Stem cell research is one of the biggest controversial problems in the United States. They are new, and hard to understand, and for some people this may lead to a “Culture Shock” type of scenario. Because they are so new, not even skilled scientists trained to understand stem cells can comprehend how they work completely and fully. For the common individual, the concept of stem cells may be scary, or just too hard to understand. Because of this, many people condemn stem cells because they dont want to learn how they work. This ties into the underlying theme of culture shock that we have been learning about in World Cultures. The difference in this case is that the people undergoing culture shock with stem cells, never really want to understand them, so they are stuck in the fearful state, and try to convince others that they are bad. In the United States, this is commonly found in the form of anti-abortionists saying that harvesting embryonic stem cells kills fetuses. This is not the case, however. Embryonic stem cells can be grown artificially in labs, but they dont want to know so they dont have to change how they do things.
To help the research of stem cells, I created a website called Stem Cells for Power of One, where I explained fully but in easy to understand terms how stem cells work. There was also an option for any visitor to the site to donate to me, so that I can collect donations and send them to Project ALS. By sharing the website on various social media sites, I hoped to spread the word about my website and help to educate the masses on stem cell research. At the least, I just wanted to raise awareness of stem cells, because very little is known about them in the public world. I feel that the action that I made did help educate people on the subject of stem cells, and that those people will go on to educate others and raise awareness of stem cells. I feel also, though, that I could have made a bigger “splash” in the world if I had just tried a little harder, and spread the word more. I think that prehaps making a website was not the best way of raising awareness of stem cells, but it was the best option at the time.
I think that the best thing that I did during this project was talking to people at the Power of One festival, and verbally educating them on stem cells. If I were to start the project again with my current knowledge, I would start everything earlier, and try to publicize it more. Possibly spending more time on the Tri Fold Poster. I could have put more time and energy into the project. I think the hardest work I did was making the trifold poster. Nothing I did helped me reach my goals, either because my goals were too high, or because of the fact that I never set any goals in the first place. I feel like if I didn’t lie to you and you saw everything that I did to make this project a reality, I would probably fail the class because I didn’t do SHIT.
I do believe I learned from this project, but not in the way you woiuld expect. I learned that no matter how strictly you grade a project, I will never put forward 100%. Never fucking ever. It was an effective way to end the course, but only because now I don’t have to take a final exam. Once again, while you repeat yourself on the essay guide, I learned that no matter how strictly you grade a project, I will never put forward 100%. Here are some specific examples that you wanted of why I learned this: I started my action about 2 weeks before the festival, and I made my website using wordpress in under an hour. My 4 year old cousin could have made a better website. I made the trifold in about 2 nights, as in 4 hours, and basically repeated myself over and over. Once again, my 4 year old cousin could have made a better tri fold, and it would have been filled with ponies. My speaking skills at the festival are the only thing worth merit, and even those were sub par. All in all, I think that the quality of my life and health would benefit if I had never done this project in the first place.
