October Sky

Just recently, I watched a very inspirational and touching film, called October Sky.  It was about how young men from a coal mining town begin to try to launch rockets.  In their attempts and experiments, the boys used a lot of math, especially Homer.  He taught himself trigonometry just by reading a book.  Also, another connection to math is that they could calculate where their rockets landed by using different factors about the launch.  A connection to character education from this movie is determination.  Homer and the rocket boys showed determination because no matter what people said or did to them, they kept pushing forward.  The biggest case was Homer determined to make his father proud of him by building rockets, instead of coal mining.  He was determined to make this happen, and go to college.  Homer succeeded in both areas.

Response Blog: Down Syndrome

I recently learned about down syndrome by reading a blog by a friend. Basically, it explained about the effects down syndrome has on a person. Also, it taught me that people with down syndrome have a lower life span than the average person. I understood everything in the blog, due to the fact that it was well explained. Women above 40 having a child have a 1 in 100 chance of having a child with down syndrome. I personally feel bad for people with down syndrome. They do not have the same privileges the average person always does. They can't do all the activities we can either. Lots of people take that for granted, and we all need to become more aware of whats going on around us.

Sickle Cell Anemia xD

There is a dreadful disease in the world, known as sickle cell anemia. It was acknowledged by Africans in 1870's in Africa but the first sickle cell patient known was in Chicago in 1904. People with the disease have sickle shaped blood cells and develop anemia in most cases. Teens can develop jaundice, and just about all patients go through pain crises that are painful. Also, the cells break down faster than average cells, leading to infection risk. One advantage of sickle cell anemia is that they are usually malaria prone. There is no cure for sickle cell anemia. There are some treatments like taking vitamins and shots. The average life span of a male is 42 years and 48 years for a female. There are approximately 70,000 people with sickle cell anemia in the U.S. 1 in 500 black children develop it, and 1 in every 36,000 Hispanic children. It is caused when the genes on the short arm of the 11Th chromosome are mutated. It is a very terrible disease. I feel empathy for people with this disease and I hope that a cure is discovered. I think I learn more about this disease now.

For more information visit:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sickle-cell_anemia
kidshealth.org/teen/diseases_conditions/genetic/sickle_cell_anemia.html
www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/dci/Diseases/Sca/SCA_WhatIs.html