Product

To create the presentation itself, I spent a few hours doing additional research. Some was focused on biomedical engineering and the projects I worked on. However, this was mostly to find specific statics and additional information about the conditions which Dr. Throckmorton discussed. I also did research on pediatrics and the lack of research into pediatric medicine. I also found more information about the specific areas of medicine which needed more research and the path one could take in college to pursue a career in pediatrics. As I did this research, I began compiling it into my presentation. My slides were initially very plain and had a lot of words. I edited the information a bit to ensure that they didn't have too much, and I added pictures which I could reference during the presentation. I then began creating my survey and a Kahoot to play after the presentation. I wrote questions for each based on the presentation. I wanted to use the survey to determine how much the students learned from my presentation. I had them rank their knowledge of pediatrics before and after the presentation. I also had them choose what they found most interesting in the presentation, asked if they would consider a pediatric related career, and provided a space were they could request a link to my Slides. The Kahoot was meant to be fun while reinforcing the information I was presenting. Mrs. Graves suggested it as way to engage the audience. I reviewed all of the parts of my presentation and edited them to ensure they made sense. Finally, I wrote a script which I could use in case I was nervous and forgot what I needed to say. I spent a lot of time practicing the presentation to help reduce my anxiety about giving it to the Future Health Professionals Club. Eventually, I was able to give the presentation without using the script and I was ready to deliver my product.

On December 9th, I gave the presentation to the Future Health Professionals Club. It went well even though I was extremely nervous. Regardless, I made it through the presentation without any major problems and only had to use the script on a few occasions. Before I began the presentation, I gave the audience a moment to start the survey. After the presentation, had them finish the survey while I set up the Kahoot. Finally, we played the Kahoot which my audience seemed to enjoy and which I hope helped them remember the information!

I received 11 responses in total. The pie charts above show the responses on how the audience ranked their knowledge of pediatrics before and after the presentation. The average rank before the presentation was just over 4. After the presentation, the average ranking was 7.5. That is about a 45% increase from before the presentation. The responses to the question about what they found most interesting varied. Five students specifically mentioned the outdated practice and lack of research into pediatrics being interesting or surprising. I considered this to be a success since my goal was to bring more attention to the problem. I also had 5 students who were very interested in the Dragon Heart project. Other students hadn’t realized that biomedical engineering was a field they could have a career in or that children's bodies varied so much from those of adults. I had six students say that they may be interested in pursuing a career in pediatrics. Again, my goal was to encourage other future medical professionals to consider contributing to pediatrics in their careers and help bring the underrepresentation of children in medical research to light. These responses demonstrate that my presentation was successful at doing just that.