My Best 8th Grade Presentation

Our Social Studies teacher gave us our biggest assignment since 8th grade will end soon and this assignment is worth a lot of points so I tried my best to make this perfect. It took me around 1 week to create this and present this and I thought it’ll be nice to show it to you because I’m very proud of it.

I made a presentation about Benjamin Franklin using google slides. His biography, information about that time period, and his primary sources need to be included. You also had to include a video, podcast, or an app.

I put the whole presentation into HTML code and put right here:

You can open speaker notes by pressing the cog wheel or pressing “s”

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Speaker Notes:

Benjamin Franklin was born on January 17, 1706 and passed away on April 17, 1790. He was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States (A group of leaders who made the new United States upon republican principles). He was a statesman, author, publisher, scientist, inventor, and diplomat. His father, Josiah Franklin, married twice and had 17 children. Franklin launched a hospital, college, and library and he had performed many experiments with electricity and many more projects. As an inventor, he was commonly known for the lightning rod, bifocals (glasses with 2 different optical powers), and many more. He made people understand electricity by saying that it has positive and negative elements. He also negotiated the 1783 Treaty of Paris that ended the Revolutionary War. His education was limited and ended when he was 10 years old, but he was an enthusiastic reader and he taught himself to become a skilled writer.

At age 12 he was apprenticed by his older brother James, a Boston printer. But at age 17 he quit the apprenticeship and became a printer. In 1726, he opened a printing shop, and the business was successful. He created a variety of things such as newspapers, currency, and government pamphlets. In 1748, when he was 42 years old, he retired, and he conducted many experiments to fully understand electricity. He also invented the lightning rod that prevented houses from catching fire caused by lightning. He invented bifocals. In 1766, he traveled to London and testified in the British Parliament against the Stamp Act. In 1776, he helped draft the Declaration of Independence. And again, he negotiated the 1783 Treaty of Paris that ended the Revolutionary War.

In the 1700s, popular entertainment for children would be checkers, kite flying, and tag. For grown-up men, there was a special game called nine pins, played out doors. It’s similar to bowling but the ball and the pins were way much smaller. Quilting was entertaining for women at that time, but the most popular was storytelling and it was a great way to pass time.

For jobs, agriculture and farming were the most popular at that time, but blacksmithing, candlemaking, fishing, and gunsmithing were also popular jobs too.

For food, eggs, bacon and bread, cheese, potatoes, pumpkins, and squash were popular at that time. But seafood, vegetables, and fruits were also common. For fashion: women had stockings, gowns, belts, hoods, capes, and hats. For men there were, shirts, stockings, hats, coats, and breeches. Women wore their hair up in a bun and men braided their hair.

Classical music from Mozart, Beethoven, and other artists was the only music people listened to. But a small amount of people listened to opera too.

JOIN, or DIE is the first political cartoon attributed to Benjamin Franklin. It was designed to unite the colonies and each segment represents one of the Thirteen American colonies or regions. It soon became a symbol of colonial freedom during the American Revolutionary War.

The gulf stream is located along the East coast of the United States. He was interested about the stream because he discovered that the warm surface water of the stream could improve and speed up postal delivery from America to Europe.

He signed the Treaty of Paris, in 1776, he helped draft the Declaration of Independence, he negotiated the 1783 Treaty of Paris that ended the Revolutionary war, and he testified in the British Parliament against the Stamp Act.

He wanted to abolish slavery 1787 and he brought the matter to the Constitutional Convention. And he launched a hospital on May 11, 1751, a college in 1714, and a lending library on July 1st 1731.

Benjamin Franklin returned to Philadelphia in 1726, opened a printing shop, and produced government pamphlets, newspapers, and currency. He also made a coin called the Fugio Cent made from copper electrical parts and it was worth 1 cent. The message “mind your own business” meant “pay attention to your affairs”. The sun and the sun dial represents the word “Fugio” in latin which means I flee or I fly.

He was intelligent because he created the lightning rod, the bifocals, signed many documents, and made many right choices. He was mysterious because he was a member of a secret underground society known as the Hellfire Club. He was determined because he self-taught himself to become a successful writer. He was inventive because he was creative and made many inventions. He was engrossed because he concentrated hard on his experiments.

A virtue is a trait of mind or character that helps us achieve a good life. The app has Benjamin Franklin’s original virtue’s chart to improve your daily conduct. Tap the day’s date to add a mark if you conduct wrong doing on that week’s virtue. The goal is to live and pay strict attention to each virtue without placing any marks on the chart.

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Also, a huge thanks to my father who helped me a little bit with the grammar and thank you to my Social Studies teacher that gave me a 10/10.