One Day, Two Workshops

Today was spent entirely in workshops, that's how everyone wants to spend their Saturdays, right? This morning, my wife Cheryl and I led two sessions preparing the coaches of Michigan's Science Olympiad teams for our event: Compute This. While there I got a chance to talk to my seventh and eighth grade science teach, Mr. Moulder. It's a bit strange to talk to someone who was such an important figure in my life when I was young as if we were somehow equals. But, in talking to her I could see exactly why she was such an inspiration to my science education.

After the morning's workshop, I went to a media training workshop in the afternoon. It was hosted by MSU's Environmental Studies and Policy Program and was designed to help teach graduate students how to conduct a media interview without embarrassing ourselves. The PR firm that hosted the workshop sent an exceptionally well qualified partner to lead it, and she had reams and reams of wonderful examples. We conducted mock interviews, which were videotaped and then criticized afterwards. It sounds a little stressful, but the group was small and everyone was friendly, so it ended being a lot of fun.