Science Fair Essay

Sickle Cell, the cell with a crescent moon like shape that helps cause severe pain by clogging itself within your blood vessels and the worst thing...theirs really nothing you can do about it...yet. Doctors are working on cures for this disease everyday but let’s get more into the sickle cell disease. Sickle Cell Anemia also called sickle cell disease is caused by abnormal hemoglobin. Hemoglobin is a protein (helps in many processes of our body, growth, movement, etc.) containing iron (a chemical element) and is found in red blood cells. The hemoglobin is crucial in the red blood cells ability to carry oxygen. The abnormal hemoglobin is called hemoglobin S, and because of the abnormality makes the red blood cell curve to resemble a sickle like shape. These sickle cells die prematurely and have a tendency to stick to each other and block blood vessels which is why sickle cell anemia has some symptoms associated with the disruption of blood flow. But sickle cells can only kill you if not diagnosed at birth.
Sickle Cell Anemia is a hereditary or genetic disease which means it is not contagious and can only be passed down genetically. So the only way you can get sickle cell Anemia is if both of your parents have hemoglobin S. If one of your parents has sickle cell anemia and the other does not have sickle cell anemia you’ll get sickle cell trait. People with sickle cell trait have no symptoms of sickle cell Anemia and are more immune to malaria than people without the trait. Malaria which is a major disease in Africa spread by the mosquitoes that have the disease and spread it on to humans. Only certain manifestations have been seen with people with sickle cell trait.
Symptoms related to sickle cell anemia are anemia, pain crises’, enlarged spleen and infections, delayed growth, stroke, acute chest syndrome, and blindness. Some symptoms appear in the first and second years of life but for others start to appear when they become adults. People with sickle cell anemia have to have more eye checkups than normal people to prevent blindness. And also are most of the times sick or bedridden. Anemia is often associated with the disease which is why it is also called sickle cell anemia. Anemia is the shortage of red blood cells; this is usually due to the premature deaths of sickle cells. People with the shortage of red blood cells usually do not get enough oxygen to their lungs which cause shortness of breath and other lung symptoms. Usually people with smoking have problems with their lungs also.
Their is no yet known cure for Sickle Cell Anemia but one of the treatments, Bone Marrow Transplant can be used as a cure, but it only used with severe cases of the disease. Bone Marrow Transplant can especially cure young children. The reason why people do not use Bone Marrow Transplant very often is because the procedure is very risky and it is often difficult to find the right donors for the transplant. It is basically the transplant of a bone marrow of a healthy individual with the bone marrow of a person with Sickle Cell Anemia.
Treatments that are currently being improved and studied are gene therapy, butyric acid, clotrimazole, nitric acid, and hydroxyurea. Gene Therapy is also being used for other things but is a major possibility for the cure of Sickle Cell Anemia. Gene therapy is the process of replacing bad genes with good genes. Genes is a short word for genetic and is what makes you, you. The genes you inherit from your two parents make you look similar to your parents due to a biologic process that takes place. Genes were discovered in the 1800’s by Gregor Mendel an Austrian monk, while experimenting in his garden with peas. But to make it short your parents genes basically work together to make up your inherited traits. As I said before gene therapy is still an experimental tool. Butyric acid on the other hand is an acid found commonly in food that may increase fetal hemoglobin according to studies. Clotirimazole is a prescribed medication that usually is used for fungal infections but can also prevent the loss of h20 which would reduce the sickle cell count. Nitric Oxide is a gas that helps keep blood vessels (veins, capillaries etc.) open, and reduces the stickiness of red blood cells. People with sickle cell anemia do not have high levels of nitric oxide so using it as a treatment may prevent the sickle cells from forming. In my opinion using nitric oxide with clotirimazole would be a good idea for the cure of sickle cell anemia. Hydroyurea is a tasteless drug that can lessen the frequency of pain crises’ and blood transfusions for the victim with sickle cell anemia.
Prevention for sickle cell anemia is almost inexistent since it’s a genetic disease, genetic screening can possibly prevent it, and so can early diagnoses at birth. But even though early diagnosis can increase the lifespan of the person greatly there is no real prevention for the disease.
The risk for disease in America is mostly high in African-Americans but also common in Latinos. 1 out of 12 African Americans have sickle cell anemia, and for Latinos 1 in every 1,000 to 1,400 Latinos babies are diagnosed with the disease. But in America alone 70,000 people have sickle cell anemia. In other parts of the world it is mostly among people of a Central African, Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, and Indian heritage. But that doesn’t mean Whites don’t have it in America or other places in the world either. In 1929 two American doctors found several cases of sickle cell anemia in a Greek-American family in 1929. At that time this proved that not only black had the disease and that blacks were also not unhealthy compared to Caucasians.
In the long run you can’t avoid the disease because it’s hereditary but the future for the cure for Sickle Cell Anemia looks good. Due to the fact that gene therapy is being improved every day, for instance a couple days ago I saw on CBS that they were making blind people able to see with the help of gene therapy.

Feature Article

You turn on your newest game that you just got from the store, and the huge “M for mature” rating comes up on the screen for only about three long seconds. Even though you’re a minor you managed to get this game, but the question is; does it help you in any way?

It all started in 1992; Midway’s `Mortal Kombat had just hit the arcades as a response to Capcom’s Street Fighter 2. And it turned the video game world upside down, with the bloody violence, the different blocking system (by only blocking when you held the button reducing the damage), and the gruesome ‘fatalities.’ Mortal Kombat also introduced a new system of juggling. Once the player had knocked their opponent into the air, players could keep them in the air by hitting them. This caused copying of other developers in fighting games, but what else it caused were video game critics to start protesting and telling parents to not buy the game for their children. This eventually led to the ESRB (standing for Entertainment Software Rating Board) and Mortal Kombat getting stamped with the first M rating around. Some of the most notable copycats were Kasumi Ninja, and Primal Rage (which caused uproar from ESRB) and some others. Primal Rage probably being the best copycat since it involved creatures, but somewhere along the way Midway bought the rights from Atari for the game.

In 1997 Grand Theft auto popped up from the ground, spawning uproar since it depicted crimes and killing throughout. It even got stamped with the Parental Advisory on its PC (computer) cover. But for Grand Theft Auto II it got the mixed rating but mostly M (only T for the Gameboy and Playstation.) These games did not have any controversy really surrounded around them but the GTA III and Vice City however did. Due to it being brought out of sandbox view which is basically looking straight down so your character looks like a 2D circle with little sticks as arms to third person and 3D the violence seamed more realistic, the game also got controversy over the fact that you could kill prostitutes and steal their money in GTA III. The company Take-Two, Rockstar, and Sony, have sued over a series of three killings committed by teens that had been suggested that the game had influenced them to kill.

After that little brief history of violent games that have caused controversy I can guarantee there are more games than that that have very violent content. New breeds of violent games were released onto the next-gen (generation) game systems (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii.) Examples being Halo, Gears of War, Call of Duty 4, etc.

Kids have different opinions on the impact of violence to the videogame world. Bennett Briante, one of the 6^th Graders I interviewed at St. Paul’s School in Brooklandville, Maryland. “Well I think if [ESRB] wanted to stop kids from buying [violent games] they would. I think they just want the money and make it look like they care.” Matt Railey, another 6^th Grader at St. Paul’s, shared a similar opinion. “ESRB should be a little bit more grading wise tell the content on the game before the customer buys the game,” stated Railey. Some adults think differently however. Mr. Woods, a teacher at the school said, “Minors should be involved in arts not violent video games.”

Adult critics of the violent games would probably have an opinion similar to Mr. Woods’. But as you see like opinions on this subject differ with age or personality. But the main problem that the critics have is that kids keep managing to get their hands on the games when they’ve repeatedly told parents not to buy them for their children. But the parents that let the kids buy the game seem to almost not care and if they usually have one it seems that they’re bound to have others, which is a big heads up about what we’re leaving behind in today’s society.

Essay #3: Personal Narrative

The perfect classroom would include modern desks, a large working space, a smart board, and a spare normal board just in case the internet is down. English or History would probably be the subject of choice. The aura of the classroom would have a generally casual happy feel, the classroom would also be big enough to hold 50 of these modern desks desks.

A female teacher, with a nice personality would probably teach in the room. One who doesn’t easily tolerate missing homework, though running a moderately casual class. Except when people either missed homework or the majority of the class didn’t do well on the quiz/test )which would be a rarity.) Missing homework would probably diminish the usual nice mood therefore making her run a straight forward class.

She values education more than anything so that’s probably why she gets upset when her class is interrupted by stuff like missing homework. She teaches because she likes teaching; imagine getting paid to do what you enjoy. Usually open to help and automatically responds to her name when you call on her this is helpful toward the students of the class in most situations. Also she happily offers make up quizzes if you weren’t satisfied with your quiz grade (80 & below,) but like most teachers never for tests. Occasionally she asks if the class has any questions. She’s a strict teacher but usually teaches the class in a casual manner.

This classroom would be perfect due to the newness of the technology, and the flow of it. The laptops would work much more efficiently with flash drives especially if you want. The teacher also serves a major role in trustworthiness too, she trusts you not to do thugs your not supposed to and be where your supposed to be. You get written up for disturbing the class inappropriately three times such as unneeded comments. This would cause the class to work in a much more productive environment. Also this would be perfect because you would get your grades quickly and not much quizzes would be handed out. Making this the perfect classroom.

Essay #2: Personal Narrative

I remember one day that I went to school on the first day but something was different. As I walked through the hall the air had a different scent than the Lower School, it hinted that something was different. I was in middle school now, walking through the top floor of Ordamin Hall. No more walking in single file lines, no being quiet in the hall ways; none of that stuff. Now I was in the middle school. I already knew the basic stuff: Higher expectations in exchange for more freedom, and we got more individual classes like History. I had been told all about that at visitation day, the first day was pretty boring, still adjusting to the new schedule. I guess the year would get better as it went. The best part of the day was probably the nostalgia from seeing all of my friends again, seeing how they’d changed in personality and appearance. Also there was a pack of new students that had come in that I hadn’t got used to yet.

I think going into the 5^th grade changed my life because I had to be more dependable into lower school. It got stricter, such as having to pledge an honor code to say you haven’t cheated on tests and quizzes. Also the effort grades that weren’t in the lower school could make a huge difference on whether for you got into the Honor Role or not. The change that probably most affected me was the recess and lunch being trimmed down. Another major thing was that we no longer had cubbies but lockers. Lockers were kind of more private but also much more efficient than cubbies, especially for all the supplies we had. I couldn’t imagine having cubbies in 5^th grade.

My 5^th Grade was somewhat up & down; with the homework increase as a fourth grader, I easily completed my homework and rarely didn’t finish it. But in 5^th grade homework slaughtered me. I had at least 15 homework cards in the whole school year, most because of poor time management. For instance, instead of doing my homework that I had to do on the computer first and then doing whatever I wanted, I usually explored the internet for an hour and then did homework. I do it occasionally now, but not usually. I usually want the homework assignments I have on computer to get done, instead of having my mom yell at me and staying up until 11’ with her watching me do my homework. It got annoying; I still hate it when she watches me now sometimes.

Essay #1: Literary Analysis

I could either blow the rebel ship up from the inside, or fly out of the enemy hangar and attack the rebels with their own ship. Suddenly I heard repeated explosion sound that caused my controller to rumble. I got out of the ship wondering what this disturbance was. I saw a rebel throwing thermal detonators (grenades) at my ship. He then got in to the ship I was just in, and flew off to space aware of my presence. I had to get back; at him he had stolen the ship that was rightfully mine, and had tried to destroy me in the process. I got in a vacant rebel bomber ship and flew off briskly. Determined to get revenge I sped up my ship speed and shot at the enemy a couple miles away in the distance. The laser hit him perfectly. The enemy ship started spinning and exploded; 1 point for Devon.

I think determination is a key factor in all of the stories (‘The Outsiders,’ Through The Tunnel, and ‘Raymond’s Run,’) because the main characters are all determined to do something; Jerry is determined to find what is in the underwater cave. Squeaky is determined to win every race, and Ponyboy is determined to get out of his environment.

I think this proves that determination sometimes plays a key role in books and normal life. Some examples are being determined to win a sports game, are determine to get better grades in the next quarter of school, and so on.