Hi, my name is Amira Gouri. And my topic is about ASD also known as autism. Which is a developmental disorder that can be noticed on children at early age, generally between two and three years old. It’s when the child start showing poor social skills, trouble of communicating with others, speech delay and/or difficulty of learning. Till now, scientists don’t know the exact causes of autism which makes it hard to invent a medicine that will help cure autistic people.
According to my last post, I interviewed a mother with an autistic son, she shared really important information about her experience with her son, and the adventure she had from the diagnosis of her child when he was 2 years old until today. Her journey is an inspiration and a hope for all mothers with autistic children. In the beginning, I decided to do a presentation but then I changed my mind and wanted to do a poster instead because I want the whole school to know about my issue not just my advisory. And making a poster would fit that criteria. After doing my research I discovered that the percentage of autism is dramatically increasing, but many people still don’t know much information about it, I want to spread awareness by making  a poster that presents information about autism that most people should know such as the definition of autism, facts, causes, symptoms, and the best treatment. I feel confident and proud about this project because I was able to share a lot of information about my passion issue with many people. I chose to do a poster as an effective way of raising awareness about autism among people because it is a permanent method that can last for a long time so many people can see and read it. I also chose to hang the poster in the hallway because that's the place where a lot of students and teachers have the ability to learn from it. I feel like I should have done more posters, so I can hang them everywhere at school, or make brochures with information about autism and give them to people in and outside the school. I learned many facts about autism that I never knew before, for example I never knew that there is a strong debate about whether vaccines are the cause of autism or not. I also learned that some treatments can be beneficial for some autistic people but not for others. In my opinion, autism is a serious issue that affects innocent children and their families as well, so me and others in the community should spread awareness everywhere, accept these people in our society, ask for their basic rights in autistic support schools and colleges where they can learn, have degrees and have jobs in the future, we should also donate to many non-profit organizations that offer them free activities such as sports, art and music, and most importantly, support their families and offer them help, love and hope.

Graffiti is widely known, but where? Where do you see any types of graffiti? Does this hurt you in any way? Where do you specifically see it in the suburbs or urban areas? These questions were answered in my last blog post and if you have not read it, then get caught up now and get the scoops on what’s happening everyday in the heart of Philadelphia and other areas. In my first blog post I had discussed the realities of living in a community where graffiti is considered vandalism. In some ways it is considered vandalism, but the looks of it being vandalism is only on private property, when someone writes on someone else’s belongings. Read on to find out more about Graffiti and the gateways of it being “vandalism”.

"No person shall carry an aerosol spray paint can...with intent to violate the current (graffiti) laws in place". This quote is from the current graffiti laws in New York which somewhat implies in the city of Philadelphia also. The article also talks about the police having to assume anyone carrying a spray paint bottle is convicted of committing a crime, which is violating private and public walls.

For our “You and the World” project, we were to decide which of the following to choose from. My choice was a survey. 50 out of 50 people took my survey and answered from their point of view and opinion. They all had a say and they all said mainly the same things.

If you had read my first blog post that I had written it focused on some of the problems of graffiti. My idea for my agent of change was to host a graffiti run and some of my ideas for the graffiti run was just the vibe that graffiti gave off. I had also made a survey for people to fill out.

About 50 people took my survey (I took a picture of this graph before I had 50 responses).  

After doing research on “Body Image” and how body image effects people. I learned about how having a negative body image can badly impact a person and their self esteem. Some people tend to get this idea of the perfect body image from social media. I also talked about how models body image is portrayed is unrealistic but they are who people strive to be like them.

Since my last blog post, I have created a survey on how people in the Science Leadership Academy (SLA) community actually feel about their body image. Throughout the time that my Survey has been up and people were taking it, I have encountered an incident where body image comes into play. I have just joined the cheerleading team at SLA Beeber, and one of the first things said to me was “Are you ok with losing 5 pounds?” At the time I wasn’t really thinking about it, I was just excited to be on the team. However after going home I realized how my project is so relevant in our community. I know the reason behind them asking me to lose 5 pounds, I need to be lightweight, however incidents like these can really impact a person.

My plan for my original research was to create a survey that would tell me how people in SLA feel about their bodies, if people think models have the perfect body, if they could change any part of their body what would they change and what type of social media user they are. After 2 weeks of people taking my survey I received 55 responses. 34 females took my survey, 20 males and 1 preferred not to say. One of the questions I asked was “On a scale from 1 to 10 how do you feel about your body?” these are the responses I got.

After seeing the data I got from my survey, I was surprised to see how diverse people feel about their bodies. I noticed that none of the 55 people who took my survey rated their body a 10. 17 people said they felt 5 or lower about their body, which means that some people don't really feel that well about their bodies. As I kept looking at my responses I noticed that 20% of the people who took my survey said that they agreed that models have the perfect body image when asked if they agreed or disagreed that models have the perfect body image.

I wanted to see if there was a connection between the people that felt 5 or lower about their bodies and the people who thought that models have the perfect body image. I found out that the majority of the people who felt 5 or less about their bodies agreed that models have the perfect body image. This was shocking for me because I learned how models body image is photoshopped sometimes and are an unrealistic body image goal.

Along with my previous questions I wanted to know what people would change about themselves if they could what they would change. The most common things people wanted to change were their stomach, they wanted to be curvier, and some wanted clear skin. People said they wanted a flatter stomach, bigger butts and clear skin. Overall I was surprised to see the responses I got from my survey. I have learned that models do play a part on the way that people view themselves. And that the people in the SLA community have insecurities about themselves. This is something that can affect so many people. For my agent of change I plan to share this information with my advisory in a presentation. And hopefully this will change their mindsets or make them aware of the issue.

For more information of my research visit my Annotated bibliography.

Hi, my name is Ruby and welcome to my third and final blog post about my You & The World project. As you may recall, in my first blog post I introduced the topic of palm oil and described how palm oil production negatively impacts the environment. In my second post, I added to that information by reflecting on a survey that I conducted within the Science Leadership Academy community. In this third post, I will bring up ways that people are working to change this issue and repair the damage that has been done because of palm oil.

First of all, there are many organizations that do a lot of work on this issue. One prominent example is the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). I initially mentioned this well-known organization in my first blog post. One thing that the WWF does is they work to preserve the wellbeing of animals such as orangutans whose homes have been destroyed due to palm oil. Another organization is called the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, or RSPO. This organization has a set of criteria for sustainable palm oil (palm oil that does not harm the environment when produced). When a company uses sustainable palm oil in a product, they will typically have a label that indicates the product is RSPO Certified.

One company that has adopted sustainable palm oil as a default ingredient is called Justin’s. Justin’s is a semi-small business that makes various types of nut butters, nut butter cups, and snack foods. Their website lists 14 ways that they are environmentally conscious, with the use of sustainable palm oil being one of them. They write, “Our organic peanut butter cups are made with 100% organic palm oil that is sustainably sourced from South America and RSPO certified. Our [products] also contain palm oil that is certified sustainable under the mass balance supply chain model by the RSPO.” And in my opinion, what these companies and organizations are doing to support sustainable palm oil is certainly a step in the right direction.

Another step in the right direction is raising awareness, which is what I chose to do to as my Agent of Change. I knew from the beginning of this project that one problem with palm oil is people's ignorance. Thus, I decided I wanted to raise awareness in my community. The way I did this was by creating a presentation that I delivered to my advisory.

In conclusion, I will say that this entire project has been very enjoyable for me. I have learned so much about palm oil and all of its pros and cons. I learned that when I have an interesting, important, and personal issue, I have little trouble researching it and writing about it. One thing I would have wanted to do differently during this project would be doing an interview rather than a survey for my original research. I think it would have been really interesting to interview someone who works directly with the issue of palm oil. But moving forward, there are still things that I can do to improve this issue. The main thing that I can do is to continue to raise awareness within my community and beyond.

In my last two I talked about what Autism is and what slightly helps it. In my final post I will be talking about who is helping promote it as much as I am. Then I would love to describe how I felt when I did my ‘’agent of change’’ for my cause. My ‘’agent of change’’ was something that will show lot’s of love and support for something right and doesn’t feel like a bad thing. It will be on thursday June 1st and was on the memo so I hope lot’s of people wear the colors.

The best time to show your love and support for Autism is ‘’ Autism awareness month ’’. It takes place on April 1st to April 30th just incase no one knew what month it was. ‘’ Autism speaks ‘’ is one of many other Autism organizations that help support Autism. During this month they set little places parents can go to and have fun and talk to other parents that have the same problems as them and get some advice. It’s very nice and every year they have national monuments glow blue to show their support and some people do the same with light bulbs outside their house.

On the day of my ‘’agent of change’’ I felt happy. It was nice to walk around with the colors of Autism and feel like I was supporting even if I wasn’t a part of the real help. Many other people also wore the colors to help and show support for Autism. It really was fun to wear my Autism shirt and it was like the superman one in the image I used for this post. Some of my teachers also wore colors as well to help show support for Autism and help with me was what really made me happy.

Lot’s of articles say a early education is a smart so in the future they don’t develop any learning problems and I agree because that's what my parents did with me and it helped a lot. A fact I found on a website called oregonlive.com says that if one identical twin has Autism the other identical has a chance of getting it too from 36 to 95 percent of the time. For non-identical twins the one without Autism has a 0 to 31 percent chance of having it as well. It also states that if parents who have a child with Autism are 2-18 percent chance of getting another child with Autism.

What I learned from this project was that if I want to make a change or some lot’s of support for something close to me I have to say it loud and proud and think smart about it. This project was very fun and close to me for helping me express the life of Autistic families and what they go through for their loved ones. I wanna say thank you to those read these post and help show support for Autism in any way, shape or form you see fit. I hope you enjoyed these blog posts and I hope you smooth sailings to wherever you see fit.  

Hey guys its my final slate post on my You & The World Project. If you can recall my topic was suicide. If you would like you can reread slate post 1 and slate post 2 here now. My previous slate posts talked about the rates that suicides have occurred in the u.s every year. This last slate post is to kind wrap things up on my project overall. Hope you enjoy your reading.

The next transition of my project was Agent of Change. I am proud to say my agent of change was a success. I did a powerpoint on suicide and showed my advisory. That was my way of raising awareness. A compliment I received from my classmate is “ I’m proud of you for doing this and remembering that suicide is an important issue and not taking it as a joke’’. The powerpoint included ways to prevent suicide, and preventing suicide.

The decision to raise awareness as my agent of change was easy and thoughtful. I wanted to remind students that suicide is a very serious matter in our world. Everyday we make jokes like I wanna kill myself because of school. However some people say I wanna kill myself and they actually take their own life. People don’t think about that when they repeat  the joke everyday. I reminded my advisory that this topic is important and affects people around us.

Next, I found a website to provide additional information on suicide. The information I came across is helping a person who may be feeling suicide. The way to help them is to simply be there for them when they need you. If they need a shoulder to cry on or a person to talk you. You are that person. More importantly do not judge the person. Also I found ways to prevent suicide from happening. There are four steps for this process. First to remove any access to lethal weapons. Secondly, if you decide to see a therapist never miss your session. Third talk to someone and let them know how you are feeling. Fourth pay attention to the warning signs so that the thought if the thought triggers in your mind again.  

Furthermore, I also learned about the reasons people commit suicide. The reasons are due to domestic violence, bullying, incarceration, etc. Some people are diagnosed with disorders. Types of disorders are schizophrenia, bipolar, personality disorder, depression, and etc. Depression is usually the main and most popular one. People believe that suicide is the only way to end the pain. That’s not true at all, receiving help is the best option to ending your pain.

William Flenner

Elijah Afrifa

Sam Gualtieri

Link to video

Chandrea Lack, Rasa Watson, Madison Siegel, Simon V.

June 5, 2017

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

The video that we created is a movie trailer for TPBW (The Perks of Being a Wallflower.) We decided to work as a team to create a different movie trailer than the one that was already made. Our first pick was going to recreate a scene but then we had a lot to pick from so instead we did the movie trailer. During the trailer we found a lot of cool spots around the school to film at. The tunnel scene where Charlie looks at Sam some type of way when she goes to stick her head up and let the wind blow through her hair, was a scene that we got to shoot at the back stairways and the the lighting there matched perfectly with our scene.   

We also picked these scenes because they were an important part of the book where Charlie faces tough times and how life is in high school. He also goes through drug phases and romance scenes. This trailer sums up the book in a lot of ways and shows how Charlie’s life is put together in a thrilling and heartwarming way. Our group got to sit together and think about the key points during the book and that is how we made our movie trailer.