Jenny Cruz, Capstone

Greetings,

I'm Jenny Cruz a senior at Science Leadership Academy. As the year comes to an end we're challenged to present our findings on a protect we were asked to come up with. The topic was open to personal choice, the requirements  were we'd research a subject throughout this school year and present our new found knowledge in our final senior project. This is a website in which I will document my findings. A site I would hope brings insight and entertainment through some peculiar medical facts of early medicine.

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Being a fan of art, creation, acute knowledge and overall dark things I found myself indulging in the oddities of life. And so with my interests fueling my motivation I choose to embark on a journey to the grim and gory side of the world's early medical endeavors. Here I've arranged information depicting gruesome tactics and a lack of, what any modern thinker would consider, common sense of treatment performed on humans. What mishaps took place early in our history may be overlooked as insane and unconventional but has helped shaped what modern medicine we use today.

Like I was once told in a history class, it's best to know the past so that the mistakes made will not repeated.

Inquiry

Research

Collaboration

Presentation

Reflection

The structure to any project based learning I assign myself and the way my school structures our non-conventional learning has the above 5 core values. In SLA's senior project a.k.a. our Capstone required us to implement what we've learned to our own investigations.

I began by thinking of a subject I had an interested in. I'm an amateur artist with a liking for many things and subjects. And so to keep my interests in this project, I decided to showcase various topics within one project. History, Science and Art. I figured a project showing my love for the strange and unusual historic facts about medicine would not only intrigue my brain but enable me to present what some might find dull and boring in an artistic light. On this site you'll find facts i've personally researched and photos I've gathered from the internet alongside some of my drawings of certain topics embedded in this site.

My research took me from oddity shops and museums to old translated German and Greek books/texts. Speaking with others about my ideas and interacting with persons involved in oddity collecting helped steer my research in productive directions. Without outside resources and personnel I don't believe I would have gathered as much as I have.

As for my presentation this website isn't my only way of sharing this knowledge. It is only a media where I keep my gathered data for a later in person presentation where my hand drawn art and findings will be presented to my class and teachers for a final grade.

In my last moments working on this project i've come to appreciate the time and effort I put into something I'm excited to share with others. And hope that my future research will continue with a similar state of mind. Passion and interest help drive and so I would that is an important takeaway for myself and for anyone else looking to take on a research driven project.