Students will be able to effectively communicate orally in multiple contexts within the discipline.

In my Introduction to Ecology and Evolution course (BIOL 251), our lab group gave a proposal presentation at the beginning of the semester to explain our idea for research to the class (BIOL 251 Proposal Presentation). This assignment allowed our peers and professor to give feedback on our proposed experimental methods in an effort to refine our research. Looking back, I think we definitely should have included the existing literature we based this experiment off of in the presentation to provide background information.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I spent about a year attending classes virtually. Upon coming back to campus for my last semester, I soon realized it had been quite a while since I had given an in-person presentation. In my Senior Capstone course (BIOL 488), we were asked to give a baseline presentation to analyze and reflect upon our speaking competency. Having been a while since I had to worry about dressing professionally and standing in front of an audience, this assignment proved to be an excellent opportunity for me to review how to give a quality presentation (BIOL 488 Baseline Presentation). Getting feedback from my peers and professor was incredibly helpful in identifying areas for improvement, such as eye contact with the audience.

A really interesting project that I was able to work on with my immunology (BIOL 404) lab group was our immunodeficiency project. We were given a case study and over the course of the semester were asked to run various tests and assays to determine an accurate diagnosis, and then present our findings to the class and at the research showcase (BIOL 404 Immunodeficiency Presentation). Admist the COVID-19 pandemic, our research showcase day was moved to be virtual. While this wasn’t ideal, particularly regarding public participation, my group was able to record our presentation online and learned how to communicate orally through a different format than we were used to. I believe this will be a useful skill going forward in order to competently present or attend meetings online in such a digital age.

Overall, having to constantly face my fear of public speaking throughout all of these courses has forced me to get acclimated to presenting and speaking in front of a crowd. Looking back at some of my earlier presentations, I have become much more comfortable and confident in my oral communication skills through practice and repetition.