. This guide provides everything you need to support students as mentors and moderators.

Preparing students for a SPARK Presentation

There are at least two people who need to prepare for a (short-form) SPARK talk, the mentor and the student.  Let’s start with what the mentor needs to know to prepare themselves.

1. Be clear about the goal. Keep always in mind that the goal is not a shiny product, but learning experience.  It will likely be a first-of-its-kind effort for them, in scale if not in type, so the goal is not perfect output.  The goal is the learning experience of going through the process.  That doesn’t mean their work won’t be impressive, just that you can’t think of that as an expectation or priority.  It needs to be respectable.
2. Set the presentation type. There are 5 main presentation types for SPARK, Short-form talk  (~10-20 minutes) Long-form talk (~45-60 minutes), Poster, Gallery, and Performance. It can be helpful if students are aware of the presentation target as they walk through their project. 
3. Step back. This follows from the first—it doesn't work if it's not their work. You can guide, you can suggest, but they will often want so much more from you. They are on unfamiliar and uncertain ground, but that is how they develop their own judgement and expertise. They will at times want you to substitute your (already developed) expertise, and that will be tempting to both of you (because it is easier). Resist, and stay in your lane. 
4. Catch them, they're falling. As noted above, what they are doing is uncertain and unfamiliar to them. They will need you to both remind them that it is normal to revise, to rethink, to not know immediately what the right answer/approach/perspective is—that this is not only okay, but necessary, and completely normal. 

Now a second list, what a mentor can do to help students prepare. 

1. Regular meetings. One obvious way to support students is through a course or courses, but it does not have to be so.  You can also simply schedule regular meetings with students that you are mentoring outside of a class.  They might just need to be prompted to progress and the default opportunity to discuss problems and puzzles that may (read will) arise.  Depending on the type of project, you, and the student, consider weekly or bi-weekly meetings.  More than weekly doesn’t give them time to think or produce, less often than bi-weekly gives too much room for procrastination. (Though again, your mileage may vary.)
2. Planning. They’ve never planned a project before, and this is structure you can help with that makes things less scary. For both prospectus and thesis projects, it could help to set milestone deadlines to submit progress updates.  This gives them time to revise and retrench as necessary.  (They may struggle with the difference between appropriate progress and perfectly complete.)
3. Workshop. Get peer-review involved; sometimes, helping students see things in others’ work can help them recognize directions or alterations they want to make before they see it in their own.  This also acclimates them to receiving and responding to (well-intentioned) criticism.
4. Reflection. The silent thread running through all of this is reflection—prompting them to learn to evaluate their work (and others') fairly. In workshops, criticism should be in the form of honest questions, requests to resolve ambiguities or gaps. In individual conversations, ask them to explain what they're doing. If they present a problem, ask a question that leads them to the root of it. 
5. Dissemination. Provide opportunities for students to practice their presentation, ideally in front of each other. This will provide you an opportunities to gauge where their work is at, as well as allow them to elevate their presentation from a typical classroom experience.

Timeline for mentors:

●      January-February: Discuss SPARK participation with students
●      March: Review and approve student submissions
●      April: Attend student presentations when possible

Register a session for your students

How do I register a SPARK session?

Session registration opens in mid-November 2025. The deadline to request a session is Jan. 30, 2026.

Sessions group related student presentations together, creating cohesive programming for attendees. You might organize a session around:

●      Work from a specific course
●      Projects within a research area or theme
●      Presentations from your department or program
●      Interdisciplinary work addressing a common topic

What you'll need to register

Your information: Name, email and college affiliation

Session title: Make this compelling for general audiences. "Research Presentations" is generic; "Solving Nashville's Urban Challenges Through Data Science" invites attendance.

Session description: Briefly summarize the type of work presented. If students are presenting from a specific course, mention that heere. This description helps attendees decide which sessions to attend. 

Presentation type: Choose the format that best fits the work: 

• Short-form talks (10-20 minutes, most popular)
• Long-form talks (45-60 minutes)
• Poster session
• Gallery exhibition
• Performance

Timing preferences: We'll accommodate your preferred time slow whenever possible. Consider your students' schedules and any conflicts with required courses.

SPARK category: Select the category that best describes the presented work (see definitions below). Categories can overlap—choose the best fit.

WELL Core category: Every session awards WELL Core credits. Review the WELL Core categories and select the most appropriate.

Location preferences: Let us know if you have specific room needs (technology requirements, space for posters, performance capabilities, etc). 

Serving as a session moderator

Thank you for moderating a SPARK session. Your role ensures presentations run smoothly and professionally. You'll receive a detailed email with your specific session information, including presenter names, presentation titles and a QR code for WELL Core credits.

Before your session

Prepare the session slide. Use the SPARK session slide template (attached in your moderator email) to start your session. This helps attendees confirm they're in the right place. Add your session's QR code for WELL Core credits.

Print the QR code. Bring a printed copy as backup in case of technical difficulties. Students need this to receive credit for attending.

Arrive early. Plan to arrive during the 15-minute break before your session. Use this time to familiarize yourself with the room, test equipment and meet presenters as they arrive.

Optional: Contact presenters in advance. Consider gathering presentations ahead of time, though presenters have been instructed to bring USB drives with their slides. Contact beth.bowman@belmont.edu if you'd like presenter contact information.

Learn names. Make sure you know how to correctly pronounce all presenter names if you'll be introducing them. Ask during the pre-session setup if you're unsure.

Encourage attendance. Invite your own students to attend SPARK. All events award WELL Core credits, and there's free lunch for attendees, presenters and faculty from 12:45-2 p.m.

During your session

Start on time. Maintain a strict schedule to ensure all presentations and Q&A fit within the allocated time. Respecting the schedule respects everyone's time and the presenters following your session.

Welcome attendees. Thank people for attending and display the QR code for WELL Core credits. Briefly introduce the session theme.

Introduce each presentation. Name the presentation title and presenter(s) before each talk. Encourage presenters to briefly introduce themselves—their name, major and year.

Facilitate Q&A. If time permits after each presentation, manage questions from the audience. Keep questions relevant to the presentation and be prepared to move on if time runs short. You can also save all Q&A for the end if multiple presentations are stacked closely together.

Keep things moving. Use transitions effectively between presentations. Brief transitions maintain momentum: "Thank you, [name]. Our next presenter is [name], who will discuss [topic]."

End on time. Conclude promptly to allow breaks between sessions and time for attendees to travel to their next event.

Handle the unexpected. Technical difficulties happen. Have a backup plan. If slides won't load, ask the presenter to speak without them. If equipment fails completely, consider relocating or allowing the presenter to discuss their work informally.

Thank everyone. Acknowledge presenters for their work and thank the audience for their engagement at the session's conclusion. Direct them to the QR code one final time.