What is it about talking in front of a group that instantly makes your legs turn to jelly, your face turn red as a beet, and causes you to somehow forget how to say every word in the English (or otherwise) language? The fear of being the sole occupant of the stage - a.k.a. front of class - is real, and I feel like I am certainly (hopefully?) not the only one who felt this way when the teacher asked me to get up in front of the class and speak. It’s also strange that, for me, the stage fright didn’t often seem to extend to the drama stage; this fear seemed uniquely correlated with standing ‘on stage’ in an environment that doesn’t typically have a ‘stage’. (Maybe I’m the only one now?) Perhaps it is because we are not asked as often to present anything in math and the sciences, and then on the rare occasion that we are asked to do just that…cue the sudden onset of the aforementioned physical afflictions. Being able to present content and information to others (even a small focus group) is an important skill to have in any subject, and I would argue that this, too, falls under the umbrella of STEM literacy, just as writing and researching, which was discussed in previous posts. The reason that I would place presenting amongst this overarching literacy theme comes back to the definition of literacy from the Alberta Education Literacy Fact sheet: “Literacy is critical in helping us make meaning of the world around us. Literacy includes reading, writing, viewing, listening and speaking, but it also encompasses much more.” (Alberta Education, n.d.) Is not presenting a skill that truly embodies most aspects of being literate? In order to present information, one first must read and comprehend the content. Then, the presentation typically involves some sort of visual aspect which must be created, often involving summarizing longer excerpts or communicating data graphically, both of which were discussed in other blog posts as further aspects of literacy requirements for STEM. As the presenter, you are also continually looking for visual cues from your audience: checking for understanding and comprehension, scanning for questions (or questioning looks?), all while continuing to articulate your thoughts and processes to the group before you. It truly is a testament to all aspects of literacy. For this reason, I think that including opportunities to present and teaching proper presentation skills are very valuable additions to any STEM classroom. Additionally, presentations are not only good skill building opportunities for the presenter - I believe that they are just as valuable for those in attendance, who will focus on building their viewing and listening skills, both of which are also critical aspects of literacy. Thus far, the majority of this post has consisted of me rambling about why it is a good idea to include presentations as part of classroom routine or assessment. However, as this blog series focuses specifically on literacy applications in high school STEM courses, I will elaborate on some ways that teachers can look to incorporate more presentations into their science or math classrooms. The first is a fun idea that the faculty did in my undergraduate degree: mini-presentations about the year’s Nobel prizes in each subject. As the topics for many (all?) Nobel prizes are extremely complex, this is likely one to reserve for your grade 12’s, who may enjoy the challenge of working out some of the fundamental concepts behind the discovery. This idea could be extended to include other current events in the Science world as well, so that other topics can be found that are appropriate for other age levels and subjects. This idea also ties in with the topics described in The Researcher and The Writer posts, so check those out for further ideas related to those areas. A second idea to get your students into the swing of presenting could be an ‘old school’ throwback to the science fair. Somehow, science fairs seem to be the quintessential movie-and-television middle school science activity that apparently every single school does all the time. Yet (at least from my knowledge), science fairs are not all that common. (If I am wrong, then I thoroughly apologize - please, carry on hosting and participating in science fairs!) This is also a fun well-rounded activity which mixes the idea of a performance task and varying assessment modalities with a science report (or even a lab report, depending on the project). Give students a list of topics from which they must choose one project to complete - this could involve a physical Research aspect (performing a lab and reporting on findings) or an academic research aspect - either way, it is a good opportunity for students to practice reading, summarizing, citing, and other aspects of the research project in conjunction with the host of skills that they will work on through the actual presentation itself. Science Buddies is a good website with plenty of science fair projects or ideas, with the bonus that you can filter projects by grade and subject area, with very specific results (Geology, Biotechnology, Pandemics, etc.) Another, more simple, idea to have students ‘wet their feet’, so to speak, in the world of STEM presentations is to do daily summary sessions. We used this idea in one of my undergraduate math courses. This one doesn’t necessarily require any presentation software or tons of extra time, depending on how you choose to implement it. If you want to have your students do a day-by-day summary, then it could involve choosing a random name from a hat and having that student provide an on-the-spot oral summary of the content from that class. (I understand that some students would not enjoy this type of method, and if that is the case, then the following may be a better option). The other method, which we used in my post-secondary math class, is to have students pre-assigned a random order/day, and they will be responsible for providing a summary of the previous day’s learning. That way, students are able to have some time to prepare their summary, rather than being put on the spot, and then they may also choose to use a powerpoint or other presentation tool. They can then provide an oral summary of the lesson (with a certain time limit). This is a low-stakes activity, and it isn’t something that students need to fret about for weeks in advance, since they will have only learned the topic themselves a day or two in advance. This also may be a good opportunity to see how well students are understanding the content; if they make mistakes, it can be a good learning opportunity to take these up as a class. Whether you are looking to have students give big, formal presentations or small, informal and unrehearsed ones, getting your students talking and sharing ideas in class is an important step on their STEM literacy journey. I know all to well the feeling of petrification that I experienced when I read my first post-secondary science course syllabus and saw “Presentation - 10%”. As with the topics of most of my blogs thus far, introducing some of these strategies and skills to students at the high school level will only help them grow as literate STEM students. ReferencesAlberta Assessment Consortium. (2020). What’s all the fuss about performance assessment? Alberta Assessment Consortium. Accessed on November 26, 2020 from https://aac.ab.ca/whats-all-the-fuss-about-performance-assessment/
Alberta Education. (n.d.). Literacy fact sheet. Alberta Education. Accessed on November 26, 2020 from https://education.alberta.ca/media/3402193/lit-fact-sheet.pdf Science Buddies. (n.d.). High School Science Projects. Science Buddies. Accessed on November 26, 2020 from https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project-ideas/high-school
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