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Capstone #5 Answering My Main Inquiry Question

A few days  after our interview and site visit were due our research was due. On the day the research was due I was really nervous and excited to start my final project. I wasn’t more excited than nervous or more nervous than excited. Like on a scale, if you to put 5 pounds on each side the scale would be balanced, right. That’s how my feelings were. But before we started the final project we had one more step, and that was to write an essay answering our main inquiry question. Before we started writing it our teacher gave us advice on how to write it. She said that we should list the three top things in you topic, in my case it would be the top three improvements of ski racing. But I wanted to something a little different because the top three are obvious because they are in my main inquiry question. They are technology, safety, and the medical field. So I decided to do the top improvement in each category. I think it turned out pretty well. I hope you think the same. Here it is:

Have you ever wondered how professional skiers got so good? It is due to many reasons including medical reasons (fitness and health) and technology (right equipment/good equipment). Once I found out that I had an obsession for the sport of ski racing I decided to start researching it. Then, when I was researching I found that not only the skiing itself has improved but other things have improved, like the safety. Then after I researched a little more and had a few discussions with my dad I came to the conclusion that the three most important improvements in the sport, are technology, safety, and the medical field. This is how I came up with my main inquiry question, “Which medical, safety, and technological advances have most improved alpine ski racing?”

Perhaps the biggest advancement in skiing is technology. Technology is the root cause of all improvements in skiing. But I decided that technology is too broad to be the top improvement. So I started researching all the technology improvements and eventually I decided the biggest improvement was the boots. One reason I think this is because the boots used to be made out of leather. Now they are made out of plastic. And as you all know plastic is a lot more stable than leather so it is much easier to turn with the new boots. Another reason why I think that the boots are the most important improvement is because now the buckles and straps are way more advanced. Now you can easily push your shins into the front of the boot so your weight is forward. The straps used to be so bad that there was so much space in between your leg and the front of the boot so your legs would automatically go to the back of the boot so that means that your weight is back and when your weight is back you are out of control. Technology has improved ski racing so much and in many more ways.

In my opinion safety is the second biggest improvement in skiing. Safety, like technology has improved on and off the slopes. But the biggest improvement in safety is on the slopes. It is , of course the safety netting.You know, there’s a reason it’s called safety netting. Back in the day you could go through the safety netting like it was a spider web. And there was only one layer of it. Now the safety netting is like a weak fence and there is always 2-3 layers of it. Just to show how much it’s improved, in the 20th century there were 13 ski racing deaths. So far in the 20th century we’ve only had two ski racing deaths and though we had one last year the one before that was in 2001. So obviously the safety is a lot better.

Again this is due to opinion but I think that the medical is the third most important advancement in skiing is the medical field. Like safety and technology the medical field has improved on and off the field. It has improved in the treatments, the health, the fitness and they also have helicopter flying over the course in case someone gets hurt. But in my opinion the most important medical advancement is the treatments. For example, To treat a  torn ACL they used to cut a big gash in your leg for the operation. Now they just use a tiny needle to poke a hole in your leg for the operation. Let’s just say that a torn ACL took 2-3 to heal back then, now they only take 8-9 months to heal. This shows that the medical field is so much more advanced now than it ever has been.

The technology, safety, and medical field have improved so much over the years. I know you agree with me on this, but if you had to order what you think to be the three most important improvements, what would your order be?

wlemerond25

4 Comments

  1. I like how you added a simile at the beggining about your feelings. I also like how you had a lot of facts in your essay.

  2. I liked your essay. It was very conversational. It also had some great ideas.

  3. Nice job William L. I liked your essay a lot. The only thing you could change is add what USSA means

  4. I like how you explained your feelings and compared them to a balance scale.

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