Speech

Instructions

1-4 Evaluation and Feedback - 1

This project addresses the skills needed to give and receive feedback. You will learn about giving, receiving and applying feedback.

Purpose: The purpose of this project is to present a speech on any topic, receive feedback, and apply the feedback to a second speech.

Overview: Choose any topic for your first 5- to 7-minute speech. After your speech, carefully review your feedback. At a different club meeting, present a 5- to 7-minute speech in which you incorporate feedback from your first speech. You may choose to present the same speech again or a new speech. Your second speech should reflect some or all of the feedback from your first speech. Finally, after you have completed both speeches, serve as an evaluator at a club meeting and deliver constructive feedback about another member’s presentation.

Competencies:

• Deliver tactful and constructive feedback.

• Use positive language when delivering feedback.

• Understand the need to be open to receiving feedback.

• Implement feedback in future projects.

• Show respect by staying engaged with the speaker’s presentation.

• Accept feedback from evaluators.

• Acknowledge the importance of being open-minded.

Speech timings: 5:00, 6:00, 7:00

Script

Hakuna Matata! You know that song from the Lion King. I’m not going to sing it, but, do you remember what Timon and Pumba were singing about? ‘taste like chicken’, ‘rare delicacies’ or even ‘slimy but satisfying’.

You might have guessed it, they were actually talking about insects. And not any kind of insects, but the ones that you eat: edible insects, grub! And for a very good reason! Edible insects are incredibly sustainable and nutritious. They are the true, original, superfood: think of a combination of sustainably fished açai berries, grass fed avocado and free ranging ginger.

They have been eaten by humans since forever, from Aristotle in Ancient Greece, to Native Americans, passing by Chinese emperors, and now, finally, in hipster Berlin food trucks. This fascinated me and led me to writing about edible insects for my bachelors thesis, looking at consumer behaviour. I also started eating and cooking with them during university. My favourite dish is nachos sprinkled with BBQ crickets, ‘piquant with a very pleasant crunch”, as Pumba, from the Lion King would say. Yea, I was kind of weird. But the real interesting part was when I looked into growing insects, and specifically mealworms, as a source of protein.

As a side note, I really love my girlfriend. She’s incredibly caring and I really believe we’re in it for the long run. However, a year ago, I still didn’t know if she was THE one. So I came up with the ultimate test. You know how some couples adopt a dog first, to see how they deal with the added responsibility. Well, I did that, with a twist: I got ourselves an organic, free ranging, pesticide free mealworm farm, out of our flat in London.

To be clear, mealworms are the larvae, or the babies of beetles. What you would usually do is eat the mealworms just before they become beetles. At first, things didn’t go as planned though, as we raised and grew them, we couldn’t bring ourselves to killing our baby mealworms, that we cared for, for so long. So what happened is that we ended up with mealworms … as pets. My dream of having a cheap protein source was over. However, it did teach me a lot about my relationship with the potential ONE.

The first test she passed was loving me despite my weirdness. I can’t say she was over the moon to be given the responsibility of hungry mealworms. I can’t know for sure if she ever thought of leaving, but she didn’t! And that’s what I keep in mind. She was accepting and embraced my originality. That’s the first point scored, on my imaginary leaderboard of girlfriends.

The second is how we managed to complement each other. She was the mealworm to my beetle. I was the organised one, buying the boxes and planning ahead. But I lacked the emotional, caring aspect of raising children, sorry, mealworms. She would visit them every evening, comforting them and making sure they were well-fed and warm. Without that mother-like touch, they would never have grown into the successful beetles they are today. Second point scored.

Finally, she passed the important test of “when times get tough, the tough get going”. Granted, this wasn’t Vietnam, but we had our fair share of challenges. We first had to convince our flatmates to agree to live insects in the kitchen, that wasn’t easy. We also had to deal with a mite invasion, which we first thought, as the biologists that we are, were the babies of the beetles. So, yes, we did make every mistake in the book. However, she never backed down from a challenge and she was the main reason why we kept going with this crazy idea. Third point on the board.

In the end, we even had to deal with a heartbreaking separation. I was moving to Berlin, to live with my girlfriend’s mother, that’s another story. And for some reason, I’m not really sure why, she didn’t want live insects in the house, so I couldn’t keep them. We found a lovely family in Wales to adopt them. As all parents know, sending your children away in a DHL packet is never easy, but I am glad to say we have managed to turn that painful page together.

Look, mealworms are great, they are sustainable and nutritious. But, more importantly, they are an incredible tool for you to decide if he or she is the one. I can’t recommend enough for you to start your mealworm mega farm and put your partner to the test.