Oregon Teen Science Cafe

Interviewing Nora – an Electrical Engineer

How did you narrow down the focus of your presentation?

It was hard – there is much content that I can discuss about electrical engineering! I decided to first provide a broad overview and then highlight the field’s innovation and technology development by providing examples of interdisciplinary collaboration with other engineering fields like mechanical, civil, and biomedical.

How did you come up with a hands-on activity?

I wanted to go in depth into one subject – the fundamental concept in logic design. I introduced the binary number system, provided a side-by-side comparison between the binary and decimal number system, and talked through three examples of converting a decimal to a binary number in my presentation.

What was the hands-on activity?

Everyone was split into two teams and had the teens compete for candy! The first challenge was to see which team converted the decimal number 98 to binary format the fastest. It was fun to see how the teens thought through the problem and help each other get the correct answer.

How did the dry-run presentation with the Youth Leadership Team help you prepare your presentation?

I received great feedback! I used the Youth Leadership Team’s feedback to restructure my slides, improve the hands-on activity, and make sure it bolstered my presentation’s main points.

What did you gain from your experience presenting at Teen Science Café?

I learned several lessons during this teaching process:

• It is helpful to provide concrete examples, like vending and washing machines, when explaining abstract theories and applications.
• The more examples the better! It helped support the teens’ learning and provided a good scaffolding structure to my presentation.
• Encourage the teens to ask questions! It keeps them engaged and helps make sure everyone is on the same page.
• Use your pre-presentation brainstorming time to decide on what to cover and what not to cover and making the trade-off between broad topic coverage vs. depth.