Answering my main inquiry question

Hello, and today I will be showing you my Capstone essay. I wrote this essay to help start my script. It was the fastest essay ever.

Hi, my name is Oliver and I’m here to talk to you about organ transplants. Imagine having no donor, no hope, and worst of all saying goodbye to your family and friends. Well, that’s where xenotransplantation, organogenesis, and tissue engineering come in. These new technologies were created to make the daily death rate drop and lower the donor pool. Now in 2022, only 17 people die each day instead of 22. This might seem like a small amount but this is just the beginning. My main inquiry question is what technology is used for organ transplants and what’s being done to improve that technology? Today you will be learning about how technology for organ transplants changed over time. What kind of technical protection do the donor and the recipient receive? Why does the Da Vinci robot do the transplant and not humans? What makes it better? How do people feel about the Da Vinci robot doing the transplant instead of humans? And last but not least what is being done to improve technology for organ transplantation?

 

Have you ever wondered if the technology for organ donation changed over the years? Well, they have changed a lot. Xenotransplantation, organogenesis, and tissue engineering are the main new types of organ transplantation. Xenotransplantation is when doctors get an animal donor to transplant an organ for a human recipient. They will take a pig kidney for example and take out the chemicals that could be dangerous for humans to have inside their bodies. After they do that they put the pig kidney into the human body. Organogenesis is when doctors use Stem Cells to make a kidney. This would mean that there would not have to be a donor. Which would decrease the donor pool because now donors won’t have to give a kidney. That would be safer for the donor’s health. They can do this because of the Stem Cell’s ability to turn into embryos. Tissue engineering is biomedical engineering that aims to restore, maintain, improve, or replace different types of biological tissues. This was created in the hopes to improve medicine. This uses a combination of cells, engineering materials, and suitable biochemical factors. Since our body doesn’t make good tissues lots of people have to get tissue engineering for their tissues. 

 

The donors and the recipients get a lot of medical attention to make sure everything goes well. But most of the time donors and recipients have problems economically. Some of the problems they have economically are about insurance companies. are charging a lot higher premiums and or refusing to give them coverage of the transplant. Those problems make it almost impossible to donate an organ. The medical protection they get takes a bit of time. They have to get interviewed to make sure they know what’s going to happen and to make sure they are not crazy. If people have a blood disorder they can still donate a kidney but they just need a lot more testing and attention to make sure the transplant won’t hurt their health. There are 5 people on a transplant team. There’s a surgeon who uses the Da Vinci robot. Then there’s a surgeon that stands by the donor making sure everything is okay. A doctor who does the anesthesia to make sure the patient is asleep and can’t feel pain. Lastly, two doctors get instruments and supplies when needed.

 

How would you feel about having a robot do the transplant and not humans? Well, most people like the idea of having a robot do the transplant and not humans. At first, I questioned the information thinking about what would I want. At first, I wanted the human because I thought technology is not developed enough to use robots on something that can cost you your life. But the more I thought about it and the more research I did I came to the conclusion that I would prefer the robot because of all the advantages.  

 

Why do robots do the transplant and not humans? What makes the robot better? Well, because they don’t get tired and won’t sneeze. Sneezing might not seem bad but what if the surgeon sneezes and his hand with the tool in it moves to a different part of the body and cuts it now you could die. Also, the robot lets doctors see better inside humans and not make as big a hole in the person’s body which then has a lower risk for infection. The Da Vinci robotic surgical system helps by not losing as much blood, making a better and faster recovery. One of the best parts about the Da Vinci surgical system is that it can give people less pain. Now studies show that robots are making the transplant process better from 94% to 100%.

 

Have you ever wondered how many organs can be transplanted? Well, the main organs that can be transplanted are, Heart transplants, Lung transplants, Kidney transplants, Liver transplants, and the Pancreas transplants. Thanks to new experiments now the hand and the face can be transplanted. A new technology that hopes to do this is bioprinting. Professionals say this could be the future of organ transplantation. But bioprinting still has a long way to go to do that. Scientists are trying to make 3-D working organs with bioprinting. Bioprinting is like printing a 3-D object from your 3-D printer at home. Immunosuppression! Immunosuppression is a disease that weakens your immune system. You can get immunosuppression from an unmatched donor. Then you have to take medicine for the rest of your life to make sure other organs in your body don’t fight your new organ. If you don’t take the medicine you could need an organ every 10 to 12 years if you’re lucky.  This is a big stress because this could save lives and lots of money. Doctors are finding new ways to make the transplants faster so the donor and the recipient can have less pain and faster recovery. 

 

Overall I learned a ton of stuff from organ transplants. The most interesting fact I learned is the new technologies scientists and doctors are trying to create to help people get the organs they need. I learned a lot from organ transplants and I hope you do too. For more information and where to donate organs please go to the links below. Be a lifesaver, be an organ donor.

Organ Donation and Transplantation: How it works

https://my.clevelandclinic.org › health › articles › 1175…

Sign Up To Be An Organ Donor | organdonor.gov

https://www.organdonor.gov › sign-up

 

Capstone blog post #2

Hello, and today I will be talking about capstone. The interview part. The interview aims to help 5th graders with their main inquiry question and sub-questions. We also had to do a ton of research. That took us about three weeks. During that time it was very stressful but when it was done it felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders.

The interview was challenging because of my topic (organ transplants.) finding a professional was the most challenging part because of how busy they would be. I would call them and they would not pick up. I tried lots of different times, at night, right after school, and in the morning. But the only time was lunchtime so that is hard because I’m at school. The questions we had to write for our interview were challenging because we had to make the questions different but all about the same concept.

My experience conducting the interview was good practice for later in life. It went as expected because it was someone I knew and I was prepared thanks to our immigration project a couple weeks earlier. I learned so many things so here are just a couple. 17 people die each day from having a non-working organ; used to die 22 people. Xenotransplantation is a type of transplant that has an animal donor and a human recipient. Organogenesis is when doctors use stem cells to make an organ. They use stem cells to make an organ because of their ability to turn into embryos.

Overall Capstone and the Research/interview process have made me learn a lot and I hope you do too.

 

 

CapStone #1

CAPSTONE! Capstone is a big project Scarsdale schools do for 5th graders close to the end of the year. During the Capstone unit, we have to pick a topic we are interested in but never really learned a lot about it. My topic is organ transplants. After that, we have to come up with a main inquiry question and 5 – 6 sub-questions. The sub-questions are basically questions that make up your main inquiry question. They also just break your main question into smaller parts and more specific parts to make your research easier for you. Then we have to interview someone on your topic. Lastly, you have to put all your research in a WeVideo and then present it.

I was originally going to do Stem Cells but then I thought about organ transplants? As I started to look up that topic I realized it would be a better and more interesting topic to focus on. I chose this topic because it took my brain on this path and at the end of it were so many questions about the technology of organ transplants. My main inquiry question is, “What technology is used for organ transplants, and what’s being done to improve the technology?”Some challenges I had to create my main inquiry question were finding how to word my question in the way I wanted it but not using as many words as I originally had for my main inquiry question.

I came up with my sub-questions by breaking up my main inquiry question into specific questions that if you were to add all of them up it would basically result in my main inquiry question. I also came up with the idea because I thought about the technology behind organ transplants and what I’m interested in. Some challenges I had creating my sub-questions were wording the questions in a way that they would make sense. One of my sub-questions is “How has technology for organ transplants changed over time?” Another sub-question I made is “What is being done to make the technical procedures better? These are just two of mine. 

Overall I chose to do my CapStone on organ transplants because I’m really interested in that topic. I can’t wait to show you my presentation!

Creativity

My Immigration Interview Project

Hello, and today I will share with you my classmates and my biggest project right now. So first we had to write 10-15 questions to ask the person that we were going to interview. Then we had to set up a video chat and do the interview. We recorded what the person said and wrote things down as well. Next, we had to pick a format to make the video. Once we made the video our project would be done.

I considered all my questions to see if any of them were yes or no questions. If I found a yes or no question I would either change the question or add a why if I really wanted to keep that question. I used a document my teacher gave me to help find better questions that sounded and looked more professional. Those two things I just talked about were the easy parts of this project. The hardest part is making the video because you have to upload all the pictures and you then have two but them in a different order. It’s just a ton of work. 

I thought that the interview went well and as expected because I got a lot of information and pictures of my person’s immigration trip. I learned that conducting an interview takes a lot of work and effort to get right. I also learned that when you are done with it you feel like a professional. The most interesting thing I learned from my person would probably be that she came here just for her husband’s new job. I think that fact is my favorite because I thought that she came for freedom and for her kids to grow up with freedom around them.

In conclusion, this project is exciting but hard. I look forward to keeping you guys updated!

Rube Goldberg Blog Post #2

Hello, and today I will be talking about my final Rube Goldberg blog post. I will tell you the changes I made, my final sketch, the building process, the fails, and my successful attempts!

I came up with my contraption by thinking about things that I like, for example, I love to play hockey, so I thought why not make my task getting a ball into a goal. That was my second idea of a task and final task. My first task was getting a ping pong ball and racket. But my pulley did not work. Also, that pulley was a key part of my machine so since that didn’t work I had to start with a different idea, the week before this project is due! Brainstorming my new task was hard because the ideas that I thought of weren’t going to work. But then I thought about one that just clicked in my mind. The most challenging part for me was to find a way, to tip a ball into an inclined plane without pulling one piece of my machine. What was easier than I thought was the funnel part because I kept thinking the ball would not go down because there would be a bump in the funnel from the tin foil. I had four attempts and my last one was my successful run.

My experiences making the video were good because I didn’t really have to constantly re-do my video but I had to re-do a couple of times though. My dad helped me during this project by assisting me if I couldn’t reach something or needed help with how to put a piece on. We were going to have something drop out of a cup into an inclined plane but that didn’t work so well so I decided to have a wheel and axle start my machine. Which worked. The music I picked for my WeVideo was matching the clips that I placed. I also included some of my fails to give whoever is watching a hit what changes I had to make to make my Rube Goldberg work. Last I did a step-by-step to show the people who watch it what was going to happen. 

All in all this project was really fun and hard! I suggest you do it too, and I hope you challenge yourself if you do it. I hope you liked my final Rube Goldberg machine. Thank you!

 

Rube Goldberg Post #1

Hello and today I will tell you about my first start to my Rube Goldberg project.

First I had to pick my task, my task is getting a ping pong ball and a racket. I’ve decided to start my Rube Goldberg machine by shooting a cup with a nerf gun. In that cup, there is a ball and that ball will go down a ramp. Then the ball will change directions and go into a tube which when it comes out will hit dominos. That is just part of it. The rest I will build later on. The big challenge that I faced was definitely trying to make a pully. I tried so many different things but I just could not get it to work.  

But my three simple machines are an inclined plane, a pulley, and a wheel. I hope so far you like my first steps and task.

Thank you for reading my first start to my Rube Goldberg machine!

 

Feature Article Reflection

One day My teacher said that we would start doing feature articles and right away I knew what I was writing about, hockey. 

The first step was knowing what you are going to write about.

 The next step was to get a subtitle. For the subtitle, I was going to say the best sport ever then thought will that hook the reader into reader mine? So I tried something different, it reads If you think hockey is special just because it is played on ice then your wrong. Then I thought it was so much better.

After the subtitle, the next step was to get your subheadings. It took me some time to think about the best subheadings but it was very fun to think about it because when you know so much about a topic you want to write everything you know about that topic! Then you arrange the order you want the subheadings to be in. 

Next, you start drafting. I always have a hard time with the intro and the conclusion, I find it hard to wrap up an article and start one. But my teacher gave me a document to help me with both things so it was easier. Drafting started out really well because I knew so much about the topic I was writing about.

Then we did the step of editing and revising. I was not a very big fan of this one. It was just reading your article over and over again and by that point it gets boring. 

After this step, we created a slide show and put our writing in, and then we put pictures. I thought the pictures were very important so I tried to get the best ones by re-reading my text so the pictures I picked made sense. The slide show was by far the hardest because of all the boxes and pictures.

My least favorite part was drafting because I don’t really like to write and write. Also, it was time-consuming because we had little time to finish. We had little time because my class was behind. My favorite part was when we got to pick our subtitles, title, subheadings, and pictures. My favorite part out of those was the pictures because I love looking at pictures from my sport.

I thought this project was a great experience because it inspired me to take my time and write what I truly think and not just say the easy things. Also taking my time was better because it made me a better writer. This was the first time I did a story without rushing to get it done and my feature article was better than anything I’ve ever written.   

My Reading Life Timeline

Hello, and today I will tell you about my process for my reading life timeline.

We had a week to do it so I planned it out. First I got the books I wanted to put on it. Next, I typed in what I wanted to say about the books. Then I printed them out. Then glued them together on the book covers I made out of paper. Lastly, I brought them to school, glued them onto it, and finally on the paper wrote when and how old I was when I read it.

I picked books that are meaningful for me, such as books that I read when I was in pre-school, first grade, and on.

The books I picked were Hockey wingman, Mr. limoncello library, The power within, The wild robot, and last Thank you prayer. All these books made me feel good and we’re all special to me.

Overall I thought this project was a ton of fun because it made me go back and look at amazing books I haven’t seen and read in years, and it was all fun there was not a boring part.

 

My Feature Articles.

My topic for my feature article is hockey. I chose this topic because I know a lot about it. I have been playing hockey since I was two years old. I feel like this topic is going to be fun to write about since the main thing I do in my free time is play hockey. But it was a close call, I also know a lot about WW II. I am going to give you a little bit so you can get a sense of what it is going to be like. I am playing on doing a lot of subtitles, such as hockey superstars, positions, rules, and much more. I also plan on putting in pictures, like I hockey superstar, and some of the equipment to let the reader get a sense of what I am talking about. I think this unit is going to be so fun. I am really looking forward to writing it!     

Personal Narrative Reflection

Paintball battle is one of my favorite writing pieces I ever made. It is about a paintball birthday party my friend was having. I wrote about that because it was so fun. Even though that is not my favorite topic I say it is a number two. It is also one of my favorite things to do even if I can’t do it very often.

I really thought that the strength of my story was my dialog and how I made the paintball gun sound. One example is when “We all got out a…” “Watch Out!” “Bang.” I had so many ideas.