Less than a week left!!!! Oh, I can’t wait for when I’m eating the delicious pizza (or whatever I paid 23 buck for) at Oregano’s. Man, we are soooooo close to being done. Anyways, the biggest hurdle that is left is that dreaded 15-20 minute presentation.
I have given two practice presentations in front of Mrs. Haag and other teachers (who I can’t thank enough for spending their precious free time to watch me ramble on about anime). During my first presentation, there were quite a few things that needed to be changed. First, the text on my slides was too small and the color scheme made it very hard to read, which was really distracting. Also, I realized that there was a few key links that I was missing. I did not provide a definition for anime in my speech, and my explanation of the methods was confusing.
So I tried to fix all of that before the Saturday re-do. First, I changed my color scheme (which did not really help at all), and increased my font size. My text, although much bigger, was still hard to read, so I am thinking of changing my background color. Also, originally when I explained the methods, I went through my steps very vaguely. But I then decided to use an example to explain my methods, which turned out to work beautifully. Finally, I added a definition for anime. BUT! Even then, after all these changes, my presentation on Saturday (which was a little better than the one on Monday) still had a lot of issues.
The biggest issue, as Dr. Helmers kindly pointed out, was that my timeline for literature review was not clear. So in order to address that point, I decided to put an actual timeline into my slideshow, which I found, surprisingly, cut down a lot of words in my script because the timeline gave me a much more streamlined approach to talking about the history and rise of anime in America. Two other issues that Mrs. Haag, Dr. Helmers, and Mr. Molk pointed out on Saturday were that I did not cite my sources often enough, and that my conclusion was slightly off topic. I still have to work on those two parts, but I am confident that by Monday, I will have a presentation and script that will be close to perfect. My next meeting with Mrs. Haag is Thursday afternoon, so I am aiming to have everything tip-top, on point by the next meeting, because it will be too late to change anything by that time if I have any major issues on my presentation.
Overall, after the practice runs and the feedback, I am more confident than I was a week ago. And I am really looking forward to this all being over.
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Hi Gursajan!
ReplyDeleteI think working and focusing on the presentation part of your PowerPoint is a really good idea. I think we can get so caught up with trying to memorize the content that we forget the the primary focus for the audience's eyes is the presentation and the visuals have to be on par with the verbal. I think providing those necessary definitions and examples can be illuminating for an audience that hasn't been immersed in your research. Make sure your transitions between sections are strong and make sense and when you do rely on that historical timeline of anime that you interact with the slides and keep the focus on what you're saying. I think you are on the right track! Putting in the effort now is especially important for you as your practice presentation is after everything is due, so make sure you are keeping in contact with Mrs. Haag if you need to or reaching out to other Research students to ensure you have the best presentation for Friday! Good luck, you will do awesome!
Hey Gursajan!
ReplyDeleteI think it's really awesome that the primary issue the teachers had with your presentation was the powerpoint itself. What I learned from my practice presentation is that you literally have to justify everything you say, so I understand how it's easy to forget to talk about why you did things in your methods or things like that. Also, the idea of putting an actual timeline in your presentation is really interesting and will likely make that part of your speech easier to follow. It was really creative how you took that so literally and I'm sure it looks great and helps you to interact with the slides more. Anyway, keep practicing and it'll all be over soon! Here's to the longest week of AP Research lol
KT
Gursajan -- I appreciate your reflection, and I so look forward to seeing the most-recent iteration of your presentation on Thursday. I think the timeline and the cited sources will bolster your entire argument. I also think it's going to be really important to draw out significance and implications from your actual research, not just from anime as a topic. We'll make the final tweaks tomorrow, and then you'll absolutely kill it!
ReplyDeleteGursajan! First of all, I really like the thing you have at the top of your blog, with the pictures you can swipe through, that's really cool. Anyways, we are almost done with entire year! One more presentation, one more blog post, a paper to submit for the final time!! We're almost done! Finish strong! It's only so close, not so far! Dream about the pizza!!! hahaha. I have complete faith in you and your ability to give a really good bomb asf super hot sexy presentation :)! Don't get nervous and talk too fast. It's great that you feel so much better about your presentation! It always helps to keep good eye contact with the audience and to use engaging hand gestures to make things easier to follow, and don't sweat the oral defense! Just make sure to give the jsutifications and the whys behind all your research decisions, and I think it will be good! Good luckkkk!
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