Babies

Today we saw a video on how babies develop so much in what seems like a long time but in reality, is a short amount of time. I had never thought of this, but now it really is, in a way, incredible. Looking back at previous memories I could point out some moments in where this development is present. One of my nephews recently turned 1 year. He lives in L.A. so I don't see him often. However last time I saw him, Christmas, he was able to say complete words. I was aware of his development but had never thought of the short amount of time this happened. This made me wonder that if I were to talk/teach him a second language right now, would he be able to pick up on it faster than if he was 6? Could the time between newborn and 1 year be the time in which the brain can learn a lot faster? Does it make a difference?

Changes in the Path to College

    The CNN article on the new SAT seems to mesh perfectly with Harvard's article on "turning the tide" The CNN article talks about how the new SAT is designed so that there are plenty of opportunities to prepare for the test, including a collaboration with Khan Academy, as well as making sure that everybody has a fair chance on the test going in. These changes are designed to stop high-priced test preparation programs, a goal very similar to Harvard's of eliminating "over-coaching" in college admissions. Where else can you see this type of change relating to college admissions?

You Be The Parent...

In today's world youth playing tackle football is becoming one of the most controversial topics among parents.  You continue to hear constantly from parents what their thoughts are on their children playing football.  I have heard both sides, and I'm sure most people have as well.  I personally believe football is one of the best sports to reveal true character.  It will push your body to new limits, develop discipline, and create relationships that last for life.  Concussions and hard hits to the head are apart of the game, but the bigger push needs to be coaching.  Proper technique is a major way to reduce head injuries, and remain healthier.  Mike Webster was the perfect example of leading with your head every play year after year.  The game needs to focus on technique at a young age to help reduce these issues.  When I become a a parent one day I will have no issues with my kids playing football and I will be supportive 100%.  What would you do, would you let your kid play football?

Intelligence Tests

In tonight's reading, there was an interesting quote explaining test content and its accuracy on reflecting true intelligence: "Intelligence tests measure how quickly people can solve relatively unimportant problems making as few errors as possible, rather than measuring how people grapple with relatively important problems, making as many productive errors as necessary with no time factor" (Blum, 1979).

I think that this brings up a valid argument because it goes back to what we talked about on the SAT. Students who demonstrated a lot of intelligence in terms of EQ and having the merit to overcome obstacles didn't always do as well on the SAT. However, this does not mean that they are not intelligent. What it might mean is that they aren't as strong at taking tests, or they could not prepare as well.

He then argues that academics and intelligence tests do not accurately measure someone's ability to successfully handle real life situations that require intellectual activity. I agree with this, because a lot of times success comes from hard work and being able to have all the traits of EQ, like motivation, confidence, and good skills with others. I don't think that one type of intelligence is more important than the other, just that tests should not completely determine one's intelligence.
What do others think about the validity of tests?

Emotional Intellegence

Yesterday, Mr. Stewart gave us a "homework" assignment to analyze the emotional intelligence of our friends, family, and classmates. First, I analyzed my parents to see how high their emotional intelligence is. Although my parents are both very good at distinguishing what type of mood I'm in, I have noticed that my mom is a lot better at saying the "right" thing for my given mood than my dad is. For example, there was one day that I was very angry and did not what to talk to anyone, and I thought that I made that fairly obvious. However, my dad kept bothering me about the subject that I did not want to talk about, which promptly made me scream "shut up!!!!" After that, he got incredibly angry and decided to do the exact opposite of what I said to do, and made me three times more angry. Today as I was considering this event, I thought about the EQ of my dad. Instead of responding to my words and my body language, he decided to act as he pleased and tried to "win the argument." This made me think back to the article we read yesterday where the person presenting the EQ workshops had to consider the four ways to respond. My dad chose not to respond with emotional EQ, but rather chose to stand his ground and make me even more angry.

Today, we learned about how EQ can be used negatively as well as positively. I have seen both sides of these in one of my friends. My friend has very high emotional intelligence, and can often tell how I am feeling and why I am feeling that way before I share my feelings. This works to an incredible advantage because he understands me and I don't really have to explain my reasoning, because he already gets it! But his EQ also works to a terrible disadvantage because he knows that he has a very high emotional intelligence and is 100% sure that he is right, even when he is not. For this reason, he doesn't believe me when I tell him that he is wrong because he is so used to being right. Since he is so persistent, I have found myself sometimes doubting my own feelings because he is so sure that I am wrong.

All in all, I think that having a high emotional intelligence is very important because it creates a mutual understanding between people, and people can tell what others are going through without needing an explanation. Although emotional intelligence can be used negatively, I believe that the positives of having a high EQ outweigh the negative effects of manipulation.

Emotional Intelligence In Gambling?

I am in Global Connections as a senior, and for my final project I am making a documentary on gambling.  I feel emotional intelligence can play a roll in gambling, something I never really thought of until we talked about it in class.  Gambling is a very emotional habit where the thinking is not usually done with the brain. Casinos and other gambling locations manipulate you thinking you can win, and hope you win a few times so you think you can win a lot of money, but in reality they put you down the road of failure. Then add alcohol into the equation, plus bright flashing lights of casinos and just pure manipulation into taking your money. Remember casinos don't stay in business by having people win.

Stereotype Threat

Friday, in class, we continued watching the documentary following the seven high school students applying to UC Berkeley. The documentary depicted the rigorousness and difficulty that came along with applying to the best public university in the United States. Watching how those students struggled and stressed about college, especially the ones who do not have as many resources and aren't in great financial conditions, caused me to question my own path to college. I do not have enough money to cover college tuition and I constantly stress about how my college education is affected by this financial disadvantage. 

The documentary also brought up stereotype threat, which is a situational predicament in which people are or feel themselves to be at risk of confirming negative stereotypes about their social group. Stereotype threat is something that I have personally experienced, it has come up when thinking about how others with a similar  economic state to myself and also those of Latino ethnicity who are also first-generation college students, are perceived in society when it comes to attaining a higher education. Stereotypes of how it is difficult for first-generation students, who are also not in optimal financial conditions, to succeed in college have at some point in my life made me feel unsteady about what my college education experience will be like. Despite having dealt with stereotype threat before, I have been able to look past it. Since I was in elementary school I knew that I definitely wanted and would pursue a college education, and my determination for achieving this is much greater than how I let stereotypes or my financial state affect how I envision my future college education.
Viewing the documentary strengthened my determination to work hard and to achieve the goals I have set for myself. The difficulties and unfair nature of the college admission process, as seen in the documentary, are things that I have not let discourage me, but instead I am using as a motivation to work harder and overlook stereotypes. 

SAT Prep Courses

Based on the documentary that we have been watching in class, it has become quite apparent that the college admission process is anything but fair. First and foremost, although the SAT was designed with the intentions of creating a system that will erase the class system, it has only become a bigger instigator. It is quite clear that SAT Prep courses give students an advantage in this highly impactful test. This makes it harder for lower-income families to break out of the cycle because these courses are pretty expensive, making it not an option for many students. However, the SAT score alone is not what determines whether or not a student makes it into their desired college. They also consider GPA, extracurricular activities such as sports/volunteering, and adversity. In the case of JK, although he scored poorly on the SAT, his decent GPA, and beyond average ability to cope with adversity allowed him to be accepted. If colleges expect students who deal with a high amount of adversity to not score as well on the SAT, that means that they have higher expectations for the kids who don't. But doesn't that make the SAT Prep courses pretty much necessary for the children who were simply born into a favorable situation?

If I ran a college I would look for...

If I ran a college I would look for students that showed somehow that they can make the best of any situation. How would they do that? I think that for some people they can reflect that with good grades and high scores on the SAT. For others that are not able to score as high as others, they need to show dedication, motivation, and tenacity in other ways. If I were a college admission officer I would look for students that succeed even if they are not the best or brightest. I would want people to be the best person they can be, without needing to be told the school's requirements. I would want to see people who go above and beyond, looking for anyway to better themselves.
I believe that test scores can measure some amount of intelligence, but I don't think that intelligence will define success. I believe that someone can be successful no matter what intelligence they were born with. Success comes in so many shapes and sizes, and so does intelligence. Today, we talked about multiple intelligences. I think that one intelligence is not better than another, all of them are equal and the world need all of them. If I were a college admissions officer I would want to look for a balance and variety of intelligences from students.

Accepted or Rejected

Today in class, we finally finished the documentary that followed 7 high school seniors who applied to Cal and we were to see who would get accepted. Some stories were more on the sad side because there was this guy named Fred who moved away from his parents to try to get accepted to Cal, and he ended up not getting in. However, I think many of us in the classroom were shocked when Omar who had a 1240 SAT score did not get in compared to JK who had an 880 SAT score. Personally, I am happy for JK since he did have to work, but I feel like Omar got robbed. Up until now I always heard that if you had a higher SAT score and GPA, colleges would choose you over a student who didn't. However, this was proven wrong because JK who was a good student but did not have the best scores was able to get into Cal. This in a way gave me hope because now in my head I am thinking that maybe I could also get in, but in reality, that is a stretch. I don't know what psychological term this could be, but now that I saw JK be able to get into Cal I think I can get into Cal too.

Inside JK's Admission

Although many people in our class were desperately hoping that JK would get admitted into Berkeley, I am sure that there were not many people who actually believed that he would get in. He participated in many extracurriculars and was a decent student, but his SAT score only reached 880. For this reason I am curious as to what you think that reasons were for his admission. He is a minority student, which is considered in the admissions process, but cannot be the sole reason for his acceptance. What did the admission office consider in JK's application, and what did they see in him that made them accept him? JK's acceptance begs the question of how important the SAT really is in the admission's process. If we consider Omar who got a 1200 on the SAT and his denial, we can clearly see that the SAT score does not matter as much as some people make it out to be. So then, why do people spend thousands of dollars preparing for a test that has not always proven to hold much bearing? Thoughts?

College Admissions

For the past few days in class, we have been watching a documentary about a group of high school students and their path of building applications for Berkeley, which for most is their top choice for a college. Each student comes from different backgrounds, including socio-economic status, neighborhood, race, and family. Most of the focus of the documentary is on the SAT, and the role it plays in college admissions.

The documentary mentioned that the average SAT score for students in Berkeley was above 1300. But one student from the documentary, JK, was admitted with only a score in the 800's. Even though the score was lower, I agree with their decision to admit him because I think that the SAT did not show his true merit. For his circumstances, he showed outstanding achievements. He was not able to receive special SAT preparation, and it seems his school did not have the best teachers either. And on top of that, he had an outstanding number of extracurriculars and a good GPA. This shows how he is able to overcome adversity and has a lot of determination even in difficult situations. I think that this is important for colleges to look at because it shows who really has the desire and the persistence to continue to do well in college and make a great future for themselves. What do others think are the important factors in college admissions?

Dream Studying

Although I know we talked about dreams a week or two ago, I have an interesting story to share about my dream last thursday. On Friday, I had a biology test that I didn't feel super prepared for. However, when I went to sleep, I was still thinking about the test and trying to prepare myself the best I could with the little time I had left. When I woke up, I remembered that my "dream" was actually me studying for my test! I went through all the vocabulary terms in my head and quizzed myself on them, and I was thinking about all the different concepts I had learned that chapter while I was asleep. I don't really know how much this dream studying helped me on my test, but it does prove Mr. Stewart's statement that your brain continually processes information in your head while you sleep. It was very exciting to me that I was able to apply what Mr. Stewart said in class to my actual dream!

College Admission Unfair?

After seeing how hard some students students are trying to get into one of the hardest public universities in California, UC Berkeley. As of 2016 UC Berkeley is is the seventh toughest school to get into, which includes some private universities on the list and is ranked 37th in the nation. They have an acceptance rate of about 18 percent. That alone should say that it is really tough and academically demanding. How ever I feel like some of the students from the documentary we are watching in class might not actually want to attend UC Berkeley. I think this because some of the parents might not have gotten the education they feel they deserved, they are pressuring their daughters/sons. This doesn't really make much sense to me because at the beginning of the film, the narrator said that the parents knew little to nothing about the universities that their son or daughter applied to. This means that they don't know what it takes to get into college. Since their children are leaning along with them, they could be getting treated unfairly, especially since most of the students in this film are less fortunate. Being less fortunate already made their chances of getting into a University very difficult.

A way to make the process of being admitted more fair, is by giving every high school the amount of money needed to make their students successful. Today when two students are being compared to see who would be a better nominee to get into their university and if they have the exact same stats and everything else. When this does happen, the admission office look at a number that represents the high school of which they attended. This number is what makes one school better than the other. The higher the number, the harder the school that the student comes from. And if the government was able to give an equal amount of money, it would put all of the schools at an even playing field. The rest of the money would come from donations. The wealthy people would probably want to keep all of the money to themselves so that they can remain at their current social stature, and the less wealthy people would donate all they could, knowing that their student will get the best education they possibly can.

Bandura's Experiment on Social Learning

Today in class, we watched a video clip of an experiment conducted by Albert Bandura on aggression. In the experiment, some children were shown a video of an adult hitting an inflatable doll, while others were not. Later, all of the children were placed in playrooms, each with the same kind of inflatable doll as in the video. It was found that the children who watched the video clip were more likely to hit and otherwise abuse the doll, while the others did not. They concluded that the children acted this way because they had seen the video clip right before.

While this makes perfect sense, I wonder if there were some internal factors in each of the children causing them to act the way that they did. Did some of the children who watched the video clip not abuse the doll, perhaps because of their personality dictating against it? And vice versa, did some of the children who did not watch the video still abuse the doll, against because of their inner personalities? Also, did this experiment have any effect on the children in the future, perhaps making them more aggression, acting as a kind of classical conditioning? I just wonder if there was more to the experiment than we were shown.

I'm Street Smart

There are different types of intelligence. Like Bailey said there's "book-smart" which is what we're taught in school. At school they tell you that your intelligence is based off of your book-smarts, which is basically your ability to read a text, gather the information, memorize the information and then be able to rewrite the information like on a test or an essay/paper. The problem with this is that not all kids can learn in that way, they cant just read a few paragraphs and fully understand the material. 

Schools rarely base intelligence off of "street-smarts", which is more common sense and learning things that you don't learn in school and being prepared for the potential dangers in society. For example, knowing how to get anywhere in your city with out a map and knowing what streets are more dangerous than others. 

Both of those type of "smarts" show intelligence, but the school system only focuses on how well you can memorize things and I think that's unfair, especially for the kids who don't have as many opportunities to learn how to memorize. Their whole lives they became A students on the street and the SAT's don't test that.

Sleep Stages

In class we were talking about the cycles of sleeping and the four stages that happen when we are sleeping. Stage one starts with a very light sleep and your muscles contract. In stage 2, you slowly go into a deeper sleep and when you hit 3 and 4, you are in a deep sleep. At these stages, it is said your blood pressure and temperature drops and delta waves in your brain begins. Then after the last stages comes the REM stage where most of the brain activity takes place. My question is why the brain works the way it does? It seems as if whatever I'm thinking about before I got to bed is what I wake up thinking about. Why is that? Also, it is said one cycle of sleep is about an hour and a half and we should have about 5-7 a night, but what happens if we wake up at the wrong stage of sleep? Do we forget what we were thinking about? Does this lead to some side effects we will then face throughout the day? Im very curious to learn more about our sleeping process and find the answers!

How Can We Measure Intelligence?

The SAT and ACT are nationwide tests that are used to determine our intelligence to different colleges and universities. Both of these tests are timed and try to demonstrate academic capability in math, english and writing. Although both tests hold valuable information, I believe that it does not test intelligence. Many people have said that you have to learn how to take these tests and many do so through tutors and classes. Say you have two kids who are equally intelligent.What happens when one kid can't afford to take these classes and is limited to the same resources. This leads to some sort of inequality and while the kids that have tutors may end up getting a 2000, then you have the kid with not tutoring that may receive a 1500. So how would this test your knowledge? Many people argue that it doesn't and these tests should be removed. However, many would argue the opposite and say it's a good form of testing. Thoughts?

Intelligence

As I was listening to our talk about intelligence, a question was raised. Is intelligence fixed? Other people said that it is not fixed because if you practice a skill, you will get better at that skill. They compared intelligence with SAT scores. But the actual definition of intelligence is the ability to learn. So the faster that you learn something, the more "intelligent" you are. So SAT scores are not at all related to your intelligence, but rather your knowledge of material. So someone that is less intelligent may get a better score than someone that is more intelligent if they work harder and study more. But at the end of the day, I believe that there is no way to change how you learn, and that there will always be people that understand things right away, while others will have to work harder to get places. Thoughts?

Little Albert

As I was reading the pages assigned tonight for homework the book brought up this experiment which involved an 11-month baby named Little Albert and a rat. They mentioned how the made Little Albert afraid of the harmless lab rat having him interact with the rat and every time Little Albert got close to the rat, the experimenters would make a loud noise to scare Albert. What immediately came to mind was, is this legal? The experimenters were using this small little baby as a "lab rat" for their experiments. Did the parents allow this? As I kept reading it turns out there is a way to reverse these fears by unlearning the fears. The example the book provided this method seemed to work but once again I asked myself an important question, what if it did not work? What if the experimenters could not reverse the fears that were engraved into these kids minds, what then? These are all questions I hope you guys also have.

Dream analysis

Last Thursday in class we started to talked about dream analysis. We discussed dreams we had that week, what they could mean, and how it could effect us. I had a dream about my three old friends who have never been to Los Altos High School before. My dream started in the school's library with my two friends. One of them started to mumble random words and the other just started going crazy. I was freak out by it, so I walked out of the library and saw my other friend in the quad. I walked towards him but he started to run away, I had no idea why he was running. I sprinted after him but was never able to catch up but came really close, and then the dream ended. I haven't seen these three friends for about two years, so I believe this dream means that I miss my friends and wish to spend more time with them. In middle school we also talked about going to the same High School, which could be why the setting is at this school. My friends going crazy could mean they are currently having some problems and chasing one of them maybe a sign that I want to help in some way.

My Sleep Cycle Experience

Over the weekend, I had an interesting sleep experience that helped confirm the information we have learned on the sleep cycle. We have learned that we have several sleep cycles when we get a good night's sleep. Once sleep cycle consists of four stages. The first stage is light sleep then as fall deeper into your sleep, you eventually reach Rapid Eye Movement sleep. Rapid Eye Movement sleep is the part of your sleep when you dream. We learned that on average, one full cycle of sleep lasts about an hour and a half. This Sunday, my alarm woke me up at 7 a.m., but I ignored it and fell back asleep. I woke myself up again at around 8:30 a.m. I had awakened and realized that I had remembered a dream. I thought this was interesting because in that hour and a half I had gone through the sleep cycle, where I reached REM and dreamed. This confirms exactly what we learned about in class. I just thought I should share because this was a cool experience for me.