Community Bash Presentation Stephan T.

Our presentation at the community bash was a very valuable experience. There, I got to practice speaking in public and build confidence when speaking in a public setting with others watching. I feel that our group did very well during our presentation since we received a lot of positive feedback during the mini Q&A section afterwards.

One thing that we did well on was having a clear and visually appealing website for our audience. By having a clear and appealing website, we are able to keep our audience interested and it makes it easier for us to explain our topic. Another thing that I feel we did well during our presentation was that we were loud and audible and did not speak in a low or muffled tone. One thing I feel that we could have improved on however was the preparation for the questions after our presentation. It our audience had complicated questions I don’t think I would have been prepared enough to answer those.

One thing that I learned from the questions following the presentation was the reason for our plot having a negative best-fit line. As an open star cluster ages, the diameter of it slowly decreases, which was the opposite of what we had thought in our hypothesis. We learned that the reason for this is because the stars in the cluster are actually being drawn towards a center because of gravity and is why the diameter of the cluster slowly becomes smaller.

We did not have a lot of time after finishing our project on open clusters. If we were given more time, then we would like to research more about globular clusters and find data on them, as well as how the stars interact with reach other in these clusters. I am also curious of the forces that affect the stars and would like to study them more as well. I am excited to see what other projects people will make and come up with in this program.