Researching isn’t exactly part of everyone’s to do list but it happened to be a component of mine when I decided to do a ROGATE project. ROGATE is a research program offered by the Nation Talent Network portion of EIRC.
In this research program, kids must research any area of their interest; make a thesis statement, research to prove it right, wrong or indefinite. After all that research you have to present in the form of a formal presentation. In school, teachers teach us to make presentations, learn about a topic and do the basic research about it. What the ROGATE program allows you to do is go beyond what school offers and really get become an expert in any field of your choice.
For me that choice was a cultural study about politics and religion. I studied Christianity, Judaism, and Islam in certain time periods and tried to figure out whether their army was mostly controlled by religion, or politics. However, there was a lot of research that I did prior to this. I first started with a very broad topic, then condensed it down to my thesis: Politics is more influential in determining military actions. In the end I disproved my thesis saying that religion in fact is more influential.
However, that was not the genuine learning part. Where I really learned was when I had to present. I knew diminutive about presentation before I had to truly step up to the plate and learn as much as I could about it. What came to a shock to me in all this was the fact that I had never learned it before. I never quite learned that when presenting putting up all the information on a slide is not the best way to get a point across. I also learned that having index cards instead of having a giant piece of paper really makes the all the difference in getting things across to an audience.
When real presentation time came, I knew what I was doing and I truly felt confident. I don’t think I have ever truly felt so confident before. I also feel that ROGATE is something I will hold on to for my whole life, because it was probably the best training I could ever get for making an excellent presentation!
