Today I presented to a group of Midlakes Middle School 8th graders. Since so many of them already saw me back in January, I decided I would need to switch things up a bit. As it turns out, the Freshmen were supposed to be performing their first live demonstration of their PTM dome for the IS&T (Imaging Science and Technology) student chapter meeting today. BUT, there was a scheduling issue - a luncheon was scheduled until right up until IS&T time in the usual meeting spot, and the freshmen were going to need a good amount of time to get everything set up and test it to make sure it was all working properly. Well, since I already had the Carlson Auditorium booked for my presentation, all we had to do was add some extra time on both ends of my reservation and we could present the dome twice - once for Midlakes, and once for IS&T! Genius.
So here's the thing about the dome: It literally was not operational until last night. So this was kind of a huge deal to get this thing working this morning in front of an audience! It was also no small feat to get the entire device down into the auditorium - it barely fits through doors, is too large to fit on a cart, and is pretty delicate. But, everything went pretty smoothly, save for a few small hiccups. Luckily, everything was operational by the time the students started filling in to the auditorium - aaaaand we're off!
I started off the presentation by telling my usual "about me" story, this time interspersed with a few videos, including: What is Imaging Science?; The Freshmen Imaging Project; History of PTMs; and What are PTMs. From there was a natural segue over to Joe & the Freshmen to briefly discuss what they were about to do, and get the dome fired up. It was awesome!!! There was a webcam showing what was going on inside the dome while lights flashed and the camera shutter opened and closed. After all 23 lights and images fired (yeah!) the data was all assembled. This step was not without some minor setbacks, but they were all easily overcome. Luckily, Joe has really good entertainment skills with the kids - asking questions, poking fun, and encouraging applause. And, what do you know - the whole thing worked!!!! Once the finished PTM was displayed and animated, the crowd rose to their feet and gave a standing ovation. (Okay, Joe told them to - but still!) It was a major accomplishment and very thrilling to see the dome actually operating. The 8th graders may not have quite realized the magnitude of this accomplishment, but nonetheless I think they enjoyed the presentation (and probably also appreciated the fact that we really were doing it on the fly).
I'll have some pictures from today's event posted next week! GO FRESHMEN!
So here's the thing about the dome: It literally was not operational until last night. So this was kind of a huge deal to get this thing working this morning in front of an audience! It was also no small feat to get the entire device down into the auditorium - it barely fits through doors, is too large to fit on a cart, and is pretty delicate. But, everything went pretty smoothly, save for a few small hiccups. Luckily, everything was operational by the time the students started filling in to the auditorium - aaaaand we're off!
I started off the presentation by telling my usual "about me" story, this time interspersed with a few videos, including: What is Imaging Science?; The Freshmen Imaging Project; History of PTMs; and What are PTMs. From there was a natural segue over to Joe & the Freshmen to briefly discuss what they were about to do, and get the dome fired up. It was awesome!!! There was a webcam showing what was going on inside the dome while lights flashed and the camera shutter opened and closed. After all 23 lights and images fired (yeah!) the data was all assembled. This step was not without some minor setbacks, but they were all easily overcome. Luckily, Joe has really good entertainment skills with the kids - asking questions, poking fun, and encouraging applause. And, what do you know - the whole thing worked!!!! Once the finished PTM was displayed and animated, the crowd rose to their feet and gave a standing ovation. (Okay, Joe told them to - but still!) It was a major accomplishment and very thrilling to see the dome actually operating. The 8th graders may not have quite realized the magnitude of this accomplishment, but nonetheless I think they enjoyed the presentation (and probably also appreciated the fact that we really were doing it on the fly).
I'll have some pictures from today's event posted next week! GO FRESHMEN!
No comments:
Post a Comment