Usually the people that go to a conference, seminar, or other type of presentation as audience members are the ones that expect to learn. The irony is that the host- in this case the presenter(s)- have most likely learned more about themselves, in aspects such as work ethic, time management, and organizational methods, and the topic in question than any audience members engaged in passive listening.
During the initial stages of our planning, we were mainly focused on getting a topic that would be the most supported by scientific evidence, because of the 40 minute lecture time that was given to us to fill. The thing is, when we factored in the “commonality” portion of the assignment- where the topic chosen should be either “something you already do to feel well or something that you are interested in learning more about” (from the instructions)- there were very few options that had, by itself, a multitude of effects that could be easily backed up with scientific facts. Thus we switched our criteria to a topic most relatable to the current unit, and also had connections to other aspects of life. In summation, we chose “relatability”, like the Relate and Reviews you have us do in class to increase our absorption of the material, as our main motivator for choosing jump rope.
Jumping rope, and just jumping in general, has many interesting and often overlooked qualities. It was remarkable how a single exercise was able to demonstrate three organs that could adapt to the stress that was placed upon them: the heart, the lungs (specifically the diaphragm), and bones. The heart becoming larger through cardiovascular exercise is honestly something that didn’t expect. Upon further research, though, I was stopped in my tracks with unanswered questions (like: can the heart grow big enough to be a problem as it is surrounded, in part, by the lungs?) because of the restrictions on scientific papers. One of the most important points, though, that I may not have emphasized sufficiently, is the improvement in coordination that jumping rope can do for your efficiency and precision of movement. The habit of staying on your toes is one I frequently neglect, and thus feel the effects of the most, as a badminton and ultimate frisbee player.
After the presentation concluded and I looked up to the clock to confirm the time, I was demoralized at only just reaching the thirty minute mark. During run throughs of our presentation (with my double lecture), we averaged at around thirty five minutes without any people responding to our questions, so I naturally assumed that we would break the 40 minute margin during the actual presentation. Unfortunately, I spoke too quickly under stress and cut down the time by a substantial margin. All in all, I feel that the live presentation deserved a 9 / 10 or maybe even a 8.5 / 10.
Initially, there were some activities and secondary engagement tools that I planned to incorporate, but during the week prior to our presentation, we quickly realized that it would be near impossible to develop them to the point where they would look professional during the actual presentation, and thus had to cut them out. This included a jump rope activity demonstrating the “talk test” where we would have split the class into two teams, and provided them with questions from Unit 3, as a review for the test.
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