Op-Ed
Cloning (What's the Big Deal)
What happens when we start to successfully create human and animal clones at a brisk rate. With technology advancing an extreme rate it is only a matter of time before cloning will have taken over this generation's interest and time. Cloning will create a huge advantage for the countries who first discover an efficient and productive way to do so.
One of the first breakthroughs was when scientists in Sweden at the Roslin Institute cloned Dolly the sheep using an adult cell instead of an embryonic cell. She died from lung diseases and arthritis (July 5, 1996 to February 14, 2003) a life span of 7 years. This was one of the very first big breakthroughs that the world saw. And also one of the first big examples of how people who can access this type of technology have advantages. If you are able to clone livestock and create food sources that is only the beginning.
One of the first and main advantages that is already in the process of happening is cloning livestock. Creating a huge advantage for those who are taking the opportunities to use these technologies. So, “We’ve successfully cloned thousands of farm animals and preserved the genes of thousands more.”
With age comes whole sets of new problems like kidney failure, but what if that wasn't something we had to worry about? Once we begin to clone humans we can create exact copies of ourselves, meaning that we will have the same blood type, the same heart, the same organs giving us the possibility of extending our life spans. Not only can we do this but, “Remarkably they even managed to do it with the cells of a pensioner - a 75-year-old man - raising the prospect that body parts could be regenerated in old age.” This will give extended life spans to people and the possibility to have body parts that they might have lost. War veterans who had lost their limbs would now have the opportunities to have those limbs cloned and transplanted back on.
Although cloning human tissue is an amazing breakthrough it also brings up ethical questions that most problems do. People bring up the argument that, “Embryonic stem cell research has repeatedly raised ethical concerns and human eggs are a scarce resource.” But in reality if we are given the chance to experiment and test out these new technologies will end up creating so many more possibilities than if we close our selves off to these opportunities.
The Mask Project
The main assignment of this project was to create a mask that represents how you as a person have been socialized and a essay to back it up. Leading into creating the mask and writing the essay I thought about all of the ways that I have been socialized and how they affected me. We then created masks and started to decorate them with symbols or whatever we felt we could put on the mask to represent how we have been socialized. As you can see below I put the Instagram logo for one eye and the Snapchat logo for the other. I did this because I really feel that social media has played a huge role on my life. We also read the book To Kill a Mockingbird which helped see how the main character, Scout, was socialized.
I really pushed myself to create the best essay that I could and a mask that I was proud of. I feel that both of these pieces of work were really good and I am happy with what I came up with. I also decided to push myself by writing a second essay about the mask of Durango. I came up with this idea when I was talking to Stephen and we started talking about some of Durangos problems. I really enjoyed this project and never felt that I had to advocate for myself because I understood it was able to work strongly through it. Although I enjoyed the project there were some bumps through it that I had to work to overcome. One of the main issues was when Stephen took a unexpected leave of absence and during that time we got a substitute that the majority of the student body didn't work well with. Through this period we had just really started working so my peers and I didn't really know what was happening, the hardest part was that the substitute didn't either. I saw a lot of the kids start to fall behind, including myself, and instead of taking initiative slacked of and used him as a excuse. Once Stephen returned and we started working like normal again I really feel that i took the time to make my essay the best that it could be but I definitely could of put more effort into my mask.
This project really shed light for me on the fact the social media has changed my life and way of thinking in a huge way. I used to think that i lived in a paradise here in the united states but it has caused me to really see a lot of the problems that we can't seem to leave in the past. One of the main things that i have noticed is the fact that racism and sexism still play a huge roll on today's society. It also caused me to see some problems that I have and how I want to change them. One of the main things is that I want to have a less biased view on politics and to be able to see people's perspectives without trashing on them. It also helped me think about the person that I want to be, I have always been slightly annoying and it has been hard for me to create friends. This project definitely made me rethink the way that I want to interact and react with my peers
I really pushed myself to create the best essay that I could and a mask that I was proud of. I feel that both of these pieces of work were really good and I am happy with what I came up with. I also decided to push myself by writing a second essay about the mask of Durango. I came up with this idea when I was talking to Stephen and we started talking about some of Durangos problems. I really enjoyed this project and never felt that I had to advocate for myself because I understood it was able to work strongly through it. Although I enjoyed the project there were some bumps through it that I had to work to overcome. One of the main issues was when Stephen took a unexpected leave of absence and during that time we got a substitute that the majority of the student body didn't work well with. Through this period we had just really started working so my peers and I didn't really know what was happening, the hardest part was that the substitute didn't either. I saw a lot of the kids start to fall behind, including myself, and instead of taking initiative slacked of and used him as a excuse. Once Stephen returned and we started working like normal again I really feel that i took the time to make my essay the best that it could be but I definitely could of put more effort into my mask.
This project really shed light for me on the fact the social media has changed my life and way of thinking in a huge way. I used to think that i lived in a paradise here in the united states but it has caused me to really see a lot of the problems that we can't seem to leave in the past. One of the main things that i have noticed is the fact that racism and sexism still play a huge roll on today's society. It also caused me to see some problems that I have and how I want to change them. One of the main things is that I want to have a less biased view on politics and to be able to see people's perspectives without trashing on them. It also helped me think about the person that I want to be, I have always been slightly annoying and it has been hard for me to create friends. This project definitely made me rethink the way that I want to interact and react with my peers
Leit Schafer
12/4/17
Sellers, Stephen 1-2
How I’ve Been Socialized
Growing up in the 21 first century has been a crazy experience from a technological aspect, Social media and many other things have played a huge role on making me who I am. From the use of vaporizers that kids and teens are partaking in, how I receive news, and how drugs are impacting my life and the people around me. All of these things have socialized me to be the person that I am today. They have also caused me to see the way that they change people around me and how it affects them.
Through 9th grade I have seen a large amount of kids that I know or don't start using vapes of all kinds. The main problem with vapes is that in most cases they are small and can easily be brought to school and used during class. Most vapes have nicotine in them which causes a lot of kids to become easily addicted. I have noticed that at a lot of gas stations ads for vapes are a kids height instead of adults which is a easy way to catch a curious kids eye. These ads used to make me want to try it, that feeling quickly changed when I saw everyone using and getting addicted to them. Most of these things have really caused me to consider who I want to be and have caused me to be who I am today. I can easily find vaping videos on instagram and photos of vapes that portray them in a fashion that makes them seem cool which can easily cause kids to be interested.
Apps like Snapchat and Instagram have changed the way that I receive news and hear about popular things. A lot of the recent terror attacks I wouldn't hear about until my parents told me I can now learn about anything that has made the news with the tap of my finger. This can have serious effects on people and their opinions in part because they can easily be fed fake news that will bias them towards a certain opinion. I can choose different sources and news outlets and in this day and age it is becoming incredibly difficult to find unbiased news. Depending on what I choose to believe they alter my views on politics and other things. This has definitely played a huge roll on my life because I feel that it has had serious effects on my life and has caused me to have a fairly liberal view. They are used to portray weed and other drugs in a manner that makes them seem to be okay to be used. All of these thing are easily accessible to a young age group which causes them to in some cases believe false facts and sway towards certain opinions.
As a teenager in Durango in the 21 first century drugs and alcohol have seriously affected this community, my peers, and myself. When marijuana was legalized in colorado I saw a huge spike in the amount of my peers that started to smoke and “experimenting” with it. I have frequently had the chance to smoke if I had wanted to but I have seen many kids get dragged down the wrong path that has led them into other drugs and skrewed up their lives. I have also quickly learned my lesson with drinking when in the 8th grade on our end of the year field trip kids decided to bring a large bottle of tequila and get hammered. As the day progressed and people got ready to start drinking I found myself in the situation where I wanted to fit in. I decided to take a sip and soon realized that I had made a mistake. People ended up getting super hammered and soon enough the teachers started to catch on. I made the decision to leave and take my freind who was drunk with me. The teachers ended up catching the kids that were hammered and they informed the teachers that I had taken a sip. I ended up getting suspended and decided that I didn't want to make the same choices that a lot of the kids around me were.
I have definitely felt the impacts that social media has caused on my generation and how they have affected me and the people around me in different ways, From kids becoming addicted to nicotine, how it portrays large articles of news biased and not, and how it has created a stereotype for my generation that drugs and alcohol are okay to use. These things have really caused me to become who I am and changed me in many different ways for better or worse.
12/4/17
Sellers, Stephen 1-2
How I’ve Been Socialized
Growing up in the 21 first century has been a crazy experience from a technological aspect, Social media and many other things have played a huge role on making me who I am. From the use of vaporizers that kids and teens are partaking in, how I receive news, and how drugs are impacting my life and the people around me. All of these things have socialized me to be the person that I am today. They have also caused me to see the way that they change people around me and how it affects them.
Through 9th grade I have seen a large amount of kids that I know or don't start using vapes of all kinds. The main problem with vapes is that in most cases they are small and can easily be brought to school and used during class. Most vapes have nicotine in them which causes a lot of kids to become easily addicted. I have noticed that at a lot of gas stations ads for vapes are a kids height instead of adults which is a easy way to catch a curious kids eye. These ads used to make me want to try it, that feeling quickly changed when I saw everyone using and getting addicted to them. Most of these things have really caused me to consider who I want to be and have caused me to be who I am today. I can easily find vaping videos on instagram and photos of vapes that portray them in a fashion that makes them seem cool which can easily cause kids to be interested.
Apps like Snapchat and Instagram have changed the way that I receive news and hear about popular things. A lot of the recent terror attacks I wouldn't hear about until my parents told me I can now learn about anything that has made the news with the tap of my finger. This can have serious effects on people and their opinions in part because they can easily be fed fake news that will bias them towards a certain opinion. I can choose different sources and news outlets and in this day and age it is becoming incredibly difficult to find unbiased news. Depending on what I choose to believe they alter my views on politics and other things. This has definitely played a huge roll on my life because I feel that it has had serious effects on my life and has caused me to have a fairly liberal view. They are used to portray weed and other drugs in a manner that makes them seem to be okay to be used. All of these thing are easily accessible to a young age group which causes them to in some cases believe false facts and sway towards certain opinions.
As a teenager in Durango in the 21 first century drugs and alcohol have seriously affected this community, my peers, and myself. When marijuana was legalized in colorado I saw a huge spike in the amount of my peers that started to smoke and “experimenting” with it. I have frequently had the chance to smoke if I had wanted to but I have seen many kids get dragged down the wrong path that has led them into other drugs and skrewed up their lives. I have also quickly learned my lesson with drinking when in the 8th grade on our end of the year field trip kids decided to bring a large bottle of tequila and get hammered. As the day progressed and people got ready to start drinking I found myself in the situation where I wanted to fit in. I decided to take a sip and soon realized that I had made a mistake. People ended up getting super hammered and soon enough the teachers started to catch on. I made the decision to leave and take my freind who was drunk with me. The teachers ended up catching the kids that were hammered and they informed the teachers that I had taken a sip. I ended up getting suspended and decided that I didn't want to make the same choices that a lot of the kids around me were.
I have definitely felt the impacts that social media has caused on my generation and how they have affected me and the people around me in different ways, From kids becoming addicted to nicotine, how it portrays large articles of news biased and not, and how it has created a stereotype for my generation that drugs and alcohol are okay to use. These things have really caused me to become who I am and changed me in many different ways for better or worse.
TKAM/MWB Seminar
Throughout the To Kill a Mockingbird socratic seminar the main topics discussed were about racism that take place in the book as well as sexism. We really discussed how racism is still a key issue in today's society and how it is still going to be a issue when we will be adults. I definitely felt the group was in pretty strong agreement that this book help shed light to these issues and that if we don't learn about these issues no one will know how to help solve them and prevent future discrimination.
One of the topics that interested me the most was how it was brought up that Scout would become extremely offended when people would call her father Atticus a ni**er lover as the text shows from chapter 9 on page 110 “If Uncle Atticus lets you run around with stray dogs that’s his own business, like grandma says, so it ain’t your fault. I guess it ain’t your fault if Uncle Atticus is a nigger-lover besides, but I’m here to tell you it certainly does mortify the rest of the family--” “Francis what the hell do u mean?” “Just what I said. Grandma says it’s bad enough he lets u all run wild, but now he’s turned out a nigger lover we’ll never be able to walk the streets of maycomb agin. He’s ruinin’ the family, that’s what he’s doin’.” Scout then proceeds to try to beat francis up because of his insults towards her father. I definitely understand where she is coming from because she wants to defend her father who is a big figure in her life. If someone had insulted my dad in that manner I would've also felt the responsibility to defend him
Coming into this seminar I felt fairly prepared. The night before i had been working on annotations but ended up leaving my book at home. I had a general idea of where they were and was able to find those pages fairly fast. I would of also liked to go more in depth on the next seminars topic because I felt that we kinda just skimmed the surface. I have always enjoyed socratic seminars so it felt really good to do another one even though I felt a little rusty.
This is one of my paragraphs from the To Kill a Mockingbird free write that I think perfectly describes my opinion “One of the main reasons that I believe that this book shouldn’t be banned is because of these topics that it touches on and how it relates to today's society. As much as some people try to ignore it racism and sexism are still huge problems in today's society. A perfect example of sexism is the “Me Too” movement were recently lots of extremely noticeable women have come out with accusations of sexual harassment or sexual assault against some very well known men. A huge one was the amount of women who have accused harvey weinstein of different things. Also with our current POTUS and his old advisor Steve Bannon who just until recently worked for the news source Breitbart which is a well known extreme conservative news outlet that was filled with lots of racism.”
One of the topics that interested me the most was how it was brought up that Scout would become extremely offended when people would call her father Atticus a ni**er lover as the text shows from chapter 9 on page 110 “If Uncle Atticus lets you run around with stray dogs that’s his own business, like grandma says, so it ain’t your fault. I guess it ain’t your fault if Uncle Atticus is a nigger-lover besides, but I’m here to tell you it certainly does mortify the rest of the family--” “Francis what the hell do u mean?” “Just what I said. Grandma says it’s bad enough he lets u all run wild, but now he’s turned out a nigger lover we’ll never be able to walk the streets of maycomb agin. He’s ruinin’ the family, that’s what he’s doin’.” Scout then proceeds to try to beat francis up because of his insults towards her father. I definitely understand where she is coming from because she wants to defend her father who is a big figure in her life. If someone had insulted my dad in that manner I would've also felt the responsibility to defend him
Coming into this seminar I felt fairly prepared. The night before i had been working on annotations but ended up leaving my book at home. I had a general idea of where they were and was able to find those pages fairly fast. I would of also liked to go more in depth on the next seminars topic because I felt that we kinda just skimmed the surface. I have always enjoyed socratic seminars so it felt really good to do another one even though I felt a little rusty.
This is one of my paragraphs from the To Kill a Mockingbird free write that I think perfectly describes my opinion “One of the main reasons that I believe that this book shouldn’t be banned is because of these topics that it touches on and how it relates to today's society. As much as some people try to ignore it racism and sexism are still huge problems in today's society. A perfect example of sexism is the “Me Too” movement were recently lots of extremely noticeable women have come out with accusations of sexual harassment or sexual assault against some very well known men. A huge one was the amount of women who have accused harvey weinstein of different things. Also with our current POTUS and his old advisor Steve Bannon who just until recently worked for the news source Breitbart which is a well known extreme conservative news outlet that was filled with lots of racism.”