Project by: Ruby Hutchins (10th Grade)
Project Advisor: Pat Higgiston
Student(s)’s Advisor(s): Preethi Thomas-McKnight

I was interested in leading this as an X-Block, but it got canceled and I still felt very interested in this subject. A lot of my friends talk about not getting enough sleep. Some only sleep 5 hours a night. I’ve heard there are health consequences, especially for teenagers so I wanted to learn more about this. I read Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker, Ph.D., as well as a number of resources I found from Cheri Mah, a sleep researcher (with an emphasis on sleep and rest for athletes) from Stanford. I planned to break down the information in a way that would make it interesting for other students to read and understand the importance of sleep. My plan was for this information to be displayed in the Nurse’s Office and available to students so that they can use it as a useful tool (and hopefully be reminded about how important sleep is).

What I’ve done this trimester:

I researched the science of sleep for athletes and teenagers and found different articles and books related to this topic. The book that I’ve pulled most of my information from is Why We Sleep By Mathew Walker. I took notes as I read and wrote summaries for each chapter where I pulled out information that would be helpful particularly for high school students. This helped me realize what I wanted to focus on and learn what I could relay to other students. After I wrote the summaries for each chapter I further extracted the most essential information that I wanted to include in my final project. I had known that I wanted to present the information visually in a way that would easy for students to engage with so I chose to create a pamphlet. I designed the pamphlet on illustrator and laid it out in a way that would show the five main subjects that relate to sleep, (Caffeine, Sleep in Society, Sleep and Learning, Overall Health Benefits, and tips to get a more restful night of sleep.) I thought about the pamphlets in the nurse’s office that had to do with overall health, and I figured that’s where I could display my work. I wanted it to be in a place where students would be able to see it and realize that the reason they’re in the nurse’s office could be related to sleep.

Reflection:

My plan for this trimester evolved and changed especially in the plan for the final project. I didn’t know that I would end up going into so much detail when reading Why We Sleep and in the chapter summaries but I’m glad I did. I learned so much more about the benefits of sleep when it comes to overall health, how it can help with learning and memorization, and how you can change things to get more restful nights of sleep.

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Original Proposal:

Please write a description of the project you are proposing. Why do you want to take this on, and what do you hope to learn?

I was interested in leading this as an X-Block but it got canceled and I still feel very interested in this subject. I hear a lot of my friends talking about not getting enough sleep. Some only sleep 5 hours a night. I’ve heard there are health consequences, especially for teenagers so I want to learn more about this. I plan to read Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker, Ph.D., as well as any resources I can find from Cheri Mah, a sleep researcher (with an emphasis on sleep and rest for athletes) from Stanford. I plan to break down the information in a way that makes it interesting for other students to read and understand the importance of sleep. My current plan is for this to be displayed in the Nurse’s Office and available to students so that they can use it as a useful tool (and hopefully be reminded about how important sleep is).

Critical thinking, creativity, citizenship, and courage are essential LREI learning values. Explain how you’ll draw on at least one of these values to complete your proposed project?

This project most closely related to citizenship because the end product is designed to help and educate other members of our community.

What is your proposed outcome? How will you be able to demonstrate successful completion of this Project? How do you plan to share your learnings with the larger LREI community (e.g., exhibit of work, poster of learnings, performance, etc.)?

I hope this project will encourage other students to prioritize sleep and realize it affects all aspects of our lives (our health, school work, sports performance, etc.).

Please provide a general outline that indicates your work plan for the trimester? What are some of the key project benchmarks (i.e., goals that will help to ensure that you finish the project)?

1) To read Why We Sleep
2) Listen to the many interviews and articles with Cheri Mah
3) Research other articles posted recently from reputable sources about students and sleep deprivation.
4) Organize the information in a useful way for students into a pamphlet/brochure/handbook.

When do you plan on meeting?
The first part of lunch every Friday