Blog Post #1

My name is Brandon Jones and I am a freshman at Science Leadership Academy. In my English class we were given an assignment to tackle an issue we found and blog about it. The issue I picked was the  test scores of children from different ethnicities and how the scores of African American children were alarmingly low.

For my blog post I researched and found many interesting and informative articles. This particular article reported that African American children scored lower than European Americans in Vocabulary, Reading and Mathematics test. This true, but aggravating statement made me realize how serious this issue is. It is disheartening to read that the gap between the two ethnicities starts before children enter kindergarten and sadly leads into adulthood. The article states that even though this problem cut down since 1970, the average African American child still scores 75% below the average Caucasian child and on some tests, African American children score 85% below Caucasian children.

*above are the percentages of white, black and hispanic students who scored at or above proficient on standardized test*

The article here and the graph above, concerns me and makes me wonder what could be done about this issue. To solve an issue, you must first address the problem, however for his particular issue, there are many possible problems. One being improper funding for students. In Lower Merion, the School District spends $21,399 per student and the School District of Philadelphia only provides $11,078 per student. Another problem is racism and making children feel lesser than what they can be.

As for the solutions, I could go on for days about the possible theories and solutions on solve the issue at hand. Sadly, most of the solutions might not work. For my YATW(You and the World) project me and my partner are going out in the world and going to try to find a solution to this impending issue.

“Man begets, but land does not beget. ”

― Cecil Rhodes

Hello, my name is Quinn Grzywinski, and I’m a ninth grade student at Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia, PA. This is the first blog of three  for my English class; for a project that involves us choosing a subject of interest and writing about it, as well as getting our writing into the world, which is in some ways the whole purpose of this project. I choose overpopulation for my subject, and this blog post provides some key statistics and a possible solution. Hope you enjoy.

I want you to picture something. Imagine a pond, somewhere deep in the forest, full of the richest resources for aquatic life you could imagine. So obviously, the fish that live in this pond flourish, living long healthy lives, and reproduce frequently. But after a few years, the amount of fish has become disproportionate to the pond. and the resources that the pond once had has been used up, and without all the resources the fish die.

This is a grim metaphor for what awaits us if overpopulation is not considered a serious issue to the world. Every minute approximately  269 people are born  and about 108 die; the population is rising every minute, and by the year 2020, yes only 7 years from

A chart of the world’s current population density (wikipedia.org)

now, the population will reach 8 billion, from its current 6.5 billion. This troubling statistic raises the question. How much people Earth hold while still running high on resources? According livescience.com “Many scientists think Earth has a maximum carrying capacity of 9 billion to 10 billion people”, so  by that time will there be enough food to eat? Well from the 2 billion tons of grain that the Earth produces every year, we could actually feed a population of 10 billion. Vegetarians. For a population of 10 billion omnivores, only about 2.5 billion or so could be fed. How long do we have? According to the same article, we will reach a population of 9 billion in 2050, and the fabled 10 billion in 2100. You can view the complete article here.

So what does this mean for all major institutions like medicine and energy? Well thanks to resources like clean water running dangerously low, tensions between nations could well result in wars and conflicts. Another is that unemployment and poverty will become a lot more common, because while the population of any given nation may rise significantly, the total jobs may not. A rise in unemployment levels could result in an increased crime rate, and homelessness. I’ve already mentioned that since food may become a lot more rare than it once was around 2100, things like food shelters may become much more scarce, since they may not even be enough food to go around even more the more privileged ranks of society. Global warming may play a part as well, because since coal and natural gases are already being overused, the polar ice caps will melt, and CO2 will be released in dangerously high levels.  

A future coming all too soon… (conserve-energy-future.com)

However, there is ways to combat the problem. According to a pension I found online, the proper way of dealing with this problem is fairly simple: proper sex education and family birth planning. This way, the number of humans joining the planet can decrease to more fairly balance the deaths per minute. But we seem to be on our way there already. United Nation estimates show that the average sizes of families have been getting steadily smaller over time. The article on live.science.com explains, “globally, the fertility rate is falling to the "replacement level" — 2.1 children per woman, the rate at which children replace their parents (and make up for those who die young). If the global fertility rate does indeed reach replacement level by the end of the century, then the human population will stabilize between 9 billion and 10 billion.” This means with the proper education and control, we may be able to control the population at a relatively safe level. It won’t be by any means ideal, but at least, it will be survivable. At this “replacement level” the human races population will come to a halt.

So all in all, overpopulation is a serious problem. It will increase global warning, flare tensions between nations, and even may lead to a global energy crisis. But it is by no means a fixed event. All it takes is to properly educate our children and families, and make them understand the consequences of having a big family. If we can teach the new generation, then by the time we reach 10 billion, we will be in control. However, if the proper steps aren't taken, if families do teach and be taught what to do, by 2100, the world, will be at a point where it may be already too late to reverse the damage. Let me remind you, 2100 isn't some distant future, some made-up number, but a future my generations descendants may well have to face, or even maybe well before that. With it being very hard to predict when our species will reach 10 billion, this scenario may happen even sooner, which only increases the need to start worrying about this issue now. Because once we reach 10 billion, it won’t be a gradual decline, where there’s plenty of time to repair the problem. It’ll be more in fashion to falling off a cliff. What happens next lies in an arbitrary future.  

Thanks for reading! See you in Blog #2!

My annotated bibliography is here.      

Hello my name is Gabrielle Kreidie, a student at Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. For the rest of the year my class and I are doing individual projects on certain subjects with the goal to change the world around us. We will become Agents of Change by the end of the year with the help of research. This is my first blog post, I hope you enjoy it. For further information visit my bibliography.

The world has heard of the civil war in Syria. The attack of chemical weapons of people of Syria from their military a total of nearly 1,500 people killed, 426 of which were children. The media covered the decision President Obama had to make. A military strike or not. Sure the media talked about those who were lost in this tragic event portrayed by Bashar Al Assad, Dictator of Syria, however, right after Obama’s decision was taken off the table, the news ended.  People continue to suffer from this dictator but the public nor the government seem to really care about those that are suffering.

Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Turkey are holding in total over two million refugees, and more adding on everyday. Those two million are known to the world now as refugees. Two million people who are on the streets of countries with small populations and problems of their own. Lebanon alone has over one million refugees from Syria, with a addition of refugees from Palestine and other countries. Lebanon has a population of four million with a stronger economy than some of their neighbors, however, they are struggling with the addition of over one million new people and problems with bordering countries, Syria and Israel. Two million people are a lot! Even though Syria has a population of twenty two million, as of 2012, a decrease of two million is a lot. Two million is just over the size of Philadelphia. Now imagine all Philadelphians having to leave their homes with barely anything because it’s not safe for them. Imagine two million lives broken, without food, money, medicine or professions, leaving everything behind.

A family living in a refugee camp in Jordan during the cold, snowy winters.

Living in the USA, we do not see that much news on the refugees. We do not see information on people who are suffering from Bashar Al Assad. This makes me want to learn more. I want to get down to the truth. I want to see the people we should be caring about, the people that are suffering. Read Abdulmajid’s, a fifteen year old Syrian refugee living with his family in Lebanon, here. The issue of war within a society of citizens is not something the media is covering. This is my chance to bring the real news, the news of those who are in pain, to not only the US but the world.

A Syrian refugee living in Lebanon holding up a poster during a protest.

Syria is not the only country to have a civil war, in the past couple of years. There has been the civil war in Sierra Leone, civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nepal civil war and so many more. That means that I have to understand the media coverage of these wars. I have to understand if huge news outlets, such as CNN, talked about these civil wars. Throughout this project I will not only be talking about the horrible civil war in Syria, but I will be talking about the Congo, Sierra Leone, Nepal, Colombia, countries that have had their fair share of people suffered as well.

 Hello, my name is Kara Heenan and I am a freshman at Science Leadership Academy. For a project in English 1, Ms. Dunn told us to find an issue in the world that we really care about. The topic I chose is Animal Cruelty. I am against any type of animal abuse. Animals are living, breathing things just like us and they deserve to be treated the same way we do. The type of animals I am mainly going to be focusing on throughout this blog are the two common household pets, dogs and cats.

 First, I would like to discuss the types of abuse there are to these animals and the statistics. According to the Humane Society Hall County,

• 32% of it is neglect or abandonment

• 12%  of it is hoarding

• 11% of it is shooting

• 9% of it is fighting

• 7% of it is beating

 A huge factor in Animal Cruelty in our country are puppy mills. There is no legal definition of a puppy mill, but the ASPCA defines it as "a large-scale commercial dog breeding operation where profit is given priority over the well-being of the dogs." It has been estimated that there are at least 10,000 puppy mills in the U.S. More than 14 states have no laws to even address puppy mills. In these places, dogs are forced to be in cages most of their lives with no room to play or exercise. These places are crawling with dogs affected by illnesses, wounds, and diseases. No one even seems to care!

What an average puppy mill looks like

 Another factor, especially in this country, is hoarding. Hoarding is keeping a high number of animals as pets without being able to take care of them properly. Approximately 900 to 2000 cases are discovered in America with a quarter of a million animals falling victim. Hoarding is usually a side effect of a mental illness in a person. It is a form of neglect. Most of these poor animals are living in a disgusting home without proper care or love but the owner of these dogs do not realize they are doing harm.

 All a dog or cat really needs is love and care. They don’t ask for much. One thing people forget is that these animals have actual feelings like us. We as humans have no right to treat them as they are less important than we are. I hope after reading this article it really opens your eyes to how important it is to treat animals with respect.

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A homeless man with his dog. All you need is love.

Hello, my name is Tomas Arango. For this year’s You and The World project I decided to focus on U.S media bias. To me this is a very important topic because it’s something that always stands out to me when I read and watch the news. I also feel that it’s an issue many people don’t know about, especially younger audiences like me.

U.S media shows bias in many different ways, but some very repetitive ones I have noticed are only showing one side of the story and sometimes completely telling the story incorrectly. But what bothers me most is that these bias opinions are mostly present when news stations talk about the Middle East. They try to make them look bad and deliver a strong stereotype whenever the topic is brought up.

I started researching and expanding more on my idea for YATW and found many articles focusing on Western Media Bias. I also found examples on media bias towards the middle east and Islam. Many studies showed that most of this started after the 9/11 bombings in 2001. Media began to blame killings and random attacks on Islam and Muslims. Many times news can tend to focus on the bad side of the story like only on the extremist when it comes to Islam.

A great example would be the shooting in Norway  in 2011, killing 85 people according to police. When this massacre happened there was little information on the background the perpetuator. Giving the opportunity to the media, especially conservatives an opportunity to make assumptions and blame it on Islam.  

This picture shows the meaning of Islam and how it’s a symbol of support, love, and peace.

My goal is to inform readers about these bias opinions that news stations make and educate them on how to avoid falling into to medias traps. I plan making an activity for my advisory where they have to identify what type of bias a news article contain. I want to make an interactive experience so my peers can learn about this issue. I really enjoyed writing this and be sure to watch out for my next blog post!

Another picture displaying Islam is not an icon of terrorism and violence

These are some type of media bias I want people to be able to identify through my blog posts:

• Omission

• Selection of Sources

• Story Selection

• Placement

• Labeling

• Spin

For definitions of words, click here!

You can view my bibliography here!

“Hey, you put that non-recyclable plastic into the recycling bin” or “Hey, you put that recyclable plastic into the trash bin!” These are scoldings that are heard frequently. “Is it really important? Do I really have to care about where this ends up? How will my life change?” These are retorts often thought but seldom uttered. In this first blog post for my You and the World project, I seek to answer those questions, and talk a little bit about poop (which will make sense soon, I promise).

To start, let’s establish that things can’t be recycled infinitely- every iteration of an item can’t be used as the thing it was last, as quality is lost every time something is reconstituted. A prime example from HowStuffWorks is paper. Paper’s second life will be of a lower quality, meaning it might be lined instead of copy paper. After that, it might not be able to surface as paper at all, and someone might take personal initiative to turn their paper into art or furniture, at which point it has reached the approximate end of its lifecycle. Americans mostly know their job in this (even if they don’t follow through); recycle plastics, papers, and metals, throw out everything else. But is there a point at which it isn’t worth recycling something? Is there a point at which something isn’t a resource, it is merely garbage? Michael C Munger thinks so. He believes that if any item can’t be clearly and efficiently turned into another useful item, it may be just as eco-friendly to shift our focus entirely off of reusing trash and onto turning real, usable materials into energy.

Materials like cow feces (see now?). I’m not limiting the terms “real” and “usable” to poop, but it certainly applies. Here is an interesting infographic on the subject- the most interesting thing it points out, however, is this: “Two adjacent dairy farms in Rexville, WA  produce enough methane to provide electricity for about 1,000 homes.” That’s twelve-hundred cows fueling one-thousand homes. That’s incredible. That raises a very important question: why is this not more widespread?

These guys make lots and lots and lots of gas. Like, a lot.

I’m not trying to refute the usefulness of recycling-bin type recycling- whether or not  that’s truly effective is not an easily answerable question. Some say recycling isn’t even really followed through with. There is no debate on one front, however: green energy is good. I can’t imagine anyone could disagree with saving the environment and saving money.

Recycling is more than just putting things in a bin (though that can help). Recycling is reusing materials, ideally in a way that makes the repercussions tangible. That means composting, and solar panels, and turbines. In a world where so much money is spent on creating energy in processes in which so much exhaust is output while we have the capabilities to cut that price and to clean those emissions, why do we continue? For my You and the World project, I want to help people (my own family included) meaningfully recycle.