Your Senior Board Presentation is the culmination of the many months of work you spent on your paper and your project. What you expected, what you learned, your self-growth, your disappointments, and your achievements are uniquely yours. The judges are waiting to hear you discuss information reflecting your research as well as knowledge you have gained from the project phase. They will also be interested in evidence of self-growth, learning stretch, and problem-solving strategies. Your Senior Bards is a time of personal reflection and public celebration. This is your chance to share and to shine. Enjoy the moment. All rubrics will be averaged to create your final score.
At the end of your presentation, the judges will ask questions about your research and/or fieldwork. The questions are usually very genera, and you will be able to answer them easily after you have spent so many hours on your topic, but it is wise to prepare a list of questions in advance and rehearse possible responses while practicing your speech. Remember, your speech should be 15-20 minutes in length to receive full credit (leaving approximately 10 minutes for the question-and-answer session afterward).
Step 1:What should I say? Referring to your Field Work Logs and additional materials, answer the following questions, which will help define and guide the content of your presentation.
1. How do your paper and project connect?
2. What emotions did you experience as you worked through the paper and project: anger, excitement, frustration, pride?
3. What problems did you encounter: money, time management, skill deficiency, lack of resources? Explain.
4. What personal growth and self-knowledge did you gain from completing the paper and the project? What knowledge did you learn about your topic?
5. How did the project affect your plans for the future: related career, hobby, general knowledge?
Step 2: How am I going to say this? The information below provides an organization framework for your presentation.
• Have an introduction that grabs the attention of the judges
• Spend 3-4 minutes informing the judges about what you learned by writing your research paper (facts and interesting information)
• Continue your speech for 3-4 minutes about your field work
• Close the body of your speech with 3-4 minutes on how your Senior Project was a learning stretch for you.
• End your speech with a convincing conclusion that summarizes your Senior Project experience.
Step 3:Decide how you will integrate your project, or the visual representation of your project into your speech. Avoid passing items around during your speech: this causes too much distraction. Make sure you pre-arrange any AV equipment you will need with your teachers.
Step 4: Speech techniques to remember:
• Eye contact: practice enough so that you only need to glance occasionally at your cards or your PowerPoint slides. (Remember your visual aid is NOT your message, it should enhance your message)
• Posture: stand proud. You have accomplished a great deal.
• Avoid: gripping the podium, locking your knees, twitching, wriggling, and shaking.
• Voice: Volume and pitch
• Gestures: Natural and spontaneous, not distracting
• Props: plan and practice using any props you will need
Step 5: Prepare for questions. Remember to use good answering skills. Of course there is no way to know for sure what the panel members will ask you, but you can make some educated guesses, and that process will provide you with the confidence and clear-hotheadedness to take on any queries. Consider the following questions:
1. If you were a judge listening to your speech, what would you want to know?
2. What would you like people to ask?
3. What unusual qualities does your project have?
4. What part of your paper might make people curious?
5. Did your topic touch upon any controversial issues? If so, explain.
6. What possessed you to choose this topic?
7. Who helped you and how?
8. How did you finance it?
9. How much time did you spend?
10. How do you plan to use the ideas you have learned in the future?
11. If you could do anything different regarding your project what would it be?
How to Answer Like a Pro:
• Give the person who asks you a question direct eye contact.
• Don’t answer with short, “I dunno,” or “Oh yeah” responses. Instead, restate the question into the context of your answer. For example, Questions: “What did you gain from this experience, Todd?” Answer: “I gained so much from the Senior Project experience, Mr. Brown. One thing I learned was patience. I never knew it would take so long to rebuild the engine. Waiting for parts was one of my biggest frustrations. I also learned....”
• Extend and expand on the information already shared in your speech.
• Look around and smile occasionally.
• If you do not know an answer, don’t try to fake it. Instead, you might reply, “That’s a good question. I did not cover that in my research but would like to find out about it. Thank you.”
• At the conclusion of the questions and answer period, look at the judges and thank them for their time and interest.