Design Stage One: Empathize
Our world
Nathan Bidault –
Nathan presents his Empathize process surrounding chronic disease to his PYP 3 peer.
Humanity has a variety of diseases.
Do you have experience with diseases? First of all, do you know what type of diseases there are in the world? If you don’t know any, here are some examples: cancer and diabetes.
Early cancer symptoms are blood in urine, unexpected weight loss, night sweats, fever, indigestion or difficulty swallowing. The pain may come and go at first, then it can become more severe and steady later. The pain may get worse with movement and there may be swelling in nearby soft tissue.
The cancer that has killed the most people is lung cancer. It caused 792,495 deaths in 2010. If you have pancreatic cancer you have 6% chance of survival. All cancers together are estimated to have risen to 18.1 million new cases and 9.6 million deaths in 2018 in the whole world. One in 5 men and one in 6 women worldwide develop cancer during their lifetime, and one in 8 men and one in 11 women die from the disease.
The country with the most cancer deaths is Australia, followed by New Zealand and Ireland.
The cancer that kills the most is lung and bronchial cancer, after colon and rectal, followed by breast cancer and pancreatic cancer.
Finally, out of all the human diseases, chronic diseases are my concern.
Works Cited
Interview with Deborah Bidault.
Design Stage Two: Define
Toxic stress
Armaan Mehtani
Have you experienced stress? Sometimes it can be dangerous. There is a level of stress which can be unsafe. That is toxic stress.
Armaan begins X by sharing significant problems he considered, choosing toxic stress to research, with his parents as Ashmit looks on.
Stress is not necessarily bad. There are three types of stress: positive, tolerable, and toxic. Positive stress is the stress which pushes you to do more. Tolerable stress is stress that really bugs your brain; for example, a fight with your friend. Stress to your brain is like an attack. It receives a signal to your prefrontal cortex to calm down and your amygdala to look out for anything dangerous. Then your adrenal gland gives out cortisol to tell your organs to react to the stress.
Toxic stress is a condition which can be harmful, and happens when a depressing personal event occurs and really changes your mindset. Toxic stress can be so strong it can actually modify your brain architecture.
Events such as the death of a loved one can be really stressful. Sometimes it gets too intense. It starts becoming discomforting. This is the zone of toxic stress.
What can it do? First of all, it really harms your relationships. It can cause socioeconomic change. That specific event fills up your brain and you forget and become less aware about your surroundings and worse, yourself. It can cause inflammatory responses. That includes getting angry very often and arguing for every small thing. Sometimes it can get out-of-hand and so hard on a person that they want to escape. There is no escape if you don’t see an expert, so some people take the decision to die by suicide when it is too hard to handle.
In conclusion, toxic stress is a harmful, chronic condition. It is when you have a really bad, personal experience. And it can be treated.
Works Cited
Franke, Hillary A. “Toxic Stress: Effects, Prevention and Treatment.” Children (Basel, Switzerland), MDPI, 3 Nov. 2014, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4928741/.
Garner, Andrew S., et al. “Early Childhood Adversity, Toxic Stress, and the Role of the Pediatrician: Translating Developmental Science Into Lifelong Health.” Pediatrics, American Academy of Pediatrics, 1 Jan. 2012, pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/129/1/e224.short..
“Signs, Symptoms and Effects of Alzheimer’s | Vantage Point Behavioral Health Hospital.” Vantagepoint, www.vantagepointnwa.com/disorders/alzheimers/causes-effects/.
“Stress.” Alberta Family Wellness Initiative, www.albertafamilywellness.org/what-we-know/stress.
“Toxic Stress :: DNA Learning Center.” DNALC Blogs, www.dnalc.org/view/1226-Toxic-Stress.html.
“Using Solfeggio 396 Hz to LET GO Fear, Stress & Negativity.” Meditative Mind, 6 Nov. 2018, meditativemind.org/using-solfeggio-396-hz-to-let-go-fear-stress-negativity/.
Design Stage Three: Ideate
Solutions for video game addiction
Aditya Sood –
Adi relates his research on gaming addiction to his audience on stage during his TED Talk.
Are solutions important? Well, brainstorming is helping the PYP 5 class with three-fifths of our products in the exhibition, and the class is also learning how to brainstorm these solutions. There is a whole big process of brainstorming solutions. In ideating, it should be understood why to pick a specific solution. Finding solutions is needed to take action.
There are many ways in which solutions can be found. One way to do this is research. Research is based on questions. Research, research, and research. That is one of the first steps in finding solutions.
Research is the way that a solution to video game addiction was found, which is persuading the addicted gamer to reduce game time by explaining the effect of video game addiction. Why this solution? Well, simply because it doesn’t negatively affect anyone. If an addicted gamer forcefully got their screen taken away, the gamer would get negatively and emotionally affected by it. This means that this solution won’t negatively affect anyone at all because it is by the gamer’s own will that they reduce their own game time.
Then make sure the idea works. If it hasn’t, then it can be refined to improve it. Also, having an idea checked by a peer can be helpful.
There are different processes which can be used to ideate. These may vary for others. One is called Flower-Power. In it, someone creates their own flowers out of paper hexagons. Next, they write down their definition of the problem on the middle hexagon of the flower structure (the pistil) and possible solutions around it (the petals). This may prove to be helpful because, at that point in the class’ process, ideating was new and the Flower-Power activity helped the class to brainstorm possible solutions.
In conclusion, it can be learned how to find solutions in different ways. Additionally, there are many different methods that can be used to create an ideating process. Also, when ideating, a solution should be checked before put into taking action. Moreover, to take action on a problem, it can be that a problem has different solutions.
Works Cited
“Are Video Games Bad for Me? (for Kids).” Edited by Mary L. Gavin, KidsHealth, The Nemours Foundation, June 2014, kidshealth.org/en/kids/video-gaming.html.
Hartney, Elizabeth. “What to Know About Video Game Addiction.” Verywell Mind, Verywell Mind, 11 Nov. 2018, www.verywellmind.com/what-is-video-game-addiction-22333.
Kennard, Jerry. “Are Video Games Bad for Your Health?” Causes – Obesity | HealthCentral, HealthCentral, 31 July 2018, www.healthcentral.com/slideshow/ways-video-games-are-bad-for-your-health#slide=1. Accessed 13 Dec. 2018.
Kuss, Daria J. “Internet Gaming Addiction: Current Perspectives.” Psychology Research and Behavior Management, Dove Medical Press, 14 Nov. 2013, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3832462/.
“Nearly 1 In 10 Youth Gamers Addicted To Video Games.” Edited by Douglas Gentile, ScienceDaily, ScienceDaily, 21 Apr. 2009, www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090420103547.htm. Accessed 14 Dec. 2018.
WIRED. Testing Gamer vs Non-Gamer Brains: How Do Video Games Affect You? Performance by Peter Rubin, Testing Gamer vs Non-Gamer Brains: How Do Video Games Affect You?, WIRED, www.youtube.com/watch?v=duxWYK-UEiU.
Zamani, Eshrat, et al. Comparing the Social Skills of Students Addicted to Computer Games with Normal Students. NCBI, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3905509/. Accessed 14 Dec. 2018.
Design Stage Four: Prototype
Prototyping effective learning architecture
Aaryan Kinra –
Aaryan discusses his action plan for effective architecture with his parents, focusing on self- and community-action.
Ineffective architecture has many solutions. But is it enough to just talk about them without prototyping them and without taking action? In architecture, prototyping is a crucial part.
Architects prototype their projects to test them structurally, aesthetically, functionally and technically. To make a prototype, you need to first have your floor plan because without it you cannot begin. Next you can start to use an important digital tool in architecture, called SketchUp. What makes this tool so special is that you can transfer a floor plan to start digitally building or you can start from scratch. If you do not like to use technology and prefer to touch things, you can create a physical 3D model to give another perspective and engage all of your senses. This does take much more time than a digital model, so you need to be patient.
Another important aspect to prototyping your models is to have your materials for the project figured out because they give the strength to the structure and gives the whole structure beauty, like marble in the Taj Mahal gives the structure its strength as well as making the structure one of the most beautiful structures to be created in India.
In conclusion prototyping your solutions will always be a very crucial and effective part to your project because it is basically
equivalent to having a sample of ice cream before you order your cup. This way you will have a preview to what your final outcome will be and also will make sure you don’t have an allergic reaction to your ice cream.
Works Cited
Moco design studios, architects. Interview conducted by Aaryan Kinra, 30, April. 2019
Design Stage Five: Test
Testing and improving solutions to gender equality
Priyanka Gupta-
Priyanka displays solutions to gender inequality for Ashmit’s parents, talking through her ideation.
Our world’s problems need solutions; yet before these solutions can be put into action, they must be tested and improved. These solutions will have different impacts on the self, on individuals, and on community. In addition, they will lead to learning. Moreover, there is a process these solutions must go through, and many students in PYP 5 are doing just that. Solving problems can impact individuals’ community and self in different ways, resulting in new knowledge.
Solutions to problems affect the self, individuals, and community in a variety of ways. For example, the self empathises while the community develops and individuals are thankful. These have different results. The self will then be more determined to help. The community will therefore develop further. The individuals will be even more thankful. And the cycle will repeat. Others will see the happiness of the self and also help the community. This creates a never-ending cycle that is helpful. In other words, it creates sustainable action.
Action leads to learning. As one acts on a problem, one learns more about it. For example, a test to see if education encourages gender-equal thinking led to learning that some uneducated women think that women are better than men and so the cause of the problem is the fear to stand up for themselves. This led to the understanding that the solution to gender inequality must encourage women to stand up for themselves. One more thing that has been learned is that some solutions create even more problems and so the solution should end the problem once and for all. For example, some think that a solution to gender inequality could be making it up to women by treating them better. This is not a solution. This will create more problems because it is just another form of gender inequality.
Before a solution can be helpful, it must go through a process , which many of the learners are put solutions through. This process tests solutions, and afterwards improves them. It ensures that solutions will be effective.
‘Future’ plans are theoretically tested. Some ‘present’ and ‘soon’ plans are actually tested, while some are also theoretically tested. There is no specific way to test problems, and the variety in PYP 5 includes three dimensional models to boxes to experimental videos and so much more. After the solution is tested it will be improved.
An example of a solution that went through this process is providing education to solve gender inequality. This solution was tested by asking educated subjects and uneducated subjects the question: “Which gender is better?” The uneducated subject (a woman) said she thought women were better. While this is not gender-equal, it shows that gender equality is caused because women are afraid to stand up for themselves, and they may not have the right resource for an education. The educated subjects (a girl and a boy) both said that women and men were both just as good. This is gender-equal thinking. This lead to the conclusion that education can encourage and lead to gender equal thinking. The solution was later updated to: Provide affordable and accessible education for women who are victims of gender inequality. This is a more specific goal. And so that solution had been theoretically tested.
Finally, solving problems can have diverse impacts on the self, community, and individuals. Action can teach many things. Solutions must go through a process before their efficiency is confirmed. Solving problems can have a variety of diverse impacts on one’s community, individuals in it, and the self, which can result in new knowledge after the solution’s efficiency is confirmed.
Works Cited
Bridges, Shirin Yim., and Sophie Blackall. Ruby’s Wish. Serres, 2005.
Campus, ONE. “Poverty Is Sexist, Explained.” Medium, The Quad, 9 Mar. 2017, medium.com/the-quad/poverty-is-sexist-explained-871a62bf4923.
Castro, Raquel. “Interview.”
Kuora, Bhupinder. “Interview.”
