Monday, April 14, 2008

Grade 12 English: Action Research Presentations

University bound students present multimedia seminars and debate hot topics: Pro-life, Legalize Assisted Suicide, Media Does Not Influence Eating Disorders, Everyone Should
Participate in Relay for Life at BCSS, Discrimination Against Dwarfism and many more.

Comment here!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

C. Hemsworth
Action Research Reports – Blog

Many of the action research presentations were thought provoking and initiated either a debate or discussion about the given topic. The action research presentations that I am going to discuss are: Abortion, Discrimination Against Dwarfism, and how the Media does not Influence Eating Disorders.

1) Abortion, presented by Carson Plett:

The main idea of this presentation was to state that abortion should not be legal because it involves killing a fetus. He stated the many complications that could occur if a woman does get an abortion. He presented a lot of good facts and information to try and persuade the class that abortion should be illegal.

I personally do not believe that abortion is necessarily a bad thing because there is some situations that abortion is the best choice, like if the girl was raped. A girl or woman should not have to go through the birth process if they did not agree to it, and if they know they will not be able to support the child and herself. This would relate to some countries because the mother is not able to care for the child, so she has to put the child up for adoption. This hurts the mother and baby psychologically because the mother has now seen and lost her baby, and the baby will not grow up knowing her real mother.

After listening to the presentation, I learned that a woman get increase their chances of developing breast cancer by up to fifty percent. I did not know that before, and that had made me rethink my viewpoint. However, it depends on what situation that the woman is in. For example, if the woman was raped, than I believe she should get an abortion because the child will only be a remembrance of who caused her so much grief. In addition, if the woman is a young teenager and wants to get an abortion so that she will have a successful career, than she should not be told what to do. I understand that there is a certain point that abortion is not right, but if the situation is not right, than the woman should not be told what to do because it is her choice.

2) Discrimination Against Dwarfism, presented by Emily Kistler:

The main idea of this presentation was to state that dwarfs or little people should not be discriminated against and that they should be treated like everyone else. She had presented a lot of beneficial facts to help support her topic. She relates what people think they know about dwarfism seen in fairytale books to realty. In addition, she had different resources to help keep the audience interested.

I have noticed a bit more now that people do not know very much about dwarfism and how it can happen. This topic is related to the television show, “Little People, Big World” because in the television show it demonstrates that little people do live a normal life even though they are shorter than an average person. This topic can be related to many children books where the dwarf is seen as a slave or a bad person. This is seen as discrimination since people will think that dwarves might actually act that way. Emily had stated that people actually ask her if her parents have pointed ears like in the movies, this just shows how little people know about little people.

The presentation taught me that it does not matter what type of background your family has, dwarfism is a possibility. However, the chances of having a dwarf child are slim, there is a still a chance because Emily’s family did not have a history of dwarfism. This information has not really changed my outlook on little people because I am pretty sure that I have not been rude to little people, especially since my best friends family is little people.

3) Media Does Not Influence Eating Disorders, presented by Sarah Cyrs:

The main idea of this presentation was to state that media and eating disorders are not affected by each other. She states that the media does not influence eating disorders among boys and girls because the reason for an eating disorder is deeper than blaming the media. The media is the easiest thing to blame because no one wants to blame themselves. However, she states that past and present experiences are the cause of an eating disorder. Furthermore, if the child was abused they might feel that controlling what they eat is the only way they feel they have control over their life.

I believe that the media does not influence people to have eating disorders because people get to see what it would look like to be stick thin when they look at the magazines. When looking at the stick thin celebrities, it would make people not want to have an eating disorder because than they see what they will look like. In addition, I believe that eating disorders are initiated from negative past and present experiences that have led the teenagers to feel unworthy and think that they need to be thin to make their problems go away.

The information that was presented has made me even more opposed to the idea that media influences eating disorders.

Anonymous said...

Carson Plett
Colin's Presentation on Impaired Driving Penalties
Colin presented his action research project on imparied driving and how the penalties are less severe than they should be. His presentation provided a lot of good evidence and supporting facts that helped back up his views on this controversial issue. He included a video which added interest as well as a real life example of what the causes of impaired driving can have on the community.
Overall, I would have to agree with Colin. The penalties for drinking and driving are definitely not strong enough to deter this dangerous crime. We should put in place rules and regulations that will rid us of these offences. In conclusion, I believe that Colin presented his argument in a clear and concise manner.