The Start of Practice Presentations

Tomorrow we begin practicing for our final presentations. I feel as though my presentation is about 90% complete. I just need to finish my introduction, note cards, and add a few pictures. I was thinking about using leftover posters and giveaways to give to my panel when I speak about my health fair. I'm not sure how I want to introduce my topic and am really trying to think of something creative.

I'm not too nevous about public speaking, just that my project will go smoothly and I don't forget anything. Also, I want to make sure I don't bore my audience with facts and statistics and my pictures go along with everything.

It's hard to believe it's already November and our presentations are only 11 days away. I just want everything to go right and get everything over with.

Action Plan: Complete!

I am finally done with my action plan. On Monday, I had my health fair in the school cafeteria. There was a decent turnout and I had a great amount of help from my classmates that volunteered to help out. Unfrtunetly, one participant was unable to show up due to the flu. (Ironic, right?) But other than that, things went pretty smoothly. I got a few video clips and a lot of pictures, so I hope to edit them soon. I'm not sure if I'll use the video yet or not, but I will definitely make a slideshow of pictures for my presentation.

Less than one month until we have to be done with our projects. We start practing presentations November 6th..Yikes. I hope I get done in time. I turned in my Self-Edit (finally..) and am waiting for Casey to get done with her paper (I think she has more written than me!) and then we can get our peer editing done.

I started working on my website...I have a design figured out and all that. I just need to know what pages and information I'm going to include. Hmmm. I'm not exactly sure what we need to have. Hopefully Mr. Mays gets well soon because I could really use his help on this website. It's sure is a good thing I remember how to use Dreamweaver..Although, I'm not so strong in Photoshop (I have Casey helping me with that).

Hopefully time doesn't fly by too soon, and I get everything done and done well.

One Week!

There is one week left until my health fair action plan. Mostly everything is planned completely, and I just really hope everthing goes as planned.

Unfortunetly, working on my action plan has distracted me from my literature review, so I'm really trying to get that and the self review finished ASAP (or by Friday or else).

Nurse Check In

I talked with the school nurse again today, and she was very helpful. She said that I have a good start as far as organizations go and I hope she's right.
A few things the nurse suggested that she's trying to get to come is:

• A nutritionist
• Flu shots
• A blacklight to show the difference between your hands before and after they are washed
• Dental health

Also, I recently e-mailed Monica Naik from the Neurology Department at Children's Hospital, who used to be my doctor. I'm hoping I can either interview her or she can attend the health fair for my own table relating to headaches and migraines.

Making Progress

I was finally able to talk to Mr. Zinga on Thursday and talk about using the cafeteria and my plans for the health fair. He suggested talking to the school nurse. Ms. Savido and I went to talk to the nurse and she is glad to help out.
So, I created a list of all of the health organizations I have contacted (and might contact) and their responses to send to the nurse. I'm hoping she can help me to set this up and maybe recommend a few more organizations to contact. Since the nurse is new this year, I still need to explain how parent conference day works, and figure out the time the health fair will run(afternoon or evening).
I finished and turned in the rewritten rubric and outline for my research paper, so now I just have to start the paper. I might use my proposal to get my ideas flowing.
Since we have off Wednesday through Friday for the G20, and I am not coming tomorrow, I hope I can get some things done while we're off. My goal is to start my research paper and to continue contacting organizations and making concrete plans for the health fair.

Problems

I've come across a few problems with my grad project lately. Although I have my computer back, the internet has been really slow lately, making it difficult to complete my notes. I did finish my works cited and have all of the sources for the notes, it's just trying to access them that's the problem. Yesterday, I thought I lost my grad project folder, but luckily it was just hidden in my locker. I am really trying to work on making sure I can have my action plan ready soon, but I'm going to have to call the organizations because they don't respond to e-mails very well.

FINALLY

So, I finally got my laptop back, even though I don't even think it's the one that I turned in..
After figuring out some password and H-drive issues, I was finally able to start working on my graduation project on it. I am currently waiting to talk to Ms. Savido about my action plan so that I can give more notice to organizations and students. I still need to send a letter (which I wrote today) to Wertheimer to make sure I can use the school cafeteria. I finished my list of students with health topics and should probably talk to them soon.
I contacted organizations and possible places that can donate refreshments yesterday online, but I have to call all of them, too.
I really hope I can pull off this action plan and that it is successful.
I still need to finish my notes and outline (because of my computer), so I'm going to try to work on my grad project over the 3-day weekend.

Back to Work

I still have not gotten my laptop back because it is broken (I'm currently using someone else's), and it has really set me back from getting work done. For the first three days without a computer, I wrote out things I need to get done soon for the research part and action plan. I'm really trying to make sure I have my action project planned since I am aiming to have it on October 12th (parent teacher conferences) in the cafeteria. I made a list of health organizations and possible places that can donate refreshements and have begun to contact these places/organizations.
I really do need to work on finishing notes and starting my paper, but right now I'm more worried about making sure this health fair is planned out. I need to still see what students can help out.
I hope this works out.

New Action Project Ideas

My action project is going to be a health fair. Students in our grade who have a graduation project topic related to health can participate by setting up a table with information on their topic. This can include: a poster board, a PowerPoint, a website, or other media. They can also bring in a specialist on their topic and/or someone from an organization related to their topic.

Ms. Savido and I have decided the health fair can take place during Parent Teacher Conferences, which is on October 12, 2009. The location would be the school cafeteria.

I have set up a list of students who are taking grad project class now or who took it last trimester that have a medical related topic. I hope to have a meeting with these students soon to discuss more possible ideas.

Accomplishments and Challenges

Today, I talked with Ms. Savido about the list I constructed for possible people that can participate in my Health Fair. I also came up with more ideas for the Health Fair.
I started the Pre-Questions for the proposal on Friday, and I'm about half way done. The challenges I currently have is that I need better ideas for my Health Fair and I need to complete my notes.

February 18th

Today, I completed writing my interview questions and my survey questions. I found a doctor at University of Pittsburgh that is an assistant professor of Neurology at Pitt and is also the chief of the Headache Division. I e-mailed him to request an intervew.
Also, I e-mailed Children's Hospital to ask about volunteering there. I would like to work in the Neurology Department, but since that is not very likely, I will be glad to volunteer in the hospital wherever needed.
I currently do not have a lot of ideas for my Action Project, but I am trying to think of what to do. I want to inform students, and possibly adults, about the best ways to treat and prevent their headaches, but am unsure how to do so.

Did You Know...?

• Over 90% of children will have a headache at least once in their childhood (The Detroit News)
• Migraines affect around 30 million people in the U.S. (Migraine Headaches)
• Approximately 75% of people who suffer migraines in the U.S. are women (Migraine Headaches)
• Only 10% of headaches are caused by serious illnesses and infection (Headaches)
• Approximately 5% of young children and 10% of teens get migraine headaches (Headaches)
• Migraines affect approximately 6% of men and 18% of women (Allergies and Migraine Headaches)
• Migraines cost society over $30 million dollars each year (Migraine Headaches – The Most Commonly Used Nutritional Supplements for Migraine Prevention)
• Depression is three-times as frequent in those who suffer with migraines (Migraine Headaches – The Most Commonly Used Nutritional Supplements for Migraine Prevention)
• Americans consume about 200-300 mg of caffeine daily, or approximately 2-3 cups of coffee (Caffeine and Headaches: What you Need to Know
• Less than 2% of people suffer from rebound headaches from overuse of pain relievers (Caffeine and Headaches: What you Need to Know)
• Over 85% of women and 82% of men that suffer from severe migraines have had headache-related disability (Migraine Headaches, Vision Effects)

Essential and Foundation Questions

Essential Question:
How do headaches and headache medications affect people's day-to-day lives differently?

Foundation Questions:
1. What is neuroscience and what do neuroscientists do?
2. How many people in the United States are affected by headaches?
3. How do headaches in children, teenagers, and adults differ?
4. What is thought to be the best way to prevent or treat migraines?
5. What are the most common triggers of headaches and migraines?
6. What are the most common symptoms of headaches and migraines?
7. What are common side effects of treatments of headaches and migraines?
8. How can you prevent and treat headaches and migraines?
9. What types of diseases/health issues can cause headaches?
10. How much does stress impact headaches and migraines?

January 14

Today I found 16 different websites to use for my project on neuroscience and headaches. I also started thinking about my "essential question" and have narrowed it down to a few questions that I can choose to use.

Project Idea

At first, I had two major topics for my graduation project, a health fair and neuroscience (studying headaches). I wanted to integrate the topics and use neuroscience as a topic or booth in the health fair, but decided it would be too much to do, so I decided to forgo the health fair idea and just focus on the neuroscience idea. For my project, I want to study neuroscience and the effects of headaches on different people. Some ideas I have are to:

• Do research on neuroscience
• Survey people on the effects of headaches on them, such as how they affect their lives or how often they get headaches
• Research the different types of medications that cure headahces/migranes and figure out what medications have different effects on different people
• Figure out the root causes of why people get headaches/migraines

Medicines that I already know of that deal with treating/preventing headaches/migranes are:

• Imitrex
• Asprin
• Ibuprofen
• Acetaminophen
• Relpax
• Frovatriptan
• Naproxen Sodium
• Amitriptilene

First Post

a. I have heard about some of the past graduation projects that students have completed at City High. I remember that we took a lot of surveys for students' graduation projects in the past, as well as watching presentations and doing certain activities. Of the graduation projects I've heard of, everyone has had a good experience and had found a topic that was of interest to them.

b. One idea I had for my graduation project is to hold a health fair, that way I could choose different health topics I am interested in and also include health organizations. Another idea I had was to do something with Girl Scouts, but I'm not specifically sure what.

c. One concern I have about my graduation project is that I will choose a good topic that I am interested in, and be able to follow through with it. Also, I want to be sure I don't overwhelm myself with too many things to do for the project at one time.