PowerPoint: Most Important Invention or Innovation!

Hello Everyone!

Today, we began discussing making a persuasive speaking presentation about the machine, technology, or innovation you believe has been the most influential on humanity and the world. The influence it has had on us can be positive or negative, but you need to prove it is the most impactful on human existence.

The invention or innovation can be from any culture or time period. Please let Ms. D know what you will be doing.

We will go over all of the following criteria for the PowerPoint in class, but here are the details for everyone!!

During this project you will:

  • Work solo this time!
  • Do not do work over the holiday break — time will be given in class this week, and the week we return from break. Your homework for break is to read, play in snow, and support and love your family! (SERIOUSLY, don’t work on this during break!!!!)
  • Please do research using at least 5 resources, either books or the Internet.
  • You will create a minimum of 12 separate slides. One with a title, one with a bibliography of your resources, and 10 to answer the questions provided below.
  • You need to discuss the positive and negative impacts of your machine or technology on humans and the world. Be specific.
  • Each slide should have a subtitle at the top, a picture, and a one sentence comment at the bottom that will give us an idea of your commentary about the machine or technology. It is a good idea to make the subtitles match the questions I have asked you to answer.
  • On separate paper,  create a commentary script for each slide that you can use to make a presentation during the slideshow. Use different words than the one sentence you used for the comment on the slide.
  • Write commentary that answers the questions, please!
  • Edit carefully, reading aloud as you look for conventions and flow of your sentences.
  • Share your PowerPoint, Script, and Notes with the teacher.
  • Practice saying your script out loud so you can present it to the class.

Questions you need to answer. Use these to guide your notes and the slides:

Slide 1:  Title Page with name and date.

Slide 2:  What is the machine or technology you plan to discuss? (Define it, tell its parts, where we would find it, what it is made of)

Slide 3:   How is this machine or technology used? (Who uses it? Where would I see one being used?)

Slide 4 and 5:  How does the machine or technology work? (Break down the science of how the thing works!)

Slide 6 and 7:  When was the machine or technology invented? What is its history? Who invented it if we know?

Slide 8, 9, 10:  Why is this machine or technology the MOST influential on humanity and the world? What are the positive impacts of this machine or technology? What are the negative impacts of this machine or technology?

Slide 11:  What is a summary of your key points on why this machine or technology is the most influential?

Slide 12:   What is your bibliography of resources? Put them in a list in alphabetical order.  For websites: List name of website, name of article, and the date (no URLs or website addresses/links)  For books: List book name, author, date of publishing.

Criteria / Try to Use:

  • Persuasive language to convince us this machine or technology is the MOST influential,
  • Specific examples of how the machine has made a big positive or negative change in the lives of humans,
  • Pictures on each of your slides, and well-edited, one-sentence commentary underneath,
  • A well-edited script, with transition words, conjunctions, and complex sentences, that flows well when read aloud,
  • Different commentary in the script than on the slides. Use the commentary on the slides to begin the conversation, but don’t read it to us,
  • Specific facts about where the machine or technology comes from that show some effort and research,
  • Notes organized using the question/answer approach we have been using in class (do notes online in case you need to share them with Ms. D when we are not in class together),
  • A presentation with expression, volume, eye contact, and enunciation. Well practiced prior to presenting, so you know when to pause for slide changes and don’t have to look at your paper the whole time.

Please do not use:

  • Emoticons, cartoon pictures, or clip art,
  • Lots of text. Follow instructions for commentary on slides,
  • Fancy transitions that increase the overall time of the slideshow,
  • Pictures that have any copyright symbols or writing on them,
  • Goodbye slides. If you want a slide at the end, simply say “Thank you and Questions?”
  • Black, red, neon colours that are hard to look at,
  • Tiny or curly fonts no one can read,
  • Jokes in the middle of your PowerPoint. You are trying to prove a case. Convince me. Be professional.

The PowerPoint and Digital Notes will be due (shared with Ms. D) no later than January 19th. We will be deciding in class if we have time to present them aloud. If not, we will post them on the blog for everyone to see, and everyone will need to send a script to me. If we present them aloud, no scripts are needed.

Thank you!