Some Really Cool Powerpoints

I was really impressed with all of the powerpoint presentations my classmates gave earlier this week about their intended majors. It was clear from everyone's presentations that they had given them a lot of thought, and that they had either really learned well from Ms. Belisle or that they're just naturals at using Powerpoint. Though it's incredibly hard for me to pick only two of the presentations, my two favorites would have to be Rachel's and Katy's (altough Abigail's comes in a very close third).

The design of Rachel's presentation on the history of paper money stood out to me because it was simple, but very fitting. I loved the typewriter background that she had. Not only was it original, and not something anyone could find as a default background provided by Powerpoint, but it really fit well with the subject. The music really went along well with the presentation too, espeically since it had typrewriter sounds in it, which was a clever touch. I learned new things about paper money from her presentation, as well. I never knew that paper money was invented by the Chinese in the 7th century. That suprised me, because I never realized that paper money was such an ancient invention! I was also interested to learn that when money gets worn out, it is sent back to the Federal Bank. I had always wondered what happened with old, torn money, and now I know!

Katy's presentation about raku firings also really impressed me. She did a really good job of letting her pictures guide her presentation without having lots of extra words on the slide, which shows that she was well-prepared and knew what she was talking about. The pictures she used to show what a piece can look like after being fired using the raku technique were stunningly beautiful, and have made me think about trying a raku fire myself (my mom has a pottery studio in our basement, so I do a lot of pottery whenever I'm at home). Katy also did an excellent job explaining how raku firing is done. Although I'd heard the term before, I never actually knew what it meant to raku fire something until now. It interested me to know that the colors come from activation of the carbon in leaves or paper that are put in the fire along with the pot, especially because it's yet another way that cool things relate to chemistry (yay chemistry!).