Anthony Morris

October 23, 2010, 5:06pmThis is a video to show that even backstage, people are working the hardest. Had to give the backstage crew some stage time.

      Before I went up on stage it was very nerve wrecking, but after my first word, the butterflies in my stomach went away. I’m actually proud of myself because you don’t see many young people, especially students, go up on stage and say what they are doing in life to the Poptech audience. So I’m very excited, happy, and all that good stuff as of right now!

      Coming to Poptech has been a wonderful experience. I have gotten the chance to interview scientist with incredible ideas and theories that I would never imagined to be possible. Looking at that stage, I imagined myself being up there, but now its all becoming true. My principal/mentor, Mr. James O’Brien is going on stage to explain a program affiliated with my school and Poptech that allows students my age, get professional training in the fields of media, photography, and art fields. I’m allowed to be a part of this movement and I’m anxious and excited to go up on stage. This is real, as I would say in Brooklyn. Hope everything goes well and the audience enjoys my little stage time with my classmate/Youth Ambassador partner Keziah Green!

“Mistakes always happen, we’re all human.” Kathryn Schulz’s two quotes explain that we need to accept the fact that we are all human beings, and going through mistakes are normal. She also mentions as a scientist, being wrong only makes you right. What she means by this is that when a scientist makes a mistake, they learn from it and are able to expand to newer ideas. The learning experience never ends. She also says that you cannot trust the feeling of rightness because most of the time that feeling is incorrect. Schulz also relates emotion to the topic of feeling wrong. Usually when someone is wrong they feel aggravated, frustrated and even embarrassed. She says being wrong shouldn’t feel as anything, realizing your wrong is what feels bad. She uses the example of the cartoon the “Coyote and the Road Runner”. As the Coyote chases the Road Runner, the Road Runner always tricks the Coyote to chasing him off a cliff. Since the Road Runner is a bird and can fly, he is able to continue. When the Coyote realizes that he is tricked and made the mistake of continuing to chase the Road Runner off the cliff, he then falls and feels dumb. This shows that when you realize that you made a mistake off of greed and ignorance, you are not as smart as you think you are. She also explains that we need to invite the doubters, negative energy, and the people that are always correcting you.

At today’s poptech workshop, I learned many new things. I had the opportunity to listen and ask questions to joe palca, a science correspondent for NPR, and Jad Abrumrad, the host and producer of WNYC’s radio lab. During their workshop, I was able to get tips on interviewing and note taking in order to be successful at my duty on interviewing innovators at the conference.

After Joe Palca and Jad Abrumrad left, my fellow ambassadors, Keziah, Molly, Sarina and I had another session with Christie Nicholson who also gave a few tips on interviewing. Some tips that were given were to keep elbows steady when recording, get the precise number that the innovator or interviewer says, and don’t be afraid to ask questions if you are not sure about something.

Peter Durand, who is an awesome artist, came and helped us with our brainstorming skills. He showed us a new way to jot down ideas by doing a tactic he used called “mind maps”. With this skill we were able to elaborate with ideas more than we thought.

I also learned something new today! I learned how to edit videos that I recorded today with the help of Chris Spencer, who is a media teacher at the local high school here at Camden, Maine called Camden Hills Regional High School. Never before had I ever recorded an hour video and edited it to 30 seconds so that was real interesting.

 Overall I had a great time with Josh and Emily, who lead my peers and I the whole way. They made sure we were able to understand what was said by the workshop leaders and made us laugh throughout the way. So far I’m getting a great experience as the pop tech ambassador and looking forward to being part of this conference!