1.Describe the topic that you worked on.
I went to Rooker Hall to present information about composting in the dorms to RAs and answer their questions about it.
2. Include a description of what did you do for the project. Please specifically include the research you did for the project and discuss how the research you did may be similar to research you will do in the future.
For this project I helped create the powerpoint that we were supposed to use. Initially I did research on the permissions that we would need to get from the university, but that was taken care of, so I ended up working on common questions to answer at the meeting and a basic list of things not to compost.
3. List your main points and write out what you now know about each of the points. How did you gain information about your topic? What did you learn about your topic through this project? Did presenting on the topic cause you to get to know the subject matter better?
My main points included what not to compost. I know a lot more about how composting works now, so I understand that you can compost anything that is biodegradable (so no metals, plastics, styrofoam, etc.). However, in common questions I wrote about the smell, so it’s recommended that you don’t compost animal products (meat, dairy, bones, etc) to keep animals and bad smells away. I also learned about disease and bad bacteria in compost, which is the reason that feces shouldn’t be composted. One part that was surprising about this was not composting glossy paper even though normal paper and newspapers can be composted. I gained all of this information by looking through my classmates’ infographic posts and doing searches for articles and tutorials on composting. Presenting on this topic did cause me to get to know the subject matter way better to get not only what you can and can’t compost but the mechanisms behind it.
4. Three (3) characteristics of effective informative delivery have been identified: intellectually stimulating, relevant to the audience, and creative. How did you incorporate these three (3) characteristics in your presentation?
The information in and of itself is both intellectually stimulating and relevant. When we presented we made a point of explaining first why composting is important and how it impacts our lives, which made the RAs become more engaged, so they asked us questions about the process. As far as creativity, we brought props to show them and there were pictures in the slideshow that we were supposed to show.
5. Identify 2 discoveries you made. What did you learn about yourself? Did you employ a new creative skill, do you see yourself as more confident? Did you become aware of assumptions you held—perhaps about the audience? Did you learn something new about delivering a presentation using technology?
I learned about how interesting biology can be to me when it seems relevant to my life. This was a theme throughout the whole class for me, but especially in this presentation being interested in the environment made wanting to understand and share information about composting and how it can make a difference was way more interesting than other biology I’ve learned in the past. I also did realize that I held assumptions about the audience. I really didn’t expect them to care about the science at all and just want to know about what they needed to explain to their residents, but some of the questions really surprised me- one was about why you can compost something but it won’t decompose in a landfill (I think it was about meat).
6. How did you analyze your audience? How did your analysis affect your planning for your presentation? How can you apply what you learned about adapting to the audience in your future communication efforts?
I thought back to my RA and the hall meetings that we would have and the information that she would pass on to us. That made me think how much more important having flyers and written information to help them would be. While I wasn’t completely correct in gauging how interested they would be, taking that into consideration and being prepared for anything are takeaways that I have for the future.
7. In less than three lines of text describe what you would do differently. For example, would you prepare introductory remarks differently?
I would be more prepared ahead of time. We had a plan based on who did which parts of the powerpoint, but didn’t realize that not everyone was there to present their parts, so having all of the details, including who would do an introduction could have helped a lot.
8. How did the experience better help you understand what you are learning in the course? Please address audience analysis, content development, organizing your speech, delivery, and incorporating feedback.
This really helped me understand the section on composting mostly in planning the content to talk about. Doing that research and putting a presentation together helped me memorize and understand the facts and processes, but more than that I’ve learned this semester how important being able to explain how applicable science is to everyday life is, so giving the presentation and hearing feedback and questions from the RAs was really helpful in learning to do that. Along with that, learning better communication skills are a part of any course like this, so thinking so much about our audience ahead of time gave me better skills.
9. Please describe how you can use what you learned from this experience in your future.
As I’ve already touched on this experience mainly helped me learn new skills for presentations, like thinking more about the audience ahead of time. I also am able to more confidently explain how science relates to important things in life, like when we talk about global warming and things that are becoming more and more important every day.
10. Did you come across the way you wanted to? What elements would you want to work on in the future?
For the most part it went well. I think not being able to use the projector made it seem more disorganized than I would’ve liked, so being prepared for that would have been really helpful, but aside from that the only thing that didn’t go smoothly was not being able to answer certain questions; however, it’s really hard to prepare for that knowing all of the research that we could.
11. This assignment has the elements of students addressing a real-world issue (water quality), receiving feedback from the community partner, and delivering a presentation using technology. Was this assignment effective for you? Why or why not? Was the feedback you received helpful?
Yes, this assignment and feedback were effective for me. I really like being able to hear about real-world issues and becoming more prepared to talk about them to other people.