This is a presentation that I gave as part of my final research project in “Like” this class: the Rhetoric of Public Relations during the fall quarter of my sophomore year. The Poetry of Logical Ideas (phrase from Aristotle describing math) is a project about how we can teach math differently in order to make it more accessible and less scary to students.

This is one of my favorite artifacts for a few reasons. First of all, I really enjoyed the topic of my research, because it aligned two of my passions: teaching and math. I learned a lot about education through this project, and I got the chance to conduct an interview of Professor Carol Dweck, who coined the terms Growth Mindset and Fixed Mindset. This project also allowed me to introspect about my own experience with math, from middle school to college. Being able to include experiences from myself and my friends in this project motivated me to make my research as deep as possible.

On the other hand, I love this artifact because I think it was the turning point in my career as a science communicator: I learned how to effectively address an audience through both a written paper and an oral presentation, and I am very proud of the way I delivered this presentation. At the end of the quarter, I was selected as a finalist for the Lunsford Oral Presentation of Research Award, an honor that recognizes the innovative oral and multimedia presentations that students create in their PWR 2.

This artifact was also very pivotal for me because after finishing my research, I was drawn to apply to the Notation in Science Communication program. This presentation also brought back my confidence to teach in English, and pushed me to teach a class at Stanford Splash and apply to be a Section Leader for introductory computer science courses.