Final Presentation Done!

Today I gave my final presentation. It's a HUGE relief to have that out of the way, and I think it went really well. I wasn't that nervous going into it. My only consern was that it would be really boring for my audience. Really, how many people do you know that actually enjoy hearing about wetlands? But, I got some really good feedback.

My presentation set up was basically as follows:
-Wetland Introduction
-How I picked my topic
-My learning experience at VIMS
-Teaching the 7th grade for my application
-Quit wetland "game" with Swedish Fish prizes
-Short talk about Port Isobel
-Questions

Then, I was finished. It went pretty smoothly through out. I never felt stuck and didn't forget to say anything major. I really loved doing what I did, so I felt I could have gone on forever. So, that definitely wasn't a problem.

Specifically, one thing that I thought went really well was the wetland game. I was able to take a break from constant talking and had some audience interaction. Also, at the end, the questions I was asked were all really good. I thought it was a great sign and it showed that people were actually paying attention. When I was finished, my teacher panel and several students gave me a lot of complements on my presentation.

Now, I just need to finish up my written document, get everything together for the showing of all of the exhibits next week, then, I'll be off to Port Isobel!

My Application

For the main part of my application I taught the 7th grade at my school. I did my presentation around the following four questions.

Traits: What makes a wetland a wetland?
Locations: Where can you find wetlands?
Animals: What types of animals live in wetlands?
Importance: What makes wetlands important?

I think overall it went really well. I had fun just getting to connect to the kids and talk about what I love. I taught three classes of them and each of them were very different. As expected, it got easier as I went along. The first class, I struggled a little bit. But, the second and third were a breeze.

I got more from the experience than I expected. I thought it would be ok teaching and, I was a little nervous. But, I learned a lot. I had to get comfortable in the middle of class, and in the end, I was. I figured out what worked and what didn't. And, I got to get to know a lot of the kids that I will be going to Port Isabel with in a few weeks.

Some Pictures From My Learning Experience

Here are a few pictures from my experience at VIMS this summer.


VIMS, as seen from the York River










Small crab viewed through microscope on student science cruise









Polychaete viewed through microscope also on student science cruise









Box core sampling tool on student science cruise











Loading up the truck on our way to my study site on the Patuxent










My mentor, Dr. Rochelle Seitz, getting a core sample at one of our sites on the Patuxent River










Using a push core at one of the Patuxent River study sites











Sorting through a suction sample at the study site

It's been a while...

I haven't posted in a while so I guess I'll give a run down of my senior project thus far and where it's going.

The learning experience, of course, is done and out of the way. Which means what's left is the application, the written doc, and the final presentation.

For my application I have a two part-er. First, I will go and teach Mr. Hutton's 7th grade class about Marine Invertebrates. I have a book of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation's curriculum and am about to start drafting my lesson plan. Something that I think would be great to do is to have some Invertebrate examples for the kids to see while I teach. Ideally, I could set up a mini-ecosystem with the animals living in something similar to their natural environment and base my lessons around that.

Then, it's the fun part. I will go with the class with them on their trip to Port Isabel. While on the trip, I will be able to show them the habitat of the inverts and go further into why the conservation and care of these animals is so important.

The written doc will be my finalized lesson plan, and my presentation... well I still have some work to do there. But, again if I could have some live samples, that would be pretty great.