End of The Semester Recap about Animal Testing

My Topic: My topic is all about the cruelties and misfortunes of animal testing. Throughout my essays I explain the concerns on the topic and the potential alternatives that can phase out animal testing

My Essays: Overall, animal testing is a cruel and unethical way to go about preserving human life. People don’t understand hoy terrible these processes are and they deserve to know. In order to pull the world out of these shady process’s there must be a slow and gradual implementation of alternatives to animal testing. More importantly, there must be a change in the laws that regard animal testing in order to take the first leap in the process of extinguishing it, Many people (especially scientists) have very skewed views regarding animal testing and ethical views must change regarding the pros and cons of the process.

My Research Methods: While researching this topic, I really looked into average peoples views. Any research company or activist groups articles that I read where extremely biased as expected, but every day people who truly have their own views and thoughts on the topic really helped me formulate my own point of view on the animal testing. Every day there are blogs and articles constantly being posted regarding the topic which I would always follow up on. As far as databases, I had spent some time looking through them regarding the topic, but it was a lot more facts than opinion and I felt as if I needed to see more points of view to formulate my argument rather than facts. I talked to multiple family members about the topic because as I got deeper into animal testing, the issue began to really interest me. By talking to people who have lived through this issue (my family) for a much more extensive period of time than I have, I was able to understand the true issues routed in animal testing. Basically, what I came to understand was that people didn’t care enough about animals to put them over themselves. This then forced me to look into how much of a necessity it was that live hosts be tested on.

Sources: http://animal-testing.procon.org   ,    http://aavs.org/animals-science/how-animals-are-used/testing/    ,   http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/12/technology/techspecial/12animal.html

Final Details/Observation: Ultimately, I gained immense amounts of respect of the people who protest this topic because of just how shady and unethical it is. People around the world stand up for their views on how terrible this process is and I hopped right on board. Most don’t truly understand what happens day in and day out because it is shielded by these huge corporation, but the people who do understand the reality are out there fighting for what they believe in. Personally that is a lesson in itself for me.  Looking into the future, I would love nothing more then to see animal testing abolished all together and have alternatives that are protected by the strict laws that surround it.

End of Semester

My Topic

My topic is sleep deprivation in teenagers. I spoke on what is sleep deprivation, what are the effects, and how to solve it.

My Essays

My first essay was a definition essay. I defined sleep deprivation and spoke on the overwhelming amount of teens who are sleep deprived. I also spoke on the reasons why teenagers were so sleep deprived. I decided to write about this topic because not many people are informed about the importance of sleep. What also inspired me to write on this topic is just last year I was a senior in high school who like most others, was extremely sleep deprived and completely oblivious to the dangers I was putting my self in. For my second essay I talked about the negative effects that come with sleep deprivation. My essay was a causal essay. I named the negative effects that lack of sleep can have on a teenager. Physical and mental health, along with academic performance were my three main points. I did a lot of research for this essay and used several statistics to get my point across. My third essay was a proposal. I proposed a solution to end sleep deprivation. My idea was to delay school starting times to later in the day. This essay I definitely had the most trouble on.

My Research Methods

Fortunately, the first website I clicked on gave me almost everything I needed to know about sleep deprivation. I relied heavily on research for my three essays. National Sleep Foundation was where I found most of my research. I found all oF my research before I started to write my essay. I felt as if I was informed and was educated on the subject it would be much easier for me to write. I felt that me doing research before writing allowed me to put my own personal spin on the essays. Some of my research was not data or studies, but it was high schoolers, teachers who all have faced/seen sleep deprivation first hand everyday speaking on the topic.

Sources

Sleep for Teenagers – National Sleep Foundation

Sleep Deprivation in Teens | Sleep Problems | Child Mind Institute

Young and sleep deprived – American Psychological Association

Final Details

Writing this essays definitely changed my life. I never realized that sleep affected me so much. My first semester here I was only getting 5 or 6 hours of sleep a night. After realizing how unhealthy that was, I make sure I get the necessary 8 hours a night. Sometimes I wish I had not researched this topic, as no matter what I have to get my 8 hours knowing what could happen if i don’t. I hope that one day everyone will be knowledgeable on the effects of sleep deprivation, and high schools around the country will compensate so teenagers can get the necessary 8 hours.

 

 

End of Semester Recap: Election 2016

My Topic: My topic covered the 2016 Election. The electoral map changed drastically from 2008 to 2016, on all levels, and I wanted to explore the factors that could explain the shift.

My Essays: For the definition paper, I explain how the map shifted in 2016. I tried to keep this one free of bias, and rather than discussing the political factors that might have played a role in the ultimate result, I specifically tried to stick to the statistics and data regarding the changes on the map (e.g. the vote swing in Macomb County Michigan which was enough to turn the state red).

For the causual paper, I explored the different political and social factors that might have contributed to Donald Trump’s electoral college win. At the end of the day, what really made that happen was a massive number of traditionally Democratic voters who jumped ship to pull the lever for Trump. That alone wasn’t able to do it, though, he still needed high Republican turnout, and despite high unfavorability ratings from members of his own party, he still turned out voters. Factors such as the Supreme Court might have played a role in causing these voters to hold their nose, and push the button, despite their negative feelings for him, or their preference for another candidate (e.g. Rubio, Cruz or Mcmullin).

The proposal essay included my suggestion on how the Democratic party can regain its relevance on Capitol Hill. I think they have to embrace, and learn to appreciate more ideological diversity in their party, i.e. candidates who have more centrist views. Ten years ago, states like Arkansas, North Dakota, and West Virginia were three of the bluest in the country; the issue for the Democrats, though, was the fact that the party leaders and voters in those states had more moderate to conservative views on social issues such as Abortion, which is a key issue to voters in that region. Today, the party has moved leftward, and those moderate senators and governors have either been purged, or were forced to tick left (like Bob Casey did) in order to align themselves with a more progressive party. That shift to the left has turned former moderate blue states into Republican strongholds. In order to take them back, the party needs to change its tune.

All of my research began by looking at interactive electoral/county maps, such as the one included in this post that shows the county vote shifts from 2012 to 2016 (red arrows show a shift in favor of the Republicans, Blue arrows show a shift favorable to Democrats). When looking into the result of an event, the most logical first step, in my eyes at least, would be to analyze the actual event itself. Once I had an understanding of the event, then the factors that contributed to the event would become more apparent and they would become easier to research. After analyzing the maps, I’d take a look at the exit polls for particular states, or the public polling data taken during the campaign. Saying that “Donald Trump’s stance on trade contributed to his victory” would mean nothing if the majority of the voters in the states he flipped didn’t also indicate that in the polling data. Any subjective opinion, or argument I put forth in my papers were reinforced by some type of statistical analysis. When I needed to reference a specific piece of data, or event that occurred, I found an article that covered it and referenced the appropriate passage. The only time I ever relied heavily on an article was for the rebuttal piece, when I had to shoot down an argument I found on vox.

http://www.nytimes.com/elections/results/president — 2016 interactive electoral map shown on top of the page. Also shows senate/governor/house races)

http://www.cnn.com/election/results/exit-polls/ohio/president — CNN exit polls

http://www.nytimes.com/elections/2008/results/president/map.html — The 2008 interactive map was particularly useful, because it lets you see what the map looked like in past years as well… dating all the way back to 1992.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/183686/democrats-shift-left.aspx — For my proposal essay, when I claim that the Democratic party has veered leftward, there’s actual evidence of that happening over time.

I consider myself to be relatively knowledgable about this topic, so I don’t know how much I learned, but I like to write, and I especially like writing about topics that I like, so I enjoyed this process a whole lot. In terms of my perspective on the topic… our country is very divided right now. Coastal and urban areas are heavily Democratic, while everywhere else is turning redder.

I’d like to see less polarization in politics, I’d like to see more bipartisan cooperation, on and off Capitol Hill. Long gone are the days when Reagan and Tip O’Neill (A very conservative President & very liberal Speaker of the House) could work together in a bipartisan fashion to get legislation passed despite all their disagreements. Today, people can’t even be bipartisan during Thanksgiving. I’d keep going here, with what I’d like to see, but soon enough, I’ll sound like I’m declaring my intention to run for office.

And I’m not quite there yet…

Semester Recap

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My topic: The topic I wrote about this semester was why cannabis should have a better perspective and become an option for those in need of the substance. Talking about the reclassification of the substance and some of the sensitive reasons why it could be good for the United States of America to legalize cannabis either recreationally or medically.

My Essays: In my first essay I wrote this semester which was a evaluative essay titled A Stance on Cannabis, I wrote about how the cannabis industry was being effected for reasons like federal prohibition making it hard to conduct studies nationwide, federal prohibition causing the industry not to bloom, and it being better substitute to other substances. During this writing process what inspired me to write this paper was that there are many people who don’t want to take prescription drugs but have too, which are the highest costing medication on the market today. These people are presented no other option and what I talked about in this essay was why cannabis isn’t progressing in our nation. Even tho it should be seen as a cure or a way to produce income in our economy. In my second essay I wrote this semester which was a rebuttal essay, I touched on the topics of Cannabis never causing a death, nor showing any sign of being more addictive than substances already on the market today, while also having many practical uses in society to help the environment and provide much-needed medical assistance for an individual’s needs. Basically in this essay I rebutted some of the cons cannabis has by obtaining a lot of valuable sources and using them to contradict arguments against cannabis. In my third and last essay I produced a proposal essay called Reclassified, covering the reasons why cannabis is improperly classified and should be put in a lower class so we as society can use this multipurpose substance. Since this was the last essay of the year I basically recapped what I said in the other essays and used them to support my idea of reclassifying cannabis. We can take such advantage of this substance as a community and I feel as our society learns more about it, we will allow it into society.

My Research Methods: Throughout a full semester of research, I had hardly any complications finding articles about cannabis due to recent states joining to movement and research that proves that there are a lot of positive in the states that have either legalized it medically or recreationally in their state. Whenever I would look up an article online, I would read the whole article before writing so I knew what I wanted to take from the article or if I could use it and manipulate the quotes so that it could give my essay some life. I wouldn’t really look up article every single day but whenever I would get down to work was really when I would analyze things, as well as just reading article on social media or even seeing videos about how cannabis is useful in society. Being swayed by the information I was getting and seeing my friend Matt suffer from Chron’s really impacted what I was going to write about, including the research I was looking up and quoting. I went to websites like leafly.com because all their new are about what is going on in the Cannabis community but really I would google something and results would show up. During this semester, I had gone home a lot which allowed me to talk to my good friend Matt Lambert. I just knew he wasn’t the same as before because he was slower when it came to sports and would have a lot of stomach aches while hanging out. I kept coming back and forth to Princeton and kept asking him what he was doing to help his disease. In December, his family finally decided to visit Colorado and California to find alterative medicine that would be healthier to consume. This whole thing that happened to my good friend Matt really effected the way I wrote this semester because I couldn’t help and see someone I cared about suffer. I know he need this whole transition to happen so he can live a normal life and I bet he isn’t the only one feeling this way.

Sources: http://www.mercurynews.com/2016/12/03/warriors-coach-steve-kerr-strengthens-stance-advocating-medical-marijuana-over-pain-killers/

http://emagazine.com/rethinking-hemp/

Finals Details/Observation:While writing about Cannabis this semester I have learned various amounts of information that I will sustain through my campaign to legalize cannabis in our nation. I have learned things like cannabis is a better solution to our illness than prescription drugs because of the consequences of consuming the substance. We have to understand that we still have a lot to learn about this substance because we haven’t been able to analyze and come up with concrete research that has data for our whole nation about the short and long-term effects on our health and habits. As we start to learn more about this substance, we will more incline to allow it into our society because of all the positive attributes that it could affect like the economy, medical practices and ways we can imply it to our nation as a whole. I have defiantly gained a new perspective on this topic  while writing about cannabis this year and I now have evidence and data to back up my ideas about it. I don’t think my perspective ever changed but I gained more information about my perspective and more arguments to use for the reclassification of the substance. I think Cannabis should be introduced in our society so that we can reap its economic benefits, let other gain easier access to medical practices they want but this all can’t be done until cannabis can be considered on the federal level, meaning we have to lift its schedule on substance classification. I hope in the future we see cannabis in our society, tying up the big divide our country has at the moment.

Thank you so much this semester Professor Maxwell 🙂

end of semester recap

My topic was about immigration and the immigration executive order that was put into affect after Trump was elected. The ban was dubbed the Muslim ban because it focused on 6 predominantly Muslim countries. It halted immigration from these countries for up to 90 days and banned refugees from Syria all together.

The first essay i did was evaluative.  I spoke in detail about the ban and the issue at large. I spoke about why people were afraid of immigrants and how this left the nation divided. I also explained the consequences that came with banning immigrants from entering the u.s. The second essay i did was a rebuttal paper. I chose one article that gave very good reasons as to why the U.S should not allow immigrants and then i chose an article that proved each one of those view points wrong. The last essay i did was a policy argument since this topic is very broad and affects essentially the whole world. I called on the U.S government to do something. I included many different stats to persuade them towards my idea.

My research method was difficult since my topic is fairly new. The issue started around end of of January so i did not have a lot to work with. Most of the articles I found were a bit bias as they were opinion articles so i tried to weed those out. It was also difficult finding new sources for each essay and trying not to sound too repetitive . I used google to look for articles, mainly i would put a filter and find articles that had come out just that day and also found them from reliable sources that were said not to be bias. since my topic was broad i used stats from years before going as far back as the 1900s to talk about how immigrants have affected the U.S thus far.

Some articles I have used are listed below:

Foster, Howard W., C. Christine Fair, Grover G. Norquist, and Riju Agrawal. “Why More Immigration Is Bad for America.” The National Interest. The Center for the National Interest, 5 Sept. 2014. Web. 03 Apr. 2017.

Pérez-Peña, Richard. “Contrary to Trump’s Claims, Immigrants Are Less Likely to Commit Crimes.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 26 Jan. 2017. Web. 03 Apr. 2017.

Senne, Steven. “How Many Immigrants, Refugees Come to the United States, and Which Countries They Come from – The Boston Globe.” BostonGlobe.com. Metro, 30 Jan. 2017. Web. 03 Apr. 2017.

“Snapshot of U.S Immigration 2016.” NCSL. National Conference of State Legislatures, 24 Feb. 2016. Web. 03 Apr. 2017.

For the most part i did not learn anything new. I have always from the beginning believed that immigrants are what built America and banning them is a heartless thing to do. I was however very happy to find statistics that proved Crime rates and violence cannot be blamed on immigrants alone. I also liked that the Obama administration accepted Syrian refugees just last year. I hope to see more immigration reform in the future and the executive ban gone.

 

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=immigration+trump&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjkx6aGxMPTAhXHOyYKHVbDDTkQ_AUIDCgD&biw=1707&bih=797#tbm=isch&q=trump+immigration+protest&imgrc=zJxu7Xl281YpUM:

End of Semester Recap on Stigma of Mental Illness

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My Topic: My topic is on stigma associated with mental illnesses – specifically, in college students.

My Essays: My first essay was a definition paper; I defined what stigma was, and how it is associated with mental illnesses. I related it to college, and said how it is possible for students to feel depressed and alone while they are away at school. This is why it is important for them to feel as if they have friends that support them, and do not judge them for their mental illness. I included examples of stigma, and said how college students may feel isolated and alone. I wanted to explain stigma as much as I could so my audience had a clear idea of what it was.

My second essay was a rebuttal essay; I refuted the idea that those who are mentally ill are “crazy”, or “dangerous”. I explained how just because someone has a mental illness, does not mean that they are a bad person, or crazy. For my final essay, I did a proposal paper, where I suggested solutions to reducing stigma associated with mental illness. I related it to college students, and explained how there should be educational programs on it in classrooms

My Research Methods: To find articles, I went to Rowan’s library website, and looked at the databases that they provided. I would select the “Academic Search Premier”, and type in key words of what research I was looking for. Sometimes I would use the “Psychology Journal” database. Also, I did not ask friends or family about my topic; however, I used myself as a baseline of what I was writing about. I know what it is like to feel alone and judged,  and I wanted to write essays that demonstrated how stigma is a national problem that needs to be changed.

 

Sources: Source for Essay 1, Source for Essay 2, Source for Essay 3

 

Final Observations: I learned that there are other countries in the world that are trying to reduce stigma against mental illnesses. I was also reminded of words that come to mind to the people who stigmatize those who are mentally ill; some of the words include “nuts”, “psycho”, “weird” etc. It also seemed as if stigma as decreased over the years, compared to 2007; however, it is definitely still a problem and is not free from our world. I still think that there needs to be more awareness on it. The research did not change my perspective – it enhanced it. There were so many articles that were protesting against people who have stigma towards those with mental illnesses. It was nice to see that multiple sources are writing about this topic. In the future, I hope that people can become more understanding, and try to imagine themselves in someone else’s shoes. I hope that stigma can be diminished so that those who are struggling do not have to feel alone and afraid of what others think of them.

End of Semester Recap about Renewable Resources

The topic I chose to research was renewable resources. While researching this topic I learned about fossil fuels and the pros and cons of every form of obtaining energy.

My first essay was an evaluative essay on the main types of renewable and a brief description of each. Also in this essay I wrote about the dangers of fossil fuels and the effect that renewable have on the economy. My second essay was a proposal essay, and in this essay I explored how wind energy could make an impact on the United States in the future. In this essay I also explored the findings of the “Wind Vision report”; a study conducted by the U.S. department of energy. In my last essay (essay #3) I wrote another proposal essay on geothermal energy. In this essay I discussed what the future of geothermal energy will look like and the technological advances that will occur as geothermal energy expands.

When I chose my writing topic of renewable energy, I knew nothing about. I did extensive research on this topic until I had a through understanding of all the renewable resources. When writing these essays I found myself looking up facts and statistics to help develop my essays. I also learned a lot about fossil fuels and how bad they are for the planet. The U.S. department of energy has a great website that had a lot of the same information as the scholarly sources I used. This website had information that I needed and the information was direct and easy to comprehend.

https://energy.gov/eere/renewables

https://energy.gov/eere/wind/maps/wind-vision

Throughout this course (CCII) I learned a plethora of information about renewable resources, fossil fuels, and the pros and cons of each. Solar, natural, wind, geothermal, hydro and tidal energy are all topics I have discussed in my three essays. Each renewable resource is different and has a specific way of gathering energy. Each renewable method needs to be located strategically so that they are the most efficient. My research didn’t change my opinion or perspective in any way but I did enjoy learning more about my topic. In the future I would like to see more renewable resources installed in the U.S. and eventually be 100% renewable.