Semester 1 Reflection

During semester 1 we have covered a range of topics in math. Below is a slideshow which covers information on all the topics and shows my learning throughout these couple of months.

PE Flag Football Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcL6E0ZpQJo&feature=em-upload_owner

Genethics: Case 5

Case Study 5:  Who has a right to know?

Cheri is a recently married 25-year-old eager to start a family.  Her father recently died of a dominant genetic disease.  This disease does not appear until people are in their thirties, and then they slowly lose their nerve function until they die ten or twenty years later.

Cheri has a 50% chance of carrying this fatal gene, for which there is no treatment or cure for adults.  (There is a cure for children, but only if they are treated immediately after birth.)  If she does have the gene, each of her children will also have a 50% chance of inheriting the gene.  She can find out if she has this gene either by waiting to get symptoms of the disease or through genetic testing.

She does not want to be tested because she does not feel she could handle the possible bad news.  She also does not want her future children to be tested, because if they should test positive, she will know that she will come down with the disease herself (she doesn’t feel she could handle this news).

By not testing her children, she will deny them their only opportunity to be cured of the disease if they do carry the gene.

Ethical Questions:  Do you think Cheri has an ethical obligation to test her children?  Do you think she should be tested before having children?  Should Cheri’s community/government be involved in the decision?

Your Position:  I believe that Cheri has an obligation to test her children. It's not right to possibly let her children suffer from a disease that can be cured at birth. She can't make her children suffer from their inherited disease if there is a cure! I think that it's right for Cherri to at least test her children and if they are affected cure them. I think that Cheri not testing her children, would be like the Richard Parker story. The captain and the other sailor who killed Richard would be the mother and Richard would be the kids. Richard didn't have a say in the matter, and the kids aren't born yet, but I'm pretty sure the kids would want to be cured and Richard wouldn't have wanted to be eaten. The captain and other sailor who killed Richard would be the mother because they could have done the right thing, but they didn't and Richard was eaten and Cherri doesn't want to test her kids. Cheri doesn't have to be tested but she shouldn't be so caught up in her own problems of possibly having the disease, she would just have to live with her fate. But if she can make her children's life better, healthier, and longer why not get them tested at birth? I don't think that Cheri's community or government should be involved in this decision, because it doesn't affect them. If Cheri's neighbour had a say in the matter it would be like telling your teacher how to teach. It's their job and their decision not yours. So the government and community shouldn't have any part in Cheri's decision. Only Cheri's direct family should be involved, which would include her mother, her husband, and her husband's parents. In science we learnt a whole lot about genetic diseases and the probabilities that they would be passed on through generations. For one of our projects this semester we even had to research a genetic disease (a sex linked trait or a chromosomal disorder). Through that project I learnt how to interpret pedigrees, punnett squares, and possible genotypes. Using that information I can then figure out the odds of having children that are affected by a genetic disorder. Based on the information given above and my understanding of punnett squares I can come up with a couple of possible genotypes for Cheri’s family... Cheri’s dad: Dd (heterozygous and affected) Cheri’s mom: dd (homozygous recessive and not affected) Cheri’s husband: dd (homozygous recessive and not affected) Cheri can have two possible genotypes. One genotype causes her to be affected and the other causes her not to be affected. Below is a punnett square which illustrates the probabilities of each. As you can see from the punnett square, Cheri has a 50% chance of being affected by the disease and a 50% chance of not having the disease. If we want to figure out Cheri’s children’s genotypes we can use another punnett square. For this punnett square let’s pretend that Cheri is affected, because we aren’t 100% sure until Cheri turns 30 if she has the disease or not. If Cheri isn’t affected then her children would have a 0% chance of being affected, but let’s say that she is affected. Since Cheri’s genotype is Dd (heterozygous and affected) and her husband’s genotype is dd (homozygous and unaffected), Cheri’s children and Cheri both have a 50% chance of being affected by the disease and a 50% chance being unaffected. Based on what I’ve learnt in previous science classes and based on my morals and beliefs, I still think that what Cheri is doing it wrong. She should at least get her children tested so that they will be able to survive and be cured. Cheri may have to live with the fact that she has the disease, but at least she’ll know that she saved her children by curing them when they were born.

Unit 2 春节

每年春节的时候学校放假。中国人最喜欢过春节。春节的时候中国人做很多的东西：

1. 他们清很多的家人和好朋友来他的家吃年夜饭。年夜饭应该吃鱼，鸭，饺子，等等。

2. 年夜饭家人和朋友把食物放在桌子聊天。他们聊去什么地方放假。 

3. 中国人也去 china town 买福字。春节的时候 china town 很热闹。买福子后，家家一定要一起贴福字。

4. 在年夜饭孩子希望好朋友和家人送给他们红包。

5. 春节的时候孩子给家人和好朋友拜年。孩子一般说：“恭喜发财！春节快乐！我觉得你有很好的年！”

Drama Final Reflection

I have learnt SO MUCH throughout the 2 years that I've taken drama. Every year and every day my actors tool box keeps getting bigger and bigger. Whether it's learning about miming, tableaus, improvisation, script reading and monologues. Or even how to integrate good lighting, sound effects, or breaking the fourth wall. I've really grown so much as a actor and as a person. Just today I was talking to one of my old teachers from six grade who told me, "Anya, you've grown so much more confident from the time I had you in sixth grade." And I said, "thank you, it's all because of drama!"

If I look back to my mime performance in seventh grade I can see how shy I was. I didn't really take myself seriously or my acting. I was too shy to make an impact on my audience and actually I look them in the eyes. I also would keep on smiling and laughing throughout my performance, even though it wasn't part of my skit. I would rush through all my performances because I hated having all eyes on me while I was alone on stage. In my seventh grade class I would never talk or perform unless I had to.

If we jump along to eighth grade I was way more confident, but still a little shy. I think that eighth grade had the biggest impact on me as a student in drama, it also helped having Ms. Fulcher as a homebase teacher! If we focus on my Shakespeare insults performance I can see such a big difference in my acting compared to seventh grade. I actually took my performance seriously and got into character pretty well; I didn't laugh and played my part believably throughout the performance. During the shakespeare insults I saw a growth in my creativity levels and the comfort I had in perform on stage. I really loved Kestrel and my idea of being prisoners in a county jail, it was something that I've never done before, and showed me my flexibility as an actor. During seventh grade I was really only good and used to playing the quite and shy actor but the shakespeare insults showed me what I was really capable of.

The next performance that I feel I learnt from is my Jabberwocky performance. I LOVED this performance. The poem was so cool and I loved the many different ways it could be interpreted. I was so into this Jabberwocky performance that I bet next year if you ask me to recite the poem I would be able to to. The Jabberwocky performance showed me my capabilities regarding lighting, sound effects, creativity, teamwork, and character building. This performance showed me that the lighting and sound effects that you add can make your piece so much more powerful. The lighting and sound effects can be used as an allusion before you start your performance. I also learnt that using your body will help you so much and add to your character. Your voice is also very important and varying your sentences and tones just makes the whole thing better. One really cool thing about the Jabberwocky performance is that it was given without any guidelines and lets us take the reins. Each group was able to design their own set, costumes, sound, lights, positions, characters, and story. Every group's performances were unique and creative, and I really loved getting to show my creativity in this assignment. The Jabberwocky performance also showed us how important it is to be able to work well in groups. It's a skill to be able to listen to others and include everyone's ideas in the final piece.

Lastly, our monologue. These performances were so emotional and almost made me cry. During all these monologues I think everyone saw how much they'd grown as an actor. Everyone's confidence had grown, everyone's technique had become better, and everyone's used their body in effective ways. In my monologue I was very proud of the way I showed my emotions. I varied my emotions throughout the piece and used my body and voice to help guide the audience along, I was first sad then angry, and then scared. I'm also proud of the way I was able to turn into the character so quickly and believably. This experience hadn't happened to me, but I felt like it was my story to tell. I felt an emotional connection to the story and the actors in it. This was really cool to be, because it shows that as a good actor you can carry your emotions from events in your life and integrate them into your performances. When I was performing my monologue I wasn't scared or shy in front of the audience, in fact I was excited and happy to perform a piece that I've been working so hard to memorize and convey my extreme emotions.

Overall, Drama has been one of the best electives I could have chosen throughout middle school. My confidence levels have gone up so much higher and my personality has changed so much for the better compared to the beginning of middle school. In high school I will continue drama and I will keep performing and integrate the things that I've learnt for the past years into my performances. I'm also doing ISTA London in April, so my drama journey in middle school isn't over yet!

Jamie Oliver Ted Talk

Do a reflection of the video on your blog.  Embed the video onto your blog, and then comment on 3 “takeaways” from the video for you.  Maybe it was something that shocked you, or surprised you, or made you think differently about our diet.

In this ted talk, Jamie Oliver did a great job explaining the importance of what we eat. It was so terrifying to see the diet of one normal family and the amount of processed food they eat. It was also really interesting to see the statistics of how many people are dying from diet related diseases other than homicide or murder. Jamie also did a good job on explaining the thought process of school boards and why what we eat in school is so important. It really shocked me that milk bottles in school hold the same out of calories as sodas. Lastly, I never thought of obesity as something so easily curable, if it was cancer everyone would be running to get the cure, but for obesity, parents are killing their kids with fast food. 

• In the next 18 minutes, 4 americans will die from the food that they eat
• America is one of the most unhealthy countries in the world
• Every parent's child with live a life ten years shorter than theirs
• Most important causes of death to humanity is heart disease, all cancers, and obesity, which are mainly diet related diseases
• West Virginia the most unhealthy state in America
• As the generations pass down there are more and more people become obese
• Obesity is a controllable disease
• Over the last 30 years,
• Fast food has taken over countries
• Supermarkets are big, influential companies
• Supermarkets and fast food places have food that is largely processed, full of additives, huge portion sizes, and bad labelling 
• At school, food that kids get everyday is fast food not fresh food
• School board for food is full of accountants and people who aren't part of the industry, so they just want cheap not healthy food
• 10% of what we spend on health care is on obesity, and it's going to double.
• Kids in school don't know what simple vegetables like cabbage are
• Milk at school has the same amount of sugar as soda drinks and kids drinking about two bottles of milk everyday
• If 1 person teaches 3 people to cook, and then they teach 3 of their friends, that only has to repeat it's self 25 times and that's the population of America. 

Food Tracker

1. SCREENSHOT

2. NUTRIENT REPORT

3. MY REFLECTION

1. How many calories a day is it recommended that you consume?

1800 calorie allowance

2. Are you above or below the daily recommendation for caloric intake?

Below.

3. Identify if you are above, below or within the range for each of the nutrient groups and nutrients by placing an X in the appropriate box below:

NUTRIENT	Above Range	Within Range	Below Range
Protein		X
Carbohydrates		X
Total Fiber		X
Total Fat			X
Sodium		X
Calcium			X

4. What has this activity revealed about your current diet (both good and bad)?

Good:

This activity has revealed to me that my diet is within range for protein, carbohydrates, total fiber, and sodium. I’m proud that I’m within range for these couple of nutrients and have a healthy diet. This really shows me that eating healthy isn’t that hard to do and is pretty manageable. But, my diet will only work if I do some sort of physical exercise everyday for at least 30 to 60 minutes.

Bad:

The bad part of my diet is that my income of total fat and calcium is low. Believe it or not fat isn’t all that bad for you. Fat provides your body with essential fatty acids, keeps our skin soft, delivers fat-soluble vitamins, and is a great source of energizing fuel. But there are also good and bad fats, so you need to be careful of which ones you eat. Calcium is also very very important for children to grow and have strong bones. Your body uses 99% of its calcium to keep your bones and teeth strong, thereby supporting skeletal structure and function. The rest of the calcium in  your body plays key roles in cell signaling, blood clotting, muscle contraction, and nerve function. As you can see from the facts and stats stated above, calcium and fats play an important part in the function in your body and is needed in your diet.

5. What do you want to focus on to improve your diet as a result of the information gathered in this activity?

I want to improve on my total fat and calcium intake levels. Increasing the amount of fat I get daily will benefit me and help my body function better. I will have more energy and will be getting the right vitamins that my body needs to stay healthy. If I increase my calcium intake levels I will also benefit greatly. I will be able to grow taller and stronger. Which is part of my fitness goals for this year.

6. Use My Coach Center - choose 5 options you want to improve from the list

Activate My Coach Center now by setting up your personal goals. https://www.supertracker.usda.gov/mytop5goals.aspx

7. List your 5 nutrition goals from Coach Center

1.  Maintain current weight: 77.0 Ibs

2. Meet physical activity target: 60 minutes per day

3. Stay within my total calorie limit: 1800 calories

4. Meet food group target: dairy

5. Meet nutrient target: calcium