Sunday, March 6, 2016
World War II Censorship
For the second unit of my humanities class Forbidden books at GCE, we studied what it means for a society to have dogma. Another major part of this unit was creating different interpretations about different pieces of text. For our Action Project, we were given the choice to select any time period that showed censorship and study it. After we gathered research, we made a slideshow that represented all our information. The hardest part of this project was perfecting the citations. How I overcame this was using online resources like easy-bib.
Thursday, February 25, 2016
Anorexia Nervousa
For Unit 2 in the Winter term of my Disease class at GCE, we investigated mental illnesses. The main disease we studied was Autism. However we also looked very in depth at schizophrenia. For our Action Project, we had to choose a disease, create a lesson plan and a simulation to give people an experience a disease, and make a fact sheet. The best part of this AP in my opinion was the simulation. It was the most engaging and fun part of this project. The hardest part in my opinion was setting up the simulation. My disease, Anorexia Nervosa, was tricky to simulate without offending anyone. To overcome this, I just made sure I asked everyone if they wanted to participate and was careful bout what I said.
For my project, I did Anorexia Nervosa. I will provide both a personal and dictionary definition for the disease as a basis for what is is. Here is my personal definition: An eating disorder which causes the person to have an unusually large fear of weight gain. Because of this, the person feels the need to abscess about calories/exercise and intentionally lose an unhealthy amount of weight.
In the DSM-V, this is the criteria for Anorexia Nervosa:
“A. Restriction of energy intake relative to requirements, leading to a significantly low body weight in the context of age, sex, developmental trajectory, and physical health. Significantly low weight is defined as a weight that is less than minimally normal or, for children and adolescents, less than that minimally expected."
This symptom would show as a person intentionally not eating because of their body image.
"B. Intense fear of gaining weight or of becoming fat,or persistent behavior that interferes with weight gain, even though at a significantly low weight."
A person who was this symptom would almost always be thinking about their weight and relate many things to it.
"C. Disturbance in the way in which one’s body weight or shape is experienced, undue influence of body weight or shape on self-evaluation, or persistent lack of recognition of the seriousness of the current low body weight.”
This symptom could be shown as a person who doesn't recognize their low body weight but instead still believes themselves to be overweight.
This is a formal definition of the disease provided by the Mayo Clinic:
“Anorexia (an-o-REK-see-uh) nervosa — often simply called anorexia — is an eating disorder characterized by an abnormally low body weight, intense fear of gaining weight and a distorted perception of body weight.”
An important mindset to have about mental illnesses is displayed by a person named Shelly in our external investigation. Shelly has a son with Autism and this was one her responses to a question "I had to accept a long time ago that even though circumstances can not be changed or controlled; my reactions to the them can be controlled."
Sources:
Mayo Clinic Staff. "Anorexia Nervosa." Mayo Clinic. Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, 28 Jan. 2016. Web. 20 Feb. 2016.
http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/anorexia/home/ovc-20179508
American Psychiatric Association: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition. Arlington, VA, American Psychiatric Association, 2013.
Shelli. "Responses from Shelli." Message to GCE Sophomore Class. 25 Feb. 2016. E-mail.
 |
| GM. Lucas Presenting. (2016) |
For my project, I did Anorexia Nervosa. I will provide both a personal and dictionary definition for the disease as a basis for what is is. Here is my personal definition: An eating disorder which causes the person to have an unusually large fear of weight gain. Because of this, the person feels the need to abscess about calories/exercise and intentionally lose an unhealthy amount of weight.
In the DSM-V, this is the criteria for Anorexia Nervosa:
“A. Restriction of energy intake relative to requirements, leading to a significantly low body weight in the context of age, sex, developmental trajectory, and physical health. Significantly low weight is defined as a weight that is less than minimally normal or, for children and adolescents, less than that minimally expected."
This symptom would show as a person intentionally not eating because of their body image.
"B. Intense fear of gaining weight or of becoming fat,or persistent behavior that interferes with weight gain, even though at a significantly low weight."
A person who was this symptom would almost always be thinking about their weight and relate many things to it.
"C. Disturbance in the way in which one’s body weight or shape is experienced, undue influence of body weight or shape on self-evaluation, or persistent lack of recognition of the seriousness of the current low body weight.”
This symptom could be shown as a person who doesn't recognize their low body weight but instead still believes themselves to be overweight.
This is a formal definition of the disease provided by the Mayo Clinic:
“Anorexia (an-o-REK-see-uh) nervosa — often simply called anorexia — is an eating disorder characterized by an abnormally low body weight, intense fear of gaining weight and a distorted perception of body weight.”
An important mindset to have about mental illnesses is displayed by a person named Shelly in our external investigation. Shelly has a son with Autism and this was one her responses to a question "I had to accept a long time ago that even though circumstances can not be changed or controlled; my reactions to the them can be controlled."
Sources:
Mayo Clinic Staff. "Anorexia Nervosa." Mayo Clinic. Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, 28 Jan. 2016. Web. 20 Feb. 2016.
http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/anorexia/home/ovc-20179508
American Psychiatric Association: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition. Arlington, VA, American Psychiatric Association, 2013.
Shelli. "Responses from Shelli." Message to GCE Sophomore Class. 25 Feb. 2016. E-mail.
Monday, February 15, 2016
Alexander, Achilles, and the Billboard Girl
In my Winter term for my Sophomore class at GCE, my humanities course is called Forbidden Books. For our first Action Project, we were asked to create our own Socratic dialogue. Before we started, we closely canalized both the Apology Socrates' comparison to living in a cave. One thing I struggled with in this project was timing and filming. One thing I think I was proficient at was the video editing. The Socratic method can be considered dangerous because it is a way to turn a persons belief without turning them against you.
Alexander, Achilles, and The Billboard Girl from LS on Vimeo.
Sunday, February 7, 2016
Stacy and Strep
In my Winter term of my sophomore class at GCE, my STEAM course was Disease. For this course, we examined how diseases affect the body. For the Action Project, we interviewed a person we know that has a certain disease. We then created a patient profile and researched the disease to find out more information. I really enjoyed this project because of my connection to the disease I chose. I researched strep throat and I've had this disease multiple times. However, I've never really known the cause and how exactly it affects the body. I had a hard time finding multiple body systems thus drawing my illustration at first was hard, but after doing more research it was easy to make the connections to the other systems.
Stacy
Stacy is a 15 year old student living in Chicago. She often contracts strep throat (or a streptococcal infection) and has to go see a doctor. Usually, her first symptom is a sore throat. She would often wake up and feel and intense pain in the back of her mouth. Also, she would feel very nauseous and sometimes vomit. Lastly, she would feel very tired and weak.
It is possible to have these symptoms and not have strep. However, because of her history of the disease, whenever she has these symptoms, she will go straight to the doctor to get tested. The most common way to test a patient for strep is to do a throat culture. To do this, a doctor swabs the back of the patient's throat to get a sample of the bacteria and then sends this to a lab. Many people, including Stacy, find this uncomfortable because it often will cause you to gag. The doctor test this swab for for the streptococcal bacteria and if it's positive, Stacy is provided with antibiotics to take over a certain period of time. The amount of time varies but she is commonly instructed to take the medication until she runs out. Usually, Stacy is told that after taking the medication for 24 hours, she won't be contagious and will then be allowed to attend school. However, there is a rare occasion where if the swab comes back negative, the doctor sends it to a lab for a "double check" and the lab will rarely come back and say it is positive. Thankfully this rare occurrence has never actually happened to Stacy.
Other than taking antibiotics for the disease, Stacy does a few things to help suppress the symptoms until she feels better. For her throat, Stacy usually takes pain relievers and drinks hot tea. She says that tea with honey and lemon works the best. For the nausea, Stacy says that "lying down and trying to very slowly sip hot broth can help you not want to vomit as much. But, if you move around too much or eat something too fast it can easily upset your stomach." Lastly, for her tired/weak feelings, just sleeping works the best. Sleep can be the best way to help your body fight off a disease or illness.
This disease usually affects Stacy in a very negative way. It causes her to have to be isolated until it isn't contagious any more which means she has to miss school. This sounds not so bad at first but when it happens very often it can be no so fun to be behind on school work. Also, it makes Stacy have to stay inside and in bed with a very bad pain in her throat and the constant feeling of wanting to vomit. Because of all these things, Stacy has a very negative connotation with this disease and hopes to avoid it as much as possible.
Strep Throat
Strep throat is a bacterial infection in the tonsils and throat that causes inflammation and pain in the surrounding area. Strep is highly contagious. It can spread through airborne droplets when someone coughs or sneezes or through shared foods or drinks. You can also pick up the bacteria from a doorknob or other surface and transfer them to your nose, mouth, or eyes. Some risk factors are young age because this occurs most often in children and time of year. Strep is most commonly contracted in the spring and fall because the temperature allows bacteria to thrive and easily transfer between people. The types of people that are most susceptible are going to be social people. Since the major way to get this disease is from other people, communal locations such as public transit, offices, schools, etc. are going to be the most likely places to catch strep. Since Stacy is almost always in these public places, this is why she contracts this disease do often.
Stacy
Stacy is a 15 year old student living in Chicago. She often contracts strep throat (or a streptococcal infection) and has to go see a doctor. Usually, her first symptom is a sore throat. She would often wake up and feel and intense pain in the back of her mouth. Also, she would feel very nauseous and sometimes vomit. Lastly, she would feel very tired and weak.
It is possible to have these symptoms and not have strep. However, because of her history of the disease, whenever she has these symptoms, she will go straight to the doctor to get tested. The most common way to test a patient for strep is to do a throat culture. To do this, a doctor swabs the back of the patient's throat to get a sample of the bacteria and then sends this to a lab. Many people, including Stacy, find this uncomfortable because it often will cause you to gag. The doctor test this swab for for the streptococcal bacteria and if it's positive, Stacy is provided with antibiotics to take over a certain period of time. The amount of time varies but she is commonly instructed to take the medication until she runs out. Usually, Stacy is told that after taking the medication for 24 hours, she won't be contagious and will then be allowed to attend school. However, there is a rare occasion where if the swab comes back negative, the doctor sends it to a lab for a "double check" and the lab will rarely come back and say it is positive. Thankfully this rare occurrence has never actually happened to Stacy.
Other than taking antibiotics for the disease, Stacy does a few things to help suppress the symptoms until she feels better. For her throat, Stacy usually takes pain relievers and drinks hot tea. She says that tea with honey and lemon works the best. For the nausea, Stacy says that "lying down and trying to very slowly sip hot broth can help you not want to vomit as much. But, if you move around too much or eat something too fast it can easily upset your stomach." Lastly, for her tired/weak feelings, just sleeping works the best. Sleep can be the best way to help your body fight off a disease or illness.
This disease usually affects Stacy in a very negative way. It causes her to have to be isolated until it isn't contagious any more which means she has to miss school. This sounds not so bad at first but when it happens very often it can be no so fun to be behind on school work. Also, it makes Stacy have to stay inside and in bed with a very bad pain in her throat and the constant feeling of wanting to vomit. Because of all these things, Stacy has a very negative connotation with this disease and hopes to avoid it as much as possible.
Strep Throat
Strep throat is a bacterial infection in the tonsils and throat that causes inflammation and pain in the surrounding area. Strep is highly contagious. It can spread through airborne droplets when someone coughs or sneezes or through shared foods or drinks. You can also pick up the bacteria from a doorknob or other surface and transfer them to your nose, mouth, or eyes. Some risk factors are young age because this occurs most often in children and time of year. Strep is most commonly contracted in the spring and fall because the temperature allows bacteria to thrive and easily transfer between people. The types of people that are most susceptible are going to be social people. Since the major way to get this disease is from other people, communal locations such as public transit, offices, schools, etc. are going to be the most likely places to catch strep. Since Stacy is almost always in these public places, this is why she contracts this disease do often.
 |
| LS (2016), Full Body Sketch |
The most obvious place the infection affects is the throat, which is a part of the respiratory system and digestive system. The infection causes large amounts of inflation and pain in the back of the throat.
The tonsils also get infected and swell. The tonsils are a part of the lymphatic system.
If untreated, a streptococcal infection can lead to many complication like inflammation of the kidneys and Rheumatic fever. The kidneys are a part of the urinary system and Rheumatic fever mainly affects the heart which is a part of the circulatory system.
References:
Mayo Clinic Staff. "Strep Throat." Mayo Clinic. Mayo Foundation for Medical Education
and Research, 16 Dec. 2015. Web. 07 Feb. 2016. link
The tonsils also get infected and swell. The tonsils are a part of the lymphatic system.
If untreated, a streptococcal infection can lead to many complication like inflammation of the kidneys and Rheumatic fever. The kidneys are a part of the urinary system and Rheumatic fever mainly affects the heart which is a part of the circulatory system.
References:
Mayo Clinic Staff. "Strep Throat." Mayo Clinic. Mayo Foundation for Medical Education
and Research, 16 Dec. 2015. Web. 07 Feb. 2016. link
Thursday, January 14, 2016
A Comfy Solution
At GCE, during the third unit of Rapid Prototyping, we learned all about a variety of tools and safety precautions when using them. For this Action Project, we were asked to come up with a completely original idea for an object that we could use in our new school space. After coming up with this idea, we had to follow through with it and build it. For my project, my partner and I improved a char by attempting to make it more conformable. The biggest challenge I ran into was time constraints. We only had 2 hours of in-class time to construct this when it actually took around 5 to do. I am very proud of this project because after I took the extra time to do it, it turned out very successful and comfortable!
Here is a link to our Instructables page where I list all of our materials and explain step by step how to make this chair.
We improved an office chair by adding large amounts of extra padding to both the seat area and the back part of the chair.
The time lapse video we took was taken on an iPhone. Since there was no way to accurately figure out the setting behind the speed, I looked it up online. On 9to5mac.com, I found that when the video is under 10 min, the video is taken at 2 frames per second and is 15x faster than normal speed. This means that for every 1 second of time lapse video
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| LS & MI (2015) Finished Chair |
We improved an office chair by adding large amounts of extra padding to both the seat area and the back part of the chair.
The time lapse video we took was taken on an iPhone. Since there was no way to accurately figure out the setting behind the speed, I looked it up online. On 9to5mac.com, I found that when the video is under 10 min, the video is taken at 2 frames per second and is 15x faster than normal speed. This means that for every 1 second of time lapse video
One thing we were inspired by to make this was an IKEA hack called the cobalt office chair. For this specific chair, the makers completely redesigned the look of the chair to make it more visually appealing. This is similar to what we did but instead of visuals we went for comfort.
To loosen one part of the chair, I had to unscrew something at the bottom which used torque. If the handle attached to the back of the chair had been larger, I would have had more torque and the job would have been much easier.
There were multiple safety hazards to be aware of when completing this project. First, wear goggles when using a staple gun and sharp blades because a staple can fly off and hit you in the eye or a blade can shatter and do the same thing. Also, watch your fingers when using anything sharp or a stapler. You can slip and cut/staple your hand and/or finger. Using thick gloves can help prevent that from happening.
One quote from one of the Field Experiences was "...we try to provide artistic materials at a low price..." I really appreciate how available the Wasteshed makes materials and this relates to my project because their materials are so cheap, I was able to purchase a few that greatly helped in the construction of the chair.
Completing this project was both fun and extremely stressful. Using tools I had never used before was fun and so was creating an idea and following through with it. However, the deadline that was placed over us felt unfair which led to a few stressful late nights. After finishing this project, here are 5 lessons I learned:
- Safety first. Always make sure you are following the proper safety precautions.
- Have a plan. Nothing is worse than starting to build and remembering you missed a step when it's too late.
- Asking for help from friends whether it be for materials or a helping hand can be very beneficial. Just remember to say thank you.
- If you've never stapled fabric before, ask for help. If you just go ahead and try to staple it, it can look very bad.
- Try to gather as many materials as possible as quickly as possible so there isn't any time where you have nothing to do.
The BOO Collection
During my first elective term at GCE, one of the classes I was in was called Book Bound (BOO). In BOO, we discussed and read Lord of the Flies, talked largely about the relevance and contents of the canon, and reviewed some important facts about literacy around the world. Going into this class I definitely wasn't a fan of reading. Now that I'm just finishing up the class I can say I feel the same way. I don't despise reading and I do appreciate it; however, it's not my idea of the best way to spend my free time. As far as our required reading, Lord of the Flies, I didn't mind reading it but it's really not something I see myself reading again anytime soon. In my opinion, the canon doesn't provide high schoolers with books that would be most beneficial for them to read at that time. For this Action Project, we were ask to choose 4 of the mini-projects we've completed throughout the course and blog them as a digital scrapbook. The four I chose were as follows: my poster promoting literacy, my "I, Reader" storyboard, my book choice for the canon in a slideshow, and my group literary journal. I picked these four because I felt the most confident with the work I did. The original AP for this class was to help build/design the library in our new school space. Even though that didn't happen my idea for a dream library would be to have lots of independent space, an open and happy area, and tons of good books! Out of the few field experiences we went on in BOO, my favorite one was probably the visit to the Francis Parker library. Going to a different school and seeing their library was very interesting and cool. Overall, the FE's for this class were very enjoyable. Out of the many assignments this term, my favorite one has to be the literary journal. It was our only group project and I loved the collaboration and creativity that my group put into it.
Poster
For this assignment, I was asked to first do research on general illiteracy around the world. Then I made a guiding question and did further research off of that. Finally, I was to make a poster for the new library space, expressing the importance of literacy or the hard facts of illiteracy. This relates to the class because in order to be able to read, you need to be literate. This assignment allowed us to investigate the term literacy with our own guiding question, thus teaching us its importance while also allowing a certain freedom with our path in learning. I selected this assignment for my blog because of how recent I made it. It was much easier to include this assignment while it was fresh in my mind. The way I approached this poster was a little personal because of my focus being my home city. It was shocking to learn some of things I did, but it was also very informative. Since I made this poster with this blogpost in mind, there are no revisions that I needed to make before I posted it here. Also, there were no challenges I faced when making this poster because of its simplicity. What makes me the most proud about this assignment has to be my visual. I's humor and quite literal meaning makes it a very powerful and effective way of communicating my thoughts.
I, Reader
For this assignment, I was asked to outline my growth and experiences with reading in a storyboard format. This relates to the course because of it's focus on our connections with reading. The reason I selected this for my blog post is because of the amount of creativity and personal connection I was allowed to include in it. Many of the scenes depicted show personal thoughts and events that I enjoyed writing about. My approach to the assignment was very laid back and personal. Making each clip was a fun reflection on old memories for me. The only major challenge I face when making this storyboard was getting used to the website I made it on. At first it was confusing but after a while I got used to it. For this assignment, the revisions I made were the most extensive. I completely redid every text box in the storyboard. This was because after talking to my teacher, she made me realize that, instead of elaborating upon the images in my text, I was simply explaining what the viewer could already see. I changed all the text to have a more in-depth look at my thoughts and feelings during those specific events. What I am proud of in this assignment is my ability to create mostly realistic visuals and connect them to meaningful text.
Slideshow
For this assignment, I was asked to pick a book I thought deserved to be canonized, and make a slideshow outlining why and including the information of the book. This assignment relates to the course because it shows our knowledge of the canon and the characteristics of books that have been canonized. I selected this assignment for my blog because I feel very strongly about why this book should be in the canon. My approach to this assignment was both very factual and opinionated because of the book information and my reasons for its canonization. The only challenge I faced making this presentation was changing the theme of the slideshow. My teacher and I agreed that the current color looks unappealing, but I was unable to change it without messing up the format of the rest of the slides. Revisions I made to this assignment were very minor. I corrected a few typos in my text and fixed some formatting errors, such as book titles not being italicized. I am proud of my book choice for this assignment. I believe very strongly that Looking for Alaska is a book all teens should be required to read.
Literary Journal
For this assignment, a group of two other students and I were asked to gather both original and external text/images and compile them into a literary journal. The title of our group literary journal is 11:44 because that's the time we stopped arguing about a topic which is media. This related to the course because it made us create text to submit to the journal and inspired creativity while we basically made a mini-book. I selected this assignment for this post because it is the one I am most proud of. The reason I am so proud of it is because of how good all the texts and images came out from my group. I also really enjoyed the the cover and the idea of the topic and title. My approach to the assignment was very focused and organized because of the group aspect. I was very on top of making sure we had everything together and that led to us being able to submit it one day early. A challenge I faced while making the journal was formatting the table of contents and attempting to number the pages. Unfortunately, because of google drive's limited options of page numbering, I was unable to correctly number pages which also led to an un-numbered table of contents. I did not have to make any revisions before posting, but because it was a group assignment, I had to ask my group members to correct small typos on their texts.
Friday, December 18, 2015
Making Chess Pieces
In unit 2 of my Rapid Prototyping class at GCE, we talked more about 3D printing and how to compare that process to making something by hand. For this AP, we were asked to model chess piece of our choice after the top part of that piece in Tinkercad. After that we modeled the object in clay, cardboard and finally 3D printed the model. In the slideshow I made, I compare my experiences with each of the methods. One thing I am proud of is my cardboard model because of how intricate and small the pieces were. Some struggles I had was with the 3D printers because we had a lot of trouble with the filament and a few misprints.
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