Possible topics for research paper:

What an autopsy is
History of autopsies
Autopsies today
How they benefit students
Why autopsies are important for students

My project has come to an abrupt halt. Apparently, I won't be allowed to view an autopsy because I'm not 18. Since I can't do any more with my project, Shtino offered me the opportunity to write a research paper on autopsies instead. That will count as my final grade for this class, and I won't have to present anything at the end of the year; I was getting really nervous about that anyway. The bad part is that this essay will determine whether or not I graduate. I'm really bummed that the autopsy trip didnt' work out, but at least with the essay I'll only have one thing to focus on that I have to get done.

All that I've been doing all day is singing showtunes. The musical is tonight! I'm so ridiculously excited. Unfortunately, I'll be spending all my time this weekend on the show. I'll try to send out my letters; I'm printing them now.

I haven't done anything over spring break for this project, but I did talk to my grandma a bit about autopsies. She used to be a nurse, and got to observe some autopsies back in the day. She didn't tell me a lot of things I didn't already know, just skimmed over the general process.
I'm trying to look up other medical examiner's offices in New Jersey, but every site I go to doesn't give an email address. Maybe I'll just have to print out my letter and send it to them the old-fashioned way, or call them. If all else fails, I'll ask Repasy to hook something up with a medical university, like her friend does with her anatomy classes.

Brick Wall

I just checked my email. I got a response from the medical examiner in Burlington county. Apparently, their policy is that in order to see an autopsy, you have to be 18 and be a college student. So that's really frustrating. But I'll send my email out to other medical examiners in our area, and to some hospitals/schools in Philly. Repasy has a friend that takes her anatomy students to the Thomas Jefferson anatomy lab. They go on a tour and I think they listen to a lecture. If I can't find a medical examiner that will allow high school students to view an autopsy, maybe I'll have to head in a different direction.

Final Email

I'm meeting with Repasy tomorrow so she can look over this and make any changes.

To Whom It May Concern:

My name is Antonia Santarsiero, and I'm an Anatomy and Physiology student at Northern Burlington High School. For the second semester of my senior year, I got the idea to try to start an annual trip for students to see a human autopsy. After searching local medical examiner's offices, I was excited to find that the office in Westampton is only one town over from my school district.
I feel that watching an autopsy in person would greatly benefit the students at my school, especially those who are planning on going into the medical field. It's so much more informative to see an autopsy being performed with one's own eyes, rather than hearing about it from one's teacher or looking at pictures in a textbook. I've already surveyed 46 seniors from my school, and 54% said they would definitely go on a trip to see an autopsy. A large majority of respondents said they think the trip would be extremely educational and informative. I would love to be able to create a new opportunity for students at my school that will benefit them in so many ways.
I would be so grateful if your office allowed my school to view an autopsy at your facility. Please contact me at your earliest convenience at aksantarsiero@gmail.com.

Sincerely,
Antonia Santarsiero

Survey Results

I got 47 responses to my survey that I sent out over Facebook. That was more than I expected, so that's good. The number of people that are interested in going really surprised me: 53.19% said yes, and 21.28% said maybe. What also surprised me was the gender of the people that want to go on the trip. I expected the majority of "yes" answers to be from boys, since I think of girls as being more grossed out by autopsies and death in general. But 80% of the people that answered "yes"  and 70% that said "maybe" were female. 58.33% that answered" no" were male.
When asked how they thought this trip would benefit students, 34 out of 36 respondents said it would help students that are interested in the medical field. The majority of people said that the trip seemed very interesting, fun, and informative. Even those who weren't interested in going said they thought the trip was a good idea for those who are interested in anatomy.
I'm really happy with the results that I got. If I am able to set up a trip, there will definitely be a lot of people that would want to go.

Letter to Medical Examiner

I finally started writing a rough draft for my letter to the Westampton medical examiner's office. It's not finished yet, but it's good to get another blog entry in. I want to have my mom and Repasy look over it before I email it to the medical examiner.


To Whom It May Concern:

My name is Antonia Santarsiero, and I'm an Anatomy and Physiology student at Northern Burlington High School. For the second semester of my senior year, I got the idea to try to start an annual trip for students to see a human autopsy. After searching local medical examiner's offices, I was excited to find that the office in Westampton is only one town over from my school district.
I feel like watching an autopsy in person would greatly benefit the students at my school, especially those who are planning on going into the medical field. It's so much more informative to see an autopsy being performed with one's own eyes, rather than hearing about it from one's teacher or looking at pictures in a textbook. I've already surveyed 46 seniors from my school, and 54% said they would definitely go on a trip to see an autopsy. A large majority of respondents said they think the trip would be extremely educational and informative. I would love to be able to create a new opportunity for students at my school that will benefit them in so many ways.
I would be so grateful if your office allowed my school to view an autopsy at your facility.

Shtino gave me the link to an article about different religions' views on death and autopsies. It's interesting to read about the different ways people interpret death, even people within the same religion. Most of the religions that normally oppose autopsies are okay with them, if it's for legal reasons. Judaism believes that if an action will save a life somewhere in the world, it should be done, even if it goes against Jewish beliefs.
Buddhists believe that death is a part of life and shouldn't be feared; they believe that dead bodies should be treated with respect, so the soul can achieve enlightenment. Because autopsies benefit the medical community and can bring criminals to justice, Buddhists are okay with autopsies, as long as they're done after the body is left alone for three days. Christians are also supportive of autopsies, since they see it as an act of charity to perform an autopsy to help others.
Before I started this project, religious views never occured to me as a reason to oppose autopsies. Since I'm not religious myself, I never thought about how religions might impact peoples' feelings towards the treatment of a body after death. I just think of bodies as inanimate objects without any souls or feelings; after death, there's nothing left but the body.

Today in anatomy, we watched a video of a human dissection of the digestive system. It was done by Gunther van Hagens, the anatomist that created Body Worlds. It was really cool to get a taste of what I'll be seeing when I organize an autopsy trip. A surprising number of people in my class watched the whole thing and weren't too freaked out about it. I guess that's good news for my project.
I've watched a couple of autopsy videos online this past week. One thing that surprised me was how quickly the medical examiners worked. It seemed almost careless how they would make the incisions and pull back the skin. I expected them to take more time and be careful about accidentally cutting something they shouldn't, but I guess when the patient is dead, they don't have to worry about that.

Out of boredom I looked up the Body Worlds exhibit today.I really wish the exhibit came to our area this year. I don't think people are as grossed out by that as they are by autopsies. Maybe if we were able to see Body Worlds instead, more people would go.

I didn't get anything done last night because I was so tired. Oh well. I'm definitely going to cotnact the medical examiner's office by the end of the week.

There's really not much that I have going on with my project now. The next thing I have to do is write an email to the medical examiner's office and introduce my idea. Shtino also said he'll get me in contact with his brother, who watches a lot of medical procedures since he works for a company that makes medical equipment. I could talk to him to get a better idea about what goes on in surgeries/autopsies.

I came home today covered in sawdust. I stayed after musical practice to help build the set with Tyler and Hirsch (the musical set is Tyler's srs project). I don't know how I'll be able to handle staying late for practice and set construction while trying to work on my own project.
As per Repasy's advice, I looked up the local medical examiner. The office for Burlington county is in Westampton, which isn't too far from here. I looked up instances of high schoolers going to see an autopsy in person, and it's clear that it's been done before. I don't think it'll be a problem, but I'll have to contact the medical examiner's office to make sure.
I also made a survey that I posted to the class of 2013 Facebook page. Hopefully I can meet with Repasy tomorrow to talk about this some more.
Link to my survey:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/XG6DTBG

I feel like this class has changed from what it was originally intended to be. Students used to be expected to finish their projects by building or organizing something. Students that just used the class to answer a question were looked down on. Those students just seemed to use the class to get out of English.
 Now, this class has been redesigned. It's trying to force students to conform and just do a boring research project, instead of physically accomplishing something. It's restricting seniors from going out and getting a hands-on experience. The teachers are trying to force us to have all the same things in our projects: interviews, surverys, research questions. But with the majority of our projects, we're not trying to just answer a question: we're trying to accomplish something. One of my friends is building the spring musical set for his project, and another is painting a mural in the history hallway. How is someone supposed to create questions for projects like those? I hate how the teachers are trying to make all of our projects turn out the same.

Survey

I've decided to make a survey to see how many students would want to see an autopsy. Mrs. Repasy suggested I send them out to all the senior homerooms, but in class Ram wants us to set up accounts on SurveyMonkey. Although it would be easier to look at all the answers on SurveyMonkey, I think it would be hard to get a lot of people to take it. I could post a link on the senior class facebook page, but I don't think people would take five minutes to do it. If I passed it out to homerooms, people would be forced to answer, and I'd be sure to get more data.

Slept over Sam Moscatiello's house last night. I was unproductive this weekend, aside from reading a little bit of "Stiff" while Sam slept in.

Reading "Stiff"

As part of my project, my mentor Mrs. Repasy is having me read "Stiff" by Mary Roach. In the book, the author explores several situations where human cadavers are used in experiments. I was surprised by a lot of the ways that researchers use bodies (such as detonating land mines near them to test protective footwear and using them to test the safety of new cars).I like the book a lot and find it very interesting, but sometimes the author's view on the experiments annoys me. She says she wouldn't be okay with her body being used in certain experiments. Why not? After a person dies, they don't have any connection to their old body, and probably aren't even aware of what's happening to it. I really don't care what happens to my body after I die, so long as it's benefiting science and not rotting in the ground. Bodies that are donated to science are not only practiced on by medical students, but are used to improve technology and save lives. Denying this opportunity to scientists and researchers seems to me to be very selfish.
Regardless, it's a pretty good book.

I've been finding it really difficult to blog every day. It's not that I don't have any motivation, but I spend such little time on the computer that I forget to blog. I think it'll be easier if I wrote things down in a journal first, then copied it onto my blog later. Otherwise, this is going to be a problem.

Possible Interview Questions for a Medical Examiner

1. What do you do to prepare mentally/emotionally for an autopsy?
2. How do you cope with performing autopsies?
3. Do you ever get emotionally attached to the body you're performing an autopsy on?
4. What are you most/least favorite parts of your job?
5. What affects you the most emotionally while you're doing your job?
6. What do you think students will learn from observing an autopsy?
7.  How beneficial do you think watching an autopsy will be for anatomy students?

1.How does performing autopsies mentally affect medical examiners?
-Interview medical examiners
-Interview psychologists

2. What can students learn from observing autopsies?
-Survey students after seeing an autopsy

3. How will this experience affect my views on anatomy and physiology?
-Think about how I feel after viewing an autopsy

Research Questions

-How does performing autopsies mentally affect medical examiners?

-What can students learn from observing an autopsy?

-How will this experience affect my views on anatomy and physiology?

My horoscope today says that I'll finally have some time to "pursue my own interests". This actually makes sense, considering I'll need a lot of free time now to work on my project. This horoscope also relates to me because I'm finally able to do what I want in school (at least in English class) and spend my time the way I want to.

In order to complete his project, Tom had to interview a lot of people and gather a lot of different viewpoints. He had to contact schools to view their agriculture programs and talk to the teachers. He also had to make new contacts to get professional opinions. His project was a success because he put in the time and effort to find and meet people that had the information he needed.

I think this class will be more fun than an average English class. It'll be nice to finally choose what I get to do in class. I hope this will help me to narrow down what I want to do after I graduate, and to help me become better at organizing myself and following through with things that I want to get done. The presentations we saw in class didn't look that difficult to make. I think the hardest part of this project will be conducting interviews. Overall, I'm really excited to get started.