Malaria: A disease that won't fly away.

In the third unit of the Disease course, which is called World, the class learned about epidemics around the world, and also looked into the dangers that they cause. We also learned about the different vocab words that are used to rate an epidemic, as well as looking at a scale that would help us determine whether or not a disease would be considered an epidemec. For the math portion we looked at finding the R naught of a disease, which means the number of people expected to be hit with this disease. For the action project, the class was assigned to pick a certain disease that was/is endemic and track down the history, symptoms, look into factors that may lead to this disease, and then graph it out. I decided to choose Malaria, because I know how dangerous this disease can be. At first it was difficult graphing everything out, but then once I figured out how to use the website that is used to create the graphs, it went well. I hope you enjoy my video and script below!


Hey everyone! Through this video I will explain the dangers of the very dangerous disease Malaria. First, I want to go off with saying what Malaria is and the symptoms. The word Malaria comes from 18th century Italian meaning of the the word mala, which means “bad” and aria meaning “air”. That term was first used by an Italian doctor, where at the time, they believed disease was caused by foul air in marshy surroundings. Finally in 1880, they discovered that Malaria is a parasitic disease that is caused by the Anopheles mosquito. The disease is shared by a female mosquito, as she needs blood for her eggs. Symptoms include fever, chills, nausea, vomiting, fatigue, headaches, and sweats. The RO of this epidemic is RO>200+700 on occasion, meaning that for every person thats gets hit by this disease 200 or even 700 people can become infected, also meaning that this disease is highly endemic. Study shows that 40% of the world population is at risk of the infection. I decided to look into Africa with this Disease. In the beginning of the 90s, it was estimated that that each year 300-500 million people were ill with malaria, with 1.5 to 2.5 million dieing of this disease. 90% of these deaths were in Africa. It is also said that problems with this disease occurred more in places with changes in climate, not enough financial and human resources, land use, and the population. I have a map that shows the regions that are affected, which add up to be 108 countries all together, along with the number of people affected in those countries. There’s the Americas with 1.1 million, Western Pacific with 2.3 million, Eastern Mediterranean with 12 million, South East Asia with 34 million and Africa with 176 million people infected. In Africa a child dies from Malaria every 30 seconds. Below I have a graph representing the amount of cases reported of Malaria, with people also living in poverty. I’ve noticed that the numbers for the countries in Africa go up way more than the others. Mostly because people who live in poverty can not afford the medication or things offered to prevent malaria. I also looked at how drought has affected the number of people hit with Malaria, since these mosquitoes mostly breed in water. Even though drought causes mosquitoes to get away from those areas, the longer they’re gone, the less some people are prepared for when they do come back, resulting in more people being affected. Drought is  even said to  be a benefit and a curse. Thanks to insecticide treated bed nets the number of people dieing due to Malaria have gone down, especially younger children, but again not much because most of the people hit with Malaria live in poverty, which means they can not afford them. Another way to prevent this disease is to get medication, but that usually just works for travelers. The downside to this is that since most people who get Malaria live in poverty, they don’t really have access to any treatment, which means the disease is going to stick around them for awhile.



Works cited:

"Give a Net on World Malaria Day, April 25." CDC Foundation. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Mar. 2015.

"Malaria and Climate Change." Pulitzer Center. N.p., 23 Feb. 2010. Web. 22 Mar. 2015.

"Health Effects of Drought: A Systematic Review of the Evidence – PLOS Currents Disasters." PLOS Currents Disasters. N.p., 5 June 2013. Web. 22 Mar. 2015.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian.

In the third and final unit of the Forbidden Books class, which is called Diversity, the class learned about the different ways authors permit diversity in their writings, but also having the side of intolerance somewhere in there. The class also looked into the meaning of diversity, and seeing how society can be scared of that idea.  For the final actual project the class was assigned to write a "book report" on our chosen book, which were all on the list of banned books. We all had to pick a topic that we were going to be supporting in our essays. I decided to choose The Absolutely True Diary Of A Part Time Indian because since it's written in a form of a diary, I know it's going to be interesting. I also decided to choose the topic of looking how the main character in this book transforms and makes peace with diversity. It was interesting really looking into the main character along with looking at the many setbacks he had while trying to make peace with diversity, all while being surrounded with people that don't accept the idea. I had a hard time when I first started, but with some deep digging in my book, I was able to come up with an idea that I had about the character and his transformation. Thanks to this unit and project, I had a better understanding on why so many people were scared of being open to different settings, situations and even more diverse things.

MF. Photography. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian cover (2015)

ATTENTION!

In the second unit of the Disease class, which is called Mind, the class went over mental illnesses, and see and try to understand the effects that they have on people. We went over the DSMV and looked at how psychiatrists use this book to diagnosed someone. It was also interesting to just look at the symptoms that make up a mental illness. For the action project the class was assigned to do some research on a certain mental illness that affect children, and also do a stimulation and flier that would help our classmates understand this mental illness a bit better. I decided to research Attention deficit/ hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). While doing some research I learned a lot of interesting facts about it, and I defiantly have a different view on this topic. It was challenging though on figuring out ways to create a lesson plan that would let my classmates understand and sort of feel what a person with ADHD goes through. Although challenging, I did have a fun time putting my flier together and creating my lesson plan. I hope through my flier below, you have a better understanding of ADHD. I also hope my lesson plan gives more knowlegde of what a person with ADHD has to go through.


Attention Deficit/hyperactive disorder, also known as ADHD is a mental disorder that makes having to focus, following directions or completing a task difficult, because of how easily distracted you get, and because your brain is entering too much info at the same time. The official definition for ADHD is a chronic condition including attention difficulty, hyperactivity, and impulsiveness. It is very common in the United States, with more than 3 million cases per year. The symptoms include zoning out regularly, difficulty following simple directions, makes careless mistakes, not being able to listen at all, easily distracted, avoids any activity that involves a lot thinking, loses items, forgetful, There are also other symptoms that include hyperactivity. Those include talking a lot, unable to sit still, quick temper, fidgeting/squirming, climbing in children, for adults extreme relentless, hard time completing activities quietly, feelings of driven by motor, blurts things out, out of no where or when its not their turn, and having a hard time waiting. In order to be diagnosed children must have at least 6 or more symptoms, and for people 17 and up at least 5 required. Being unable to focus though, seems like a huge problem, and often leads to hard situations, like doing poorly in school , or you seem to look when talking to other people. “When I am talking with someone, I miss a lot of what they say. I want to listen but I have 20 other things going on in my brain. I am listening but the words are added to the items and juggled around. It is easy to see how this leads to a speaking and communicating problem. The other person would have to continually repeat themselves. How frustrating.” This is a quote I found while researching and landed on a man named TJ’s blog.

Starry Messenger

In the second unit of the Forbidden Books class, which was called Dogma, the class went over the definition of the word Dogma, which means a very strong belief. We also went over many readings from different religions and went over their Dogmas. We read a part of the Quran and then had the chance to explore a Mosque for the first time, which was super interesting.  For the action project, the class was assigned to create a slideshow presentation about a country that was under censorship by government or group and look at what exactly was banned or censored and why. I decided to look deeper into the trial of Galileo Galilea in Rome, Italy. He was convicted of heresy by the Roman Inquisition, and was then banned to write, and had to live under house arrest for the rest of his life. This was a huge case going along with Religion VS. Science, as well as censorship. While researching I found out a lot that was done by the Roman Inquisition to other people, and they were brutal. For example, I also learned about Giordano Bruno, who was burned, simply because he had different views from the church. People didn't have much freedom when it came to what they want to write about, or what their beliefs were. I'm glad I chose to research Galileo, because now I have information on what he believed and why he was punished for believing that. I hope you enjoy my slideshow presentation below to learn more about Galileo and his trial.