Thesis

Question: How well do you understand the topic of your presentation?

Rating Scale: ( 0 = Not Very Well and 10 = Very Well)

Out of 235 people who presented at the conference, 65 completed the pre-conference survey and 45 completed the post-conference survey. However out of the data submitted only 39 records were usable.

Participant	Pre-Conference Survey (21)	Post-Conference Survey (27)	Because of your experience at the Student Academic Conference, did your understanding of your topic (increase, decrease, no change) (Post 28)	Briefly explain how speaking at the Student Academic Conference either increased or decreased the understanding of your topic (Post 29)
02	9	10	increase	I was able to attain a greater understanding from questions that were asked.
03	9	10	increase	I learned more about my topic as I prepared to speak and answer questions. I wanted to have a lot of knowledge at my finger tips, so that if a question arose I would feel confident and prepared.
04	8	9	no change
05	9	10	no change	I did not receive any advice/ideas from the audience members which helped focus my research.
06	10	10	no change
07	7	8	no change	no change really.
08	7	9	increase	I had to relook at the resources and I worked more on them than I would have otherwise.
09	7	8	no change	no change
10	8	9	no change
11	7	10	increase	It gave me some motivation to do more research
12	5	3	no change	Since my topic was on a program started by my teacher, i felt that we didn't get the real feel of doing research. we were given a lot of the information.
13	7	9	increase	Having to speak about a topic forces the individual to attain a better understanding of the topic. Instead of being the student, we are the teacher and therefore must have something credible to say. By participating in the Ac. Conf. I had to look at our
14	8	10	no change	I had a good understanding going into the conference.
15	10	10	increase
16	8	8	increase	Allowed me hear viewpoints from different people with different backrounds on my subject
17	10	10	increase	Haveing to explain something to others helps with your understanding of what you are not only speaking about but it also helps with understnading the concept behind it and why you are doing something instead of something else, etc.
18	10	8	no change
19	6	8	no change	none
21	9		no change	Nothing changed. My focus was on competition, not on the conference. At the conference I was simply doing what I had done all year.
22	10	9	increase	Presenting allowed for me to better understand some parts of my topic that were questionable.
23	10	10	no change	It did not change. I knew the topic well before and it stayed that way.
24	8	8	no change
25	10	10	no change
26	8	7	no change
28	9	9	increase	We got asked questions which made us consider different aspects of the area
29	7	9	no change
30	10	0	no change	I answered questions 23 through 27 on the initial survey. This is redundant questioning. As for question 29, I would not have presented had I not had a grasp on my topic of discussion.
31	10	9	no change	Well I had to write this paper for my class so whether I presented or not, I still had the same understanding of my topic becuase I had already done all the research and work before.
32	10	10	no change	Nobody talked to me.
33	9	10	no change
34	3	6	increase	more time into researching and experimenting for the poster
35	8	10	no change	I did all the research for my paper the previous semester, so preperation for the conference consisted of reviewing my information, but no new research or information.
36	5	9	no change	I would have had to have a thorough understanding of my topic with or without presenting it at the conference since it was for an assigned paper in a class.
37	6	7	increase	had to quickly remember facts about topic during ? time and also had to think about issues brought up
38	10	10	increase	By people asking questions it made me think about things that I normally would not have thought about.
39	10	10	no change	I am not repeating myself again about how I knew the stuff.
40	7	9	increase	This experience really motivated me to learn more about the subject than what I had just covered in my paper. I knew that I would have to answer audience questions on an unfamiliar topic to them. This drove me to want to know more about the subject than
41	10	10	no change
42	8	8	increase	Some of the questions asked showed me where I was lacking in information. I went back to my sources to search for those answers.