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?