Researching, Writing, and Illustrating a Children’s Book by Lauren Price A Signature Honors Project Presented to the Honors College East Carolina University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for Graduation with Honors by Lauren Price Greenville, NC April. 2023 Approved by: Dr. Kristen Gregory Elementary Education and Middle Grades Education, College of Education For my Honors College Project, I got the opportunity to spend a full school year researching, writing, and illustrating a children’s book. Having this much time to work as well as the resources and mentorship I received from various educators and other experts allowed me to dive deep into my topic of colorblindness and really create something that is both fun and meaningful. Toward the end of my project, I completed two presentations where I shared not only my book but also information about my research and all that I have been doing this year with my project. I created a PowerPoint and presentation poster, also submitted, to summarize my processes and research to make it easier to present with. My first presentation was with the ECU (East Carolina University) Elementary Education Club and my second presentation was with ECU’s Research and Creative Achievement Week (RCAW). Both presentations gave me different perspectives and opinions as the audience varied but both were extremely beneficial. Comment by Gregory, Kristen Howell: either link to these or note that they are also submitted The first presentation that I did was with ECU’s Elementary Education Club on March 26th in the ECU library. This was a really special opportunity for me because I was able to share what I had been working on with others in my major. I not only was able to get feedback from their faculty advisor, who is also a professor in the elementary education department, but also from the members of the club who have the perspective of a teaching student and future educator. For this presentation I created a PowerPoint with lots of visuals to go through each of the steps I took throughout this school year working on my book. I wanted my presentation to be visually simplistic and easy to follow, with the majority of the information coming from me in a lecture style presentation. I also brought a draft copy of my book for everyone to flip through which was awesome for them to be able to actually see what I had been working on. I made sure to include pictures of my research notes and any other parts of my drafting process for text and illustrations, as well as my feedback notes that I gained throughout the year. This was a great way to summarize and explain all that I have been doing this year with my project and how I got to where I am now. My final slide was an update on where I was currently working, which was with publication research and deciding if that is something I wish to pursue. By including this update on my current work, I was able to get feedback on that which was positive and encouraging. Overall, this presentation was a success and was a great opportunity to share my work with individuals that were interested as well as to be used as a learning opportunity and practice for future presentations in a setting that was less stressful. I was able to learn a lot about myself through this experience and gained confidence in presenting. My second presentation was at ECU’s Research and Creative Achievement Week on April 3rd. This presentation was done via a poster in the student center on campus. There were many other presenters in the ballroom set up with posters so that people could walk through and see all of them in a gallery type setup. With this event being open to the public, I was able to get a large variety of people who were interested and who could give feedback on my project. I received a lot of positive and encouraging feedback which made me feel even more confident in my project and I really enjoyed getting to share my work with everyone who stopped by. My poster was similar to my PowerPoint in that it explained briefly about each of the writing and illustration process steps that I took and a summary of where I am now and the plans I have for the future regarding my book. Unique to this presentation, I was able to get feedback from a lot of different ECU and Honors College professors about the project, as well as publication information. I was able to make great connections with people who could potentially help me in the future and received great opinions and suggestions about my work. I made sure to have a draft copy of my book so that everyone who stopped by had the chance to see the actual book as well as the pictures if they wanted to. I think having this physical representation was great because it brought the ideas to life and let them really see what I was talking about. I also had the chance to walk around and see other presenter’s projects which were really awesome and informative. I learned a lot from this presentation through being able to share my own work and get feedback, as well as through seeing others present too. Overall, I am very grateful for the opportunity to present to both the ECU Elementary Education Club as well as at ECU’s Research and Creative Achievement Week. After all my hard work throughout this whole past school year, I can proudly say that I have created a children’s book that is both super meaningful and could be useful in not only my future classroom but also other teacher’s classrooms as well. Getting to share this work and research with peers, faculty, and others was a wonderful end to a long year of working hard. I was able to get great constructive feedback, build connections, and share my work, all things that benefited the conclusion of my Honors College Project.