On Thursday, December 11th, 2014 Kaylee Bagdan, Lindsey Gileski, Darren Heigel, and I gave a presentation on the Project Lead The Way program. We had been coming up with our speeches and practicing for weeks. We got to school at 7:15 that morning and hopped on a bus. Man was I nervous! I was just sitting on the bus practicing my speech over and over. And, then we were dropped off at Saratoga High School. Man was that big! At that point I became even more nervous. But, who doesn’t get calmed down by some nice refreshments? Kaylee and I ate some delicious cheesecake and some strawberries. We then went and set up our presentation area in the library. We put out 20 bags filled with spaghetti, tape, a marshmallow, and string. After our set up, we left the library to watch a different presentation. We spotted Mr.Healey watching this presentation too. There was about 60 people watching the presentation as well.
After we headed back to the library. Now it was time for our presentation. Of course we had Mrs. Donnan with us, but it was still pretty nerve wracking. Mrs. Donnan started to explain some of the program to our audience of about 50. Then it was my turn–I had to explain the Marshmallow Challenge. I was scared but I knew I had to move forward! I explained the Marshmallow Challenge to everyone–get 1 yd. of string, 1 yd. of tape, one marshmallow, and 20 pieces of spaghetti. They got into groups of two or three and had to make the tallest structure in 15 minutes out of what they had with the marshmallow at the top. It was fun being the teacher for once and peppering the adults with question, and giving them information for help. The winning team got 30 inch in height and got PLTW pens.
Then Kaylee started presenting about the Gateway unit. I was her “Vanna White” and was showing off the objects we made in class. We had made 3-D printed items and some spectacular skimmers. Then Lindsey presented on her unit and did a very good job. Finally Darren ended our presentation,talking about the Green Architecture unit, that had to do with preserving the Earth. Many of the people stayed after to ask us questions about our class. There was even a couple principals that came to talk to us.
On our bus ride home we all felt really accomplished. And all of us said of we could we would do this again. It really was the experience of a lifetime.