So... Where's home? TCK'S

For this week the task is to create a mind map using the webpage https://bubbl.us/ from the video shown in class: "So where is home" from Adrian Bautista. Then we have to choose a topic from the mind map and develop it.

https://bubbl.us/?h=e1fcd/374586/92S5rdZt0aE86

Multicultural Kids: Languages.
As said in the video, TCK (third culture kids) don't have a real culture but their own, the called third culture. I would like to analyse this aspect related to the many languages they have to learn. Travelling from one country to another means changes in the culture of each place they visit, and even though it can be the same language (Like England and USA) there are still changes in some words pronunciation, words used in one place because it has been accepted by the society and the use of different accents. This makes a kid to loose (or never achieve) the identity of one culture and that's why they don`t belong to a place or culture but to were their family  is (as explained on the mind map).

Movie related to the text "Punk for a month"

This class the task is to find a movie with similar characteristics from the text "Punk for a month". I need to find a character that hide his/her feelings from society, and he/she doesn't shows who he/she really is.

                                                   "The Ugly Duckling and Me" movie trailer

This movie is the adapt to the kids story "The ugly duckling". About a swan egg that fells into a chicken nest. He was considered ugly and discriminated for being different, but they couldn't see who he really was ( a beautiful swan). Finally when he grows everyone see what was inside of him.

In this movie there's a rat that gets the egg and needs to save it from the claws of other rats. Once he borns everyone laughs (or is scared) of him because of his physical appearance. The climax, as in the tale, is given by the psychological troubles inside the duckling. Finally he becomes a swan, and of course his life changes forever.


Just like "Punk for a month", Julie is the duckling, discriminated for how she looks, when she actually is someone different inside. And once she changes and shows everyone what she is (looks alike) her life changes for better and forever.

Punk for a Month

Connecting with cultural values and student's lives.
Questions to the text 1, 2, 3 and 4

1.- What does appearance  indicates about a person? In what ways may appearances be misleading? When is it appropriate to judge people based on appearances? When is it inappropriate?

-I believe that appearance shows what the people thinks or wants to express. Appearances may be misleading when we stereotype a person. People belonging to a group may have similar qualities but they'll never think the same and feel equal. That's why prejudging a person just about how he/she looks may give a wrong idea based on stereotypes.

2.- Is Julie fair to her old friends in the change she makes? How might she have handled the change differently so as not to alienate her friends?

- Well, I believe the decision that Julie has taken helped her to realise who her true friends were. She doesn't change from one day to another and became another person, but her friends can't understand and accept it.
                             "No. She's not the same person..."

3.- Julie makes new friends once she changes her appearance. What problems can you predict with these new friends?

-I'm almost completely sure that she'll fight or have troubles with her new friends once the "punk month" ends and they realise she didn't really meant to be a punk. I would feel betrayed.
Another important aspect that may occur with these new friends is getting Julie in troubles, because their lifestyle is different from what she was used to (parties, alcohol, maybe drugs), but we must not fall into prejudice.

4.- Does Julie change internally as a result of changing externally? Can simply dressing differently influence a person's character? Why, or why not?

-I believe that how you dress doesn't change who you really are. The only thing that changed was that Julie felt free to express what she has always felt and thought. Cloth express our personality, and gives a quick image of who we are. ex: dressing black when someone dies shows pain, sorrow..

Personal Response

“The Akanksha clinic is at the forefront of India’s booming trade in so-called reproductive tourism — foreigners coming to the country for infertility treatments such as in vitro fertilization. The clinic’s main draw, however, is its success using local women to have foreigners’ babies. Surrogacy costs about $12,000 in India, including all medical expenses and the surrogate’s fee. In the U.S., the same procedure can cost up to $70,000.”


A surrogate mother is a woman who carries a fetus for someone else, usually a couple having fertility issues. Once the child born it is given to the people who has hired her. Usually the precedent involves in vitro fertilization and then the egg is implanted into the surrogate. According to the article we read at class, in India only the couples that really needs a surrogate mother are accepted. A woman that doesn't want to carry a baby because her body will change aren't accepted. Usually couples go to India because of money issues. In the United States is more than five times the of India.
¿Is this a new kind of slavery? The fragment says it's many times cheaper to do it in India than USA, so for instance everyone will think about exploitation on the women that accept this job. I believe that the term "reproductive tourism" is not correctly applied. In first term, you don't go to vacations and it's a hard decision for both, the biological parents and the surrogate mother, to choose this path. First of all, the Indian mother will have to give that baby she carried for nine months. Also, the woman hiring the service will have to leave the baby in the hands of a stranger. But the rewards given are worth. The couple will actually be able to have a baby, even though it's not the same experience, and will go against ethics, using the body of another woman to have babies. ¿A factory? Not really, surrogates earn a huge amount of money. They have also got other families to dress, educate and feed, and surrogacy is an opportunity to have a better life. In synthesis, this procedure is giving a chance of rebuilding the life to surrogate mothers and to couples struggling with infertility issues. I believe that if both sides are willing to take the procedure they are free to do it.

Surrogarte mothers

This weeks we've been working on cultural diversity. We read an article of surrogate mothers in India and the task is to answer the questions below:

1. What does "reproductive tourism" mean?
2. What issues may cause an American Woman to seek an Indian surrogate?
3. What risks and benefits exist for the surrogate mothers in India?
4. What risks and benefits exist for the woman who hire a surrogate?
5. Do you agree with the people who believe that the Indian women are being exploited? Why or Why not?

1. Reproductive tourism means to travel (in this case to India) in search of a surrogate. That means, a couple looking for someone to carry their baby. It's called tourism because you have to travel, like vacations, only that you come back with a child
2. First of all, the mother needs a real sickness or problem to have a baby, if not she wont be accepted. And the second reason would be money, in India the treatment is much more cheaper.
3. One of the risk is that the surrogate mother refuses to give the baby, and the other one is that Indian surrogate mothers become exploited. The benefit is that the money the surrogate earns is enough to educate her childs, feed a home and buy a good house.
4.  The main risk is that you don´t know how is the mother taking care of the baby, her health conditions, etc. But the reward is big, a couple that can't have babies has the chance to.
5. No, surrogate mothers have a chance to win enough money to take care of their own kids, the amount they earn is enough to begin a new life. No one is forcing them to take that decision. 

Individual Oral Activity: Robots

• Image description
• shiny -> style and design (marketing)
• use of colours
• Gourmet advance or domestic use?
• No skills to cook -> unemployment (robots doing simple human tasks)
• Good or bad? robots are ment to develop hard tasks
• Robots are becoming more sophisticated
• Human look alike
• Price? Can everyone acquire one of these?
• English speaking country relation
• British brand: Kenwood electrodomestics 

Website activity: The embryo takes shape

In today's class we started a new topic, stem cells, controversial theme now days and many arguments that may be analysed. The activity is to answer some questions to the videos watched in class.

The Embryo Takes Shape
link to the video here --> http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/tdc02.sci.life.cell.embryoshape/

• What directs the sequence of events that turn a blob of cells into an embryo with specialized tissues and organs?
• The narrator says that “cells talk to each other.” What does that mean?
• How do cells in different parts of the embryo become different kinds of cells and organs?
• What kinds of proteins are found in different cells and organs?
• What tells the cells which kinds of proteins to make?
• What is the relationship between DNA, genes, and the proteins that are produced in cells?

      1.- The sequence that change a blob of cells into a embryo is called gastrulation.
      2.- The cells don't really communicate with each other, what happens it that they use chemicals messages that trigger reactions in other cells that spread up .
      3.- When the cells send their chemical message different groups of genes are turned on and they become specialized in one thing.
      4.- We can find collagen, that is the protein of the skin, tendons and the bones, keratin, the protein of the hair, crystalin, which makes the lens of the eyes clear, actin and myosin, which moves muscles and fibres, hemoglobin, that carries the oxygen of the lunghs to the rest of the body through the blood.
       5.- Chemicall messages tell the cell which part of the body they'll be part of.
       6.- Proteins are created when a special gene identifies the DNA and turns on the correct gene.

Genetic Tool Kit
link to video here --> http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/tdc02.sci.life.gen.genetictoolkit/

• How has evolution tinkered  with genes of animals?
• What role has embryos played in the study of evolution?
• What did the experiment with fruit flies and mice show?
• What does the presence  packages of information suggest about evolution?

    1.-  The evolution has "mixed" genes, I mean, it created new combinations of genes to create different species.
    2.- The embryos develope very fast and they are very easy to study during their growing process. Compare species and learn more about the growing phases.
    3.- The experiment has shown as that there are genes that are repited in the living beings, like ancestors, identical in every specie, and there are other factors that create the differences in the species.
    4.- It proves that there are identical genes that help every organism to develope and function correctly and those genes are active in the animals.

Stem cells Debate

• Why are stem cells considered so valuable for medical research?
• Why did the researchers have to narrow the spectrum of genes within stem cells? (video 1)
• What are the sources of stem cells and the advantages and disadvantages associated with using each?
• What are the three cases presented at the beginning of the second video?
• How might a stem cell be used to treat spinal cord injuries?
• Explain the outcome of the experiment with injured rats presented in the second video?
• What issues surround the debate over of stem cell research?
• What issue do you think needs to be debated as we make decisions about stem cell research?

      1.- Because stem cells can become any other cell of the body, and it has an important medical use, being able to cure many diseases we yet can't.
      2.- At the beggining there were 20.000 genes from which he had to find which of them trigered the cell to become a stem cell.
      3.- Stem cells can be harvested from a embryo, it has many medical uses and there's still many research remaining.  But there's an ethical controversy. When harvesting the stem cells, the embryo is destroyed, many people is against this practice because it attempts against life, or a future life.
     4.- An ice-hockey player with an injury in his spinal cord, two cousins with a metabolic disorder that causes brain cells to die, called Toy-Sachs disease, and a boy with diabethes.
     5.-The cientist used a rat as a first attempt of healing a spinal cord injury. They put a "bridge" with stem cells in it. The bridge would give enough time to the stem cells to specialize to the place they belong and finally fix the separation within some months/years.
     6.- Wether we can attempt against life or is there another way to harvest stem cells. If we don't use the stem cells in the future ¿ Is that interfiering with scientist research?

Working with genes

4. Watch the Gene Control video. Discuss the following:

•  Why did the German scientist decide to study the fruit flies at the larval stage?

•  How does the mother fly activate the control genes?

•  What is the role of control genes?

Which of the two species is closer to humans?

1.- Because she could see the complete development of the 

      organism and not the complete and final stage, as other                     studies before

2.- By using chemichals at each of the edges of the egg. These chemicals cause a reaction in the genes and indicate wich side is the head and which is the back.

3.-  To switch on the rest of the genes. The chemicals used actívate the control genes, which activate the rest of the genes near it and so on, so they know which “role” they are playing in the development of the organism.

•  The zebrafish, because is has control genes and body plans closer to our own.

The Kite Runner Graphic Novel analysis

For this weeks we've been presenting an analysis on the graphic novel of the book "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini. ( Graphic novel link HERE) The idea of this task was to describe the page given (in my case page 64) and do a 5 minutes oral presentation in front of the class, using a power point presentation.

PPT Presentation link

Video Games! talk

I'm going to give a talk about: are video games good or bad for us?

          So, good or bad? There are lots of opinions about this controversial theme, it has not been proved though if video games "played with moderation" are have negative effects on people. I believe if there is a good control from authorities (as parents and restrictions from the government) there should be no problem with gaming addiction. According to professor Griffiths there are lots of positives from playing video games; therapeutically, educationally, increasing self-esteem and increasing hand-eye coordination. 

         
            "When you have done really well in a game, you feel good, and that raises one's self-esteem."
Plus video games are wonderful distractions, if you had a bad day at school playing video games helps you forget about everything, focus on something else away from troubles.

        That's the point in which authorities have to show up. Games addiction usually shows up at school. It's ok that a kid comes after class and play for an hour a video games, it's like his break. But parents must not aloud him to continue playing without studying, reading or doing any duty he must.

       As told before, there is no trouble when people play video games with moderation, but what happens when no one can control them? Addiction. That's one of the worst problems with video games today, they are ment to be addictive, so they'll sell the product, but a kid that play a game and has no restrictions will become, unconsciously, addicted.

      When do we know someone is addicted to video games? Some symptoms are:
-Preoccupation: unusual preoccupations with the game or computer when he's away from it.
-Lack of control: unable to control the amount of time he spends in the computer or console.
-Loss of time: the person may sit down may start playing for just some minutes and completely looses track of time and suddenly several hours has passed.
-Hiding from negative or uncomfortable feeling or situations: some people use video games addiction to "hide" from troubles.

blog edu: http://caco214.edu.glogster.com/video-games-6816

Video Games

The task this week is to create an oral presentation about Video Games, and to make a reflection with the movie watched in class "Play".

Subtopic: How can we recognize we are not in a video game?
Textype: 

Sources:
Video games addiction symtoms

What is reality?

Debate about: Are video games good or bad for childrens?
Are video games good for us?

Advertising

“Advertising is everywhere you look, whether it is in the newspaper you pick up daily or on that billboard you see while driving down the highway. Some people may say that they are not in fact influenced by the advertising that is thrown at them each day, and that they do not fall into it, but everyone does.”

What is advertising?  Well, they are the way people is convinced to buy or do something, they are the technique used by companies to sell their product. And I must say they work, ads are all around us, you can't avoid advertising, in our society the love of buying (consumerism) is almost a sickness, people go to buy as a hobby. So, if you watch all day products that have techniques to make you wish to have them, next time you go to the shopping you'll feel you need those things, and that also happens with food market. Ads are ment to trick the consumers mind.Is this good or bad for us (consumers)? This is not an easy question. If there is a new product people has  to know somehow it exists, so in those cases ads shows us new things, but usually those new things ain't totally new products like (exaggerated example) a new spaceship coming to the market, though they offer you the same trash with new name and one difference with the last product, as cellphones. That makes you want to get the "new and cool stuff", and that is what I believe is not good for people because of the ignorance and stereotypes they follow.

Writing an ad for a new mobile phone.

The features of the phone aren't the real ones.  It has been edited for class purposes.

Analyzing an Ad.

(I had some troubles uploading the video, but here's the link)
http://adsoftheworld.com/media/tv/mcdonalds_cancha

                This ad from the company Mc Donald is promoting his food but in a special way, not focusing on seeling food anymore but happiness, I'll explain that ahead in my analyze.
             

                The ad is set in the U.S. near the city (as you can see the lights in the background). There are some friends (apparently Mexicans) playing a match of football near a Mc Donald, it's late at night so the employee from Mc Donald (Marquito) turns off the lights from the building and the field becomes dark and can't keep playing. They ask for one more minute to end the match, so Marquito turns on the big "m" from Mc Donald.

                In the whole ad there isn't a single hamburger shown, or people eating, the idea of this ad. is to catch the attention of groups of friends that want to have a good time, making the message of eating implicit in the idea and focusing on having fun whenever you need it, because Mc Donald always gives you "light" to keep playing
       
                 The Enforcement Policy Statement on Food Advertising says: As mandated by the NLEA, FDA's regulations define certain absolute and comparative terms that can be used to characterize the level of a nutrient in a food. "Absolute" terms (e.g., "low," "high," "lean") describe the amount of nutrient in one serving of a food. "Relative" or comparative terms (e.g., "less," "reduced," "more") compare the amount of a nutrient in one food with the amount of the same nutrient in another food. With very few exceptions, only these specific terms, and certain approved synonyms, may be used on food labels to characterize the level of a nutrient, although interested parties may petition FDA to authorize new nutrient content terms and synonyms. 
                So for instance the ad. is in the parameters of the policy, as I already told, there is no food in the ad.. I don't believe this is a fair strategy for little kids because they are selling happiness instead of food and it appeals to their feelings, not being a fast food company anymore but a fun park. Children don't go there to eat, that's a "secondary effect", though to play. The ad. shows a group of middle aged friends, so the idea of selling a good time with friend is not that obvious, but the same message with kids would be (in my opinion) an "evil" plan.