Geoffrey: Meeting New Friends and Poster Judging

24 March 2019

Today was very exciting as I finally had the opportunity to meet people from other countries. My morning session was spent doing a collaborative group activity in which I worked with students from China and Russia to design door decorations. The task was uniquely challenging in that the Russians hardly spoke English and the Chinese students had very limited working proficiency. Learning to collaborate and work together despite the language barrier was gratifying and it was very nice to see our work come together. We spent roughly two hours working on the project – a solar system themed set of four door decorations. Each of our decorations represented our countries, so mine featured a planet with an LED ring around it with a hamburger and baseball to represent some of our culture.

The judging session was very different than I expected. Presenting research to judges is difficult enough when the judges speak English, so the language barrier added another level of difficulty in gauging their understanding. Nevertheless, I enjoyed talking about my project with them and they seemed interest to hear about my project. Many of the other projects seemed more entrepreneurial based, almost as if they were attempting to sell you a product rather than demonstrate the science behind their invention. Throughout the session, I had the opportunity to talk with students from the Czech Republic, China, Taiwan, and Italy about their research experiences. These conversations and the relationships I have begun to develop have certainly broadened my perspective of different educational approaches. Listening to the students’ educational testimonies is an experience which will certainly stick with me as I continue on with my own education.

Following the judging session, I attended a wonderful banquet which gave me the opportunity to network even more with the other delegations. All of the students I talked to were so kind and it was inspiring to see how engaged they are in their studies. Aside from the relationships I have been developing, the food has been delicious! This week has been (and will definitely continue to be) full of trying new things. I’m looking forward to presenting to the public tomorrow and further developing new relationships.