After completing their research, students prepared presentations modeled after those they might deliver in a college classroom. Rather than presenting to one large audience, students shared their work in a science fair-style format. Members of the administrative team, counselors, and students rotated throughout the room, listening to presentations, asking questions, and engaging with the seniors about their research.
I am always happy to see this event bring our campus community together. It gives our seniors an opportunity to apply what they have learned, think critically about real data, respond to questions, and develop valuable public speaking skills. Just as importantly, they get to experience what it feels like to share their work with an audience that is genuinely interested in their findings.
Students appreciated the opportunity to put their learning into practice. Kenzington Perez shared, "It was so interesting to get to produce and experiment and challenge our hypothesis to see if we were accurate or not."
Gretchen Hall recognized the value beyond the classroom, saying, "It was a good experience for future studies I may do in my college career."
For Riley Kemp, the presentation format was a highlight: "I really liked the science fair style presentations because it gave us the ability to practice our public speaking and we were able to reach more people in a more intimate way than standing in front of a room and giving one speech. I loved getting to spread our results with staff and students. I also appreciated the positive feedback we got as well as questions and ideas from our listeners as to what we could further study."
Cameron Stakley also appreciated the audience's engagement, noting, "I liked when the teachers and administrators listened to our presentation because they seemed genuinely interested and they all had questions and comments about the logistics of our experiment."
This is the third year our Biomedical Science students have hosted these presentations, and I hope it continues to grow as an opportunity for students to showcase their learning and connect with our campus community.
Thank you to everyone who took time out of your day to listen, ask questions, offer feedback, and encourage our seniors. Your participation made the experience meaningful for our students. We are proud of the curiosity, effort, and confidence they demonstrated as they put their research to the test!