Today I did my final presentation for the semester. I still have a write-up due on December 20, but that's mostly complete, so I can essentially call this a wrap.
I'm going to focus this post on the two finals I presented this week, and later (when I'm back in Iowa) I'll post a video summarizing everything that happened this semester.
Audiences & Issues
Today's presentation was for my Audiences and Issues class. The assignment was to select an audience and create a 15-20 minute science lecture to present them. The topics ranged from a science communicator hired by a wind turbine company to talk with town members about the benefits of a planned wind farm, to a friend teaching her high school peers about how to help someone with diabetes.
For myself, I chose to be a master's student asked by a professor to talk to their undergraduate Intro to Psychology course about the big p-value debate happening right now in psychology. A lot of times during introductory courses, professors don't have the chance to get into detail on the real-world applications and discussions taking place on a given topic. Thus, I was (theoretically) asked to come in and do just that!
The video below is just over 17 minutes long and includes my explanation to the class of the audience I chose, the presentation, and a question following my talk. I've also uploaded the slides so you can follow along with the video.
Disclaimer: ignore my chipmunk-on-caffeine demeanor; I just get really excited talking about topics I enjoy...
Then there's Design Theory. Where do I even begin?
This project began about three weeks ago, when our professor told us the final would be a group project. An ENTIRE CLASS group project. Thirteen people, all working together on a single project. Oh joy... Our professor said it would be good for us, since we'll have to deal with this in a real workplace setting.
The basic idea was that we would be a design company hired by a Mr. Smith to design an exhibit for him. I and another girl chose to act as the customer relations team, so we met with Mr. Smith (i.e., our professor) to find out the details. Mr. Smith told us the company he worked for specialized in traveling exhibits, and they were getting ready to launch a new one but needed some help. This company wanted to create an exhibit that taught indigenous people all around the world how to safely dispose of waste material they came across so it would not later come back to affect them (e.g., don't throw batteries in the water since the batteries could leak and poison the water supply). Mr. Smith told us the people we would be interacting with didn't speak English or write, so auditory and verbal communication would not work to get our message across. With this information, we went back to inform the rest of the team.
We drew up some designs, talked with Mr. Smith about them, and got a final physical prototype created by the deadline. Voilà!
Each of the four landscapes has a hole in the board that corresponds to the protuberances on the individual recyclable items. Staff members who travel with the exhibit will be standing in each of the windows located on each side of the hexagon. They will observe the user as they interact with the exhibit. When the user has placed the recyclable item in one of the holes on the board, the staff member inside the hut will hold up a sign visually depicting what would happen if the item was placed in that area. For example, if the user puts the battery in the hole associated with the fire, the staff member would hold up an image of an explosion. This would be done for each combination of recyclable items and landscapes on the board. Since there is no correct place to ‘dispose’ of the items on the board, the user would then be directed to take the items and put them in a representative waste bin after their interactions with the exhibit are complete. Placing the items in the waste bin would result in the user obtaining a reward from the staff members running the exhibit. These rewards would change depending on the community and may include things like seeds or other agricultural products.
So proud of everyone's hard work! I think we all learned a lot about teamwork and each other through this process. |
Talk to y'all soon!