Black Lives Matter is an American Movement that feeds on people consisting of the Trayvon Martin, Black Lives Matter is a unique contribution that goes beyond extrajudicial killings of Black people by police and vigilantes. There are many reasons why this organization was made. There are 2.8 million innocent blacks who are in prison today, This in itself is a crime. Black women are being assaulted. Did you know that there are 500,000 blacks in the states who are illegal immigrants? I bet you didn’t know that. These are things that we need to prevent for our society. I am interested in this project because it targets kids my age in today's society and educates them about crimes committed against minorities. Black Lives Matter also encourages us to come up with solutions to make a change and ensure that this violence doesn’t continue."
It is important for Americans to be able to rely and trust authority figures, such as police officers, EMTs, Firefighters, etc. Police brutality is both tragic and real. Take Trayvon Martin and Eric Gardner for example. Both men ended up dead because of then injustice brought upon them b
y the police"
I’m wondering how to prevent domestic violence, to say No more to being assaulted. It’s time that we take a stand and make an improvement. To mine and possibly others, it’s Cruel and it’s Racist. I’m willing to create a survey about our segregation. would be better.
Pollution is a very important worldwide topic, because we are killing ourselves. Third world countries are getting devastated by pollution. Did you know that highway pollution can cause autism in children? Over the years we have been destroying our world. Sooner or later, the full power of the sun will be unleashed, melting our world. There are so many other options for energy that we can use. For example, We can use windmills, solar panels, and even dams. We have hybrids and electric cars and planes! We literally have green fuel. My point is that we have all there great amazing alternate sources of energy.
This has always been an important topic for me, because I have experienced the effects of pollution firsthand. I have been conserving energy for my entire life. I convinced my parents to get cfls and to turn off the lights. I try to use cars as little as possible.The most common form of air pollution is smog. Ever been to Japan? Japan has the highest report of smog in the world. This is caused by overpopulation. Overpopulated cities mean too many vehicles which leads to big time smog. Many people in Japan can be seen wearing masks to protect themselves from pollution this is a problem, but It can be easily solved.
The solution will take time, but it is very possible. We must focus more of our funding to saving this planet. We must slowly begin converting to clean green energy sources, starting with hybrid cars. They are not too expensive and they generate a lot less pollution. The big problem with industrialized countries is that they generate way too much carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide.
Now plants suck up most of our co2, but not all of it. And that extra co2 goes straight into the atmosphere.We must reduce our carbon footprint. It was us who created things like acid rain. Third world countries are being devastated by our air pollution! Once we create it, it can travel in clouds and in wind all the way to places like afghanistan.
Electric cars people! They are not that expensive. Ever heard of the zombie car. Its an electric car that can accelerate faster than a bugatti veyron! My point is electric cars aren’t so bad and we should start using them. Some things I am worrying about is my original research, because I don’t know what kind of results I’ll get. I am thinking about doing field observation or a survey.
Essik, Peter. "Air Pollution Facts, Air Pollution Effects, Air Pollution Solutions, Air Pollution Causes - National Geographic." National Geographic. National Geographic Society, n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2015. <http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/pollution-overview/>.
"11 Facts About the BP Oil Spill." 11 Facts About the BP Oil Spill. Do Something, n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2015. <https://www.dosomething.org/facts/11-facts-about-bp-oil-spill>.
WWF. "Pollution." WorldWildlife.org. World Wildlife Fund, n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2015. <https://www.worldwildlife.org/threats/pollution>.
I set out to tell the story of how my parents met, but since they don’t live under the same roof it was hard to get them in one room to tell their story. One Sunday evening at my grandma's house I stumbled across my aunt and uncle telling the story of how they met. I asked my aunt if she could start the story over and she happily obliged. We sat in the ,living with my grandma, grandpa, my mom, my cousin, and his girlfriend. I thought it would be interesting to have their commentary as well, so throughout the piece you'll hear some side comments.
I hope the audience gains a little insight on love and how it’s not a streamlined process. It takes time and eventually “Bam” love.
Enjoy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRhBrZlZdNs&feature=youtu.be
How did you accomplish this goal?
I accomplished this goal by putting something what I called a collage and talk presentation.
What do you hope your audience gains for viewing/listening your piece?
Growth and change are apart of everyones life.
How did you accomplish this goal?
I told a story of me being able to push through and become successful.
What do you hope your audience gains for viewing/listening your piece?
I hope the audience would gain an understanding of how effort and determination and of course SLA could change a person.
I created a podcast about my own story, my own personal experience.
How did you accomplish this goal?
I had to learn how to open up about this topic and just be able to talk about it.
What do you hope your audience gains for viewing/listening your piece?
To understand that everyone has their own personal struggle. To be understanding and more kind, to be more caring.
Performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) are used by people who want to have a competitive edge. Most of the time these drugs are used by bodybuilders and professional athletes. The satisfaction of becoming a star on a team or representing your country becomes too great and PEDs is what opens the door for these athletes to shine. By taking these drugs you are giving yourself an advantage over players by using a substance that improves your abilities to perform. As good as these drugs sound, there are a lot more bad qualities than there are good.
Most people think that PEDs just consist of steroids but they are wrong. There is a drug by the name of Erythropoietin that increase the count of someones red blood cells. Red blood cells carry oxygen throughout the body, so if one can increase his/her red blood cell count, there will be more oxygen going through ones muscles. This is just one example and there are many more that are more effective.
http://science.howstuffworks.com/10-performance-enhancing-drugs.htm
The people who use PEDs are putting their bodies at risk for a temporary boost of performance. The effects of these drugs can differ between genders and different drugs have different effects on the body. Anabolic steroids come with severe physical side effects such as acne, high blood pressure, risk of tendinitis, and more. If one consumes Gonadotropin side effects could include joint pain, muscle weakness, diabetes, and fluid retention. Taking these drugs effects someones in a lot more bad ways than good.
This is a very touchy topic to me because me being an athlete, all I want is a fair chance. For someone to cheat and use anything for them to get an unfair edge sickens me. Me personally I will never use any type of unfair advantage to get myself better. I believe the only way you will ever progress is if you show hard work and dedication to whatever you want to get better at, no matter what it is or what level you are on.
Philly School Funding
For my topic, I will be researching and hopefully positively contributing to Philadelphia school funding. I am interested in this because I personally go to a public school in Philadelphia, who is struggling due to the lack of funding in our schools. Currently, according to an article on the Education Week website, the school districts deficit is about 216 million dollars. The school district plans on raising the cities sales tax to cover only half of that.
The states previous governor, Thomas Corbett, caused many problems for schools by giving tax breaks to large companies instead of money towards schools. Our new governor. Our current governor, Tom Wolf has been more compliant in supporting the school system, but the damage has been, and our schools are facing a crisis. Here is a look at where the money in Philadelphia schools is being spent.
Almost no money is being spent on important extra utilities such as safety, food services, and transportation. And, even with 45% of the money going towards instruction, there were still many lay-offs, especially for teachers with positions considered more minor or less necessary.
I am wondering the main ways I can help school funding, because although the problem is a lack of money, my donations would not go very far. I will talk to teachers and students who have experience with this issue to say how they contribute. I will do my best to spread awareness of the topic, however I think most people around me are aware of the problem because it affects them as well. I don’t feel informed enough to design my own plan on how to fund the school system, because I am not sure of a fair way of raising the kind of money needed.
Philadelplhians have a very bad view of public schools. A survey showed that only 18% of people have a positive view of the schools, while most others see it as “poor”. However, studies have shown that over 85% of teachers are competent in their teaching, meaning the problem lies elswhere. America puts more money into their school systems than many other countries whose students excell beyond ours. Therefore, the problem does not reside entirely within the school, but rather the personal lives of the people. Unfortunately, I cannot change everyones lives, and make them richer. So, I will use an interview as a way to come up with ideas of how to
benefit schools.
I wonder if any students in past years have chosen the same topic I am doing. If I find out about someone who did, I wonder what I should ask them so they could help me with my project. As the project goes on, I hope I thoroughly learn all the information I will need for this project about my topic, because it is useful and very relevant information.
Blog Post #1:
My topic is going to be Depression and Anxiety (for any age group). I am interested in this topic because I myself was recently diagnosed with depression and anxiety, and it’s fascinating because this is something that can developed over time or maybe after a certain event. Also how there is so many in’s and out’s to it, and how it can be different for everybody. Depression is basically chemical imbalance in the brain, that causes a lot of mental and physical symptoms that can affect you and your loved ones.
This issue is significant because Depression and Anxiety is one of the main causes of disability, and even death. It is extremely important to be aware about it because you never know when or if you would run into this kind of situation in desperate need of help. Depression and Anxiety is basically an imbalance in your brain. Everyone every now and then gets a little blue sometimes, however if you are waking up in tears almost every morning, feel like you are dragging your feet 24-7.
At this point I’m wondering how educated people are these days about this subject, I also question what I haven’t learned yet about Depression and Anxiety. I’m hoping that I can find great ways to explain this kind of subject because it can be extremely difficult sometimes explaining to others what seems confusing sometimes yourself.
http://40.media.tumblr.com/37bd4927b718e09d0dde7f00beb70f80/tumblr_namloc4Cp51swxxogo1_500.jpg
I am passionate about sex education. Teens need to be taught about the dangers of sex but also that sex is a natural thing. I’m connected to this topic, because I didn’t learn much about sex in middle school, just abstinence. I went to a private school, so it was their choice to educate us about it or not. I think teens these days should have the right to be educated in a safe setting about a natural occurrence.
In most states, sex education is not mandatory. It is required in 25 states & Washington DC. Most of these courses are abstinence only anyway. Teens are already having sex, I doubt any type of course is going to change that. But what we can do is make sure they’re safe while doing it. That could mean giving them condoms, or telling them the dangers of unsafe sex. Of course abstinence is the only way to make sure of being safe, but do teens really care nowadays?
A pie chart about Texas sex
education in 2009. Almost all
abstinence only. Abstinence plus
should be required in schools as well.
In a research done by Columbia University, virginity pledges increased the risks of STDs or pregnancy since those taking the pledges did not know how to have safe sex. Even 88% of those that took the pledge, had premarital sex. There are articles saying that abstinence pertaining to god forces you into marriage
In the state of Pennsylvania, sex education is not required. The state actually received over a million dollars in 2010 to teach abstinence until marriage courses. Even though the age of sexual consent in Pennsylvania is 16, so many kids aren’t taught safe sex at all. Most private schools don’t choose to teach sex education as a whole, because most private schools are religious & think sex before marriage is sinful. So if most public schools & practically all private schools are rejecting sex education, how do teens find their information? The internet is a fairly reliable source, but sometimes they learn some things that aren’t quite true. Most articles about abstinence make it seem awful if you have premarital sex. Nowadays people staying abstinent for god are more believing that its sinful and they’ll be punished instead of doing it for themselves.
In conclusion, I believe that all states should be required to teach sex education in public schools. Teach them the bad, but also the good. Teens probably aren’t going to stop having sex anytime soon, so why not express that its a natural thing, though illegal at their age. I just believe that we should be given proper education on important things. Like which STDs are the worst for you & and how to cure them, how to properly put on a condom, where the nearest clinic is, where to buy condoms, or how to ask your doctor about birth control. These things are so important to know, not just now, but for the future as well.
I was devastated when I realized that I would likely be disregarding of America’ s failing mental health system if it were not for my own nonverbal, autistic, younger brother. I find it terrifying to think that I would just be another kid who paid this issue no mind, if I did not have this personal connection. It disappoints me even more that there are many people who simply do not care about this problem, or even refer to this as a significant issue. Despite the occasional spark a deadly school shooting ignites in the discussion of mental illnesses, this topic is usually ignored and the invisible cult of depressed, autistic, bipolar, children remain hidden at the back of classrooms, where they become shadows of a system that fails to provide the resources essential to their growth. They are then forced to thrive in a competitive world, where people with differences are usually ostracized and shunned without a chance. In my project, I plan to connect the defective mental health care system to the general ignorance shared by the public about how these issues affect the mentally-challenged.
This picture metaphorically illustrates the dangers the breaches in the mental health care system cause in reference to the Connecticut shooting.
The numbers are sickening. 40,000 people die a year by means of suicide. Only 30% of depressed teenagers are being treated for depression. These statistics make me wonder: Why is there not a lot of emphasis being put on mental illnesses? Why do politicians seldom talk about underfunded special education programs at school? Why does death resuscitate the usually ephemeral debate? I believe that if the public was educated about the cracks in the mental health system,and the deadly consequences they engender, more citizens would care enough to drive an imperative discussion that can lead to awareness concerning ways to make people with mental illnesses feel welcome in the society they live in.
This picture represents a campaign to stop teen suicides.
For years, I have watched my parents struggle to provide my brother with the best opportunities, mainly because few exist without a hefty price tag. Moreover, many of the programs that are supposed to aid his development are uncoordinated to the extent when calling the state of unorganized, and sometimes ineffective services, offered to the mentally-challenged, a “ system”, can be questioned. Families in desperate need of assistance are usually forced to navigate a circuitous route, involving professionals who know little about their child’ s history, and experimenting with countless prescriptions, praying that one bottle of pills makes a difference in their children’ s lives along the way. These families, like my own, live in the constant fear of being unable to provide their loved ones with the necessities they need in order to stay healthy and content mainly because the current makeshift system is not secure enough to support their needs.
Through research, I found that there are only 7, 500 psychiatrists, while 20,000 are actually needed. 5 million American children suffer from mental illnesses, however, reimbursement for mental health services, from public and privates insurers, often falls short of providing the most salient services. These issues are seldom spoken about in society and in the media unless a mentally ill person goes on a murder spree. Even then, the excitement is short-lived.
This graph shoes how mental illnesses affects American students.
My project will bring awareness to the gaps in our mental health care system. I plan to do so by showcasing how little the public knows about the issues that negatively affect the mentally-ill through a survey and field observation at a treatment center , and correlating my findings to the broken system. Stay tuned!
Syeda: Así que, ¿dónde debemos ir hoy? (so, where should we go today?)
Nana: Tengo muchas ganas de ir de compras. (i really want to go shopping)
Athalia: yo también (me too)
Liv: Pero yo quiero ir a la fuente (but i want to go to the fountain)
Tajnia: Sí, yo tambien! (yeah, same here)
Syeda: el centro comercial cuenta con ropa bonita (the mall has nice clothes)
Tajnia: ...... pero tiene largas colas (...but it has long lines)
Liv: hay una tienda de helados junto a la fuente (there is an ice cream store next to the fountain)
Nana: ... pero la fuente que te hace mojado (...but the fountain makes you wet)
Athalia: debemos ir de compras y luego la fuente (we should go shopping and then the fountain)
EVERYONE: SÍ!
(inside the mall)
Nana: (looks at phone) Oh... Tengo que ir al baño (Oh... I gotta go to the bathroom)
Athalia: Yo iré contigo (I'll go with you)
Nana: NO!.... sólo compras (no... just keep shopping)
Athalia: Bien(Okay)
Tajnia: quince minutos más tarde (fifteen minutes later)
Nana: (looks behind her) Debo ir a casa (I gotta go home)
Syeda: Por que? (why?)
Nana: Tengo que llevar a mi perro al veterinario (I have to take my dog to the vet)
Liv: No tienes un perro (You don't have a dog)
Syeda Tajnia Athalia Liv: (looks back) Es el novio, Mason?!
Raul: Huh? Who’s there?
Pedro: Just some friends we would like to invite you over to our house.
Juan: Yeah, do you want to come over?
Raul: Uhhh….
Juan: They’ll be candy….
Pedro: And tacos….
Raul: Sounds tempting, where are we going?
Pedro: Mexico City, home of the slums and the dru-I mean, the candy and the chocolate!
Juan: So whaddaya think? Do you want to come with us?
Raul: Yeah, I think so. It sounds good!
Pedro: NOWS OUR CHANCE! GET HIM!!! HE’S A WANTED MAN FROM THE RIO GRANDE TO PATAGONIA!!!
(Raul Starts running)
(Pedro and Juan chase with batons)
(We circle around the room a couple of times)
I am participating in this project called “You and the World Project”. It was given to me in my English class and basically what we have to do is find an issue in the world and interact with it. So based on this, I chose to have my topic be Sex Slavery.
Many people believe that slavery no longer occurs, whereas that is not the case. Specifically, I will like to inform the world of sex slavery. Sex trafficking is the oppression of women and children being forced into forms of sexual activity. I have done research on many personal stories from women and children who have gone through forms of this. According to this article, I have learned that sex trafficking occurs in places like Cambodia and India, but not only that, they also occur in places in the US such as New York. The sex typically happens in places called brothels, which are houses of prostitution.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/09/world/asia/cambodia-cfr-mira-sorvino-karaoke-brothels/index.html
It is estimated that there are 8.4 million children in slavery or practices similar to slavery. Girls being sold into sex slavery are more likely to be in between the ages of 10-15. There are 215 million child laborers 5-17 years old (2010). Sex slavery is recorded to be the worst and highest in Asian countries. Many girls in Cambodia are said to be dead by the age of 20 with AIDS because of slavery. Mother’s at times sell their girls to sex slavery because of lack of money. According to this site human trafficking produces $9.5 billion a year in the United States. A sex slave can be forced to have sex up to 20-48 times per day. Pimps here in the United States can make $150,000-$200,000 per child each year and pimps usually have 4-6 girls. All the money earned has to be given to a pimp and if the victim does not meet their quota for the day, they may be asked to remove their clothing so they can get a beating. Kolab, a survivor of sex trafficking in Cambodia was beaten with a stick until she fainted, often getting electrocuted and getting cut by a knife by her pimp. One out of every three runaway teens are lured into prostitution within 48 hours of being in the street. Most victims suffer from emotional trauma, are under mental and physical threat and have symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.
http://www.chestnuthilllocal.com/2014/08/26/sex-trafficking-victims-pa-treated-criminals/
In order to fight against sex trafficking, efforts must be made to eliminate gender discrimination and inequality. Poverty and the lack of protection from abuse and violence perpetuate and feed into the demand for sex trafficking. According to this article “It is critical to implement legal safeguards for women and girls to alleviate poverty and create greater possibilities for non-exploitative options for girls and women”. Sex tourism is also another form of sexual exploitation. A sex tour operator makes it feasible for someone that travels in from another country access to sex slaves in that city. Advocates against this type of tourism have worked hard to criminalize and prosecute sex tour operators under the law.
I am interested in this topic because, aside from women, forced sex happens to children my age! It is a mind blowing situation that needs to be discontinued and terminated. This hurts lots of families all over the world and I expect to learn more about the personal encounters and stories these women and children have to share.
Anti Semitism is something that I have always been fascinated by. Throughout history jews have been faced with prejudice, exile and genocide. As a jewish boy who went to school in a private jewish school for 9 years I felt almost no ais very important because many innocent people are being mistreated and abused due to their religion. Many people are not aware of the struggle that a lot of jews go through. My first time going to school where their were almost no jews has been very different. A lot of people at SLA and other public schools do not know any jews and most people are not taught and educated about the struggle that jews have been through to keep their heritage and religion alive. If people knew more about what jews have been through and that kind of way we are treated in other countries in Europe and Asia their might be less anti semitism in Philadelphia and in the world. A lot of anti semitic countries are located in the Middle East and Israel has been attacked several times in the past and now. Israel has taken part in 15 battles and wars and is still fighting once again to keep it’s freedom. Countries like Greece are in high support of those who fight against Israel. For the first time since the holocaust NeoNazis have entered into government in Greece. The world is becoming more and more against the idea of jews having their own country.
A survey was taken asking people around the world whether or not they believed certain statements and stereotypes about jews. The results were astounding and scary. One statement was “Jews are responsible for most of the world’s wars.” 38% of people who were surveyed said that this was probably true.
At this point in the project I am wondering what steps and actions are being taken the world and in the community. I want to learn more about anti semitism and how a lot of it started. For the rest of the project I want to make a difference in the community by showing how anti semitism affects millions of people. I also wonder why and how certain anti semitic thoughts are started and pushed to millions of people throughout the world.
