Are you a Gadfly?

I took a class called Forbidden Books this class is a steam class which means we learn about things that have to do with society. We are currently studying why some books are banned and whether we think it is right or wrong. So far for this class, we have gone on one FE to a bookstore. This bookstore talked about how they try not to censor things unless it disagrees with their opinion. For this action project, we had to make a Socrates dialogue.

Below is my dialogue transcript.

Chevy: You hear about what happened in Florida last week.

Godwin: Yes, I have heard, it was a horrific incident. 

Godwin: We must make public spaces safer. I am tired of hearing people getting hurt where they should be safe. It's ridiculous that people can't go out in public without worry of getting hurt. They happen way too often don't you think?

Chevy: These horrible tragedies like Florida only happen once in a great while, but for the most part, public spaces are safe.

Godwin: What about the people in Columbine and other such places, even the incident at the concert in Las Vegas? These things actually happen quite often actually. People need to be able to defend themselves.

Chevy: I still don't think people should carry guns because they could accidentally shoot someone. We should still wait for the police to arrive so they can solve the problem.

Godwin: But the police didn't stop the shooter until it was too late. The average response time for police across America is 10 minutes. That's a lot of time considering what is going on. Why would a police be any better than a citizen?

Chevy: I really don't think just any person with no training could take down a guy with an assault rifle. I feel like it would just cause more victims. The normal assault rifle has 30 bullets to shoot, and I know all those bullets won't hit your target and they could hit other things.

Godwin: I see but you have to keep in mind that we would train them, I agree that nobody without training should be in public with a gun, but that won't be the case. Haven't you heard of training?

Chevy: I suppose that if they were trained then it wouldn't be any worse than police plus they would be right at the scene. When I think about it I think that a bystander who has the proper trainer is good to have a firearm because a person committing a crime wouldn't suspect it which also adds the element of surprise to the table which is definitely an advantage.

Godwin: There are multiple examples of people with guns saving lives such as the Jeanne Assam who killed a gunman that was attempting to shoot into a crowd of thousands exiting a church. This would have been an event the size of the Florida shooting but nobody heard because someone with a gun stopped the shooter. Did you ever hear that story?

Chevy: Wow I never heard that story, I guess there really are people that have guns for the right reason. I guess you've been right all along and guns in the right hands really can save lives.

Godwin: Thanks for talking to me Chevy! I have to go catch a plane, to England! Thanks for talking to me today and I hope you take my words and apply them to your everyday life.

Chevy: No problem Godwin I really appreciate you helping to explain your point of view to me. I really look at this topic differently and I hope that I could use your technique with other people. I really learned a lot from this discussion.

Godwin: Goodbye

Chevy: Goodbye

 

In conclusion, I think that this was more difficult than I had originally thought. I went into the project imagining that it would be simple. As I found out it was much more complicated to write a good script that made sense. Another challenge I faced was when I had to make the video. Our camera had a hard time focusing on the beginning and so we had to redo our video multiple times. We eventually got it to look good and now it looks like a transition. Another problem I faced was properly managing my time. I think I did pretty well considering all the applications that needed to be done along with lots of homework. In the end everything came together to make a fun and educational video. 

Lung Cancer and how it affects people

I took a STEAM class called Disease. In this class, we looked into the diseases such as cancer and how they occur. We also learned about the human body so that we could truly understand how the diseases affect the human body. While learning about the human body we discussed the organ systems such as the immune system, the respiratory system, and nine others. In this class, we haven't gone on any FE's yet but hopefully, we will visit a doctor’s office and then maybe have a doctor come into class. For this action project, we had to look into a certain disease. I chose lung cancer because my mom's cousin had it. For the sake of privacy, we will call her Julia. Hopefully, you learn something new about lung cancer and how it affects the body.

Lung cancer is a disease that killed over 150,000 people in 2012. I want to study it because it has affected the life of my mom's cousin. For this project, I interviewed Julia, who is my mom's cousin. Julia was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2017.

Julia-

Julia is a 69-year-old woman who was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2017. Julia's life is very different than it used to be. She used to be a very athletic outdoorsy type person but now she indulges in indoor activities like board games and things that require less physical strength. She also experiences more coughing and chest pains than most people, but nonetheless, she continues with her daily life.

Julia is currently experiencing symptoms such as coughing and chest pain. Her life has changed drastically since she was diagnosed. She has had to cut down on physical activities since she can’t breathe as well as before. Julia needs targeted therapy but hasn't had the funds for it. The problem is that she has a malignant tumor in the right lung that is causing the problem. She currently is relying on her family to raise the money to get the treatment that would hopefully cure her of lung cancer.

One reason she could have contracted the disease is that she lives in a big city and while she doesn't smoke she does have neighbors who smoke which could have caused her to get the disease. We do not know how she got the disease because there isn't any way to guarantee that you don't get it.

The way Julia attempts to keep herself from experiencing pain is by doing light exercise that won't cause her to breathe too hard. She also takes medicine such as Tylenol to ease the pain. She said that the pain wasn't horrible because of the medicine but if she didn't take any, she probably wouldn't even be able to do her light workouts. She said herself "I think the light workouts actually help me because I think they make my body stronger which in turn keeps me healthier and feeling better".

Her life has changed because she still needs to have a source of income and so she now works from home. She said that every night she needs to take her medication before bed because of the pain. Her diet has also changed because she cant eat unhealthy for fear of getting worse. Before her diagnosis, she ate healthily but sometimes gave herself a cheat day, now when she feels like eating something unhealthy she has to force herself not to because she is worried it could lead to worse symptoms. Her relationship with her friends has also changed. Before the diagnosis, she used to work out with her close friends. Now she can't work out as much or as hard. She now tries to do things like limited amounts of pushups, pull-ups, and other activities that don't include weights. She also said cancer has pushed her friends away because they can't do the same things together but she has found a way to try and overcome this. Julia has now started cooking with her friends so that she can spend more time with the people she loves. Julia has actually made a few new friends along this new journey one being Sophia (name changed). Sophia was also diagnosed with lung cancer but she has actually beaten it. She was diagnosed in 2010. Now they are great friends and spend lots of time together.

Lung Cancer-

If you want to fully understand the disease, you'll have to know some vocabulary first.

-cancer cell, a cancer cell is a cell that has split to grow out of control.

-Lung- The lung is an organ in the respiratory system that allows you to extract oxygen from the air.

-Benign tumors- These are when the cells that split continuously are not cancerous.

-MRI- An MRI is a machine that uses a strong magnetic field to map out an area of interest.

-Radiation- Radiation is one form of treatment for cancer.

-Prognosis- Which is an estimation of how long you have to live.

This disease affects many people in many places but some of the most common places are in big cities where there is a lot of pollution. The reason for this is that pollution is a way to make a cell that becomes cancerous. People who live in the countryside have a smaller chance of getting lung cancer because they are not exposed to the same pollutants as people who live in cities.

While the place you live is important, the person can also increase or decrease their chances of contracting the disease. The main way to cause the disease is by smoking. Out of the more than 150,000 people who have died of lung cancer, 135,000 of them contracted it because of their own behavior. The best way to lower your chances of getting lung cancer is simply not to smoke. There are many different diseases that are transmittable but luckily lung cancer is not one of them.

This disease affects the respiratory system and the immune system. It affects the respiratory system because lung cancer starts in the lungs. When this happens cancer can actually spread to different parts of the body such as the lymph nodes or any other part of the respiratory system. The respiratory system is in charge of your breathing which means if it is damaged then it can cause death. It can affect the immune system because it can infect the nearby tissue causing tumors which can damage and weaken the immune system. The immune system is the system that keeps you healthy, if this system is damaged then the possibility of you dying increases because you can't protect yourself from common viruses.

S, D. Human Body. Chicago, 12 Feb. 2018.

While doing this project I encountered many problems the main one being that I had a hard time getting time to interview with Julia because she was very busy, also I have not talked to Julia in a long time. I overcame this by being patient and persistently seeing if she has an opening. In the end, I managed to get the time for an interview and everything turned out alright. It was also a challenge finding information about lung cancer because a lot of the information was very advanced and therefore was difficult to understand. I overcame this by looking up words, talking to others and checking other sources. Overall this action project was difficult and was pretty challenging but in the end, everything came together to make a nice article that portrays lung cancer in a real persons life and what the disease is. I hope you learned something new.

Citations:

“Lung Cancer.” American Cancer Society, www.cancer.org/cancer/lung-cancer.html.

“Lung cancer.” Mayo Clinic, Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, 4 Jan. 2018, www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/lung-cancer/symptoms-causes/syc-20374620.

Stöppler, MD Melissa Conrad. “Lung Cancer Symptoms, Signs, Stages, Treatment & Types.” MedicineNet, www.medicinenet.com/lung_cancer/article.htm.