Alzheimer's Disease

For this term, Disease, we focused on the function of the brain. We started this unit by reading a book called, The Reason I Jump by Naoki Higashida. This book was written in a Q & A style where there was an interviewer who spoke to this boy named Naoki who is on the Autism Spectrum. This was an interesting read before this unit started. Throughout the unit, we also looked into Schizophrenia. We looked into all sorts of mental disorders that were found in the DSM-V. The DSM-V stands for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders. For this AP, we had to choose one mental disorder that was on the DSM-V. From there, we did research, learned criteria, created a simulation, and created a flier that encourages awareness of the mental disorder. Here is my project on Alzheimer’s disease!

Alzheimer's Disease:

Alzheimer’s, also known as Major Neurocognitive Disorder according to the DSM-V, is a “Neurocognitive disorders can affect memory, attention, learning, language, perception, and social cognition,” as stated in the DSM-V. In other words, Alzheimer’s disease is a disease that slowly kills brain cells.This disorder may lead to memory loss, and gradually worsen with the disability to carry on a conversation. Alzheimer’s comes with different stages. Because of the death of brain cells, the brain begins to shrink. Along with that, we begin to see the hippocampus shrink. The hippocampus allows us to have long-term memory. Alzheimer's disease can have a huge affect on your day to day life. Not only for yourself, but the significant others in your life. Richard Taylor, an American Academic who wrote about his life with Alzheimer's stated, "One day I will no longer know how to express love. Bit by bit, everything that connects us will disappear, and I suspect that I won't even miss it." According to the DSM-V, you must experience at least three symptoms that is listed in the criteria in order to be diagnosed with a mental disorder. Most people that are diagnosed with Alzheimer’s/Dementia experience:


1. Complex attention: For example, a person diagnosed with Alzheimer’s is dependent on a caretaker to help them with their daily routine like using the restroom, remembering to pay bills, etc.

2. Learning and memory: The patient may experience memory loss such as forgetting a person who is usually in their everyday life or forgetting their own address. This is caused by the hippocampus slowly destroying itself.

3. Deficiency in perceptual motor skills: Not knowing how to walk, holding a cup, etc. Tasks that you were able to complete in your everyday life are slowly getting harder to accomplish.

Alzheimer Patient Brain (2019) NB

Brain + Brainwaves 

Almost all Alzheimer’s patients brains are affected in the entorhinal cortex and hippocampus region in the brain. The brain waves that are active in the life of a person with Alzheimer’s are difficult to record. They are constantly fluctuating and go off the charts. Although these brain waves vary, neurologists are using Gamma wave therapy to revive some parts of the brain that may not currently be working for patients. Here is a visual representation in parts of the brain that are affected by Alzheimer’s.

Lesson Plan + Brainwave Function

This lesson plan shows the step by step plan of the experience that my peers had to go through for my simulation. It shows the list of materials that were needed to complete the simulation, what was supposed to be going on for each minute, and the brainwaves that should have been active throughout that time in order to convert them onto a graph and create a piecewise function.

Lesson Plan (2019) NB

Graph & Piecewise Function

This graph shows how my peers brains functioned, and which brain waves were active throughout my simulation.

Brainwave Graph (2019) NB

Piecewise function work (2019) NB

Piecewise function (2019) NB

Video of Simulation: 

This simulation shows the recorded experience that my peers went through. This is my lesson plan finally coming to life. The video has some explanation, and different time's when my classmate's experience specific moments. 

  Alzheimer Simulation (2019) NB

Alzheimer Awareness Flier:

Alzheimer Awareness (2019) NB

Conclusion:

To conclude, I thought this AP was interesting to look into. I never found a true interest in neurology until now. I never really understood how much an impact our bodies and lives could have when our brains don't function the right way. I learned that Alzheimer's is a disease that needs more awareness. A cure for Alzheimer's disease is already being looked into deeper and it is my understanding that it's being into by the study of Gamma waves. Brainwave therapy can regenerate parts of the brain that are affected and inoperative due to Alzheimer's/Dementia.

Works Cited:

1. “Major Neurocognitive Disorder.” Major Neurocognitive Disorder – Knowledge for Medical Students and Physicians, www.amboss.com/us/knowledge/Major_neurocognitive_disorder#xid=v30A4f&anker=Zc052cec87a4296e043ba6fcd94d588f1.

2. National Institutes of Health, 13 October 2011,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Alzheimers_brain.jpg

3. Heerema, Esther. “How Music Therapy Can Benefit Alzheimer's Disease Patients.” Verywell Health, www.verywellhealth.com/using-music-in-alzheimers-disease-97624.

4. Lakotta, Beate. “Interview with Alzheimer Sufferer: 'You Turn Into a Person You Don't Know Anymore' - SPIEGEL ONLINE - International.” SPIEGEL ONLINE, SPIEGEL ONLINE, 28 Feb. 2010, www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/interview-with-alzheimer-sufferer-you-turn-into-a-person-you-don-t-know-anymore-a-688049.html.

Sweet dreams

Throughout the humanities term, Who am I? our last unit was called Doubt and Dream which was the total opposite to our first unit which was Truth and Memory we were able to meet with Matt Fitzgerald who is a pastor in Chicago. We were able to talk to him about doubt and questions that we had. We were also able to talk to an Imaam, Abu-Noor Ryan, getting an Islamic perspective as well. This was by far one of my favorite courses this year at GCE being able to explore. At the end, we were able to create our own dream catchers. We looked deeper into the meaning behind a dreamcatcher. I tend to see dreamcatchers around Tumblr and it's usually shown as a "cute" project, but that's culture appropriation which is not acceptable especially in this day and age. Look through my ISSUU presentation to get an explanation of the Ojibwa tribe and my own dreamcatcher and the meaning behind it all. This was an experience that has made me think more about my cultural background.

                              

Pollution...turn it into a solution

As we are coming to the end of our last term, Fuel, we decided to to finalize it with an AP. This unit was called Future, where we were able to explore and think about how CO2 consumption is becoming more and more of an issue. Because we are GCE and we make a difference as a global citizen, this action project was more about inventing and thinking about ways that we can change the things around us and turn them into something eco-friendly. Throughout the term, we were able to meet with Christa Margroff from Nicor Gas (natural gas company), this was by far one of the most interactive FE's I have had all year in my STEAM course.  It was an experience that made us come out with ideas and think more about where we are headed in the world in terms of climate change. Look through my ISSUU presentation to find ideas I have come up with, my calculations, and how I plan to make this Earth safer and ways we can all get a head start on making change!

                                 

Overall, I think this was quite the experience and hopefully you got something out of this presentation. I think all of us in this world, we don't really think about what we are doing that can have a negative effect on our environment, but it's important to think before you do. We have things that give us bliss, but have you ever thought about your bliss having a negative impact?

Gone With The Wind

Throughout my steam course, Fuel, we explored renewable resources such as, wind power, solar power, biomass, geothermal, etc. We were able to go to field experience like Comed where we interacted with different ways to generate energy and how our power is spread throughout the U.S. At the end of this course, we were assigned to produce an infomercial trying to convince an audience to switch to a certain renewable energy source. I chose wind power and here is why...

                

To conclude, switch to wind power. There are pros and cons that you may need to think about, but at the end we all need to think about the issue of global warming. It's time that we take action into our own hands, choose different methods of creating energy, etc. Switch to wind power, other companies like Microsoft are switching as well. Join the movement to fight climate change.

Get Offended: Poem & Performance

Throughout my poem, I spoke about who holds the power in the United States. I feel that this is an important political issue, due to our president speaking about kicking these immigrants out of the country when this country which isn’t his. None of us should be given the power to control our one country that isn’t ours. I try to make the connection with myself and the the topic by having me speak as all of the immigrants by saying “we” as the refugees of Syria, Mexicans, Native Americans, and African immigrants.

The poetic devices that I used were metaphors comparing “we” to the president. For example, “you call us rapists...your father raped the Africans and the Indians and the Arabs and then you get the alluring Puerto Rico.” I use repetition in order to prove my stance, “United States of America… United States of Terror.” I decided not to use alliteration as much through my poem only because I’m not too good at using it. I do like the alliteration of “terra” because you can see how that could lead to so many outcomes in wordplay. If I had more time, I would have liked to have used some more rhyme so that when I would perform I had more cadence.

While I was performing my poem, I did raise and lower my voice at times. I felt like getting louder people would understand the stance that I am taking and my frustration with this situation. I usually feel like no one will listen to what I have to say because I am a teenager and it will not be taken seriously. As I would get, louder I would also increase in speed to let my anger out. If there were points where I was making a remark to our president, I would look down to seem confused, but in a way that I’m saying something where people will realize, “Oh, I didn’t even think of that” or “Exactly, you understand”. If I could improve, it would be improving my hand gestures because I would use them to point to something or to myself but I would have like to have used them for purposes of imagery.

NBE Performs Get Offended from GCE Lab School on Vimeo.

We are the refugees you call terrorists

We are the mexicans you call rapists

We are the Africans you call slaves

We are the founders of YOUR country that you call pocahontas.

We’ve heard

We ’ve tasted

We’ve seen

We've felt the wounds

That are now scars

That become beautiful

Just like how a seed gets planted

Still grows

And as the plant grows

The flower blossoms into something beautiful

Then the flower gets abducted by the soil she grew up in

Terra

Torture

Torment

Territory

Terror

Terrorism

Terrorist
For god's sake
You cause the tears to be drawn by the strongest of people
Tears

He made them cry tears of blood

The founding fathers that founded the “new world”

“They shouldn’t be worried”

“They came here illegally”

Just how YOUR people just came across a country

The goal was to trade

But at the end they traded the people

The people who are MY ancestors

Who are also YOUR ancestors

It even says it in the name
United States of America
United States of Terror

Broken by boundaries

Tethered by territories

Terrified of terrorists

My people.
They keep coming
And they keep going back
They go back because you say we are taking your jobs away

YOUR founding father was the one who stumbled upon America

who assaulted the natives and killed them with the hidden gems

You call us homeless
But it was your  forefathers,

founders of the “New World” who took us  out of Our  land and made US homeless
You
Intoxicated US
Raped US
Sold US
Lynched US
Because your people found out we were useless

Useless

Used

Use

You used US

History repeats itself,
But don’t you learn from your mistakes?
Oh wait
Your people haven’t learned that one yet

So how do you expect me to learn something that your people wrote for me.

You call us rapists

“They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. But some, I assume, are good people.”

You say we’re your favorite mexicans
YOUR father raped the Africans and the Indians and the Arabs and then you get the alluring Puerto Rico.
And you STILL call it U.S. territory

A part of the United States

Part of the United States of Terror

You

terrorist.
You call us terrorists?
We’re dangerous you say
YOU were the one who used used for the oil that you need to provide for your nation
At the end we just want to provide.
So doesn’t that just make YOU the terrorist?

You call us the names of our past

But what you don’t know is that you had a past

Your past as a rapist

Your past as a terrorist

Your past as an intoxicator

The past of MY people were affected by you

I wonder

Is the pot cracking because there are too many tongues?

Or is it cracking because of the defiance of my people?

The melting pot is cracking

With the roars of the americans you call immigrants

With the punches of frustration that is interrogating the minds of the immigrants

With the mouths of a foreign language although

At one point

Your ancestors’ language was the foreign one

You can take us out

But you must take yourself out first

You’re superior for now

But with the defiance of MY people you will not take us out “your” America

Sobek Has Launched!

  The name of this term was Rocket science. Throughout this term we were able to learn about the history of space exploration. The class got to go to the Adler Planetarium where we found inspiration for our rockets, what were were exploring through space exploration. We got to visit the Museum of Science and Industry where we explored aerodynamics by looking at the transpiration gallery that the museum had.  We were able to explore the different people and their diverse minds who were able to help throughout these different space missions. We were able to look into interior designers like, Galina Balashova, Katherine Johnson, who was a female African American mathematician in her field, and the list goes on. Throughout this term, we created our own fire rockets, looked into aerodynamics, and at the end we created our own water rockets. At the end, for our final action project we were given a budget of $1,000,000 where we could create our own water rockets. We came into this project with experience because before this we were working with other mini-missions that our teacher created foe us where we explored pitch,yaw,and roll which is important in aerodynamics, we tried out different mathematical equations like a parabolic formula, etc. These are my overall results of the water rocket launch!

                   

In conclusion, I become fascinated by the different fields that made up NASA. NASA has made it more and more possible to explore space and has connected all of us even throughout the hard times. Times of the Cold War we still managed to be together even throughout the space race.

Get Offended

I remember starting off my first poem talking about my mother and how she came to America. The DACA act is one thing that has effected my life not only for my mom, but just in the mix of all this chaos that has been going on in the news. I always try to put myself in the other persons shoes and try to relate to certain issues. Something that I had encountered as I was doing my first poem was that I realized that this isn't my story to tell. My mother has gone through so much that she would have needed to put it into her own perspective. I decided to write my own poem from an outsiders perspective. I think white supremacy is something that we all think about but are cautious to talk about it. I basically decided to write my poem in the way where I combined the majorities opinions into one. I realized that some of these lines in my poem are quite offensive, which actually made me quite hesitant to write my poem in the first place. That is why I decided to call my poem" "Get Offended" in order to get into that mindset. I used a lot of poetic devices in order to get my point across. I used personification like, "the flower gets abducted by the soil she grew up in" in order to talk about slavery. I also added in imagery while I was explaining how the U.S. is like a melting pot, "With the roars of the Americans you call immigrants,With the punches of frustration that is interrogating the minds of the immigrants ,With the mouths of a foreign language although

At one point, Your ancestors language was the foreign one" I like to use imagery when explaining these kinds of things because it transform you into this mindset that I want you to keep throughout the poem.

  

We are the refugees you call terrorists
We are the Mexicans you call rapists
We are the Africans you call slaves
We are the founders of YOUR country that you call Pocahontas.
We’ve heard
We ’ve tasted
We’ve seen
We've felt the wounds
That are now scars
That become beautiful
Just like how a seed gets planted
Still grows

And as the plant grows 

The flower blossoms into something beautiful
Then the flower gets abducted by the soil she grew up in

Terra
Torture
Torment
Territory
Terror
Terrorism
Terrorist
For god's sake
You cause the tears to be drawn by the strongest of people
Tears
He made them cry tears of blood
The founding fathers that founded the “new world”
“They shouldn’t be worried”
“They came here illegally”
Just how YOUR people just came across a country
The goal was to trade
But at the end they traded the people
The people who are MY ancestors
Who are also YOUR ancestors 

It even says it in the name

United States of America
United States of Terror
Broken by boundaries
Tethered by territories 

Terrified of terrorists

My people.
They keep coming
And they keep going back
They go back because you say we are taking your jobs away
YOUR founding father was the one who stumbled upon America
who assaulted the natives and killed them with the hidden gems

You call us homeless
But it was your forefathers, 

founders of the “New World” who took us out of Our land and made US homeless
You
Intoxicated US
Raped US
Sold US
Lynched US
Because your people found out we were useless
Useless
Used
Use
You used US
History repeats itself,
But don’t you learn from your mistakes?
Oh wait
Your people haven’t learned that one yet
So how do you expect me to learn something that your people wrote for me.
You call us rapists
“They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. But some, I assume, are good people.”
You say we’re your favorite Mexicans
YOUR father raped the Africans and the Indians and the Arabs and then you get the alluring Puerto Rico.
And you STILL call it U.S. territory
A part of the United States
Part of the United States of Terror
You terrorist.

You call us terrorists?
We’re dangerous you say
YOU were the one who used used for the oil that you need to provide for your nation
At the end we just want to provide.
So doesn’t that just make YOU the terrorist?
You call us the names of our past
But what you don’t know is that you had a past
Your past as a rapist
Your past as a terrorist
Your past as an intoxicator
The past of MY people were affected by you
I wonder
Is the pot cracking because there are too many tongues?
Or is it cracking because of the defiance of my people?
The melting pot is cracking
With the roars of the Americans you call immigrants
With the punches of frustration that is interrogating the minds of the immigrants
With the mouths of a foreign language although
At one point
Your ancestors’ language was the foreign one
You can take us out
But you must take yourself out first
You’re superior for now
But with the defiance of MY people you will not take us out “your” America

If You Can't Stand the Heat- It's Probably Global Warming

Climate change is an issue. What we did this unit was we spoke about temperature conversions, the carbon cycle, the difference in weather and climate, natural disasters, watersheds, number line, and atmospheric layers. "We had in house guests, like Mark Mesle who has observed climate change."We also had an environmental engineer from the EPA who spoke more about what she does and what she is building to help with floods across the U.S. Lastly, "we had a Skype session with a meteorologist from Florida where he spoke about his job, and how there are three different jobs that go into being a meteorologist: graphic designer, presenter, and scientist." We were assigned to choose a specific city where we would find the annual temperature change, based on the rise of CO2 in our atmosphere. I decided to choose Paris, France as my city and found results on what the temperature and global temperature change will be like in the year 2100.


                     

To conclude, global change will be affecting us, and as you can see by the results that I received climate change will even be controlling the way we live day by day. As I was doing my calculations and learning more on climate change I began to come to the realization that we must act upon this issue now. It's only in a matter of time that we will see more and more changes put into this world. As a developing country, we are finding more and more ideas, but these ideas may be effecting our environment in a negative way.