This week is nearing its end which would normally be an amazing time filled with celebration and rejoice. Sadly this weekend is filled with panic and worry over the huge exhibition that will take place tomorrow at the NAMI walk. We have prepared for weeks leading up to Saturday and have come up with activities showing how a teens mind works very differently than an adult's mind and we have created booklets for people to take with them that are filled with details about emotions on the brain. Preparing for weeks has left me with tons of info that I will be able to use at the event but it has also left me stressed out because i'm not sure if I've remembered enough. I try my very best to remember all these fancy words and ways that the brain works but usually by the end i forget everything and it frustrates me beyond belief because even when I want to learn I can't and in the end it hinders my grade. Lets use our imagination to visualize what exhibition will be like, it starts with me waking up at 5 o’clock in the morning completely stressed out. |
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I'll be 100 percent honest about this week and how it's helped me. I've really started to develope skill involving photoshop and illustrator because i've been in charge of designing for this class but I feel that i've really been lacking when it comes to understanding the brain. Sure i've read through hundreds of pages describing how “the brain is a complex organ” and how “it's the central part for our emotions and how they work” but I can't figure out why any of this is true. The giant words that i'm faced with won't fit into my tiny brain making it nearly impossible for me to understand my topic as much as I want to. On the bright side the nami activity we are doing has helped me understand the brain a little more because of how visual the activity was. I was able to look at a paper and see where happiness comes from and where sadness comes from and I can look at a brain now and point to where most of the emotions are located in the brain. The professionals coming in was really cool aswell because they are so further ahead of me that they easily summarized a topic i had been struggling to understand into a few simple sentences that will stick with me throughout the semester. Overall this week has been one where i've faced a lot of stress but learned some valuable info that will hopefully have me ending the semester strong.
I really believe that people should know how little we know about emotions because I think it will open their eyes to the perspectives of other people. In the book “The Emotional Brain The Mysterious Underpinnings Of Emotional Life”” by Joseph LeDoux the author poses the question “Can we ever hope to relate this intricate mesh of interconnected neural elements to emotion, a term that in itself refers to an extremely complicated phenomena?” this question shows that even people who have studied many years in fields surrounding the brain still lack the knowledge to truly know what occurs when emotions begin to form. When people think of how we go about our lives I believe they miss one key factor that factor being how much of a role the brain plays in every action. This week really has been a rollercoaster for me with all the work preparing for festival. Ive tossed myself into the middle of a crazy emotional minefield and it's forced me to learn about the brain using first hand experience. Emotions suck honestly they are uncontrollable and just happen when a situation arises sure they bring happiness and joy but they also bring stress and anger with them. This week has shown me just how much a person cannot control their emotions and really opened my eyes to every single one of the teen brain health topics.
This week as a class we were able to visit UCSD and get an inside look at their labs and
their research on the brain. When we arrived at UCSD we split off into two groups to fit the entire tour into one day and not have it feel rushed. I started off in the group that was going into the actual lab area of the college. Before entering the lab we first watched a short presentation on how the brain works surrounding mating and everything that comes before and after mating but specifically in mice since their brains so closely resemble ours. After the presentation we entered the lab into a little dark room with two giant microscopes. This dark room was where they looked at the slices of mouse brain which were very light sensitive hence the dark room. Once we left the dark room we moved through the lab and ended up at the machine that actually sliced the brain. I still can't believe that there is a machine out there that can cut a brain 10x thinner than a piece of paper and I didn't think i would ever be in the same room as that machine. Now it was cool being able to be part of the lab tour but i think i enjoyed the school tour a little bit more because most of the things said by the scientist went right over my head. UCSD seemed like a nice school and the library was really nice compared to other colleges in my opinion. Overall the trip was fun and a pretty good learning experience but I still don't know how i'm suppose to remember everything that was said because right now I can only remember about half of the things said. I think that everyone should look into how the brain works at least once in their life because it really gives you a new look on how things work. Most my life I thought most emotional issues or physical issues were entirely my fault but after having to learn about the brain I realize that I was mistaken about most of my assumptions. Neuroscience shows us how and why people behave not because of guesses but because of their years of work they have put into figuring out how the brain works. This work is very valuable and has changed my perspective on lots of things to the point where I felt that I did need to do something to end lots of current stigmas. As a teen I don't think there is too much we can do to really change the world but I do think we can start of with at least a school or a group of friends. I think the best way to help end stigma is to end it in a small group and just expand from their. It's kind of like planting a flower it will need your help growing but once it is grown into a flower it will be able to stand on its own and eventually spread seeds across the world until that flower can be found globally. This week was quite the long one even though it was only a 4 day school week. In biology we have been reading lots of articles and watching tons of presentations which I think is really cool but gosh does it really have a tendency to make an hour fell like two. The presentations are not all just sitting and listening which is really nice because i'm not sure if i could have sat through all of them without moving from my seat. Overall though I really feel like the presentations have helped me better understand the brain and how it worked. Some of the wording that has been used really just sticks in my mind which is really nice because normally I wouldn't be able to remember that the pre frontal lobe is in charge of stuff and sends commands similar to a ceo in a business. The articles in class have also been pretty complicated compared to the past handouts we have been given. This has basically forced me to read things in detail because of how complex the vocab is which has lead to me getting a better grasp of the topic. I think in general this week has been extremely difficult but at the same time extremely useful because of how much I have forced fed my brain information.
After listening to all the topics of teen brain health in class I really felt overwhelmed with thought but in a good way. The amount of information packed into each presentation allowed the audience to really get a feel for the topic and how passionate the presenter was about it. Some of the presenters really were able to bring in connections to the topic that showed their passion and how important and close to heart the topics can be. The main three topics I focused on in my opinions connected to me not because of the quality of the presentation but because of the connections I was able to make with the topic. The emotions on the brain had to be my favorite out of all of them because of the fact that I feel very overwhelmed with emotions on a daily basis. I also communicate with adults a lot because of one of my hobbies and as mentioned in the presentation I find it hard to communicate with adults at moments. This topic I think just is one that everyone can connect to because everyone has been a teen at a point in their lives. I think it will be difficult for adults to reconnect with their past selves so I am curios how we can raise awareness for this topic and really reach out to the adults.
This week was pretty horrible in biology for a couple or reason, the main one being that I was stuck outside the entire time just reading and annotating giant articles about the body. These articles consisted of about 50 percent English and 50 percent science words that were way beyond my vocabulary. Annotating these articles was pretty darn difficult because in class it's not acceptable just to highlight key information, you have to find connections to your personal life. Now normally this isn't that hard but because I had to find ways to connect my daily life to words like systemic circulation it makes it pretty darn difficult considering I didn't even know the word till I read it.Now this week wasn’t all horrible because this free time that I was given because I was not participating in the pig dissection allowed me to spend my time finishing my work before others could. Now for why I didn't dissect the pig just came down to me not being able to stomach the dissection. So overall I think this week was a lot of work but I was able to use my time to its fullest and take advantage of every second to create some pretty high quality work that I feel will allow me to better understand the topics in class.
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April 2017
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