Original Idea 

The problem that I found with school is stress. I decided to research the idea of stress because I find myself often stressed by school. I found that students in schools all over the country are stressed about pleasing their parents, preparing for college, and getting good grades. This type of stress can cause depression, general anxiety disorder, sleep disorders, social anxiety, substance abuse, and addiction. We could help manage this stress by giving the students less homework, finding a way to get them more sleep, and mandatory counseling, so I began to research. While researching homework, I found that 37% of students in grades 6-12 found themselves doing more than one hour of homework per night, and students who don’t do homework at school do 6.8 hours of homework per week. Also, 38% of students grades 7-12 find themselves often highly stressed out by homework. I also found that students were not getting enough sleep. One in four students get less than 5 hours of sleep per night, and 85% of 12th grade students get less than the recommended amount of sleep.

Major steps 

We had 6 workdays in class where I did most of my work. 

Workday 1 

During this workday, I spent my time brainstorming. Then, I came up with questions to help me research. After I brainstormed and got my questions, I began to research. I found a Harvard article that I thought would be useful, but I did not use it.

Workday 2 

On day two, I defined my problem. I found that stress was the main problem with school. I decided to work on this problem through personal experience. I found that my workload piled on top of extracurricular activities and no sleep caused me to be highly stressed. As I found my problem, I started to research more specifically. Finally, I found a source about sleep deprivation that I ended up using.

Workday 3 

On this day, I gathered data on workload and sleep in high school students. I found data from many different sources. I used this research to begin thinking about a way to reduce stress in the American school system.

Workday 4 

This workday, I talked to Mrs. Gillory, Mrs. Duke, and Mrs. Purnell about my project. They gave me some good ideas about homework times and how it works at Episcopal, thirty minutes for a standard class and forty-five for an AP or Honors class. I also found another source about the positive effects of naps in the workplace. 

Workday 5

Day five was used for prototyping my idea. The prototype I came up with was a teacher handbook. The handbook would  include the information that I found in my research and my solution to the problem I defined on day two. I also said that I would build a new room model, but I scrapped that idea. 

Outside of class 

Outside of class between workday five and workday six, I came up with my solutions. They were to reduce homework time, get students more sleep, and require counseling for students. 

Workday 6 

This was a continuation of day five. I finished most of the handbook in class this class period. I typed the last paragraph at home, and I implemented my final reading book to show my new homework ideas. 

After test 

After I tested my solutions in class, my classmates’ questions showed some holes in the plan. The first suggestion was about my counseling solution. I initially thought that the college counselors would help the students in their mandatory counseling. They would help the students with their homework plan, and if they found any mental health issues, they would suggest a professional to help them. After my test, I received a suggestion that this job was more suitable for their advisory teacher. I agree with this and think it is a better solution because the counselors wouldn’t have as much on their plate. The advisory teachers only have about ten students, while if we gave this job to the college counselors, they would have twenty to thirty students to help. That’s why I would change my solution to giving this job to the advisory teachers. 

The second hole in my plan was about my homework suggestion. I suggested that teachers of non-AP or Honors classes would be allowed to give no more than 25 minutes of homework per night, and Honors and AP classes would be allowed 45 minutes of homework per night. After testing, it was brought to my attention that AP classes might need more than 45 minutes of homework per night because they are college-level courses. However, I feel that 45 minutes is plenty of time for AP students to do the amount of homework they need per night to stay on the set pace. The class also asked about how projects would work. The best solution to this problem would be for the teacher to give class time to do your projects. The teachers could also give thirty minutes of homework when projects are being done.

My third suggestion was to allow students to nap on campus. This is to help students who don’t get the recommended amount of sleep be more productive throughout the day. My classmates pointed out that there are some logistical problems with this solution. They asked questions like, “What if the students oversleep?” Speaking from personal experience, this is not an issue. I have found that the bell or friends wake me up, so I don’t miss my next class. Although this isn’t a problem for me, I can understand how it would be an issue for other students, so to help this problem, I decided to add the rule that if a student sleeps through a class period, they will lose all nap privileges on campus. 

What went well, could have gone better, and what I learned. 

I felt that the project overall went well. I finished most of my project in class, and I enjoyed thinking about how school as a whole could be better. I also found research that supported my ideas about fixing school, and I felt my solutions were good ideas. Although I liked these ideas, I think that my presentation could have gone better. I didn’t really support my claims with my research, and I felt unprepared to present to the class. I learned that many students are stressed by the same things in school that I am. This made me feel a little better about myself, and it helped me realize that this is a real problem. 

Final book 

My final book was The Informer by Liam O’Flaherty. This was an exciting book that I enjoyed reading. From the beginning of the year to the end, my reading improved significantly. Reading this book was much less stressful than reading at the beginning of the year. I actually used my suggestions from my project to help me read my book. I read 20 minutes a day for about a week and a half to finish my book. At the beginning of the year, I would have put the book off until I absolutely had to read it, but at the end of the year, I learned that reading the book more spaced out made it easier to read and understand. 

Final Thoughts 

This class has been quite thorough and informative. I have learned how to manage my time and also improved many skills. I liked that we could decide what we wanted to focus on at the beginning of the year and that we as a class got more say in what we did. 

Today I continued to work on my teacher handbook. I am almost done I just have to type one more section. I plan on implementing my book by using it as an example of how to implement the new policies I put in place.  I am really excited to see the final product of this prototype and cant wait to see how it turns out.

Today in class I began to prototype my ideas. I started to write a teacher handbook to inform about the policy that I came up with. the handbook will contain information on my research, program, and how I plan on implementing it. I also plan to build a small model of the new room that the school will need to make.

Today I talked to Mrs. Duke about where I was with my project and my solutions. She gave me some good ideas about homework time per day and insight into my nap room idea. I found another source about the effects of napping in the workplace and applied it to my ideas with the school.

Today in class, I used my time to gather data on workload and sleep of high school students. I used this data to begin thinking of ways to reduce stress in the American school system.

The largest problem with school is stressful. This is caused by the workload on top of extracurriculars, students not getting enough sleep, and trying to get perfect grades. I came to this conclusion by looking at myself. This week I had my math final and I was stressed all week. I felt like I didn’t have enough time to study for my math, do all my other classwork, see my family, and go to baseball practice. I feel that this is something that most students can relate to, and look forward to learning more.

Sleep Deprivation among Rhode Island High School Students.: Discovery Service for Episcopal High School (ebscohost.com)

By – JACKSON, TRACY L

As I was reading this source I found that a lack of sleep can cause depression obesity, hypertension, and a high risk of injury in teens.

In today’s class, I spent most of my time brainstorming. I was trying to come up with ideas and questions that would help me with my research. After I had my questions and all my thought gathered, I started to research. As I began my research, I have found it hard to find answers to my questions. Although this has been a struggle, I can find what I’m looking for if I dig deep enough. Finally, I found one good source today from Harvard. I am excited to continue with this project and, so far, have found it quite interesting.

Last weekend the SEC baseball season started. The SEC is one of the best and most competitive baseball conferences, so there is good competition. There are 8 teams from the SEC in the top 25, and the top five teams are all from the SEC. This weekend marks the second weekend of SEC play, and I am very excited to watch the rest of the season. The best teams in the SEC are Vanderbilt in the eastern conference and Ole Miss in the west.

Vanderbilt is looking to be the best team in baseball this year with a stellar pitching rotation. The team’s top two pitchers are Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker. Jack Leiter has been on fire over his last two starts allowing 0 hits. He threw one complete game no-hitter last weekend and threw 7 no-hit innings this weekend before the coach went to the bullpen. I am excited to watch SEC baseball again and believe Vanderbilt will be the SEC’s best team this year.

As a class, we focused much of our time on improving our writing over the last weeks of the 3rd quarter. We went through slideshows and did exercises to try and help us understand and improve our writing. I feel that my writing has improved through the course of the year. The constant practice with writing blogs and the number of papers we do in class has helped improve my writing, and I am sure it has helped my classmates. I’m interested in implementing some of the writing techniques that we learned during the 3rd quarter into my writing.

I think the main difference in my writing is the flow of my paper. At the beginning of the year, my pieces were choppy, with uneven sentences. Now the papers flow together better. Although my writing is not perfect, I want to continue to work to improve my writing every day.

While watching the videos on deep fakes, I concluded that they are handy but dangerous tools. Deep fakes are created using facial recognition software to track a person’s facial movements and map them onto someone else’s. One major giveaway of a deep fake is the voice. The voice is one of the only ways to prove that the deep fake is not real. Once new voice software is created, you can make your own voice sound like another person. This will make the deep fake virtually impossible to detect.

These can be incredibly useful. The deep fake can make dead actors appear on screen again. They were used in the filming of Furious 7 when Paul Walker passed away during filming. The film grew used deep fakes to make Paul’s brother look like Paul in the movie’s final cut. It was also used in the new star wars movie to bring back a dead actor. Deep fakes can be used to harm people too. They can be used to make election candidates look bad and ruin their candidacy. They can also make people look like they are doing things they are not supposed to.