Presentation of the Copier Energy Project

It's funny (funny strange, not funny ha-ha) how a video camera can make me more nervous than a room full of students now. Maybe it's because I know the intended audience is myself. How does the old saying go? "You are your own worst critic." Well today, I recorded myself presenting my Energy Project slide show. The good news is I overcame the various technologies involved (Powerpoint with remote, projector with remote, camcorder with remote, digitizing analog camcorder output, etc), and did a pretty decent job overall with the presentation.

• Well organized.
• Slides matched what I was talking about.
• Good explanation of research.
• Good voice, no ummmms.
• Good eye contact.
• Fairly attention holding

It is true that watching yourself is like taking off blinders though. There are lots of things I could do better.

• Have a clearer focus. I tried to mix the results with the scientific process too much. I should have focused on presenting results first and foremost.
• Lay off the Powerpoint animations, or practice with them more. When I had animations in my presentation, I ended up looking at the screen more than the audience. They weren't *that* exciting.
• My assumptions page was too long. It sucked me in, and away from my audience.
• I definitely needed to repeat my second slide at the end. Reviewing the initial questions was a good idea, but paging back through the presentation to find the slide I needed was not.
• I could have done better presenting the research process. Again, I needed to blend the results and the scientific process better. This problem was somewhat exacerbated by not having a real audience. I ended up trying to present to a generic audience, and, no surprise, I ended up giving a bit of a generic presentation.
• I was a bit fidgety. Typically, if I'm standing, I'm used to writing on the board. It was a little unsettling to have everything already written on the "board."
  

In all though, I believe this was a successful project. The process was good, the results valid, the topic engaging, and the presentation informative and relevant. I can't complain too much either about my students not coming in on a Saturday to watch. One of them brought me some deer meat from *his* successful project today.