Now that the paper is finished, it's time that I focus on the other part of AP Research: the presentation. Presenting should be a fun experience (I've watched too many TED Talks), and I hope to engage the audience. The question is, though, how do I do this? I need to find a way to make people interested in something they do without even thinking about - blinking. I also need to hold their attention so that they're engaged when I talk about dopamine, and to discuss it so that the audience doesn't feel like they're in a middle school biology class (or this class below in SpongeBob).
In order to make people interested, I have decided that what I have to do is begin by talking about the thing that everyone cares about: themselves. No, I'm not just trying to be cynical; it's human nature. The underlying central theme around my paper and around the question I posed has to do with the fact that the majority of who we are and the decisions that we make are not really up to us, but up to our brain chemistries and unconscious. The fact that dopamine plays such a large role in behavior makes one think about how much he or she can control oneself. How would you behave if you had an abnormal amount of dopamine? Would you impulsively gamble or set fires? Much of who we are is determined by how our brains are wired.
So, when I start the presentation, I think I'm going to talk about the question regarding whether we possess free will. How much free will do we really have when so many of our decisions are based on the chemistry of our brains? Then, I'm thinking of talking about how there is so much that we don't know about what drives our behavior, and the implications this has across many fields. For instance, this could have profound implications for the law. Who's to say one is culpable of committing a crime if someone has an abnormality in his or her brain? (However, reaching too far with this concept could be detrimental to the legal system, since then anyone could use the argument that they're not really in charge of their decisions).
After discussing this in the opening, I can then turn to why I chose to study dopamine. I'll go into the details of everything dopamine does, and why it is so important to understand its capabilities and everything it does. Once I relate how my research has to do with everyone and their minds, I think people will be more inclined to listen and be engaged. Maybe I'll try and tell jokes. Probably shouldn't do that though. I have puns! I've realized that puns make some people are really angry though, so I think I'll stay away from those too...(nah.).
In the meantime, I'm going to go shopping for something I can wear for the presentation. I need to look professional, and I think I'm going to buy new shoes.
Thanks for reading and I'll post again next week!
Word Count: 518
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