For my outreach project, I, along with a few other of my classmates and professor Brickman, went to Clarke County High School to aid high school students in the completion and analysis of their soil bacteria project. At the high school, we aided in helping the students extract their results from the soil samples they collected and taught the how to enter their data into the data collection website. This was the same project that our class had just completed in the labs at the University of Georgia, so we were able to provide guidance to the students in finishing their similar project. The goal of the project was to enlighten us and the students of Clarke County High School on the presence of certain bacterias and their dominance in our neighboring environment, as well as their resistance to antibiotics.

During the project, we gathered with the students and helped them to analyze their petri dishes, which contained observable remains of bacteria that had been found in their soil extractions. After identifying them, we told to students to count all of the colonies of bacteria they observed in order to get a better picture of just how much bacteria lives in the environment around us. We then had them enter this data into a data collection site that is being used by researchers to identify different levels of bacteria around the world and their resistance to certain antibiotics. These results along with the ones we completed at UGA will help scientists better understand the bacteria around us and how it differs in various parts of the country.

Three Characteristics of Effective Informative Delivery:

• Intellectually Stimulating: Usually, we don’t think about all the bacteria that we encounter day-to-day, because we can’t see it. Thus, I think it was shocking but also very interesting for the students to be able to observe just how much bacteria we’re actually surrounded by. By placing the bacteria in a petri dish and allowing it to grow, we were actually able to see this and recognize the large amount of bacteria that usually goes unnoticed by us.
• Relevant to the audience: Everyone uses medicines like antibiotics throughout their life, making this a relevant study for anyone to conduct. It was interesting to find out that medicines I use for things like an ear infection could actually have negative consequences for my body such as increasing the number of antibiotic resistant bacteria.
• Creative: A creative aspect to this project was actually allowing the students to go out and bring back their own soil sample collection. This provided the study with different soil types from various places, so it was interesting to see how the bacteria differed from one sample to the next.

Discoveries

• I found out that I actually really liked helping the younger high school students with their projects. I could definitely see myself doing something like that again in the future for maybe tutoring or something along those lines.
• On the other hand, I also realized how difficult it was to get the high-schoolers interested and engaged in what we were doing for them.

I think that in the future I would need to do something to make the work seem more interesting and engaging, because it seemed like the students got bored rather fast with what we were doing. I also think that some students were a little shy and this caused them to participate less, so next time I would work on bringing those students out of their comfort zone in order to get them more engaged.

By helping the high school students with their project, I was better able to understand the study myself, which makes sense since I had to understand it in order to explain it to them. It was also helpful doing the project a second-time. I understood the process a lot better and why we were doing it the second-time. Next time I do a project like this I think it would be helpful for me to go over the process multiple times like we did here.

I think that I could have been more informed. There were some parts of the project and the data process that even I was still confused about when we were helping the high-school students, so that probably didn’t look good from their perspective. But, all-in-all I think I did a pretty good job in aiding them.

I learned alot from this project, so I would say it was very effective. I never realized how much bacteria surrounded me in my environment and how so much of it was resistant to bacteria. It was very enlightening, and it was refreshing actually doing something in a class and then relating it to real-world problems.

We worked on various composting implementation methods for around campus. They were focused around the East Campus area. While with UV it was just an outreach gauging interest, our efforts in Rooker Hall came to fruition with full implementation of a composting system in the building. We worked to educate the RAs and structure the program.

For this project, we had to familiarize ourselves with composting: what it is, what you can and can’t compost, what the benefits are, what the interest is. We reached out to residents and RAs through various surveys and interactions to gauge interest and gather input on some desired aspect. I do not believe I will do any further research on the topic, but I am now knowledgeable to compost on my own.

Composting- letting nature do its job and recycle organic matters for reuse in the soil

How easy composting is- anyone can do it, we set up a very easy system for the residents and provide them with materials to carry it out

We did most of our information gathering online. Presenting the topic absolutely helped me to learn the material better.

To be intellectually stimulating, we made the presentation easily understandable and quick; I also went around with an image to show the RAs. For relevance, the presentation gave the RAs all the information that they needed to know to pass on to their residents; we didn’t include any unnecessary information. Creativity-wise, we lured the RAs with snacks and spread out the information between group members so that each member was an expert on their slide and involved; it made it seem like there was already a big composting interest on campus if that many of us were presenting.

I discovered the efficiency of working in a large group. I also was presently surprised at how willing the RAs were to listen and learn.

We knew the RAs were supposed to be our field soldiers on this project, so we gave them everything we needed to know to employ it.

We had a little bit of lack of structure and familiarity, so we should have practiced maybe one time.

We put into practice ideas that we learned in the course, and learned about methods of presentation in a large group which is new for me.

Any experience with presentations is beneficial for development as a presenter; this is necessary to be a good worker. I may even start composting in the future.

We delivered the presentation well; in the future, practice would make perfect!

This outreach was a new experience, but I feel like it has more real-world elements than most presentation dream that they could have. I liked this type of assignment and would love to do it on a topic related to my major.

1) For my outreach project, I went with my fellow classmates to one of the dorms in East Campus Village, Rooker Hall, and do a presentation about the importance of composting. To prepare for this outreach, our class worked on a PowerPoint presentation that would describe the easiness of composting on campus to show to and educate the RA’s so they could teach their residents how to carry it out as well.

2) To prepare for this project, two classmates and I researched how to compost in an urban environment, while the rest of the class covered all the other aspects of composting. Our research showed there are two main ways one can compost while living in a city (such as Athens). The first composting method we found was commercial composting, and we even found a commercial composting company in Athens called Let Us Compost. The second composting method we found was a process called vermiculture that utilizes hundreds to thousands of worms to turn organic waste into fertilizer. Our research focused on using multiple sources and then compiling it all on one page in the WordPress site for future reference.

3) Besides researching ways how an urban dweller could compost, I also did my own personal research into how UGA composts its dining halls’ leftover food scraps. Little did I know, this additional information was included on the Rooker Hall presentation, while the urban composting information was not as prevalent. I decided to help on the day of the presentation by using the knowledge I had gained from my research to present the information about dining hall composting on campus.

4) Reflecting on our presentation, each of the characteristics of effective information delivery were used very effectively. The presentation was intellectually stimulating, which was evident when the RA’s asked us questions about their concerns or gave us suggestions for ideas. The presentation was relevant because the main audience who we made the presentation for were the RA’s at Rooker Hall. In order to keep the presentation creative, we added pictures to the presentation and made a colorful flyer that briefly summarized the information in an intellectually stimulating way.

5) I discovered that composting is quite simple, and I also learned that composting can be done in small, urban homes such as apartments. At first, I was shocked to learn that outside space isn’t necessary to compost, but indoor composting bins make composting much easier indoors. I learned that I can keep a level head during times of pressure or stress when we were forced to move locations from the Fireside Lounge inside Rooker Hall to a different dorm in order to present. We then learned that there was no projector in our new location, so we all had to adjust and figure out a solution. I assumed that the audience would be disinterested but they were very intrigued by what we had to present; I even saw a few RA’s taking notes during the presentation. We had technological issues because we didn’t have a projector, so we used (a classmate) Josh’s laptop which ended up working out. This proved to be a useful lesson, as I learned that it is important to have a backup in case something goes wrong.

6) I initially thought the RA’s would show little to no interest in composting, and that it would be challenging to convince them of how easy composting is. However, I soon discovered once we started presenting that this was not the case, as I saw that the RA’s were active during our presentation by asking questions and taking notes. For future communication efforts, I will try and make the presentation more stimulating by adding a few jokes in order to keep the audience more interested.

7) If I had to change anything about how the presentation went, I would have (1) asked my classmates to come a little earlier to make sure that we were all prepared for the presentation and ready to answer questions about the topic. Next, I would have (2) given us a projector so that our presentation could have followed somewhat of a more organized structure. Finally, I would have (3) prepared to answer questions about other people’s topics so that I could have been a little more active during the presentation.

8) This presentation introduced me to the importance of composting for the very first time. In addition to this, I learned how prepared and organized I have to be in order to present a topic to an audience. To do so, you must be well informed and be prepared to deal with unexpected obstacles. What I believe to be most important is that you also have to learn to take criticism very constructively in order to improve.

9) I believe I improved my group work skills and my communication skills through this presentation. This is in part because of the situation that occurred before our presentation where we had to change location. This made our presentation slightly disorganized because we were struggling to present without a projector. As a group, I believe we were successful in our presentation because we managed to persevere and present the information to the RA’s of Rooker Hall in a creative and stimulating way.

10) If our group was able to practice presenting a few times before we presented to the RA’s, I believe we all would have been more knowledgeable about the topic and better equipped to answer their questions. However, I still believe I performed well and I would like to improve my organization skills.

11) Overall, the assignment was very effective for me because I believe that one of the best ways to learn about a topic is to teach it to someone else. The feedback that the RA’s gave us was very helpful and taught our group what we were lacking on and improved what were doing well on.