Upcoming Podcast: Sports Fan Identity

Photo by: Wikipedia 

            For my next blog post I will be creating a podcast about an autoethnography that focuses and elaborates the culture and actions of sports fans.  This upcoming podcast required some research on this particular group that I have chosen to explore, so the main topic of this blog is to inform you, the reader, about my recent discoveries.  After an endless amount of time searching the internet, I have come to know that there is more to being a sports fan than just tailgating and spending countless dollars at sports bars.  Studies have been conducted that have found that being an avid sports fan is both physical and psychological.  People come to identify with this group because there are benefits to being a sports fan that have been shown to make one live a happier and healthier life.  These benefits include being a part of a built-in community, having a common language with others, having a “safe place”, and being able to have the opportunity to succeed vicariously through sports teams.  It is these benefits and one’s other personal characteristics that make up their sports fan identity, but this combination can create both positive and negative identities.  I have also discovered research that focuses its main topic on the negative aspects that can arise from being a passionate sports fan like lack of sportsmanship and becoming addicted to watching/cheering for a particular team or player.  In my upcoming podcast I will use the research I have discovered and relate it to my own personal identification and knowledge of this group to hopefully create both an informative and entertaining podcast that you will find amusing.       

Soccer in the United States: Mid-Unit Post

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My impending autoethnography is going to focus on the sport of soccer, primarily the sport from the viewpoint in the United States. To be even more specific, I am going to delve into the reasons as to why the soccer culture is not as popular in the states, why the United States men’s national soccer team has failed to produce a FIFA World Cup championship, and the world of soccer as viewed differently by Americans. This obviously does not apply to all Americans, as some, like myself, are big fans of the beautiful game; however, there is definitely a large population in the U.S. that would oppose and bash the sport.
After researching several sources, both scholarly articles and simple sports blogs, the argument seems very 50/50. There are supporters for both sides of soccer: those who hate it and those who love it. In the journal Soccer and Society, an article titled “National Sports and Other Myths: The Failure of US Soccer” contains many possible reasons as to why soccer in America has generally been subpar in popularity. The most common reason, found in several sources, would simply be due to the fact that soccer is not viewed as an “American sport.” The American sports would be considered the top 3 sports in the states that almost anyone could guess: football, basketball, and baseball. These sports are especially implemented into the American way of life, as these 3 sports make an impact somehow in the lives of most people.
The U.S. men’s national team has had its fair share of underperforming. But in a country with over 300 million people in it, surely there would have to be 11 fantastic young soccer stars, right? After all, the U.S. women’s team seems to be doing great, and has been for quite some time. Unfortunately that is not the case for the men. The best the men have ever finished was third, but that was in 1930, the first year of the World Cup. Soccer is simply not the same in America as in the rest of the world, and I hope to explain why in my autoethnography.

Basketball Community

Photo By: Misha

My upcoming autoethnography will consist of information about the culture created by basketball players from an insider's perspective of the group. I intend to ease common stereotypes about both male and female basketball players around the world. I have conducted research from interesting and opinionated sources in order to do so. The main misconceptions that I will talk about in my podcast are the beliefs that all basketball players are tall and freak athletes. Based off feedback received when I asked outsiders what their opinions on basketball players were, the main assumptions recorded were height and athleticism among others. One of my sources is useful in convincing people that you don't need to have height in order to succeed in the game of basketball. The words actually come straight from former NBA players, which puts into perspective the falsity of the theory that short people can't play basketball. Admittedly, height is a major advantage, but not a necessity. Love for the game, work ethic, and commitment are more necessary in terms of excelling in this sport. I will also talk about why stereotypes in general are so common. Another source on this topic explains the reasoning. Stereotypes are becoming difficult to not use as explanations for everything. The article goes back to examples from history to prove it's point and uses specific examples of stereotypes in basketball. The main claim of the author is that stereotypes shape how we see the world and how we metabolize the data in front of us.

Growth of a Community

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For my upcoming podcast, I will be diving into the world of competitive Smash Bros. More specifically, how a group forms around something so small. Esports, or organized video game competitions, are becoming more relevant in today’s society with over 32,000,000 people viewing the League of Legends Season 3 Championships! However this brings up an interesting question of how does a game gets a following and become an Esport. In a recent study, scientist concluded that group that have free entry and free exit lead to strong mid-sized groups and disorganized large groups. By having a relatively easy entry line, anyone feels welcome to join the community. However, with many high level competitive games there is the entry cost of owning the game, console, and TV. This is one reason why esports are not as popular as regular sports. Regular sports require a ball and have easily understood game mechanics, where games such as League of Legends do not. Another important part of esports is the stakeholders involved in creating a larger community. Esports require the competitors, the tournament organizers, and the spectators. In order for a community to grow successfully there needs to be a consistent balance between these stakeholders. This is where competitive Smash Bros comes into the picture. Unlike many esports, Smash Bros has been played by almost everyone and is easily understood by a spectator.  Although it’s not as convenient as traditional sports, Smash Brothers accessibility in the esports community has caused it to grow into a relevant competitive esport. Because the entry is relatively cheap and the game mechanics are understood by the general public, Smash Brothers will continue to grow until the community reaches an over-saturated large disorganized state. The major concern facing the community is whether or not the community will reach a state of oversaturation and an unbalance in the stakeholders. 

Humans Are to Blame for Increased Rate of Extinction

          

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The earth is currently facing its most catastrophic crisis since the extinction of the dinosaurs; this time it is not due to natural events or due to evolution’s natural selection, but rather due to human activities like urbanization and pollution. The human population is to blame for causing what very well may be the Earth’s sixth mass extinction and unfortunately the mass catastrophe is occurring at an alarming rate. In the past, a multitude of species had time to evolve and adapt to their surroundings. Now, the rate of extinction in certain species is happening ten-thousand times quicker than before due to human interference, preventing species time to adapt to their ever-changing environments; it is predicted that thirty to fifty percent of all species will be endangered at risk of going extinct in fifty years (“Protect and Serve”). This can be witnessed within the last two thousand years when, for example, humans had colonized Madagascar who then caused the extinction of species like elephant birds, hippos, and large lemurs (“Human Population Growth”). Recent research has shown that the rate of extinction of both particular plant and animal species has increased; furthermore, they will continue doing so at a catastrophic rate unless human activities like urbanization, farming, and pollution are lessened to improve conservational regulations and restrictions that decrease their negative effect on the environment, protect endangered habitats and species, and diminish their domination over ecosystems at risk by doing away with processes that destroy natural areas.

The human population is growing to become the largest group of vertebrate animal inhabitants the planet has ever seen, thus causing destructive effects on other animal and plant populations. With such a large population, humans have transformed nearly half of Earth’s surface area for their own use; forty percent of the planet’s land and half of Earth’s fresh water is used for human food cultivation (“Human Population Growth”). Rainforests and other natural lands are being destroyed and replaced with human development in attempt to meet the needs of the multiplying population, thus causing the populations of animals and plants in these severed areas to decrease due to loss of habitat that these species reside in (“Contemporary Mass Extinction”).

Photo by Peter

To name a few, pollution, overharvesting, environmental shifts, and the introduction of invasive species are just some examples of the fatalistic effects of human development. It is these activities that have driven the rate of extinction up to its current alarming rate. Pollution in the form of pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, and insecticides are consumed by unknowing animal species, causing them to become ill; furthermore, the run-off of the chemical pollutants contaminate local water systems at a detrimental degree. Coral reefs, sea grasses, and kelps in the Caribbean been greatly reduced by pollutants in the form of runoff having a negative effect on local populations of sea life causing large number of species to become ill in the surrounding areas where the toxins are present (“The Current Biodiversity Extinction Event”). Overharvesting is a human induced activity that destroys habitats in order to harvest food leading to the transformation of habitats. This is evident in the Lake Victoria area, located in East Africa, where the overharvesting of certain fish species in the lake has caused terrible impacts on the lake’s biodiversity (“The Current Biodiversity Extinction Event”). Twenty-four to thirty-five percent of diatom, an algae with a transparent cell wall made of silicon dioxide and is hydrated with a small amount of water, has been harvested via fish harvests, drastically reducing its population.

Environmental shifts, such as climate change, are altering the natural world and this rate of change will escalate and accelerate. Global warming is a major concern for those discussing environmental shifts because the warming of Earth is causing the glaciers to melt which species rely on to survive and even cause the sea levels to rise worldwide, which will eventually harm thousands of coastal species as the high water levels give rise to flooding. Caused by global warming, the heating of oceans is also altering the flow of both warm and cool water currents, impacting the nutrient-rich upwelling from the floor in the Southern Ocean off of the coast of Antarctica which aquatic species depend on as a food source. The amount of nitrogen has doubled due to human activity, thus causing excess nitrogen to sink into soils and the water sources, causing a negative effect on biodiversity in ecosystems (“The Current Biodiversity Extinction Event”). The introduction of invasive species, either brought about intentionally or unintentionally, through human activities has triggered native species of plants and animals to become extinct due to their inability to compete for natural resources with the invasive species; for example, when the Nile Perch was introduced into Lake Victoria, it resulted in the annihilation of two-hundred endemic cichlids (“The Current Biodiversity Extinction Event”).

These human activities have catastrophic impacts on the biodiversity of habitats all over the world; however, there are ways to decrease their influence on the rate of extinction or even rid their negative affects altogether. One way to decrease the effects of pollutants in various environments is to decrease their overall use and lower the intensity of the toxins so much so that the species within habitats where pollutants that were present beforehand would then be able to overcome the negative effects and once again flourish. This will require experimental work to determine how and to what extent to decrease the amount of toxins present in pollutants which would hopefully decrease future cases that report on pollutants that cause mass destruction towards species within infected habitats. In the case of overharvesting, there have been success stories in constraining overfishing; regulations on fishing have caused species like summer flounder, mackerel, and striped bass to stabilize populations that were once endangered or on the verge of disappearing altogether. Furthermore, lobsters off the coast of Maine have increased in numbers due to regulations placed on lobster harvesting (“The Current Biodiversity Extinction Event”). Although there has been a few successes, further positive results will depend on more advanced multispecies models and better harvesting strategies. In the case of environmental shifts and climate changes, the first step to decreasing its negative impact on extinction rates is by simply recognizing that it is, in fact, a problematic situation that must be dealt with in a timely manner.

Photo by  Mingjia Zhou

Nitrogen is the main contributor to environmental shifts, so by regulating the production of the additional nitrogen, it will constrain and monitor its use for a better environment. The use of fertilizers is one of the most impactful human causes of emission of nitrogen into the atmosphere. Studies have been conducted in Mexico where scientists attempted to reduce the use of nitrogen fertilizers; both the crop yield and the economic situation were sustained and, in some cases, had even improved. This proves that economies and food production are sufficient even without the use of nitrogen producing fertilizers, thus giving all the more reason to cease the unnecessary production of additional nitrogen that causes harm to species of plants and animals. The main component to decrease the effect that invasive species have on the rate of extinction is through the regulation of the maintenance on ecosystems in which invasive species are present. In conclusion, regulating human travel in a manner will help put an end to the unintentional origination of invasive species and the fragmentation of habitats so that it restricts the gene flow exchange of the resident, noninvasive organisms.


Regulations and an increased conservation effort in these particular fields should decrease the negative human influence on the environment and rejuvenate the biodiversity that has been lost. There is hope, The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has announced that an additional 6.1 square kilometers of areas of ocean and land have been set aside for the protection of habitats, making the total area of land set aside for protection on Earth roughly about the size of Africa (“Protect and Serve”). But this is not enough. If the rate of extinction of animal and plant species is to truly drop, then the human population as whole most make regulations and diminish harmful activities on the environment that they are directly responsible for. It is crazy to think that a single species can be accountable for the annihilation of thousands of others, but the human species and their impacts on their surrounding environment are proving this thought to be not so absurd. If nothing is done to correct the negative effects of human proceedings, then Earth could very well experience is next mass extinction.

Works Cited

"Protect and Serve" http://www.nature.com.prox.lib.ncsu.edu/news/protect-and-serve-1.16514

"The Current Biodiversity Extinction Event: Scenarios for Mitigation and Recovery" http://www.pnas.org/content/98/10/5466.full

 "Contemporary Mass Extinction" http://journalofcosmology.com/Extinction104.html

"Human Population and Extinction" http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/population_and_sustainability/extinction/

Human Torture: Right or Wrong?

Photo by Bill Dickinson

Human torture has been around for a long time. It can be dated back to ancient Rome and medieval Europe. Although torture existed so long ago, obviously, like all things, it has changed over time. The methods used now are more developed than the methods used during the medieval times. The advancement of science and technology has affected the world in so many ways, and unfortunately, new procedures of torture are one of those products that “benefited” from such developments. Torture was a controversial topic then, and remains a controversial topic now. The disagreement lies in whether or not torture should be in effect in the world today and whether or not it is an effective way of seeking information. Human torture has been widely viewed as a possible way of gaining important information, especially during the cold war era by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and during the Bush administration; however, the use of torture is morally wrong and inhumane, it damages the reputation of the organization that put it to use, and it is generally ineffective since false information is usually what is provided.

During the cold war, the American Psychological Association (APA) teamed up with the CIA to create Project MKUltra, which infamously became known as a mind control program. One of the tests done in MKUltra include using LSD (Lysergic Acid Diethylamide) on subjects, which would be put to use during torture (Nature.com). At first, LSD failed to qualify as a “truth serum” which is defined as a drug able to induce a state in which a person answers truthfully to questions he or she is given. Although it eventually did not pass as a truth serum, it was discovered that its use in a very high dose can produce an excruciating amount of terror in the victim. This gave an unfortunate idea to the CIA. Demand the truth from the individual, then threaten them with a very high dose of LSD if they do not cooperate. All the experiments the CIA combined to result in psychosis and death in some of the subjects. Another test the CIA for of MKUltra was to create mind control through the use of drugs, and the use of several other things like electroshock, just to see how easily a person could be “controlled,” or if it were possible. The CIA did not even tell the subjects the real purpose of these experiments. The subjects simply thought they were going in to be tortured, not controlled. These experiments in mind control would play a role in creating unconscious assassins and unpersuadable prisoners. The unconscious assassins would basically be controlled to carry out missions exactly how the military would want, and the unpersuadable prisoners would be completely blank in the face of imprisonment, unable to break under the pressure of torture. If the experimenting was successful, the CIA could have constructed a soldier that followed all of their commands without hesitation. Then if the soldier were captured by the enemy, he would resist all forms of torture the enemy forced upon him. Such a test as this is not only morally wrong, since it degrades the individual to that of an animal or robot, but it also violates basic human rights.

Torture does not require any form of masterful scientific or psychological knowledge. It can be done in a variety of ways, but through any means that seems “less painful” still does not make it “more right.” However, what the Bush administration thought when they utilized torture was that exact statement. Using some type of scientific expertise to perform torture is precisely how the Bush administration went about the act. Psychology helped the Bush administration mainly through its ambience. Simply having psychological prowess on their side made the Bush administration seem invulnerable. They stated that what they were doing was “enhanced interrogation” which is really a

Photo by Allan Ajifo

euphemism for torture (Welch 2). The two directors of this “enhanced interrogation” program were James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen. Together, they combined their knowledge, with knowledge they continued to learn about psychology and torture, to create some of the most mentally aggravating torture techniques possible. Mitchell and Jessen came up with different ways of torture to torture detainees in Afghanistan. Usually, what they would do to the detainees revolved around sensory deprivation and sleep deprivation. These two made up for maximum psychological torture. In order to achieve sensory deprivation, the CIA would first keep the subject isolated in a room, with no sound and no light. Then, the torture continued with the polar opposite of that state. The room would be lit with bright lights and loud music would blast into the room, which would inevitably wear down the senses of the detainee and result in sleep deprivation due to the lights and music. While all of this was happening, the subject would be put in unnaturally painful positions for long periods of time. Combining all of these together would mentally destroy the detainee. The constant torturing leaves permanent effects on the tortured, effects that can result in their complete loss of sanity, post-traumatic stress disorder and, in more extreme cases, possibly even death by suicide.

From simply physical pain to the more advanced psychological pain, torture is wrong. Most articles one reads about torture appeals to pathos, the reader’s emotions. Since torture is such a tough topic to talk about, the authors of most articles against torture really identify the reality of torture. The authors share almost too many features on some topics, forcing the reader to instantly side with the author. The articles really dig deep to make the reader pity the tortured, bringing up and going into detail about the types of torture and the wrongness of it. After reading many articles, in some cases, torture

can be seen as revenge. Revenge has always been the impulse decision when dealing with someone who has wronged you. However, the problem with revenge is that it puts the avenger on the same level as the one who wronged. This applies to torture, not so much to war. The wrongness and terribleness of torture can be summed up into two sentences: “Torture rehearses eternal damnation” and “Past a certain point, the victim's fear is no longer that he will die but that he won't” (Chazelle). Anything that replicates “eternal damnation” or makes someone want to die is simply inhumane and should never be practiced. Not only is it very wrong to the tortured, but torture can completely destroy the reputation of the torturer as well. In reference to destroying the reputation of the torturer, this sticks out most from Project MKUltra. Ever since the actions of the CIA and the American Psychological Association during the cold war era, both organizations, especially the APA has been viewed differently. The APA, as stated in the Nature.com article, “deserves all the criticism it receives and more” for its actions at the time. The most ironic thing about the APA is that it is an organization that wants to deal with people with mental issues to help them, yet during the cold war, they were the ones coming up with ways to inflict mental pain. This sheer irony completely erases the credibility of the APA.

The most common example of torture is called the “ticking time bomb scenario.” This example is seen in movies or cartoons, and it is usually one of the first images of torture that a person would visualize. This is the scenario where a time bomb has been placed somewhere, and a captured terrorist knows the location of the bomb. He is questioned and interrogated until, like in any movie, he gives the secret location away after breaking under torture, saving thousands of lives, which makes

Photo by Dirk Knight

the torturer look like a hero. Unfortunately, the things we see in movies are not so much the case in real life. It is actually rare that this exact scenario unfolds this way. The problems with this scenario lie in the terrorist. As proof from 9/11, radical terrorists will risk their own lives in order to end the lives of others. To a radical Muslim, the best thing one can offer to their god is their own life. They will die for what they believe in, and torture will not have an effect on changing that. In fact, it is quite possible that the torturing will make them feel like a hero. Even if they do not completely deny knowing where the bomb is, they are more than likely to give a false location of it. Reasons like these render why torture is rather ineffective on most victims. Although not always the case, generally the tortured will stay strong or provide incorrect information; they have been trained to do so, and are convinced that giving their life is the ultimate sacrifice for their god and people.

Although human torture, whether through psychology or not, is considered means of gathering information, evidence suggests that torture does more bad than good. As it has progressed and advanced since its beginning, torture has developed into not only physical pain, but mental and emotional pain as well. Hurting the body is one thing, but inflicting pain on an individual’s mentality to destroy their very being from the inside out is another. The work by the APA and the CIA has established the very thing that should be avoided, and it shows how the reputation of the organization using torture can be tainted. Considering most victims of torture now are radical terrorists, most forms of torture are ineffective. The reason for this is because they will die for their cause; most radical Muslims would more than likely feel like heroes to torture, and would embrace it. The many reasons as to why torture is wrong outweigh the reasons as to why torture should remain, and because of this, torture should be eliminated from our country.

Works Cited

Campbell, Thomas A. http://www.sciencedirect.com.prox.lib.ncsu.edu/science/article/pii/S0272735807000402

Chazelle, Bernard. https://www.cs.princeton.edu/~chazelle/politics/torture09.html

Luban, David. http://muse.jhu.edu.prox.lib.ncsu.edu/journals/kennedy_institute_of_ethics_journal/v019/19.3.luban.html

Summerfield, Derek. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1125696/?tool=pmcentrez

Welch, Bryant L. http://search.proquest.com.prox.lib.ncsu.edu/docview/887541742?OpenUrlRefId=info:xri/sid:summon&accountid=12725

Communicating Disease Outbreak

Photo By: Carlos Bravo

Outbreaks in disease and other major negative health factors that originate in countries can be very frightening and troublesome. Especially depending on how that country runs their political and social-structure system. Major factors that can contribute to the elimination of disease outbreak include a country’s government health system, fiscal policies and technology. Take for example of this past summer’s outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome  (MERS) in South Korea. In my opinion South Korea did handle some of the fear-faced factors to their citizens correctly, but they could also of instilled some tactics that would of made this MERS panic over the summer less hectic. South Korea handled their MERS outbreak in the wrong manner, and I will show you how South Korea and other countries (including the U.S.) can improve on handling these matters smooth and successfully for future references. 

According to www.nature.com in the article Realistic Risks, the only real risk of infection for the disease was to the people that had shared a hospital area with someone who already had MERS. At the outbreak of this disease's peak, South Korean government officials immediately shut down thousands of schools along with public events to help eliminate further outbreak. Yes, this did prevent the disease from spreading more drastically, but South Korea’s tourist numbers dropped by 41%. This caused a U.S. $10 billion dollar loss in gross domestic product growth. From an economical standpoint, I think that South Korea could have eliminated the schools that showed the most correlation with MERS and kept the remaining schools running in the meantime, unless they too contracted the disease soon after. This would keep South Korea’s employment percentage rate higher than it initially dropped. Also, the public events held in South Korea could’ve been limited to strict medical examination entry to those people who wished to participate in them. This would encourage more U.S. tourists to not hold back from visiting during this period of disease outbreak. So not only would South Korea’s economy benefit from this plan of overcoming the outbreak of MERS, but the U.S. would also.

When cases of MERS initially broke out in South Korea, people were shocked because cases of it were only endemic to camels in the middle east region of the world. Questions of how and where the disease was carried that made an outbreak in Asia left government officials in panic. South Korea also would not publicly reveal the affected hospitals that patients were treated with MERS. The article Realistic Risks makes a good standpoint on how the government should’ve revealed the locations of the hospitals that patients were treated with MERS with so that social media rumors wouldn’t cause fear in the citizens of South Korea. The author of this article states that a disease outbreak should be handled understandably and in control, not dismissed as irrational. I believe that public news and social media communication should have a large effect on the citizens of the country of the disease outbreak. The main reason is because it is better to be safe and informed on a serious topic that can affect a country in many ways, rather than the government hiding, in general, why and where the disease outbreak is occurring. Yes, sometimes television can over exaggerate the potential hazardous effects that some diseases can live up to (Ebola). But it is all up to the viewer to use his/her own discretion to make sure they can effectively prevent themselves from coming into contact with the disease. 

Another point the author makes in Realistic Risks was when political figures were suggesting “extreme” ideas that would eliminate Ebola from outbreaking in the U.S. when cases of the disease first started to pop up here and there. For example, New Jersey governor Chris Christie suggested that our nation should quarantine U.S. healthcare workers when returning from West Africa. Another statement was from Donald Trump, that our nation should seal off the U.S. borders at that time, even not letting U.S. healthcare workers in. I would first like to elaborate on how political party figures like Chris Christie and Donald Trump jumped to worst case scenarios and tried to take full preventative action towards the disease. Yes, they are both Republicans, but the author is trying to make false claims of how government decisions can turn into partisan shots being fired at current opposite sides of political parties. Specifically of how the Obama Administration was in charge at the time Ebola broke out. The great leaders of this nation do not “fire shots” at other political party members saying they’re the ones in the right and everyone else is in the wrong. Instead they try to take affirmative action for our country so that we can come out of any predicament as a whole. In this case it was facing the potential downfalls of Ebola if major outbreaks would start to occur.

Photo By: European Commission DG ECHO

Yes, at the time Ebola to the U.S. was a non-existent threat, but why mess around and keep letting healthcare workers who currently were treating West African patients with the disease back into the U.S.?  Why not keep them quarantined at least for an extended period of time before scientists came to a conclusion that the disease did not live in any of those health care workers anymore. We simply just did not have the time, money or resources to realistically eradicate threats of the disease from the source such as ending Ebola in Africa. Therefore, at this time last year when current medicine in the U.S. was not fully able to treat, cure, or handle an outbreak of disease such as Ebola in the U.S it is again better to be safe than sorry and close off borders and quarantine health care workers. I agree 100% on the two statements Chris Christie and Donald Trump made to eliminate possible outbreaks of Ebola that could shipwreck our country socially and economically. 

The outbreak of Ebola for a period of time dramatically rose in the United States, but eventually the control of the disease was capped. Preventative measures that politicians implemented even before the “major” outbreak of Ebola occurred could've been the ideas that South Korea could've taken into action to contain MERS and not let it last longer than it carried on to be. In my opinion, poor communication is the source of all failure when making vital decisions. Jurgen Habermas, one of the most famous philosophers who is still alive today, claims group communication always leads to a more positive outcome. If South Korea would’ve just came to a conclusion that they should've released the hospitals that came in contact with patients who carried MERS, the citizens of that country could of been more cautious on which hospitals to be treated at in the future. Overall, this could have lead to a more short-term nightmare of MERS instead of it dwindling from May to late August. 

Another preventative step that South Korea could of implied in their government that would have put an immediately halt to MERS would be informing step-by-step ways for citizens of that country to prevent catching the disease. For example, when the outbreak of swine flu swarmed to the United States, news channels and social media daily reminded their citizens of ways they could have prevented catching and spreading the swine flu. Simple routines like washing your hands after every time you sneezed, not going to work that week if you were experiencing flu-like symptoms, and eating your daily vitamins could increase the odds of you not catching the swine flu. To me, a constant reminded and information being kindly reiterated to people daily helps them engrave a mindset to achieve positive goals. That is another reason why the United States didn’t fall under to the swine flu either. 

In conclusion, I think the communication of risk in disease outbreaks shouldn’t be increased. They come off as overhyped, too informative, or to come across as exaggeration. Yes, every country has different economical barriers, but in order to successfully overcome a downfall like a disease outbreak, one shouldn’t hide information either or overdo an explanation. Instead, to take full impact on successfully communicating with disease outbreaks, I suggest a government should take affirmative action to eliminate potential spreading of diseases. Especially if that country does not have the money or resources to overcome the disease immediately. Kindly reiterating steps to citizens to prevent disease outbreak can make the small tasks for conquering an outbreak go the furthest, not increasing the ways and types of communication.

Works Cited
http://www.nature.com.prox.lib.ncsu.edu/news/realistic-risks-1.18082

http://www.nature.com.prox.lib.ncsu.edu/nature/journal/v459/n7245/full/459322a.html

http://www.csudh.edu/dearhabermas/publsbm01.htm

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/423405/donald-trump-communications-style-republicans

4 Ways to Fix Our Education System

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In 2002, President George W. Bush and congress reauthorize ESEA with the new name No Child Left Behind. The bill approaches the issue of education reform through test to measure the student’s education gaps. While this bill is considered a failure, it brings up the idea of what is the most effective way of teaching and how can we better our nation’s education system. In a world of constant competition between peers and other nations, it has more important than ever to focus on education and the strength of the American youth. However, in order to reform the education system there are many parties that would have to agree on a solution. As with any major overhaul, it affects many people and can have negative repercussion if not done with a delicate hand. Education reform-affecting the students, the teachers, the parents, and the nation they live in- provides a nation with an educational foundation to build its future on through the implementation of more “active learning” methods, STEM education, more incentives for teachers, and optimizing the learning atmosphere. By doing these things, we are creating a more effective school system, setting students up for success, building a better nation, supporting academic thought, and providing hope for future generations.

Photo by: Bindaas Madhavi

In the current education system, students are taught through a series of lectures building up to a test which the students are required to remember the information from the lecture. The current flaw of this system is it supports memorization and cramming for tests and does not encourage true understanding. After the test, many students forget the information they have studied for the test because they do not need to know it for a longer period of time. In order for our education system to be as effective as it can be, we need to focus on molding the children’s brains to think well. Holly Green points out that our current education system needs to be changed because “the way we teach our children doesn’t align with what we know about how the brain learns (6).” Another issue facing our education system is the budget. Since the budget has been cut multiple times in recent years, the education system has less money to produce even more effective students, so it is imperative that the system can change with the time. Many public high schools are currently failing their students willing because they do not have the budget or the qualified teachers to pass them. Situations like this need to stop because our future generation needs to be the number one concern if we want our nation to success.

In order to counter these issues, education reform must happen to some extent. With multiple attempts in the past failing, the issue lies in what to do not whether we need to do it. Critical issues facing education reform appears to be holding the core standards of learning and not adapting to modern technology and teaching. Peter DeWitt from Education Week claims that one major issue with our current system is that dozens of states are trying to “back out” of the standards of learning (7). This issue is most likely due to lack of high quality teachers and a decrease in school budgets. The fact that multiple states have to cut back educational standards because the government has mismanaged money is terrible. The education of the students’ needs to be a top priority in a state because they are our future leaders. Another issue that has become more apparent is the lack of modern teaching mechanics. With the modern technology, the education process can be made more interactive and personal allowing students to learn and retain information quicker. Providing alternate ways to learn will allow students who might are struggling new ways to survive and thrive in class. Using modern teaching techniques will vastly improve our classrooms and will directly affect the student’s success rate. Iowa State University has been experimenting with alternate techniques to encourage creative teaching. One technique that stood out to me was Negative Brainstorming, where one looks at a list and finds all the problems with the each solution to find the best one (7). By encouraging creative teaching and core educational standards in the Education System more students will turn out successful.

Photo by: Queen's University

One way to improve our current education system is through more “active learning” activities. A study by J. Patrick McCarthy and Liam Anderson support this claim, proving that college students who participated in these activities perform better than their peers (8). This study and many other studies have proven the point that if teachers incorporate more “active learning” activities into their classrooms, students perform better. Group activities and diverse learning atmospheres boost a student’s memory and support the student’s ability to retain the information better. Professors at California State further support this idea by claiming that “active learning” is merely doing anything other than the general lecture style (9). Giving students work, like a small writing assignment, after a short lecture increases a student’s ability to retain the information (9). The California State Research Team separates “active learning” techniques into multiple categories: Individual, Feedback, Critical Thinking, and Group Work (9). Each individual category has its own set of rules that will benefit the student. The purpose of promoting active learning experiences is to help students retain information and think critically because that is what makes the difference between an educated smart person and a person who’s good at memorizing.

Another important focus or the education system is STEM education. STEM refers to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics and has become a huge focus for the future. Rep. Mike Honda recently has introduced a bill to improve STEM education funding and put STEM education into more schools (10). This move clearly shows that the government recognizes the importance of STEM education, but just recognizing the problem does not fix it. America currently place in the middle of the pack with math and science scores, lagging behind number one by almost 100 points in both categories (11). In order to get our math and science competitive with the rest of the world, America needs to take STEM education seriously with a sense of urgency. Many people claim that math and science need to be taught as early as kindergarten which would help if an effective system for teaching basic scientific and mathematical concepts can be developed. Currently America is slowly improving in STEM education but if America ever wants to be internationally relevant again, our school systems need to spend more resources on educating the youth about STEM and its applications.

One aspect of the education system that is constantly overlooked is the value of high-quality teachers. As the saying goes, “the highest form of understanding is being able to teach it.” In our current system, teachers lack the proper praise and wages that they deserve. Teachers have become more like glorified babysitters than actual intellectuals and need to be championed. Without teachers, our society would lack any form of structure and logic, therefore, it is paramount to focus on their well being. A passionate teacher teaches their classes with more energy and has better results than a teacher who does not care about his student’s success. If we provide higher wages and better work conditions to teachers, it will make teachers more passionate to teach and share their knowledge with their class.

Photo by: Miguel M. Almeida

Nothing can change an outcome more than the environment. As students attend school, they need to sense an academic environment, which is safe and well run. Currently there has been 142 school shooting since December 2012, these events cause students to feel at risk when they seek higher education (13). Providing safe school campuses for students needs to be a priority. Education has become a cornerstone in the modern world and to have people afraid to study out of fear of being killed should not be a common thought in our modern day. However, this problem happens to be difficult to fix from a predictive and mental standpoint but providing a way to better secure campuses from shootings, drugs, and rape needs constant attention. The learning environment plays an important role in a student’s developmental process. In 2007, a Strong-Wilson & Ellis study shows that children learn from teachers and their surroundings (14). The environment trains the brain to receive information and listen to the adults in the room, that’s why schools need to maintain a clean, healthy learning environment where students can grow into educated citizens. The teaching environment greatly impacts the students so the necessary conditions for this ideal environment need to be met. Providing food, water, shelter, safety, and clean facilities needs to happen in order for the school system to get the best return for their investment.

Clearly, Education reform brings up many difficult issues that our nation will have to deal with, but in the long run it will be worth it. The current education system of lecture to test has been around for centuries, but it is time to change it. Our world has become global, where every nation fights for placing number one. Our educational comparisons branch out from county to state to nation to world. In order for our nation to be successful and remain a powerful nation, the education reform needs to provide solid answers that will benefit all stakeholders and the budget. It’s time to change an outdated system and move into the modern days of “active learning” and STEM education. Through implementation of more “active learning” methods, STEM education, more incentives for teachers, and optimizing the learning atmosphere, America can create a thriving educational system that returns America to the forefront of scientific and mathematical discoveries.

Works Cited

1: http://www.ed.gov/esea

2: "An Education." Nature.com. Nature Publishing Group, 15 July 2015. Web. 25 Sept. 2015. <http://www.nature.com/news/an-education-1.17972>.

3: http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2011/08/29/stem-education--its-elementary

4: http://www.nap.edu/read/10126/chapter/2#5

5: http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/finding_common_ground/2014/01/10_critical_issues_facing_education.html?intc=main-mpsmvs

6: http://www.forbes.com/sites/work-in-progress/2013/03/05/time-for-an-education-system-makeover/

7: http://www.celt.iastate.edu/teaching-resources/classroom-practice/teaching-techniques-strategies/creativity/techniques-creative-teaching/

8: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/B:IHIE.0000047415.48495.05

9: http://web.calstatela.edu/dept/chem/chem2/Active/

10: Swallow, E. (2012). Rep. mike honda introduces bill to boost STEM education. National Defense, 96(700), 38. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/927947886?accountid=12725

11: http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/02/02/u-s-students-improving-slowly-in-math-and-science-but-still-lagging-internationally/

12: http://www2.ed.gov/programs/teacherincentive/index.html

13: http://everytown.org/article/schoolshootings/