Mental health. A term that has been stigmatized over the course of several decades. Mental health refers to, “a state of mental well-being that enables people to cope with the stresses of life, realize their abilities, learn well and work well, and contribute to their community” We specifically focused on OCD, Anxiety Disorder, Depression, Bipolar Disorder, Schizophrenia, Eating Disorders, and PTSD. There were several types of stigmas shown for each facet of mental health, some disorders were treated as a terrifying disorder that leads those to become dangerous, while other disorders were treated as an average thing that everyone deals with. These stigmas can have large effects on those that suffer with said disorders. For example, if OCD is treated as just being organized, and not like the debilitating disorder that it is, that can cause people to be unsympathetic towards those who suffer with it. It can also cause those who suffer with OCD to believe that their disorder is not as serious or as “bad” as others. That is one facet of stigma, another is when people treat disorders like a dangerous, terrifying thing, in this case schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is treated like an illness that will cause people to go insane, when really it is an illness that causes psychosis, that does not mean those who suffer with it are violent people. People with Schizophrenia deserve our empathy, not our hatred and fear. With media constantly perpetuating these stereotypes and framing mental health as a taboo, teens can repress their emotions instead of getting help. The effects of this can be detrimental and cause teens to develop more mental illnesses.
The main takeaway from all the evidence I gathered was that there are positives and negatives when it comes to cellphone usage in teenagers. Lots of different sources showed that teenagers can be negatively effected if cellphones are used in excess, mainly teenagers can end up not interacting with each other and not learning how to interact with others. This evidence is very compelling and makes me think that there definitely should be restrictions when it comes to cellphone usage for teenagers, but it shouldn’t be a complete ban. When I interviewed 9th graders about this topic, they said that most people didn’t really use cellphones as a means to not do work, some even said that cellphone screen time went down. There was also a recurring pattern of teenagers stating that most still interacted with each other and didn’t stop.
This leads me to believe that cellphone usage, having the ability to cause damage, should be restricted, but banning them is not the solution. In the past, when different enticing objects have been banned, this can cause people to have an unhealthy relationship with the object. That’s why I think there should be restriction in the way that it teaches teenagers to regulate cellphone usage instead of flat out banning it.
I think many teachers and parents would agree with me, but definitely not all. There are of course people who believe that cellphone usage is only positive, but that’s not the focus of this paragraph, the focus is on those who believe a ban is a solution. I understand that banning such an item seems like the natural course of action, but in general this can induce an unhealthy attachment and relationship with said object.
I can ensure that there is no decrease in quality of social interaction due to cellphone usage if I try and put my phone away for most of the school day when it comes to socialization.
A few days ago we did a race car race in math class, you would win if your actual time had the closest one to one ratio to your predicted time. We did not actually drive cars, we just made cars out of cardboard, some better than others. We first had to see our speed which is actually a unit rate. We decided to go with seconds per meter so it would be easier to calculate on race day, Charlotte had a speed of 0.62 spm, Kelly had a speed of 0.7 spm, and I had a speed of 0.6 spm, to account for the box weight we added on 0.15 spm to all of our times, this would come back to haunt us. Our team decided to make our car Mario themed, so on build day we covered our car with red construction paper and added a Mario symbol that looked like the metro symbol, and that’s how we came up with the name the Mario Metro. On game day, we realized Charlotte went too fast, because we added on that 0.15 spm in the beginning. Because of this, Kelly and me had to compensate, but I moved too slow, and we ended up having around 1 minute off of our predicted time. If I had to do this project again, I would probably not add on the 0.15 spm. The good thing was, since we used spm, it was a lot easier to calculate the predicted time, if we used a different one, we might have tanked the whole competition. If you did not include units on your paper, you would probably get really confused.
Today inside design technology class, we used templates to make boxes to hold everything for our game design projects. We are using recycled cardboard to make boxes. We are using utility knives to cut through the cardboard, and we used hot glue guns to glue everything together. The first thing you do is trace the template on the cardboard, then you make dotted lines whee there are dotted lines on the template. You cut everything out with the utility knives, and jab the areas where there are dotted lines. We made sure not to cut a full line. After that you use hot glue to glue the box together. To be safe you have to make sure that you do not have your hands close to the blade, and when you are not using it to retract the blade. When it comes to hot glue, you have to make sure not to touch the tip and set it down on cardboard. We have learned how to correctly make a box, and how to handle utility knives and hot glue.
In class, we made our own sketches for a board game made with recycled materials based off of ethical decisions. My idea is a simple board game where you get to the end by drawing cards and earning points. The vibe of mine is kind of like walking through the dark forest to get to a prize. These are my very rough drafts.
Before After
Inside math class we had an assessment where we tried to make a flyer that would convince people that McDonalds food is healthy. We were given 16 graphs to choose from, at first, I used a histogram that was false. But I corrected it once the teacher told me I did it wrong. I think I need to work on double-checking , but I think my reasoning and design was good.
Today I will be showing you some photos of my three adorable cats, and one adorable dog.
In this photo, you can see my cat Da Stwipe who usually hangs out with me. He has a wonky nose because of a surgery he had to do when he was really young in order to save his life. He is around 5 kg which is heavier than a flamingo. He has contracted a type of chronic kidney disease, which has caused him a lot of pain. He can never truly get better, but right now he is as healthy as he can be. He likes playing hyper-chase where he runs as fast as possible in the middle of the night for no reason. He also randomly fights with other cats for no reason.
In this photo, you can see my cat YueBing who usually hangs out with my sister Maya. She is the biggest diva you have ever met. She used to only drink water if my sister poured it for her. If Da Stwipe dares to be within a 15 cm radius of her than she Bing Baps him, or slaps him. She is also extremely clingy with Maya. If Maya goes to school, then she will meow for a full 45 minutes before realizing that Maya will come back. She used to have to Face Time with Maya when we were in America.
In this photo, you can see my cat Pidan who usually hangs with my sibling Sasha. Pidan is more calm than the others, she never really meows and when she does it is very quiet. She still enjoys playing a lot. If you throw a toy she likes across the room, she will zoom all the way across to catch it. She also used to catch live lizards and bring it back into our home to teach Da Stwipe how to hunt. Now she cannot because we do not let her out. She is extremely fluffy as well and sheds a lot. For some reason she sleeps on our towels and makes sure that when we use them we are covered in her fur.
In this photo you can see my dog Boba, he usually hangs with all of us. He is a black Labrador who thinks he is a small dog. He is extremely cute and when you look into his eyes you just want to give him whatever he wants. He does not exactly get along with the cats. He often has staring contests with Pidan to establish dominance. He also enjoys getting pet on the ear and having belly rubs.
I made a presentation on one of the rarest big cats in the whole world, the Amur Leopard.
I think I did a good job representing all of the key information I needed to represent. I also think I did a good job finding reliable sources.
I think I need to improve on the ability to make the whole presentation more convincing as a whole, for example, I could find more graphic and hopeless images. I could make the text stand out more as well.
If I had to do this project again, I would probably manage my time better. This is because I did not do that very well the first time around. I also would do a lot more research.
I hope you have been inspired by my presentation and become a change maker yourself.
Today I am going to be sharing with you a snowflake that I made inside design technology. I made it on the program Inkscape, which is usually used for laser-cutting. I used the select tool, and drew polygons and stars. I also used exclusion and intersection. For the ring around the snowflake, I got rid of the fill for the circle, but made the stroke thicker and the right color. I tried my best to make it symmetrical, but it is asymmetrical. I hope you like it! <3
