Now since I’m done with my final presentation and done practicing, I get to present in front of the parents. My teacher split the class up to present in different rooms. For all I know, I presented last in my class and some people went to the auditorium, some went to the library, and some went to the computer lab.

First we had the moving up ceremony, then, for 15 minutes, we looked at the digital experiences in the 5th grade wing because after that all I have to do is walk into my classroom. I knew I practiced a lot but I was still a tiny bit nervous because I was going to be recorded and if I messed up, then every fourth grader next year will see so I told myself to speak slower. When it was almost my turn, I told myself not to worry. I just had to smile, speak slowly, to not bore the audience, and finally to not look at my index cards too much. When it was finally my turn, I went up and gave my TED Talk. I think that it went pretty well but I just messed up on one word which I guess is okay. Once you start and get the hang of it, everything is fine. In the middle where I talked about my site visit and interview I stopped being nervous. After I was done my parents told me that I did great. Even some other people in the audience told me that. I really happy that I actually did it! Many students in my class were like,”Hey, Capstone is over!” But then I would remind them that we still had to write our final blog post which is what I’m doing right now.

Overall I think that Capstone was a great experience and It helped me with my public speaking skills. I learned a lot about a topic that I was super interested in. I hope I can do something like this in middle school!

For capstone I have to answer my main inquiry question. My main inquiry question is “How is robotic surgery revolutionizing the field of medicine?” We also have to answer it in an essay format. At first I thought that it would be super hard and I was really stressed and worried. After a while, when I actually started my essay, I realized that it wasn’t as bad as I thought. My sub questions actually helped me lot. My introduction is decent but I had a pretty hard time coming up with a good hook. My body paragraphs are okay, and , my conclusion, well… I have to work on it a bit more. My essay is going pretty good and I will use all of the answers for my TED Talk. I hope I do well during the TED Talk. 

Here is my essay

Have you ever thought of robots giving surgery? Well, when I realized that it is a real thing, I was super interested. Robotic surgery is my capstone topic. I chose it because I’m interested in robotics and medicine so the topic I chose is just right. Robotic surgery is surgery, using robotic systems. Robotic surgery is a type of minimally invasive surgery. That means that instead of making large incisions, the surgeons actually use miniaturized surgical instruments that fit through a series of quarter-inch incisions. Right now, the da Vinci surgical system is the system that most hospitals use. My main inquiry question is “How is robotic surgery revolutionizing the field of medicine?

One way robotic surgery is changing medicine is that instead of the surgeons standing right next to the patient, they are sitting at a console away from the patient. About one to two decades ago, doctors wanted to invent something where a doctor can sit somewhere in the US, for example. And the patient would be in Europe, for example and the doctor would be able to give surgery to the patient even when they’re in totally different places. So if there is a war and a soldier gets hurt, then he could get surgery and the doctor wouldn’t get hurt in the hospital if it’s under attack. In 2000, the American company Intuitive Surgical made the Da Vinci surgical system. Maybe soon, some company might invent something like the doctors wanted to decades ago.

The second way robotic surgery is changing medicine is that it has many improvements from the past. Some improvements from the past are that there is shorter hospitalization, reduced pain, and discomfort, faster recovery time and return to normal activities like soccer. There are smaller incisions, resulting in reduced risk of infection, reduced blood loss, and minimal scarring. Robotic surgery has developed throughout the years. Miniaturized instruments are mounted on three separate robotic arms, allowing the surgeon maximum range of motion and precision. The da Vinci’s fourth arm contains a magnified high-definition 3-D camera that guides the surgeon during the procedure. The camera is really detailed, so the surgeon can see everything inside the patient’s body.

The third way robotic surgery is changing medicine is that it’s better than human surgery. Surgical robotics is one of the new technological advancements that are revolutionizing healthcare. For instance, laparoscopic surgery is turning major surgeries that usually leave scars and keep patients in the hospital for several days into fairly minor procedures. A recent study by surgeons at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington showed that a supervised autonomous robot could perform soft-tissue surgery better than a human surgeon. This is a big leap on how technology is changing healthcare in the 21st century.

I hope now you know how robotic surgery is revolutionizing the field of medicine.