Today was Palmyra-Macedon's 8-9-10 Career Day, and what made this event different for me was that I got to share the stage with my husband (and fellow Imaging Scientist) Matt! The format of the day was to have professionals present in groupings of similar careers. Imaging Science is so unique, however, that there wasn't really going to be anyone for me to share the spotlight with - which would have been okay, actually, but I thought it might be fun and more interesting if I upped the ante a little. I asked Matt whether he would be willing to go and talk about his job as a Sr. Lab Engineer at the UR Laboratory for Laser Energetics, and although he was a little nervous, he agreed. (I knew he'd do just fine, though - he talks about LLE all the time!)
I made us a Powerpoint presentation that we polished up last night but we also brought along the FLIR to add in a little interactive component (boy was it nice to have someone there to help me carry equipment!). We were given access to the classroom computer which allowed us to present our Powerpoint using the Smartboard, but we brought a separate projector for the FLIR (which was good thinking, because we wouldn't have been able to connect it up to the classroom projector). I wish I had remembered from my past presentations at Pal-Mac that their outlets are a little lacking (ah, yes, now I remember - I had several surge strips daisy chained together last time - sshhhhh), but we made do with what we had.
Our Powerpoint was basically an overview of Imaging Science, with our intertwined stories of how we got into it and what our experiences have been, what our subsequent careers are, and concluding with a brief demo of the FLIR. It was going to be tricky though, because the sessions were only 40 minutes, and that's a lot of material to cover. I was especially unsure what to expect since I was sharing presenting duties for the first time, and Matt admits he doesn't have a lot of practice. Still, I knew that no matter what, we'd be fine.
It's a good thing I went in with such confidence, because what do you know but our presentation froze half way through the first session. I was more glad than ever that we bothered to lug in and set up the FLIR, because while Matt fixed the classroom computer I started the demo. Although in the end it meant that our presentation was interrupted, and we didn't get to finish it, it was useful for me to see how the overall flow was impacted by breaking up the presentation with the FLIR. Despite our awkward flubs, the students were good sports and were well engaged (especially with the FLIR, of course). We did get the presentation back up and running, but like I said, we didn't have time to go over the remainder of it in as much detail as we had intended.
For session two, we sped up our delivery of the Powerpoint to make up for time constraints. Even so, we definitely hit our groove after having gotten the first one out of the way. Our presentation had a nice back-and-forth with the two of us, and told a nice story (if I do say so myself). Matt did a really great job presenting and I was proud to share with him. However, I think it was a disadvantage to put the FLIR off until the end. Just as the students were loosening up with us, our time was suddenly over. It even worked out perfectly that the student I picked to go in front of the camera because he was wearing glasses, was also wearing a knit cap, which threw the other students off on a red herring. Ha-HA! Although we got through all of our presentation and were able to spend a few minutes with the camera, ultimately we ran out of time.
It's nice that we only had two sessions, because even after that I am totally exhausted. Though, more opportunities would have been welcome too, especially since Matt and I were getting our routine down. Overall, I think it went really well. The students were all really well behaved (even without other adult supervision present! Impressive!), attentive, and engaged. I even had a number of them come up to me after it was time to leave to make sure they got brochures to take home. In the end, I'm very happy with how the event went, and I would definitely do it again (and hopefully convince Matt to join me again, too).
I would change the flow of the presentation, though - I would probably change the order to be ImSci overview, career info, FLIR demo, and then the rest of our backstories. I had thought about doing it that way (especially because I normally put the demo in the middle, for loosening-up reasons stated previously), but because of the career-focus (whereas my presentations are usually more science-lesson oriented) I decided to do something a little different. Now I know better, but even so I think things went really well and I'm glad I tried it the way I did. Here's hoping we get to do this again in the future so I can put my lessons learned to good use!
I wish I had a corresponding image for today - especially because Matt was up there with me - but unfortunately we were too busy (either presenting, or fixing the computer) and there weren't teachers in the room with us, so we didn't get any pictures :-(
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