The Second Group Of Presentations

Due to the fact that I have been worse than lazy and are only getting around to this post now, a week after the presentation, I cannot for the life of me remember what order the groups went in. So please, bear with me, I do remember all of the presentations.

One of the presentations was on the Theater Marcellus. The group did their presentation as though they were filming a pilot episode for a new series on BBC on ancient Rome. They found a sarcophagi, and within it certain artifacts. I remember they found a scroll with a name on it (later turned out to be the name of an architect... starts with a V), some coins, and some other things. Overall, the project was really good, a great start to the presentations.

The next presentation dealt with the Pantheon. This group's back story was the Prime Minister of Italy had bought himself a crypt in the the Pantheon and the Vatican, along with the public, were outraged. This group had both a live action sequence and a movie sequence of several people (a Vatican representative, an architectural historian, a nobleman of Rome, and a member of the Socialist Party). Each of these people spoke about a different aspect of the Pantheon, for instance its history, its uses, and they each answered the question "Should the Prime Minister get away with buying himself a crypt in the Pantheon?". Each of the representatives answered "no". This presentation blew me away. Between the flawless transition from real life to video and back again, the commercial in the middle, the production was amazing.

The third presentation focused on Pompeii. This group's problem set was that the Earth had been covered in a dark fog, they world leaders were holding a summit, and the Greek god Apollo had come back to life in Pompeii. This PBL centered around Pompeii, specifically how it would become the new standard for sustainable, "green" living. This group presented their findings through a video and a skit. The skit itself was quite funny, with the group members each dressing up as a certain part (including Apollo and his body guard Hermes (as in the messenger god)). The presentation was funny and gave us a lot of information on Pompeii. The legend that Apollo smited Pompeii with his hand and caused Mt. Vesuvius to erupt was really interesting.

Our group was the fourth group. I think our group did great. Alison introduced us and gave the back ground story. Nick talked about the past information of the Circus Maximus, all the while his amazing Google Sketch-Up rendition of the stadium whirled around on the screen.Andrew was, quite frankly, hysterical and I don't know how I kept straight face through his part of the presentation (I mean, this was better when he was Sean Connery for Jeopardy and his "your mama's table" answer). he played the "seller" for our new stadium. Then it was my part. I won't mix words, my part brought down the group. The model was bad, however I believe my information saved my part of the presentation. If I were to be honest, I believe we did a much better job of our first PBL, but I still believe we did a good job for this one.

The last group focused on the "Carthaginian Scrolls". After a few technical errors, they were able to play their (mind-blowing) video. It was really great. It basically took us all through the history of the scrolls, what they meant, and how they applied to today's world (aka the fall of the American "empire"). The production on this video was amazing. It was interesting to think that a document that is thousands of years old could quite possibly predict the future of this country.

All in all, these presentations were a step above the first ones, and it looked like we all had fun with them. I'm glad to have these done, now all I have to focus on is not getting the group lost when we do the fountain tour aspect of our trip!