Presentation Topic Suggestions

The purpose of this activity is to give you practice getting up in front of a group. The topics are informal, meant to simply to help you gain confidence in public speaking. The presentation topic will be assigned to you at random shortly before your scheduled presentation; your instructor will determine how “shortly” before. The presentation should last one minute . For your presenta-tion, here are some possible approaches you may want to take. Suppose your topic is “WHALE.”

Make it informative.

To give an informative talk, make a mental note of important things you know about whales. They are big. Some species are almost extinct. They are mammals. The blue whale is the largest animal that has ever lived on Earth. They were hunted for their blubber and oil that was used in lamps before electric lights. They hold their breath while under the water.

Tell a story.

If you know Moby Dick , you could give a brief outline of the most important points or of a particular scene in the book. You could tell of a visit to Sea World where you saw the trained killer whales perform. You could make up a short bedtime story that you relate as one you would tell your child or that was told to you as a child.

Be innovative.

You could do something like this: Whale is spelled W-H-A-L-E. The W stands for “water” where the whales live (talk about the ocean for a while); H stands for “huge,” which is what we think of when we say whale; A stands for “animal” and the whale is the largest; L stands for “large,”

which is a lot like huge; and E stands for “eating” since the whale has to eat a lot, or E could stand for “enormous” like huge and large.

Or

You could do something like this: I dreamed about a whale that was in the parking lot. It kept smiling, and let out an enormous burp every few minutes. Being an animal lover, I went up next to the whale and stroked its sides. I was amazed at how smooth it was.

Or

You could do something like this: I have always wanted to scuba dive and in particular to ride on the back of a killer whale. I know that it would be dangerous, but it would be something I could remember the rest of my life.

ICA 4-3: Presentation Topic Suggestions

The following three ICAs are possible presentations you may be asked to make in this course. For your presentation, you may be required to choose one of the topics from the list provided, your instructor may specify different topics, or you may even be allowed to choose one of your own. Your instructor will make clear which options you have.

Remember, you are giving a technical presentation. Any discussion of the topic that is considered inappropriate by the instructor will be subject to a grade reduction.

ICA 4-4

The purpose of this activity is to discuss the graphical representation of various phenomena, such as “A total eclipse” or “Using a toaster.” The presentations should last 1 minute , 30 seconds .

Later in this text, much time is spent on graphing mechanics and interpretation. You are to choose a topic from the following list and represent it graphically. A variety of presentations of the available data that tell different things are possible. Do not forget to use all your senses and imagination.

You must prepare a proper graph, incorporated in PowerPoint, and use it during your presentation. You are not allowed to copy a premade graph from the Internet! In your speech, you should discuss the process, explain how information is shown on the graph, and be prepared to answer questions about your process. You are limited to three slides : (1) a title slide, (2) an introductory slide, and (3) a graph. If needed, you will be allowed a single 3 * 5 inch index card with notes on one side only.

ICA 4-4: Presentation Topic Suggestions

ICA 4-5

This presentation covers topics related to your future major. The presentations should last three minutes .

In 2000, the National Academy of Engineering compiled a list of “Greatest Engineering Achievements of the 20th Century.” The following list contains some of the achievements listed, as well as some of the greatest failures of the past century. The full list can be found at www.

greatachievements.org .

It is your responsibility to research the topic you choose so that you can intelligently discuss it in reference to the engineering involved and how it affects everyday life, both then and now.

You must prepare a PowerPoint presentation and use it in this speech. You should have between five and eight slides, of which the first must be a title slide, and the last must be a slide listing references. Other visual aids may be helpful and are encouraged. If needed, you will be allowed a single 3 * 5 inch index card with notes on one side only.

Water Supply and Distribution Air Conditioning and Refrigeration

■ Distillation (1920s: Fischer and Tropsch)

ICA 4-5: Presentation Topic Suggestions

ICA 4-6 and 4-7 were written to address the question of what obligations humans may have to protect extraterrestrial life if it is discovered.

ICA 4-6

Critique the following writing assignment, discussing improvement strategies.

If life were to be discovered elsewhere in the universe, it would be our duty to protect that life only to the extent in which we do not compromise our own stability. The nation as a whole currently already has debt issues and is going through a depression. America could not afford to spend money on a life when they are struggling to take care of themselves. According to Hodges, “America has become more a debt ‘junkie’—than ever before with total debt of

$53  Trillion—and the highest debt ratio in history.” (2) Globally there are people who are dying from starvation each day. “On Tuesday September 11, 2001, at least 35,615 of our brother and sisters died from the worst possible death, starvation. Somewhere around 85% of these starvation deaths occur in children 5 years of age or younger.” (1) What would make this new life form a higher priority than the neighbors right around the corner? If they have managed to survive this long we shouldn’t worry about helping them until we have taken care of ourselves. Even if they are extremely advanced with many discoveries we have not made, what good would it do to spend billions on reverse engineering but leave our own world in desperation. Now if we were to reach a point in the future in which we could help them; we would naturally have to approach with caution. Politically one of the worst first impressions is when new people meet and one group starts a biological plague. In 1493 right after Columbus came to America he went back to Hispaniola, bringing livestock in order to start a colony there. “Influenza, probably from germs carried by the livestock, swept through the native people, killing many of them. Modern researchers believe that American Indian traders carried the disease to Florida and throughout the Caribbean.” (3) We would not know what would hurt them as well as what could hurt us. In order to avoid this terrible introduction, we would need to do research with probes and satellites. These observations from afar would make a seamless introduction possible. After the introduction it would be top priority to keep diplomatic relations intact. Finding another life out in space would be great, but not if we made them our enemies.

ICA 4-7

Critique the following writing assignment, discussing improvement strategies.

For centuries, people have wondered if we were all alone in our universe. Still today, even with our advancements in science we still have not been able to find life anywhere else. Recently the Phoenix Lander discovered what seems to be incontrovertible evidence that water exists on Mars. Since life is dependent on water eye brows have again been raised about the probability that life may exist, or has existed on Mars. So what if life is discovered somewhere other than on earth? Are we obligated to protect that life? Does that obligation depend on how advanced the life is? How do we stop ourselves from not destroying the non-terrestrial life? If life is discovered somewhere other than earth, some people will feel threaten, others will feel that maybe somehow human life could be supported by the non-terrestrial’s planet and that life is elsewhere out there, maybe life like ours. As far as our obligation to protect that life, it is recom-mended that we do not interfere. We are having problems with our own planet, people pollute, litter, kill wildlife, start wildfires, cut down forests, and destroy whole ecosystems. Imagine what we will do to life if it doesn’t matter to us if it lives or not. No matter how advance the life is we should leave the life to itself, unless the life was able to communicate with us somehow. The only way to keep ourselves from destroying the non-terrestrial life is to just to leave it alone. If we leave it, it wouldn’t be our fault if it survives or eventually dies off. Yet still we haven’t been able to find life anywhere besides earth so until we do we should try finding ways to turn our planet in the right direction before we lose what supports us.

ICA 4-8 and 4-9 were written to address the question of whether we should pursue manned exploration of space or restrict such activities to unmanned robotic devices.

ICA 4-8

Critique the following writing assignment, discussing improvement strategies.

Manned, unmanned space travel has been a big controversy for many years; it’s too risky or space bots gets just as much done as humans. I agree 100% that robots are far better off into space than humans; manned space travel is too dangerous. Almost all the money for such a mission would be spent simply to keep the people alive. (John Tierney) Space bots are more reliable, don’t get tired, and do what it’s programed to do, but more proficient. Things humans need for survival includes: air, food, water, things we must take with us for space travel, which adds to the cost for each individual we fly out into space. While space bots don’t need any of these sources for survive, which makes space travel less expensive and more productive. Also the bots can retrieve more data because there aren’t any stopping periods for breaks or any other reasons for that matter. It cost about 1.3 billion dollars per shuttle launched out into orbit, while it cost far more per individual we send out into space. Manned space travel is not all bad; things humans can do like, making quick and on the spot decision or human senses to evaluate our surroundings are things robots can’t imitate. It’s nothing like being somewhere physically and knowing what’s there instead of watching it through another pair of eyes. By using unmanned space travel, in reality we can only see what the robot sees, but is a human life worth the risk just for data. A human life is priceless, it like time when it’s gone; it’s gone, so why not send robotic material into space to collect data. It’s only scrap metal, but the life of any human is far more valuable just for the expense of useless data.

ICA 4-9

Critique the following writing assignment, discussing improvement strategies.

Since the early 1960s, humans have been venturing beyond the Earth’s atmosphere, a few times as far as the moon, a quarter of a million miles away. NASA currently plans to return humans to the moon by 2020, and plans Mars missions after that. Much criticism has been leveled at the entire idea of manned spaceflight, claiming that unmanned craft can do essentially all of the jobs people can with less cost and less risk. There are of course two sides to the situation. The idea for space exploration and those against it.

Space flight is a very integral part of exploration and adventure. Discovering the worlds around us I a very key part to discovering space. NASA’s mission is to pioneer the future in space exploration, scientific discovery and aeronautics research. To do that, thousands of people have been working around the world—and off of it—for almost 50 years, trying to answer some basic questions. What’s out there in space? How do we get there? What will we find? What can we learn there, or learn just by trying to get there, that will make life better here on Earth? (NASA). The ideal of many working together to the common goal of space exploration makes it a very important part. Manned spaceflight can be very dangerous. Many deaths and tragedies have occurred because of the exploration of space.

I think that space should still be explored by mankind. With technology advances mentioned in In the first 25 years of its existence, NASA conducted five manned spaceflight programs:

Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Skylab, and Shuttle.

The latter four programs produced spacecraft that had on-board digital computers. The Gemini computer was a single unit dedicated to guidance and navigation functions. Apollo used com-puters in the command module and lunar excursion module, again primarily for guidance and navigation. Skylab had a dual computer system for attitude control of the laboratory and point-ing of the solar telescope. NASA’s Space Shuttle is the most computerized spacecraft built to date, with five general-purpose computers as the heart of the avionics system and twin computers on each of the main engines. The Shuttle computers dominate all checkout, guidance, navigation, systems management, payload, and powered flight functions. The computers helped and as they advance manned spaceflight gets better. In the long run the risk is worth the gain for knowledge.