I love presentation days...

I have to say that my favorite thing about the end of the semester is the fact that I have my non-logic classes do in-class presentations.

They learn a variety of skills, from research, reasoning, presentation and visual aids to group dynamics and leadership skills. I get to sit back and watch them instead of reading a pile of papers on the subject.

This year I added a new twist -- the students in my regular ethics class submit 10 test questions on their topic. I'll select from among those test questions for final exam materials.... so, they also help write the exam.

Yesterday was the first presentation day for my honors ethics class. They did a very nice job on the issue of torture in times of emergency. It included video tape of interviews of random BNCC students on the topic.

Today I'm a little worried about how the presentation will come out. It is my regular ethics class and the topic is same-sex marriage. I had a couple of members of that group in my office asking questions about it on Monday afternoon... way to say, "we've procrastinated and didn't do ANY of the reading to develop this topic...". They were supposed to be putting final touches on the presentation, completing the powerpoint etc -- not starting to think about what they were going to say.

Next semester I'm going to keep the presentation project. I just need to be a bit more clear about the timeline... perhaps I'll have individual 1 page writing assignments due from each member of the group discussing the arguments they plan to make. This would increase the grading, but not at the end of the semester where it hurts most. I could keep a copy in case people drop out.