Imagine Tomorrow

For me, the best part of the Imagine Tomorrow competition was the way it was set up, and how the judges would come up to you one at a time or in groups and you are able to present numerous times in front of different people. It was much easier than having to stand in front of hundreds of people at once and present only one time, having no time or second chances to improvise or fix anything that you messed up on/wanted to add to the presentation to make it even better. Also, this format of presenting made it much less of a formal presentation, but more of a casual one since you were able to interact with the judges as they asked questions throughout the presentation. This gave me time to think more clearly about what I was going to say the next time, and after presenting for so many times, our group didn't really need to present in a strict order of who was going when. We just decided that whenever one of us had something important to add that maybe one of us forgot to say, we could mention it right there. After almost each presentation, our group could collaborate with one another on what else we could do to improve our speech next time.
One thing that could be revised for next year's competition would be for them to give us a chance to relax after the judging, and to let us take time to explore by ourselves. I didn't want to go to the workshops. Although it would have been educational, I was not interested in any of the workshops they offered and just wanted to rest a little after the long hours of standing in front of my poster. It would have been nice if they allowed us some more time in the Recreational Center too. Also, they should have assigned around an equal number of judges to each group, and maybe afterwards if other judges are interested in a specific project that they weren't assigned to, they can then take a look at the other projects.

To prep for this competition, we split up the presentation so that each person would have a part. The practice presentations on Thursday were very helpful as it gave me an idea of how it would be like during the judging at WSU. Other than that day, we did not practice, but there was no need to since it wasn't a formal presentation on stage. The practice presentations helped me know what volume I should speak at to make myself clear and how I should explain things to the audience for them to be able to understand our project.
Overall, being freshmen, I think we were very well prepared for this competition, and many of the judges were surprised when they found out our ages and grade level. The quality of our projects were pretty good, and we might have done even better than some upper-class men. Obviously, time was a big issue. But some of our projects seemed too simple, and next year we have to step it up a bit since more people will be coming and it will be harder to win.

For next year's competition, I would like to continue our project and expand on it. We could do more testing that we have outlined in our future plans, and if our results are positive and show that DSE is a reliable fuel source for school buses to run on (maybe even cars), it would make for a great presentation. Also, if it is possible, I'd like to work on more than one project at a time, such as working on designing a "greener" building to add to Camas High School. Imagine Tomorrow projects should start as early as possible, maybe even now, so we have as much time as we need.