I chose to research cigarettes and tobacco limitation as cigarettes I have always been told how bad cigarettes are for you, but I never knew that cigarette companies purposely targeted children as customers. Finding this out made me furious and I wanted to do something to change it. I was able to team up with John Naro who was researching chronic diseases, and we researched and presented our information to all of the children at the two middles schools in our town. I believe that John and I went above and beyond the project requirements. We spent three hours for two days presenting information about cigarettes to hundreds of middle schoolers, and spent hours of planning and researching prior to that. Because of this and the effect we left on the children, we presented a very high-quality project. John and I were also told that our project will be used as an example of a high-quality project for future Students.
The greatest strengths of my final project are not in the genre pieces or the research summary. The greatest strengths in my project are in the presentation of my project itself at the middle schools. It was incredible to present to all of those kids, and to have given them information on why not to smoke. While we were presenting we also heard stories from the staff members and children about how cigarettes have affected their lives. They told us stories of their parents and grandparents who had smoked and are now not well. I believe that we truly impacted their lives in an incredibly positive way, and I believe because of us that they may not ever smoke.
Researching the effects and legality of cigarettes made me very angry; It made no sense to me on why people would ever smoke. I wanted to do something more with this information, so teaming up with John, we decided that the best course of action to take to prevent people from smoking would be to present to the children. We chose to present to middle-school children as they are most likely to start smoking in those years of their lives. I could have furthered my research by looking more into the specific poisons in cigarettes, and understanding why they are there.
The most challenging part of our project was getting ready to present. We had to memorize long speeches and still be interactive with the children to keep their attention. It took a lot of time to prepare, but was very much worth it in the end. The most rewarding part of my project was seeing the faces on the children as we presented to them. The children looked horrified finding out what was inside of cigarettes. The children would hold their horrified expression and without word sign the pledge to stay away from cigarettes. This information is still very useful to me as it holds personal value to me, and I will never forget what a profound impact the children had on me. They seemed to be really intrigued and at the same time mortified. I will never forget their expressions and stories, and may write more about them in the future.
My presenting skills have definitely benefited from this project, as we had to present for almost three hours straight for two days in a row. While I was presenting I noticed myself and John becoming much more interactive with our audience and using hand gestures and smiling more, also making eye contact at all times. I did not know that I had the capacity or memory to memorize an entire presentation that long. During the presentation I found myself improving the speech while as I was speaking and sort of improvised a little.
One suggestion I have for future English 4 students is to not be afraid to go above and beyond the requirements for this project! It didn't seem very possible to John or I to present for such a long time at the middle schools, but with a little hard work we did. Chose a project that you can really get into and you will see yourself grow intellectually and you will be better prepared for future presentations or research papers!
The greatest strengths of my final project are not in the genre pieces or the research summary. The greatest strengths in my project are in the presentation of my project itself at the middle schools. It was incredible to present to all of those kids, and to have given them information on why not to smoke. While we were presenting we also heard stories from the staff members and children about how cigarettes have affected their lives. They told us stories of their parents and grandparents who had smoked and are now not well. I believe that we truly impacted their lives in an incredibly positive way, and I believe because of us that they may not ever smoke.
Researching the effects and legality of cigarettes made me very angry; It made no sense to me on why people would ever smoke. I wanted to do something more with this information, so teaming up with John, we decided that the best course of action to take to prevent people from smoking would be to present to the children. We chose to present to middle-school children as they are most likely to start smoking in those years of their lives. I could have furthered my research by looking more into the specific poisons in cigarettes, and understanding why they are there.
The most challenging part of our project was getting ready to present. We had to memorize long speeches and still be interactive with the children to keep their attention. It took a lot of time to prepare, but was very much worth it in the end. The most rewarding part of my project was seeing the faces on the children as we presented to them. The children looked horrified finding out what was inside of cigarettes. The children would hold their horrified expression and without word sign the pledge to stay away from cigarettes. This information is still very useful to me as it holds personal value to me, and I will never forget what a profound impact the children had on me. They seemed to be really intrigued and at the same time mortified. I will never forget their expressions and stories, and may write more about them in the future.
My presenting skills have definitely benefited from this project, as we had to present for almost three hours straight for two days in a row. While I was presenting I noticed myself and John becoming much more interactive with our audience and using hand gestures and smiling more, also making eye contact at all times. I did not know that I had the capacity or memory to memorize an entire presentation that long. During the presentation I found myself improving the speech while as I was speaking and sort of improvised a little.
One suggestion I have for future English 4 students is to not be afraid to go above and beyond the requirements for this project! It didn't seem very possible to John or I to present for such a long time at the middle schools, but with a little hard work we did. Chose a project that you can really get into and you will see yourself grow intellectually and you will be better prepared for future presentations or research papers!