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Elena Neibaur's avatar

During my Peace Corps service in Mexico, I gave a series of presentations in a community to support them on what they wanted to address not having access to piped water. One presentation was about climate change scenarios that I ran and how that would impact their annual rainfall. I thought I had simplified the graphs but I think graphs weren’t the appropriate way to present that information to this audience. The community members were to nice to say anything but I could see it on their faces like what is this gringa talking about.

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Biz's avatar

I once worked for an environmental education non-profit where I was given a canned lesson plan to teach and told not to deviate from it. The day's lesson was marine mammals which I had introduced many times and had success with in the past. It was fun and hands-on and included several props for the kids to engage with. As I revealed the specimens and pictures to the students, I was met with expressionless faces. I also noticed a couple of students had fallen asleep. I struggled through most of the lesson before one student interrupted me to say they had spent the last two weeks studying marine mammals and that they "knew it all already." It's essential to understand your audience and to be able to pivot and tailor your message to them!

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