Self Evaluation

Andrew Zwald

For the Demonstration speech for Life Science Communications 101, I presented a speech on “How to Throw a Frisbee.” Starting off my introduction, I began with listing three things that are very unique to Ultimate Frisbee. I felt like this was a good attention getter than just starting my speech with ‘My name is…’ During my introduction, I seemed very nervous and did stumble over a couple words.

I felt like this topic was relevant to anyone who wanted to get active and have some fun while on this campus. The organization of my speech overall, I think was satisfactory. I began with basic throwing, catching, and defensive skills, along with the some basic rules. After my speech was done, I brought the class outside and demonstrated the throws. If I could improve on something, it would be that I should have done my whole speech outside, so I could explain the motions while I was making a throw. In regards to energy and enthusiasm, I felt like I did well, since this is a topic I enjoy very much. Although I felt like my volume was loud enough, I could have pronounced some words a little clearer. During my body and conclusion of my speech, eye contact was not a problem, but could have started off a little stronger. One of my strongest points of my speech was the actual demonstration, when I broke down and showed the mechanics of each of the throws, inside and outside.

Another strong point of my speech was the effective use of a partner to assist in visual aid. This improved the effectiveness of when I was demonstrating how to play defense. I also brought some other disc, just to add something else to look at while I was talking. While doing the throws outside, I felt like it helped the audience see how the Frisbee was suppose to fly.

If I had the chance to do the demonstration speech again, I would keep the same subject. I felt like this topic was a good fit for me and the audience could get something out of it. I would change the location and try to memorize the introduction a little bit better. Another small change I would make was to maybe talk about different Frisbee games, such as Disc Golf. Overall, I felt like I communicated my message very well and showed the audience some of the basics of Ultimate Frisbee.

A link to the videos can be found at http://sharing.theflip.com/session/c20c85c6bb9c7c81861d444b28e4161d/video/11765907

Celebrity Endorsement

The Got Milk campaign has been one of the most active campaigns in getting celebrities to give endorsements. Celebrities that have given endorsements include Reggie Bush from the Super Bowl winning New Orleans Saints, Christina Aguilera, Jordan Sparks, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, and even Dennis Rodman, along with many others. The campaign began in 1993 by the California Milk Processor Board when an ad was ran with Emma Hawkins and Zoheir Ebrahim eating cookies and peanut butter and not being able to have anything to wash it down. At the end of the commercial the screen displayed “Got Milk?”

Since then many of the endorsements given by celebrities have came from music stars. In my high school, there was a poster endorsing “Got Milk” from one of my favorite singers, Taylor Swift. Recently, a new poster with Miley Cyrus, also known as Hannah Montana, has been added as one of the artists for the poster collection. The poster shows her in a backstage dressing room with the classic milk mustache with a brief description of her and about milk. It also has the head line “Body by Milk” at the bottom of the poster.

This comercial shows Miley talking about milk and the healthy benefits of it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66kpdFhoDOU

Although Miley Cyrus does not know probably why milk is healthy for her, she does claim it is part of her daily work out routine in this commercial. The reason she was chosen as an endorser, was probably due to the fact of not only her popularity with children, but also her country background. This does not mean, however, she knows much about how milk is produced and knowledge about farming. I do feel the endorsement will help the Dairy industry due to the popularity of Miley Cyrus.

A Gourmet Meal by Andrew

Micheal Pollan in the book, In Defense of Food compares today's meals to those of one your grandma might have cooked. Nutritionism has changed what a meal looks like for a normal supper or dinner might look like. The main change is how the meal is prepared and how it is processed before it is sold. In your grandma's day, she would have probably prepared a meal for your family from scratch in her own kitchen. In contrast, today, many meals, especially fast food industry, are being prepared from processed meats and other products. I decided to prepare a meal, which I felt was more of a "grandma" meal.
The meal I choose to cook was a combination of biscuits and mashed potatoes. The ingrediants I purchased were from Carson's Carryout and Copps grocery store. To make the potatoes, I purchased two pounds of potatoes, one cup of half and half, 3 tablespoons of butter, salt and pepper. Using a recipe, I found on the internet, I cut and peeled the potatoes up and then cooked them. After adding salt, I cooked them until they were soft and then drained the water. I then set the stove on low heat while mashing them and adding the butter and the half and half.
To make the biscuits, I got two cups of sifted flour, two teaspoon of baking powder, four table spoons of butter, 1/2 of teaspoon of salt, and 3/4 of cup of milk. The first step of making the biscuits was to sift through the flour then add the baking powder and salt and sifted again. Add butter by mixing it in the flour and then add milk to soften the flour. I kneaded the dough into round shapes and cooked them for 12 minutes at 400 degrees. In the end, the potatoes turned out good, but the biscuits were very crumbly.
I believe that processed foods are not as bad as Pollan would make you believe, but do have a negative side. Preservatives can be hard on the digestive track. The meal I created made me feel like we may not need foods from preservatives, which could be unhealthier. However, I can see why people enjoy processed foods because it took a long time to make the meal from scratch, when I could have just popped something into the microwave. The article of "U.S.A.=Fast Food Nation," which can be found at http://www.puristat.com/standardamericandiet/processedfoods.aspx, agrees with me that preservatives in processed foods can be damaging by causing asthma, nausau, and vomiting. Overall, homecooked meals are probably more healthy for you, due to the lack of preservatives.