SPEAKING OF SPACENow is once again the time to practice the development and delivery of a scientific presentation. The scientific results that you have just examined are broken into three sections. For this activity, your teacher will assign three small groups to take one of the three sections and develop a plan for presenting the information in a clear and concise way. This activity is identical to the "Speaking of Space" activity from the previous chapter. Therefore, the guidelines from the last chapter are repeated here to serve as a reminder for you. There is one slight difference, however. In the development of your presentation, you should attempt to point out to your audience how different areas of science were blended to carry out Dr. Alfrey's experiment. Let's examine this idea a little more closely.Dr. Alfrey's study incorporates some very interesting and important concepts related to biology, physics, mathematics, and chemistry. You may not have even realized that you were entering such worlds. A new challenge to you involves understanding and appreciating the connections between the biological, physical, mathematical, and chemical principles that you have been exposed to in this chapter. For instance, the dilution method for determining volumes that we covered extensively in this chapter includes the use of chemistry, physics, mathematics, and biology. For your assigned section, look back at the methods and principles used to explain the science and point out in your presentation how basic math was used for certain calculations, or how basic physics or chemistry principles were used to carry out the experiment. Help your audience appreciate how all of the sciences play a part in the background, design, and accomplishment of scientific experiments. The following guidelines will help you design a valuable presentation. 1. Imagine that your small group is the actual scientific team that conceived, planned, and carried out the experiment. (Of course, the astronauts actually carried out the inflight portion of the experiment but your role during this time was to oversee all of the activities and make sure that they were trained appropriately to do the right job.) 2. You should design your presentation as if your audience has never heard the information before. This means that you must first provide enough background so that your audience can understand the significance of the study. That is, explain why this study is important. Keep the audience foremost in your mind as you design your presentation and always make it as easy as possible for your audience to understand. 3. You must present information about the hypothesis, your methods, and the results. Remember that a hypothesis should be a simple, basic statement about what you expect the results to indicate. Develop your own hypothesis based on what was actually expected before the results were obtained. The description of your methods should include information about your protocol, the equipment that was used and how it was used, information about who the subjects were and how many there were, and anything else that is relevant about your study. In planning for your presentation, you must also determine the best way to display your results. You may want to graph the data or present a table of values. If you choose to produce a graph, include a title, the units of measurement on each axis, a legend, and make it as clear as possible. Also, remember to tie the results of your study back to the hypothesis. 4. Explain what the results indicate about how the body responds to space flight. Also try to determine how the results might affect our understanding of human physiology here on Earth. Which, if any, health problems that we encounter on Earth might be helped by the knowledge you have gained from your space flight results? Keep in mind that there are literally dozens (and sometimes hundreds) of people involved in carrying out a space flight investigation, each of whom is responsible for his or her very own specific aspect of the study, and each of whom is absolutely necessa ry to the success of both the individual experiment and the overall mission. There should be plenty of different roles for the different members of your team. There should certainly be a principal investigator who is in charge of the whole study, just as Dr. Alfrey was in charge of the real study that we've been learning about in this chapter. Also, a member of your team might serve as the engineer involved with the equipment. Another member of your team might be a physician or a physiologist that is assi gned to make sure all of the experimental procedures are carried out safely. There might also be various technicians that are responsible for collecting the data or producing the graphics. There are plenty of jobs for everyone. You may want to use more th an one person to present the experiment to your audience. And don't be afraid to use plenty of visual aids. Be imaginative but also be faithful to the main objectives of your experiment. After each presentation, there should be a short question and answer (Q&A) period so the audience has the chance to ask relevant, thoughtful questions. Rely on your team members to help you answer the questions. Don't let this Q&A session scare you. It is always a part of any well planned presentation. And remember, you will be on the other side of the fence asking questions of all the other groups! Good luck!
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