First+Semester

=__Introduction__= toc Welcome to my electronic portfolio. Highlighting the work and projects that I have completed in my high school Anatomy class, this portfolio hopefully will introduce you to my understanding of the class and what I have learned from it. The class has been instrumental in the learning of the human body and recognizing it as a functioning miracle. Through the artifacts in this portfolio I hope to also portray this idea.

Not only has the class taught me about the human body, but also the use of computer applications. In using the possibilities provided by the Internet as well as computer programs such as PowerPoint and Publisher, the class has taught me valuable lessons needed in the electronic age of the 21st Century.

=__Biography__=

The reason for taking an Anatomy class primarliy was based on personal reasons. I wrote a blog about this experience that led to my interest in human anatomy and also other reasons I had for taking the class.

My main personal interest is film having an extended DVD collection as well as also knowing much about its history and almost any movie. Starting young my interest developed when I wanted to become a film director and screenplay writer.

Though I would love to become either I am planning on being a journalist or at least working in the field of journalism, possibly as a editor. It works for me as I have taken a journalism class all my high school career and have acted as copy editor for one year on the school paper and as a writer for all four years.

I have already been accepted to the University of Reno, Nevada and plan on attending in the fall of 2008 majoring in journalism.

=__Tissues Project__=

For this project we were assigned to create a PowerPoint presentation that showcased the four different types of muscle. By not only providing information on all four as well as any of their subcategories, we were also to include pictures and a concise navigation system.

[[file:Microsoft PowerPoint - TISSUE.pdf]]
While I had most of the information pertaining to the different muscle groups which was not hard to find considering we had extensive notes on them all, I found the challenge in identifying the muscles in the photos taken. During class, we paired with a partner to look through microscopes at several different slides of muscles and to take pictures of them for our PowerPoint presentation. At this point, I still do not know fully if all of my photos on my PowerPoint slides match correctly and I worry that some may not. Also, I did not plan the proper amount time to complete this project and turned in late as well as rushed it. In trying to quickly complete the project, I believe that it does not match the standards or the job that I am capable of fully doing. If given a second chance, I would have taken the proper time to finish the PowerPoint presentation so that it would be better laid out, presented, and organized. Organization is another issue I found in the creating of my presentation. Because of the four major groups and the many subcategories in them, I do not think that I created the best navigation system to move through the presentation. While the navigation or links do not work in the pdf file provided they can still be seen. This project does not properly display the work I am capable of and is not something I am wholey proud of either. Either way the information contained in it is accurate and I think was the best way to do it in the amount of time I allowed for myself.

=__Brochure__=

This project was an assignment to make brochure to raise awareness of skin cancer. With the point to aim it for distribution in an actual clinic or doctor's office, the brochure was intended for anyone in need of information about skin cancer.

[[file:Skin Cancer Brochure.pdf]]
The Skin Cancer Brochure project integrated the use of the program Publisher to teach about Skin Cancer. Instead of using notes or a presentation, the project allowed for us to research a disease ourselves in order to learn about it. To prove that we did learn something we were to present it in the form of a brochure. It was effective in that it was required to fully understand skin cancer before creating the brochure and in the creation of the brochure we were able to go over the information gathered a second time. It has been said that the best way to learn something is to teach it, and this project allowed for just that.

Before the project, I already had a good understanding of Publisher from using it for laying out the school newspaper in Journalism. Still, I learned plenty about Skin Cancer and its dangers. Its never been a subject that I have spent any time on, but I would agree it is an important one. Because I spend so much time in California over summers, I plan to take more precautions based on the information that I learned in the reseaching for this project. Along with the researching for the dangers I also learned about what precautions are necessary that can be found in the brochure. While I knew the causes for Skin Cancer such as too much sun exposure, I did not know that there were different types of the disease.

=__Joint - Wiki__=

In this assignment, we were to work in groups with other students from the class in order to create a wiki that focused on a particular joint of the body that was intended for the use by 6th grade students.

Use the "back" function in the browser from the Wrist and Fingers Wiki to return back here.

Wrist and Fingers Wiki
As also seen from the Brochure project, this wiki assignment allowed for us to research and use the information we found to present it to others. Using this effective tool, the teacher allowed for us to work in collective groups to gather pivotal information on joints that we needed to know. The wiki is to show the understanding that my group and I grasped on our subject. Learning about the joints of the wrist and fingers, we found further details in our research than presented in class to us. While we did go over joints in class as well as other parts of the skeleton, this assignment allowed for us to focus on one part fully and learn as much as possible about it.

The wiki would have worked more effectively and could have been improved with the use of more eye catching pictures or videos as well as links to kid friendly sites with important information. The writing in the wiki at times is a little beyond the comprehension of a 6th grader, but at the same time it does still present the information in a way that I believe could at least be understood enough. It does work effectively in the information given, so to its bare bones minimum it does meet its requirement.

= = =__Blog__= Posted on a weblog site, the blogs were meant assignments that utilized the Internet in the same way that this Wiki that also integrated the same effect of a writing assigment. The teacher would asssign a blog by asking us to answer uestions on it in the same manner as an essay or a short answer homework assignment. Using a blog as a way for these assignments works effectively in teaching us to write in different styles and to also fully utilize tools at our disposal such as linking, etc. With the world growing around the Internet using a blog site for essay and short answer questions is an asbolutely practicaly and important idea that should be used more often in other, if not all, classes.

Other than the three blogs posted here we were assigned others that I did not complete.

The original weblogs can be found [|here.]

The Reason, the System, and the Interest
__The Assignment:__ Your first formal post should discuss why you took anatomy and physiology. Then discuss what body system you are most looking forward to and why? Finally, post a link to a webpage that shows something intersting about anatomy and physiology. Describe what we will find at the link.

__The Assignment:__ We were to write about a bone disorder in magazine style as if a feature in a health section etc.

__The Assignment:__ Find an article in the popular press (NYT, Time, Washington Post, etc) that has to do with a controversial issue in Anatomy and Physiology. In your blog summarize your finding. What point of view does the author take? Do you agree with the author? Discuss what you learned from reading the article. Discuss what impact the article has on society, why does the lay person need to know this?

=__Wiki__=

Short Bone, Flat Bone, Irregular Bone
We were to work on the Skeletal System section of our Anatomy Wiki, created with our text book as its spine, by either editing other pages or creating new ones for more information. The following three pages I created myself by writing all of the information found on them as well as posting the pictures on them.

In the same vain as the blogs, through the use of the Wikis, we are exposed to important technology as well as learning by teaching. By working on the Wikis I learned detailed information about each specific type of bone that I wrote about: Short Bone, Flat Bone, and Irregular Bone. Because of my focused work on only certain bones, I did not get the benefit of having the same focus on either of the vast parts of the Skeletal System. Even though I did not spend the specific time on any of the other bones, I can still go through the other pages created by the other students if I wish to learn about them.

In this Wiki, we were assigned to create a Wiki page that highlighted an imaging device such as X-Ray, MRI, PET, etc. Also, this assignment required for us to work in groups with the focus already chosen for us.

Beginning the assignment I did not even know that a such thing as a PET Scan existed which made it more interesting to learn about. As we had to research and provide the information on a Wiki for others to read we had the chance to extensively learn about a specific device. In the same way that I can look at other pages of the Wiki from Skeletal System, I can do the same here. Other groups created Wiki pages around other imagery devices so they are always available. With information always available and having extensive knowledge of a specific device these Wiki assignments worked very well and effectively.

=__Conclusion__=

This year in Anatomy, we were given the oppurtunity to use the new technology made available in the 21st Century to learn the lessons as well as utilizing old skills that we learned. Through my research for all of my projects I learned extensive information from each one on the subjects that we were to focus on. The class did not only help in the teaching of its subject, the human body, but also important technology pivotal for us in today's world.

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