Goal 3.3 | Diego Sifuentes e-Portfolio Site

Today, I will discussing my growth on how I have grown in preparing and presenting, orally and in writing, to scientists in other disciplines and audiences outside the sciences. In the writing aspects of things I have first written a general audience paper on GMOs and how they were actually super helpful to plants and help produce so much more food. This general audience discussed that GMOs have a really bad reputation which should not e the case because they are able to feed so many people in the world. This paper did not use big words or scientific jargon in order for people without a scientific background could understand without getting confused. I will say that when I applied for an internship at virginia waterways they asked me to send them two writing samples. They wanted general audience papers instead of scientific research papers so I sent them the two general audience papers that I have written in my academic career. This was such a good feeling and it made happy that I could find the words in order to explain it to someone else because not everyone you meet will have a Biology degree. When it comes to oral presentations. In BIOL 488, I presented a powerpoint at the showcase on climate change and how soil and water conservation methods could help Longwood University stay a head of the curve when it comes to future problems that climate change might bring. One thing that I was very confident about was my charisma and jokes in order to persuade some people into thinking that these conservation methods should be in place. However I had one student think that we could do this because it would “take away people’s freedom” and “become a money grab scheme”. This is when I realized that not everyone in the room is a Biology major so I had to explain it to him from another discipline point a view. I would think that everyone would want to save the plant at any cost but I forgot that some people do not think that way. I had to inform him that water bills would be checked monthly and before and after my plan would be in place to see if we are really making a difference in saving water and reducing water use. Overall, I wish I could have explained it better to him but I had to think quick on my feet and next time I will not let it sneak up on me like that. I will use this experience when discussing other controversial issues with people from other disciplines and try to understand things from their point of view. I mean we see this already from people who are anti-vax who do not really have biology degrees and do not understand what vaccines really are and it is our job to make that bridge and connection to them so they understand.