Declaring My Independence

This is the first unit of my Junior Humanities class A Nation's Argument. In this class, we are learning about the history of our nation and our independence, as well as argument strategies that we can use, as well as the founding fathers. We learned about premises and conclusions as well as inductive and deductive reasoning. These are all key tools in forming a solid argument. We have been reading Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States." This book gives us a different perspective on our nation's history. We also took part in Yale University's online lecture series. We participated in a lecture on American history from Professor Freeman. We compared and contrasted the views of Zinn and Freeman. We had a Field Experience where we went to the Daley Center in Chicago. We participated in their Black History Month tours where they let schools into courtrooms for hearings. We witnessed the opening statements from a case between an ER nurse and a patient. For this action project, we declared our independence. We declared an independent study that we could do in school and we had to defend our argument.

Hiu To, "Suture" (2018)

I am here to declaration my right of Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of Happiness. I believe it is my right to learn and practice the field of medicine I want to go into. I want to learn surgical procedures at a medical school’ residency level of schooling in my junior year. Education is an unalienable right in this country and it should have no restrictions when it comes to age, ability, race, gender, political views, or economic status. Anyone and everyone has the right to learn no matter what.

The purpose of school is to teach young people what they need to know t advance in their careers, from the most basic level or learning to share in preschool, to learning a 14-hour complicated procedure in residency, learning is always happening and always important. School was invented for this reason exactly: to teach young people what they need to know to be successful in whatever they choose to pursue. I believe if a young person is dedicated enough, age and legality should not interfere with their right to pursue their passion for learning.

I have a right to education as a human. According to Right To Education.org :

"Education as a human right means:

• The right to education is legally guaranteed for all without any discrimination.
• States have the obligation to protect, respect, and fulfill the right to education.
• There are ways to hold states accountable for violations or deprivations of the right to education"

This list of statements supports my declaration in the areas that: education is an unalienable right, education knows no limits no matter who you are; and that no one can deny you education. This declaration is an expression of my unalienable rights because I want to pursue my education further than my age allows. Even though I am only a Junior in high school, I believe it is my right as a human being to study at a much higher level of surgery and surgical procedures than is typically considered right for my age.

My guiding question is: Is it my right to pursue an advanced study of surgery at a young age?

I have a right to my study because:

P(1) Every human has a right to education.

P(2) Education cannot be limited by age or ability.

P(3) States have an obligation to fulfill the rights of education

Conclusion: I have the right to practice and learn surgical procedures at my age.

My syllogism: “Education is a human right, learning surgery is education, therefore, learning surgery is a human right.” This represents my declaration in it’s most basic form. Since education is a human right, I have the right to education, so, therefore, I can learn surgery and it is my human right.

The Declaration of Independence written by Thomas Jefferson 1776, The declaration included similar syllogisms to my declaration. The most recognized syllogism in the Declaration is: All people are born with the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Therefore, the American Colonists are born with the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

My declaration states that I want:

• To be able to study advanced surgical procedures at my age
• To be able to practice surgucal procedures at my age
• To be able to get credit for medical school.
• To be able to study at a medical school/residential level.

These are my desired outcomes that I would like to see happen if my proposal is accepted.

Here is a list of things I will need to make this happen:

• Surgical Supplies and practice dummies
• Medical school materials
• Connections at medical schools
• Surgical training materials
• A teacher
• A place in the school to practice

Here is my final Declaration:

“I CM, believe it is my right as a human to an education of my choosing. It is my right to learn, so I have the right to learn about what I want. I want to learn about surgical procedures and practice them even at my young age. I can do this because it is my unalienable right as a human to have an education. To the most basic extent: “Education is a human right, learning surgery is education, therefore, learning surgery is a human right.” This is why I, CM am declaring my right to study what I propose, as it is my right.

I think this was a somewhat challenging and thought-provoking project. I liked how individual it was for each student, everyone was able to do their project on what they thought was important. I thought about how to make this different from my existing independent study of surgery, so I decided to go broader and make a bigger statement than my existing study. I am proud of how my declaration turned out, and I think the most challenging part was making the declaration a soild argument. I enjoyed this project, and I am interested to see what my other classmates declared.

Works Cited:

"Understanding Education as a Right." Right Toe Education.org. 2018. GreenNet. Web. 14, Feb 2019.

Pictures Out Of Thin Air

This is the first unit of my Junior STEAM course Light, Sound and Time. In the first unit, Light, we learned about, well, light! We learned about the electromagnetic spectrum and light waves. We also worked on trigonometry where we studied unit circles, similar triangles, and sine and cosine waves. We also studied radians and degrees, as well as Snell's Law of refraction. We only went on one Field Experience this unit. We went to The Latin School, where we met with their photography teacher Ms. Ross. We used their darkroom to develop our pictures. This was a very important FE, because we couldn't have done the Action Project without her and the Latin School's support. We also did an experiment where we saw which lamp would raise the temperature of a piece of chocolate the most. This was so we could further understand how light and energy interact with different objects. For the first AP, we made a pinhole camera. We made the cameras in class and then took them to The Latin School where we took and developed the photos. We then had to calculate the light and distance between the lens and the object we took a picture of.

CM "Pinhole" (2019)

What exactly is a pinhole camera? A pinhole camera is a type of simple handmade camera. It consists of a lightproof box, a manual shutter, and a lens. The pinhole camera can take pictures by placing an object in front of the camera and putting film inside the camera. Then, you let light through the pinhole which lets a small amount of light into the completely dark camera, where the image transfers to the film. The film is then developed, and if it works, you are left with an image. It is important that the inside of the camera is all black so it is completely light proof. The black inside of the camera makes sure all the light is absorbed and the only light coming through is through the pinhole. The pinhole camera does not refelct or refract light because light is not bouncing off anything, nor is it entering a different medium. This is the same principle as the camera obscura. This was a technique that painters used hundreds of years ago to paint realistic pictures. They would have an all dark room where there is only a small hole that lets light in which will project the image outside onto the back wall. The light that comes into the camera is part of the visible spectrum on the electromagnetic spectrum. This is a spectrum of wavelengths that includes everything from gamma rays to radio waves. The light acts as energy when it moves into the pinhole of the camera. Light can act as both a wave and a particle. This is because rays of light can pass through each other on not bounce off. Light acts as a particle because when it hits metal, the light is absorbed.

For this project, I used an empty oatmeal container. I punched a hole in it and then painted the inside black with black acrylic paint. I also painted the top so the whole thing would be lightproof. I then took an empty soda can and cut a circle out of it with an X-Acto knife. Then I used a pin and poked a hole through the aluminum. Then I sanded it with sandpaper so everything was smooth. This is the lens. I taped the lens behind the hole in the container and added another coat of black paint. Then I created a shutter out of black duct tape.

CM "Diagram" (2019)

CM "Developed Photo" (2019)

CM "Black" (2019)

When we went to the dark room at the Latin School. I did everything I could to produce a picture. I tried twice, but both attempts did not turn out. The first one was all black which most likely means it was overexposed, even though the shutter speed was the recommended time. Shutter speed is how long the lens was letting in light for. For the first attempt with the plain white background, the recommended shutter speed was 3.5 minutes, which I followed. The second attempt had a checkered background which was 5 mins, which I followed. I also left the photo in the chemicals for the right amount of time. The second attempt, I chose the background that needs a longer shutter speed. I did this for the correct time as well, but this one also did not turn out. My best guess is that both attempts were overexposed. I don't know why, but I think I left them both out for too long.

CM "Camera" (2019)

Here are my calculations showing the light rays interacting with my object.

Distance From Film to Pinhole (Diameter): 4 in

Pinhole Height: 3.25 in

Total Camera Height: 7 in

Curved Hemostat: 5 in

CM "Calculations" (2019)

In the end, I really liked this project. It was very hands-on and we actually got to make something that may or may not work. This was a challenging product because we had to go somewhere else to do this project on a very limited time schedule. This meant that I only got 2 tries out of my camera with very little time to focus. This was a very unique challenge, and it made me think and work hard to figure out why my camera didn't work. I am proud of how my camera was designed, but I still don't really know why it didn't work.