Anne 

 

 

In this project we learned about how cancer affect people in body and mind. In Language arts we started by reading a book about cancer, my book was The Fault in Our Stars. This book is about two teenagers Hazel and Augustus and how they deal with cancer, love, and loss. After reading the book we started making cancer interventions to reduce the incidence of cancer at Wright State University. From this we chose a cancer to research and base our product off of. My group of four chose breast cancer, as we felt it was very important to get across the preventions/risk factors for males and early detection/screening for women, as most women are aware they can get breast cancer. Once we researched breast cancer we decided to split into sub-groups, with one product focusing on males and the other product on females. From there we decided to focus on WSU students for our target audience. The two infographics have a black background, white text, and depending on the group pink or blue accent colors. In this we went for the stereotypical colors for males and females, as we thought it would fit the audience better. As well, we wanted the two products to be the same but have the individualized flair the colors brought. Between these two products we wanted to keep the language and layout the same, as they were meant to be next to each other. This means that the two different products are similar in what goes where are how they are set-up in order to catch the attention of the viewer. Also in Language Arts worked on fitting the language in the product to catch attention and fit the audience. Because the target audience is college students, we know they have busy lives and do not have time to sit and read a book (by choice or for fun). After every draft, we had a critique either by the teacher, another group, or the whole grade. This allowed us to refine the product. Some of the comments from the first critique were like, “I am a bit confused on the numbers. Maybe put a description underneath.” After every critique we would sift through the comments on the post-it notes and revise accordingly. After several drafts we came to the final draft where we sent an email to WSU to display our products. During the Cancer project, I grew in collaboration/creativity because I had to see my product from another prospective, and because having to help keep two groups together and cohesive.

 

I define creativity as being able to see things from other prospective and using that to understand and flourish. My abilities in creativity were enhanced during this project. Creativity is not just being able to make cool things in different ways, it is being able to understand your audience (even if it is a different age or location) and putting the information in a way they will understand and enjoy. This project helped me in that as I was able to step inside a college students shoes and examine our product to make it better and more fitting. We spent a lot of time in Language Arts to really understand the target audience and how they would view the infographic. As well, in Language Arts we have a student teacher Mrs. Bell (the best person ever), she helped our group really understand that college students don’t want to read paragraphs about something that they think isn’t going to happen to them. From this we tried to relate the time intervals of screening/detection with the years in college. So like with mammograms these checks should be every three years, so we said have a mammogram by your junior year. This difference is highly visible from the first draft to the final draft, as well we went from using PowerPoint to an internet software for infographics called Piktochart, as you can see if you click on the icons below.

 

Also, I define collaboration as being able to work with other people from your group and others to make a product that thrives. My collaboration was enhanced in this project as with two sub-groups there was more coordinating and organizing required. In this project you had to be on the same page as your sub-group and then on top of that make sure the other group knows what you are doing and how is will be cohesive. I feel like this allowed me to grow because in the real world different people will have sub-groups in projects so you need to be able to collaborate with everyone. This meant that every day or so the whole group would have a “meeting” on what we had done and what needed to happen to move forward and also to keep it cohesive. But, keeping it cohesive was a challenge due to the differences in content and specific audiences. One of the challenges we faced was the content. The content between preventing male breast cancer and screening for female breast cancer are totally different. This made it hard to be cohesive and look like one in the same thing since they were different. If we wouldn’t have collaborated the project would have quite different. For example the two infographic would have looked like two separate products, just from seeing you would be able to tell they were meant to be together as like a brother and sister product. As you can see below the two infographics that they are look very similar.

 

The biggest challenge I faced in this project, was being overwhelmed with the amount of information from Biology as we had to convey all of the important information in a way that the audience could understand without any background knowledge. I overcame this challenge through the use of my group to weed through it to pick out the most important parts. As well, the fact that I had peers critiquing ever few days it helped. If the comments said still wordy we would go back and weed through and edit again. This editing consisted of reading for clarity, meaning that any words that didn’t make sense or weren’t necessary were taken out. Next, we would go through the wording deciding what was the most important and try to take out the rest but still allow the piece to get the point across. Some of the biggest things I learned was that cancer is not just about it runs in your genes. It can come from the decisions you make now or later in life such as drinking, smoking, having HPV (human papilloma virus), and not wearing sun screen. For breast cancer specifically relates to drinking and some smoking (exposure to carcinogens) as the chemicals can mutate cells. Accomplishing this project will affect me later in life as I am aware of the choices I make now can impact me now and later as it can increase me risks of diseases and cancer. This project will also affect others as it is design to make the students at Wright State aware that what they do now can increases their risk of developing cancer.