5 thoughts on “Man and Mars, D. Jureller

  1. Overall, I thought your slidecast was really good. I think you did a great job taking a ton of information and making it into a single narrative that, instead of feeling like a new topic for every slide, flowed really well over the slides. I also really liked the amount of different sources that you brought into the discussion. Using magazines, books, a Disney TV show, and even a David Bowie song added a lot to the slidecast. Also, I thought it was really good how you tracked what people thought life on Mars would be like from before the Viking program to after they landed. That was a cool progression. I feel like one of the good things about your report was also one of the less good things. You had a ton of information, which on one hand was really interesting. But at the same time, it felt like I was getting bombarded with information. That really wasn’t a big issue, just something to think about. But like I said in the beginning, I really enjoyed your slidecast!

  2. Dan,

    Wow, lots of information in such a short amount of time. After watching, I am left feeling as if I could have listened to you talk about colonizing Mars for another half an hour because there’s just so much to be said and I’m sure you had a lot of information to work with for the project. Your analysis of pop-culture, scientific discovery, utopian and dystopian themes of space travel and colonization are superb! You clearly did your research and made critical connections throughout. I enjoyed the David Bowie reference (love that song!) and your discussion of the Viking program in the 1970s. I had actually never heard of it so very informative on that front. I liked the chronology of your presentation. I think it flowed well. Keep that up as we begin our final Slidecast. Also, thoroughly enjoyed the integration of terraforming and the different approaches people take, whether it is scientists or movie directors. Just a quick recommendation: slow down your speech so you give the audience time to process and think about all the information and ideas presented in the presentation. I felt at times that I was still thinking about what had just been said and all of a sudden the presentation jumped to a new theme. However, this is minutia in the grand scheme of your presentation and something that you can easily fix. Overall, nicely done!

  3. Dan,
    I really enjoyed listening to your presentation. I really liked the way you went through the story chronologically, until you got to the mid/late 1900s. I think that the semi-disorganized way you showed the David Bowe and other pop culture slides really speaks to the way that this history really unfolded. It was a mess. I am not saying your presentation is a mess, but the 10 to 30 year jumps accurately portray the understanding of Mars during these time periods. I also really liked the small details that you would include every so often. They gave the presentation a more personable feel. After thinking about it, I really only have two criticisms for you. First off, I though you spoke really fast. I understand that you had a lot of information you wished to convey, but for your final presentation it might be worth sliming it down to the crucial details. My only other complaint was that it sounded as though you would just comment on each slide you presented rather than giving a narrative to the change in viewpoint of Mars. Overall it was a well researched and presented topic, one that I did not know much about, nicely done!
    —Josh

  4. Dan,

    Woah! Your voice, if meant to be like that or not with the audio program, was perfectly morphed into a tone that sounded like you were in an astronaut suit… Kind of awesome… Anyways, fantastic job with your presentation. You did a great job of digging behind the pictures and linking authors together to show their larger ideas and points. It was fun to learn about what happened in the mid 20th century with Von Braun the build up to the Viking Program. Also you brought up some great points from the Viking Program and renowned physicist Stephen Hawking. Regarding the Viking Program, I did not know it changed society’s outlook on Mars, from more utopian or dystopian, to a struggle between man and Martian nature. Stephen Hawking’s point of going to Mars to expand and to ensure our survival as a species is, in my opinion, the right thing to do and Elon Musk is trying to do just this. I enjoyed listening to this presentation, and probably because of the program you used the speaker was in the way of some of the slides, I thought this to not be a big deal because the information was audio, not visual.

  5. Overall that was a very good presentation, I liked the variety of examples you used, including literature from before we had even landed a man on the moon, to modern day depictions in films including The Martian. The topic was a good choice as we really have been obsessed with mars, and you addressed this and explained why, which was good. The only piece of advice I would have is to try and talk a little slower, which I know is tough given the time frame for each piece. Another thing I enjoyed though was how you actually used some scientific data given from NASA and gave their thoughts on the matter. Given more time you could have compared some of the previous predictions about travel to mars to what it currently is. The future predictions of modern day was another good aspect of the presentation. Giving the date of when we may land on the red planet really brought the slidecast full circle and showed how the opinions of interplanetary travel has transformed over the past 150 years.

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