#marbleruns

I began work on my presentation assignment by creating my instructional design plan. This allowed me to focus on what the problem and anticipated outcome would be for my PowerPoint presentation. The problem stated that the public library’s homemade marble run design-competition program needed general instructional guidance before families create their marble runs. The outcome predicted that after viewing the PowerPoint presentation, patrons will gain understanding and creative ideas to design, construct, and use a homemade marble run. It allowed me to think about who would be watching the presentation (family patrons and teen volunteers) as well as the stakeholders (library staff, family patrons, and teen volunteers) and how they would access it. It also forced me to think about assessment to discern whether the presentation was an effective method of introducing the topic of homemade marble runs (even though I did not have to create assessments). After creating an instructional design plan for a previous assignment, this portion was easy and allowed me to work quickly.

Next, I began outlining my notes that I gathered from my own knowledge of marble runs and general internet searches. My kids are obsessed with building marble runs from sets; we own two different kinds so this served as the catalyst for creating my presentation. I wanted to introduce the concept of homemade marble runs in competition form using pictures and video, and figured PowerPoint could be an effective way to transmit this information. I used keyword searching in Google and located two helpful articles that guided me through my outline. One was a guest post on The Show Me Librarianblog (https://showmelibrarian.blogspot.com/2013/04/guest-post-marble-run-mania-steam.html) called “Marble-Run Mania, a STEAM Program, by Miss Melanie,” and it described how the design and building process went for a marble-run event. The other article, “Amazing Marble Run Mazes” found in the School Library Journal(https://www.slj.com/?detailStory=amazing-marble-run-mazes-programming-cookbook) also laid out a step by step process of how to create and hold a marble run program. Although I did not create a program, these articles gave me ideas for information to include in my introductory presentation.

Further, I located the creative commons tab on Flickr and searched for “marble runs” and “homemade marble runs” pictures to include in my presentation. This became time consuming because not all the pictures included marbles or mazes and I had to pick and choose which ones I thought would be most helpful. I also searched YouTube for a couple of short demonstrative videos of what homemade marble runs could look like.

Doing research comes easy to me; I feel like I am good at choosing keywords that lead to productive searches, which allows me to understand the materials I am working with on a project. The time-consuming portion (i.e. stressful) of this assignment occurred with actually creating my PowerPoint presentation. Originally, I planned to use Apple Keynote but since I had never before used the platform it quickly became overwhelming and I decided to do a tutorial to learn more about it at a later date. I switched to PowerPoint and had much more success, although I have only used the program a handful of times. As an attorney, I never had to create PowerPoint presentations when I led meetings; I just used my notes.

When I started to feel overwhelmed I reminded myself to keep it simple. I did not have to create the best PowerPoint presentation in existence; I only had to make one that provided instruction in an interesting manner. I feel like I succeed in both categories. I introduced the concept of marble runs for people who may not be aware about them and then segued into how they differ from homemade marble runs. I shared two videos that demonstrated how they can work, and included lots of photograph examples. I described the items available for the teams’ builds, gave the parameters of the competition, explained the awards ceremony, and told the teams who they could ask for assistance (the teen volunteers). The complete content of the presentation made it easy for the teens to give the presentation by simply clicking through the PowerPoint.