The Science of Assisted Reproduction

I thought that because we spent this week talking about how to correctly use powerpoint, it would be most beneficial to discuss a speech with powerpoint. The science of assisted reproduction is not a topic that specifically interests me, however, this is a good example of a speech that is enhanced by powerpoint. This speech, titled, "Babies by Design, Redefining Humans", was given by Dr. Edward McCabe, the co-founder of UCLA's Center of Society and Genetics. I believe it is fairly recent, because it was posted by UCLA on March 31st.
Dr. McCabe begins his speech with an excellent preview that clearly outlines what he intends to speak about. He chooses words that are exciting and interesting to lighten up a subject that could be considered boring. Dr. McCabe gives an informative speech about assisted reporduction technology and while he does use quite a few statistics, they are not overwhelming and remain effective. Throughout the speech, Dr. McCabe maintains a good extemporaneous delivery and good eye contact, despite the fact that he uses his notes. He also speaks very slowly & clearly. This is very effective because scientific, long words can become repetitive meaningless. Dr. McCabe is also very sure to cite the sources of his statistics and borrowed information.
The powerpoint that went along with his speech was very effective and the speech would have lacked something without it. Dr. McCabe made sure to use interesting pictures and diagrams (definitely not ClipArt) throughout the powerpoint. The diagrams were easy to read and understand. While most of the slides contained a minimal amount of words, a few attempted to pack the entire slide with information (and we know that's not good!). The only critique I have of the powerpoint presentation is that Dr. McCabe chose to use a purple background with black lettering. I think different colors would have been more effective.
Overall I think this speech was very successful. I easily understood the concepts, despite that I am not a scientist. Dr. McCabe showed how to use powerpoint to its full potential.