Disclaimer: Dr. O came up with the title :)
Obligatory Reflective Writing Assignment Before this class, I definitely found myself reliant on words and explanations on my slides. I definitely spent more time this quarter thinking about the visual aspect of my presentations, making them actually visual so that the audience could listen to my words rather than reading my slides. I also really thought about how stories can play a role in non-artistic disciplines. I love stories, but I’d never thought much about how stories could be a tool for more effective presentations. In particular, I think that having a protagonist with goals is an interesting way to approach a science presentation, but when I stop and think about the examples we’ve witnessed this quarter, from Ted Talks to RadioLab podcasts, I realize how effective it really is. I do indeed remember more of the science involved in these presentations due to the stories surrounding them. This class has taught me a new and different way to utilize the skill of storytelling that I love so much. I could add both the slides and outlines from each of my presentations to my portfolio. These are things that I worked hard over the course of the quarter to develop – evidence of work I was proud of. I also have already included my notes from my mythic storytelling presentation. I really enjoyed that project, as it gave me the opportunity to engage in two activities I enjoy: performing in front of people, and telling stories. I selected a story I love – the myth of Medea –, from the perspective of Medea, a typically villainous character that I maintain can be justified in her actions. I greatly valued getting to share this story and perspective that I am so passionate with my peers – plus it was an excellent chance to get to practice both storytelling and presenting without having to worry about mixing up scientific details! This assignment represented a project that I adapted to fit exactly my interests and passions, something I hope to be able to do in other assignments in the future.
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(Sadly, I did not have a prewritten reflection for Presentation Two, so this reflection is done retroactively, 10.8.19) I really enjoyed Storytelling in the Sciences as a course, as I probably implied in my general reflection. I've recommended it highly to other Honors students, including my roommate, who is currently enrolled. It's especially pertinent for STEM majors - which I eagerly informed my STEM-heavy Honors 100 class! This is not really a reflection on Presentation Two, but I felt it was relevant to add. I feel like this assignment, and this class in general, really pushed my thinking. The structures of 'Storytelling' and 'Science Presentations' were distinctly separate in my mind. By this second presentation, I think I had a better grasp on the combination of structures Dr. O was trying to impart on us. I improved!
(Reflection written 10.30.18, and just didn't manage to upload until 10.8.19!) Reflection on Presentation One I always feel good about my confidence and stage presence when I am presenting, and this continued to be true for this presentation. I was passionate about my topic, and enthusiastic about sharing the information with my peers. I was surprised that I received feedback that some of my science was difficult to understand. I had thought I broke down the science behind my topic into very manageable pieces that would be clear for a general audience. However, I also took three years of high school biology, so perhaps things that I thought were obvious were actually more confusing to a layman than I assumed. But I hadn’t received this feedback prior, when I was practicing, so receiving it during the final presentation came as a surprise. One thing I would do differently next time is the organization of my presentation. I thought of two other ways after the presentation was complete that I could have presented the information that would have made the story I was trying to tell more engaging, and hopefully would have clarified some of the science behind the ideas. One tactic I could have tried was to go through the timeline of the life of my brother, explaining health problems and treatments at different stages. For the next presentation, I plan to experiment more with the structure of my presentation early on, so I have time to decide which format fits my purposes best. I personally found both the Topic Proposal and the Four Storytelling Elements very helpful. The Topic Proposal forced me to commit to an idea and start doing research on it, which became the backbone of the rest of my presentation. The Four Storytelling Elements pushed me to think outside of how I was used to structuring presentations and discover more about my topic and the story I wanted to tell. However, outlining my presentation for the final assignment is where I think I went astray in terms of structure. I was focused so much on demonstrating my use of ABT and assertions that I think I lost the thread of the story I was trying to tell. This impacted the structure of my overall presentation, as I mentioned above. I think that I should have tried to write my presentation out as a story with science in it, then split it into assertions and slides, rather than trying to cobble together a story out of the assertions I had developed. Similarly, I found it difficult to produce slides for the Slide Design assignment before I had fully figured out the structure of my presentation. I think I would have appreciated more time between those assignments, so I could have gotten feedback on my overall presentation structure before diving into more final details like appearance of slides. I particularly would have liked a chance to sit down with a partner or a group and receive feedback on the clarity of my assertions (so that my science would be easy to understand) and the thread of my story overall (so that I could be sure to have a clear beginning, middle, and end.)
Each day in this class, students would present retellings of myths to practice both their storytelling and presenting skills. I greatly enjoyed this tradition. I chose to tell mine about Medea, one of my very favorite mythological figures. These were the notes I used for my presentation
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