General Biology

Investigation into Cancers

Cancer is one of the leading causes of death in the United States. You have been invited by your local community health department to give a PowerPoint presentation on cancers. Your goal is to educate your audience about the definition of cancer, the causes, means for early detection and preventative measures. The meeting will take place at the health department during a community health fair. Be mindful that your target audience will be composed of people from the local community who most likely will not have a background in science or medicine.

Your assignment will be to pick one type of cancer and discuss each of the following:

• Introduction to cancers.


• Describe to the audience the characteristics of a cancer cell.


• What mechanisms does our body have in place to protect us and avoid the development of cancer?


• Indicate which cancer is the focus of your presentation.


• Identify which tissues and/or organs in the human body are affected by this cancer.


• The incidence rate of this type of cancer.


• Typical age of onset for this type of cancer.


• Explain the risk factors and/or causes of this cancer.


• How this cancer is detected and diagnosed.


• Pictures and/or illustrations of cancer cells.


• The risk of metastasis for this cancer.


• How this cancer is treated including the long-term prognosis. What are the survival rates?


• Measures that people may take to prevent this cancer both medical and holistic.


• Reference page including citations in standard APA format.

Your PowerPoint presentation should be written with your audience in mind. Remember, your audience does not have a science or medical background, so you will need to translate any “jargon” into something that they will understand.

You must write your “script” of what you will say to your audience in the notes section of each PowerPoint slide. Each slide will have a picture and/or bullet points, along with your notes located in the notes section below the slide, with the specific talking points you will deliver to the audience.

The presentation should be between 10–15 slides, not including the title and references slides.

Creating an Effective PowerPoint Presentation

An effective PowerPoint presentation will include:

• Have approximately 10–15 slides


• An introduction (1-2 slides): bulleted list of background and key points


• A body: multiple slides (10-11 slides), each with one key point


• A conclusion (1 slide): bulleted list of major points


• A reference slide in APA


• Include in-text citations (in APA) where applicable,


• Use images (with citations),


• Ensure that slides are brief and bulleted, and


• Include speaker notes below each respective slide, outlining exactly what you would say to an audience as you presented it.

Note: The Writing Center has an excellent resource on Creating Effective PowerPoint Presentations- https://campus2.purdueglobal.edu/article/creating-effective-powerpoint-presentations 

*If you do not have access to PowerPoint, you can go to https://www.openoffice.org/ to download the program Impress. This program enables you to create a PowerPoint presentation with a free, compatible program through Open Office. 

Submitting Your Assignment

Save your copy of the assignment in a location and with a name that you will remember. Be sure to use the "Save As" option to include your first and last name in the title of the document. For example, your assignment might be called Shawn_Edwards_Assignment8.pptx.