20 Time Final Post

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/19xa-_HIjs-0LzfMLrIVGh5upecekr780r2hcZNNJNPg/edit?usp=drive_web

This was our presentation. 

Included are pictures of some artwork and some artists we interviewed, as well as several music videos.

Looking back at our TED talk, we really did spend too much time in general. In our practice, we always ran through the TED talk in sessions, which meant we didn't exactly have a ballpark for our time length. We were, however, were shooting for a detailed description of our project, our goals, and a time length of around 7-8 minutes. Also, during the presentation, we tended to say "I guess" a lot, which is actually something we said constantly during our practice time, so we should have paid attention to that. Maybe recording our practice sessions would have been useful, as we could approximate our time and see what was wrong with our wordings and physical postures. From our project as a whole, we both took away a lot of things. One, we learned how arts affected others' lives. And not just anybodys' lives. People that were around us, living in the same area, and around the same age. Arts isn't just an extracurricular we put on our applications and resumes. It's culture, it's lifestyle, it's creativity, it's individuality, it's fun, it's enjoyable. Another is how we actually could incorporate the arts into our lives. Aside from the typical hobby, music and the arts allow for expression, stress relief, social interactions, and proven academic improvement. I think we were able to accomplish a majority of what we had planned, and the real goal was to learn more, and that we both did plenty.

Reflexes Lab

In this lab we tested our responses to certain stimuli and investigated why we had these reactions. This activity relates back to our unit in that it deals with reflexes. Reflexes are rapid, predictable, and involuntary responses to stimuli. There are somatic reflexes, which stimulate skeletal muscles, and autonomic reflexes, which regulate smooth muscle and other automatic responses.

1) In the photopupillary reflex test the reflex of the pupil dilated and shrinking was being tested. In the test the pupil shrunk when exposed to light after being the dark after a certain amount of time. This reflex occurred because the pupil changes size with the amount of light that is present, so with more light it will decrease in size and vice versa.

2) In the knee jerk reflex test the reflex that was being tested was the knee-jerk reflex which is when the knee jerks upward when the knee cap is hit. The arc is a 2 neuron reflex arc where the sensory neuron sends a signal to the spinal cord then travels to the motor neuron then the knee. In the test my knee did jerk upward ,and after doing squats, the reflex actually increased in intensity when it was not supposed to because the reflex is supposed to slow down after exercise due to the decrease in ATP. This probably resulted in the fact that I did not do enough squats.

3) In the blink reflex test the person is supposed to blink when the cotton ball is thrown at them. This occurred during the test. This reflex exists in order for humans to protect the eye from anything that can potentially damage it because it is very sensitive as well as important part.

4) In the plantar reflex test the toes are supposed to curl when the pen is moved across the bottom of the foot. This was apparent during the test when the toes curled inward when he pen moved across. This response occurred because the toes react in a way that makes the foot want to move away from that source of touch in order to protect the foot.

5) In the response time test our time was recorded in catching a ruler that we saw falling through our finger tips and then recorded again while texting. After the trials were complete, I saw that my average time went from 0.155 seconds to 0.175 seconds. There was a significantly slower time while texting. This change is due to the fact that the brain takes time to select what action is prioritized, and texting can slow down the response time, showing the dangers of texting and driving, which I have to admit, I have done in the past. In fact, all distractions while driving are extremely dangerous, as it delays our reaction time to imminent dangers that could injure or kill others and myself.

My Brain Map

1.   What do the frontal lobes do?

The frontal lob controls the personality, problem solving, memory, language, judgment, and impulse control.

2. What is the relationship between selective attention and learning?

      Selective attention allows you to increase memory and allows you to select what is important. When learning, you select what is important to remember and how to use it.

      3. What is the last part of your brain to develop and what can you do to prevent it from deteriorating?

       The frontal is the last part to develop and you can prevent deterioration by being more active and connecting ideas that you learn to bigger ideas.
     4. What does the neo cortex do?

      It helps guide you by controlling motor skills.

      5.  What is the role of the pre frontal cortex?
      It controls your personality and how you act in social situations.

      6. What do we know about the pre frontal cortex’s relationship with multitasking?
      It helps manage what is important and prioritizes one action over another. 

      7.      Which part of the brain is associated with speech and language development?  Give an interesting fact about this region.
      The Broca's area helps with speech development. A person is still able to produce speech even when this area is damaged as functions shift to other parts.

      8.      Which part of your brain is responsible for thinking the following: “Is it hot in here or is it just me?”
      The Somatosensory cortex helps sense if the temperature is too cold or hot.

9. What does your visual cortex do for you?

   It helps differentiate color and identifies faces.

      10. State three interesting or significant facts about your occipital lobe.
      It is the visual processing part of your brain. It allows you process long term and short term memories. You can exercise this part by using your imagination. 

      11. What would happen if your temporal lobes were damaged?
      You will have trouble recalling things from memory. 

      12.    What is your “fast brain” and what does it do?
      The fast brain is the motor cortex and helps control the senses
      

      13. State 3 things that you could do that would influence your synapses, and have a positive affect on your life and health.
      You can exercise and have a healthy diet as well as becoming an active learner

      14.What is the relationship between multi-sensory or multi-modal learning and your dendrites?
      Multiple types of stimulation will help you learn things faster by engaging multiple parts of your brain

      15.How does “big picture thinking” and mnemonics affect dendrites and/or learning?
      It helps by connecting ideas together and using your brain in different ways b actively learning

      16. Describe a neurotransmitter that you feel is very important.  Justify your reasoning.
      I feel that dopamine is an important neurotransmitter because it helps you become motivated to do things and learn things.
17.What does the corpus collosum do?

      The corpus collosum is the only connection between the two hemispheres. It controls oral skills, language, and deals with handwriting as well as eye muscle movement.

      18. What is the relationship between music and the corpus callosum? 

The corpus collosum is strengthened through music as it strengthens communication between the two brains 

19.Why is the thalamus important? 

The thalamus controls motor control and sensory imformation.

  Relate and Review 

     In this activity I learned about the different parts of the brain. The simulation showed the relative areas that the parts covered and how they all fit together. The frontal lobe covered a large portion of the brain and it was interesting to learn how to keep the frontal lobe healthy with active learning. The neo cortex is a part of the brain that controls motor functions. The different neurotransmitters were also interesting to learn about and how each affected the brain and their function in everyday life. Healthy diets and exercise also help with dendrite health. The corpus collosum connects the two hemispheres of the brain and actually serves to help understand language and can be strengthened by practicing music or other arts.

Brain Dissection

1) 


2) Brain stem- regulates automatic systems such as heart beat and breathing
Cerebellum- coordinates voluntary movement
 Cerebrum- divided into four lobes and controls thought and action
Posterior- back part of the brain Anterior- front part of the brain

3) The myelin, part of the myelin sheath, help the electrical impulses move faster.

4) 



5) Thalamus- controls information between cerebral cortex and lower brain helping with sesnory interpretation
Corpus Callosum- bridge between two hemispheres
Medulla Oblangota- controls heartbeat and breathing Pons- controls information between cerebrum and cerebellum
Mid Brain- controls vision and hearing
Hypothalamus- helps control the endocrine system and hormone levels
Optic Nerve- transfers information from optic nerve to brain

6) 


Relate and Review
In this lab we opened up a sheep brain and located the different parts of the brain. In this unit we learned about the parts of the brain, and their functions. With the help of the clay model we did, this lab helped give us a better visual representation of what those parts look like, and how they all fit together. This dissection helped us understand the shape and functions of each of the parts as well as gave us hands on experience. I feel like I got a much better understanding of each part of the brain, and the smaller pieces that make up each part, like grey matter.

20 Time Individual Reflection

Working with Eric on this project has been difficult but very fun. Although Eric and I have known each other for a long time, our strong bond didn't necessarily help us with efficiently completing our final product and working productively. At first, it was hard to find a focus, because we only had a general idea of what we were going to do. When we finally cracked down to narrow our focus, we ended up coming up with tons and tons of different ideas, which was great, but challenging again for us to actually stick to one game plan. Eventually, we picked from our best ideas and combined those goals into one project with one particular mission statement. We will be revealing our thesis statement and our final product at the TED talk. Although this was difficult to get to working, we both knew we wanted to stick with this because of our own passions for the arts. While we might not cover all of the arts and cultures, Eric loves arts, the sketches, the colors, and I love music, the melodies, the arrangements, the rhythms. It's a really large scale that many artists similar to us fall under, and so we can easily use their expertise and experience to the advantage of our project. In the early stages, it was a lot of just researching and digesting and unloading onto our google doc. Information on the correlation between the arts and education and not only academics but wellroundedness in life as well. Then, we got to work as we worked on our passion projects, discovered others' works, held some interviews, and ultimately made huge progress on our final product during and after the spring break. Eric and I learned so much about how music and arts define other students, whether if its their family, their future, or their identity. We feel this is more valuable than all the numbers and "studies" online can bring to the table in terms of encouraging the arts in educational systems, as this information comes from real people with real lives and real emotions, who live currently in contemporary cultures and art forms. I think we actually paced ourselves well in this project. What's next is really up to everyone. I know Eric and I will continue to keep art in our lives, not only as a hobby, but as enrichment to our purposes in life. It's up to the people around us to pursue their own passions, and maybe incorporate what they've been missing as a crucial part of their emotional health and creativity health.

Sheep Eye Dissection Analysis

An excellent view of the cornea, the dark bluish section. The sclera, also known as the whites of the eye, are clearly seen around the cornea in contrast to the bright blue mat behind it.

Extrinsic muscles, fatty tissue, and especially the optic nerve sticking out are very noticeable features on the back of the eye we observed.

This is a beautiful view of the eye split into two hemispheres. The vitreous humor is the jelly and glossy liquid in the lower part, while the upper hemisphere remain rather empty. Some of the vitreous humor is also spilled onto the blue mat. 

Here you can identify the lens in the middle, and surrounding it the ciliary body and suspensory ligaments. Notice that the colors are cloudy, known as cataract. The lens is usually clear, but the eye we observed was from a dead sheep, and so there has been quite some time for this cloudy condition to grow as it continues to prevent or reduce the amount of light reaching the retina. 

Here we have the other hemisphere. It's quite an excellent picture of the sclera, the clearly white border on the outside, the retina, the aqueous humor, and the choroid, with the nice deep blue color.

After removing the pupil and the iris, we were able to isolate the lens and observe its shape.

In this lab, we were able to look at a lot of things which really gave us a deeper understanding of location, size, texture, and function of several parts of the eye. The sclera proved to be the tough boundary its supposed to be. The cornea was a very vibrant color, so we were able to identify it and really see how it worked. Usually, in a dissection we just locate muscles. But in this case, we see the cornea is ovalish and ellipsical in shape, and clearly shows the cloudy condition compared to our current transparent corneas. The fatty tissue is used to protect the eye, as our heads move around a lot, preventing the eye from taking damage from our skull or what not. The optic nerve in the back also really shows that it's going straight to the brain to make the connection so eyes can give proper feedback. As we take a look inside, the vitreous humor is the gooey liquid that surround the lens and the aqueous humor in front of the retina. The choroid, in the back of the eye, is a network of blood vessels that provides noursihment and oxygen to itself and the other layer of the eye. Along with it is tapetum lucidum, which reflects light onto the retina. We humans do not have this, as this only functions as night vision, which we don't have, because we don't particularly need it. We're supposed to have our eyes closed shut when we sleep at night. Additionally, the cilliary bodies are muscles that can control the eye to rotate up down left and right. Suspensory ligaments also help with movement. The pupil is located in the center of the iris, and several muscles layers determine how intense the light comes in. The lens is convex shaped and elastic in texture, which bends the light in. One condition that can occur is glaucoma, which is when fluid pressure becomes so high the eye takes physical damage from the pressure. 

The Clay Brain

Left Hemisphere                                                        Right Hemisphere

The task was to use a visual diagram made from clay to show the parts of the brain.
The left hemisphere is a view from a sagittal plane, and the right hemisphere has a lateral view.
Working with my new group wasn't difficult, but making it look even remotely like a brain was very challenging. From our point of view, when we first laid down the building blocks of our plan, it looked fine and everything was in place accordingly. However, as time passed, we realized we didn't have enough colors, and overlapping parts also made our jobs trickier than it already was. Thankfully, we put all the pieces together in a timely fashion.