Midterms were last Thursday and it was quite the experience. I enjoyed making and showing off my display, but I wasn't as positive about my presentation. I had an outline that I followed loosely so it would have been more beneficial to have a bit more structure rather than a few facts I need to blend in. I also think I got a little too flustered and impersonal, I wish I was able to make it a little more fluid. Overall, I think I did pretty well, but there are definitely those things that I want to improve on in the coming presentations. Something that I learned personally is that there are so many connections, during the time in between judge panels I talked with Mr. Duffy who tried to get geothermal energy at his house and Dr. Wiles who has a large stake in the school's solar panels. I knew Westchester and Niskayuna have geothermal, but it was interesting to see that it was relevant within my community.
I think I could've begun serious planning much earlier which would have helped everything in the long run. Once I had my plan and my materials, I spent a lot of time getting my work done, but I started a little late and I was stuck doing a lot of work very close to the presentation. As I stated earlier, a little more planning on the format rather than the content of the presentation could've helped me feel more prepared. I'm proud of getting through the questions and not thinking that the judges thought I was stupid. Sometimes I would see a judge write something on their clipboard and a little part of me would haggle about how it's negative, but I was generally good at keeping those thoughts at bay and staying confident.
I would change my approach by focusing more on the presentation rather than the display, Mr. Bott kept saying that the display enhances the presentation, not the other way around and I think I should have let that affect my decisions a little better. Again, for my next SDAs I really want to focus on content heavy projects rather than the pizazz factor, it wouldn't be a Sarah Lindberg project without a little pizazz, but maybe I should tone it down for the next round and switch things up.
I think the collaboration stuck out to me the most. I have been relying on myself a lot for these past few projects so I do want to switch it up for the upcoming projects, maybe go into the psychology of decision making with Steven and talk about how inability to change affects new forms of energy. I think the feedback has definitely opened my eyes to more possibilities. I think the most important question is, "What next?" To be honest I think there are a lot of directions that I could go into, I could study more geothermal, or I could move into another direction. I still would like to look into nuclear energy and policies so the sky is the limit.
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