Time to Reflect

I cannot effectively convey how incredibly relieved I am to be done with this entire project!

Before the presentation, I was so nervous. I wasn't sure if I was ready, even though I had been practicing for two weeks and had a really good practice run with Mrs. Haag on Thursday. So I paced around the gym for a nit, got in the zone, stumbled a little, but ultimately made it through my presentation. I think I effectively conveyed the information and kept the audience engaged. I also think I did well giving specific answers to my oral defense questions.

But now the project is over.
What do I do?

I feel as if a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders, but also this was one of the only things that has kept me on a schedule and responsive for deadlines. Also, I think having this project the third trimester has made me work on something school related, and therefore is keeping my skills from completely deteriorating. 

Besides this life reflection (cue existential crisis), I am also amazed at what I accomplished this year. 

I went from... 

I distinctly remember showing up at the beginning and saying "yeah I am thinking something biology or film related." That is literally all I knew. And now I have submitted a huge paper and talked for 15 minutes about a project that I did. 

A few things I really found helpful this year were teacher resources, weekly meetings, and peer editing. My experience with the teachers I worked with was amazing and to be honest, I probably should have used them more. They were extremely willing to help, and got so excited about my project. I think this is one thing to take advantage of with the research process because BASIS teachers (and I think people in general) are passionate about what they do, so if you approach someone with a good attitude and ask for opinions, advice, or even help with a situation, they are generally willing to give some type of feedback if not even more individual time. This was a huge learning point for me, since I generally don't like to approach people. I often fear I am wasting their time, but I needed help, and when I received that feedback it was amazing. 

Weekly meetings with Mrs. Haag kept me on task this year. She was amazing at keeping up with progress and setting goals. I think the personal attention we received was so helpful especially when we have such a long time and nothing else to do, it is easy to push it off. But breaking the project down helped lessen the procrastination and also increase the effort put into each part. 

Peer editing was also extremely helpful. Personally, I love helping people edit. I enjoy reading projects and immersing myself in the thought process of others. On the flip side, it is really helpful to have someone else point those logical gaps and confusing areas, to improve such a big project. 

When looking back on the project I think the most stressful time was the data collection. It felt like this was the most rushed. The literature review was also difficult, but we had such a long time to work on it and break it down. One thing that was also frustrating about the lit review was writing it like three times. If I had to give one piece of advice to a student taking research, it would be to prepare to constantly adjust your project and paper.

Overall, this has been an amazing year in AP Research and I am reluctant to say goodbye. But I know that we are off to do even more amazing things. So here's to the research students of 2017! 

6 DAYS!!

Hi all!

This week was practice presentation week! I had my first practice on Monday and it was a little rough  since I had only practiced for a few days.

I felt like I stumbled through the information, hastily skipping transitions or not conveying information very well. A lot of these problems stemmed from a lack of familiarity and nerves, but there were also sections where I needed to add transitions. I also had to add a hypothesis slide, and an accompanying section on explaining the parts of my hypothesis. Also, in my first practice I realized some slides needed more transitions to make the information more digestible.

After I changed all of these things I was feeling pretty good, but then.... it was time to present in front of Mr. Molk and Dr. Helmers, the two people who helped me with my project besides Mrs. Haag. I was honestly terrified. I overcame my nerves a few slides into the presentation, and overall the feedback I received was super helpful. Mr. Molk asked me to define the capitalist system and justify why I am using that specific definition. Dr. Helmers told me I could cut out a section (maybe even in my paper) to make my argument more concise and credible. He also gave me a new direction I could take in my discussion: individualism as another fundamental aspect of a capitalist structure. This discussion is particularly interesting since it fits REALLY well with the themes I found in a majority of movies, therefore tying my results more directly to my discussion.

I walked away from my second practice feeling really good. My fears of being wrecked were not fulfilled. Instead, I got amazing feedback. So I am going to take this moment to give a shout out to the teachers I have worked with, and all the teachers who I know are working hard to help us. This research process has not only taught me about research and my own process, but it has also helped me to learn more about the academic community. I went into this project knowing very little, but with the discussions Dr. Helmers and I had, he was able to introduce me to film analysis. Mrs. Haag taught me more than I imagined about research formalities, as well as always provided strong insight on argumentation. Mr. Molk provided a separate perspective, allowing me to realize the connections my research had with other academic focuses, and also pointed out some logical gaps. Each one of these teachers helped me improve my project so much and their willingness to be an integral role in my paper, shows the support and passion they have for the subject and their students. I definitely think that their guidance has helped bring me to a higher level, since I felt like they expected a certain level from me.

Me @ the amazing BASIS teachers

I am really looking forward to finishing this project and polishing my presentation for the final practice on Thursday! 

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Presentation Preparation

Hello AP research pals!

Colorful slides with a variety of words and pictures, with a passionate speaker engaging the audience, and a steady flow of information is what I envision as an ideal presentation. I like a lot of variety when I am watching a presentation, like alternating between words and pictures, even formats. I also think an ideal presenter is passionate about the topic, transcending merely memorizing the presentation to an interesting conversation of information. Additionally I love when slides match exactly what is being said, like when the slide is immediately related to the script and timing is matched as well.

This last week I redid my power point and script. I got really into it and tried to make it as engaging as possible. On my own, I was able to create a colorful and vibrant slide show that limited the amount of words, instead using lots of images and gifs (Disney gifs in an AP presentation? What?!). Although my slide show is really long, many slides only have a sentence attached to them, so I think the constant movement and flow of slides will be engaging. With Mrs. Haag's reminder, I added transitions to create even more flow in the presentation, while also matching my words perfectly to the slides. Also, she suggested creating diagrams like flow charts for some of my wordier slides. Overall, I feel extremely confident in my power point presentation.

Feeling confident about my Power Point

I am slightly less confident in my script, not because of information included, but just the amount I have to know and make engaging. My script is strongly aligned with my slideshow and it accurately covers all of the points I need to effectively present my project, so now I just have to practice. I also think that there might be some transitions that are not as smooth as I want them to be like between different sections. So, once I hope that those will become more apparent when practicing.

Freaking out about memorizing a 54 slide script

This project to me seems different from a seminar presentation because it's like.... a big deal. Not that the seminar presentation wasn't, but in comparison this is way more legit. We have a panel of viewers. We are presenting a YEAR of research. I also think that we have to be more engaging since we have a panel, and keeping them happy and into the project seems like it would mean better oral defense questions. I feel like this is a big step in maturity from the seminar presentations, since we should be more advanced than last year.

My plan for practicing is to rehearse a lot by myself for these first few days. This way I can get the information and slide transitions down. Then I will start practicing my presentation style by presenting to my parents and sisters. I also really liked Mrs. Haag's idea of getting research kids together, so if anyone wants to practice together I'm down!
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Until next week!! 

Hi My Name is Grace Madura and I Will be Presenting on....

To be completely honest, this past week was a really tough one for me, so I'm just now getting some motivation back. Which is simultaneously good and bad. I feel very behind, but I am gaining back that momentum to dive back into my project and finish off strong. For this reason, I will admit that I  have the bare minimum amount of what I need right now. On the bright side though, I have a lot of ideas and am planning on putting the effort into make this presentation bomb. 

Rubric Row 1: I literally have a slide for the question, method, and conclusion. I don't know if it is too explicit but for now I have them in there. Perfectly obvious. 

Rubric Row 2: I have to integrate evidence and implications into my presentation. Which I don't have but have commented on places that I need to include them. I also need to make more specifics in my conclusions. 

Rubric Row 3: This row is actually really cool for my project because I thought there would be more signs of Marx's structures in these movies. But guess what? There's not! So I was wrong partly. But that's where the discussion on the purpose of the movies to entertain and then get the audience hooked on the products associated with the movies comes in. And Bam there is still room to prove Disney is strongly promoting consumerism through further research. 

Rubric Row 4: In the middle of my presentation there are some pretty boring slides. So i'll work on that. I made a slide that has all of the movies in my sample, and I think it is really cool, but I would love to know if it is too overwhelming. To me, it seemed like a good way to say I had 13 movies, without having to take the time to verbally list them all. Is that crazy? I am also planning on taking the audience through an evaluation of Aladdin to make the research process and data analysis section more clear (and prove I actually did work to come to my results). I feel like this example makes the audience a participant in the research process, and is hopefully very engaging, without taking too long of my presentation. My fear is that I go through this and then do not have enough time to talk about the conclusions in enough detail. 

I know I still have a lot of work to do. But I have a goal. This will hopefully be me when I rock the presentation. 

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The Editing Process

Hi all! This week has been super busy! I started doing some data collection for a project at Mayo Clinic and it's really interesting to be a (small) part of another research project in a different field. I am loving working with adults too. While I feel naive sometimes, they've been very helpful and treat me with respect, an experience that has made me give myself more respect.

Now, onto my completely different research project.

The overall trends in the feedback I received included confusing sections and abrupt transitions. I also really valued Max's comment on restating my purpose throughout to remind the reader what I am doing and why. I think definitely at some points of my paper it seems to go down a rabbit hole of information and it is necessary to go back to the overall intentions of researching the structure of Disney movies to find motivations of the company.

Me getting comfortable in the Rabbit Hole

Most of the confusing logic or points was during the literature review. I believe this problem stemmed from the fact that Mrs. Haag and I talked everything out so when I wrote it, it made sense to me and Mrs. Haag, but probably lacked some of the previous knowledge and familiarity. Luckily, my fantastic peer editors were able to point out information that did not make sense so that I can hopefully connect everything. 

When grading myself using the rubric, I felt like I fulfilled the "understand and analyze argument" sections and also the sources and evidence section in my literature review. However, I can improve in the "research design" section since I have a clear purpose and all the sources, but I am lacking in some of the connections. Again as a consequence of the confusing parts, I feel like I am also missing points in the "establish argument" section where I need to take my results and thoroughly discuss the limitations. Luckily, I am actually doing well with the word count, so I can go back and make the connections more explicit. 

Another section I could possibly lose points on is distinguishing my voice from sources. I need to fix my credibility assessments to focus more on the writer's conclusions, as Max pointed out on my paper. This way I will be able to show their results, and the MY conclusions to how they fit in my argument. 

Finally, looking ahead to the presentation really scares me. I have a lot of information especially in my literature review that I am not sure how I am going to cut it down. I think once I am able to figure out the lit review part, the rest of the presentation should be okay. One trap I see myself falling into is only reporting the larger results, which I think could be a negative since it would not show the nuances to my findings. 

... I just finished the paper?

I know I am not completely finished, but it is honestly so satisfying to say I wrote the last section of the paper.

Overall, I think the strongest part of my paper is probably the lit review section. It took about three tries but... I finally got somewhere I was really proud of that actually flowed logically and justified all of my parts and focused on the deeper root of what I wanted to discuss, the cycle of parent and child in capitalism. Before implementing my methods, I realized that my lit review really was not aligned with the deeper implications of what I was trying to figure out. Shifting the focus ultimately lead me to adding the thematic analysis portion. This part was very transformative and therefore the pieces seemed to fall into place a lot easier, which I think is represented well in my literature review. I think there is a lot of theoretical information, but I was able to explain it in a way that makes sense to readers.

I think the weakest section of my paper are the transitions especially between sections like methods, results, and discussions. Luckily the subtopic of "methods" helps, but I still don't want it to be as shocking throwing information in there.

I also feel a little unsure about my discussion. More specifically, I feel like there is good information in there about the different parts, but again it is connecting all of the ideas. Also I almost feel like I am undermining my research because it feels like there are infinite ways to analyze Disney films. While my results were kind of anti-climactic, there is some interesting findings and I want the significance to be accurately shown.

Another huge thing, is that I am wayyyy over the word count. I still have to cut some parts like in my methods section I adjusted some of the way my numbers were analyzed, however, this will not entirely fix the problem. So if there are any sections that are wordy or seem aimless please comments so that I can cut down on some words.

I am pretty excited for peer review, not going to lie. I look forward to improving my own paper, reading my peers' papers, helping them improve, and learning from their papers. I know there is still more effort that I can put into my paper and I look froward to polishing the finished project!

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Let's Have a Discussion on Discussions

I can't believe we are almost done with our papers! It has been such a long process, but yet feels like it flew by. 

Last week was the results section, and now we have the discussion section to write. Since the sources I used last time have been foundational sources in the formation of my methods and results, I plan to analyze their discussion sections as well. 

I really liked that "Images of Couples and Families in Disney Feature-Length Animated Films," the thematic analysis of families, immediately related the results to real world applications. In this study they took each theme they found prevalent and talked about what that theme meant in terms of child therapy practices. This gives me the idea to separate my ideas based on theme, in my case I will probably do movies that fit the structure and cycle and movies that break it. Then I will examine why it is the case that these movies seem to follow or do not follow the cycle. Since the majority of movies broke the cycle I will focus on that, and talk about the changes and reasons behind rebellious characters and such. 

Similarly, "Post-Princess Models of Gender: The New Man in Disney/ Pixar" jumped right into the real world implications of their character analysis, focusing on how these lessons affect their son's understanding. They then brought in other stats and sources to talk about the broader influence Disney has on viewers. This was mostly what I did in my literature review. But, I think it is important to see that they brought in new information here to prove their point that the messages in Disney movies are being transmitted to a wide audience, and therefore need criticism. The new information was used as a way to transition into the broader implications of very intense character analyses. I plan on bringing in sources to prove WHY it is more compelling for Disney movies to not follow Marxist definitions and what about families have changed in time. This will transition from my specific movies to the real world implications and significance of my research in the field. 

"Gender Role Portrayal and the Disney Princesses" followed very similarly as the other two. One difference though, was that each section had a sentence that clearly answered the question/ addressed the hypothesis, a small detail, but helpful reminder. Since this is going to be read by an AP Reader it is very helpful to use precise language so that they know exactly where my "answer" is. I also liked how to answer their question, they first presented a broad statement, that gender was both stereotypical and non-steretypical, and then went into the nuances of this statement. To address the limitations of their study, they present some issues with coding complex behaviors and a select sample of movies, which is basically what I did so these are considerations I will take when writing my limitations. 

I'm still a little vague on what information specifically I am putting in here, but I am starting to research that tomorrow! This is one of my favorite parts relating information back to meaning so I am looking forward to it. See you next week!

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