Project by: Marlo Hulnick (11th Grade)
Project Advisor: Daniel Li
Student(s)’s Advisor(s): Kelly

Final Reflection

While this Honors Project ends the work of this trimester, it especially concludes all of my work since March when Daniel and I initially started these focus-based Anatomy and Physiology projects. While I didn’t learn as much tangible material this trimester versus last spring, I think that my research to better understand the physiological and biological components of Cystic Fibrosis enabled me to learn a lot, and not just about the science, but also with critical thinking. Overall, this has been an amazing opportunity and I’m really happy that I took on this Honors Project because it gave me the chance to learn about something I’m very interested in, and I definitely learned a lot about myself as a student as well. It was also very rewarding because I was able to connect and apply what I’ve learned these past two trimesters to my Biochemistry class, and vice versa, apply what I’ve learned to this Honors Project.

Update on Progress from Weeks 1-3 (include any photos or video if relevant):

During the first couple of weeks, Daniel and I did an overview of the anatomical features of the respiratory system and reviewed the physiological ones including gas exchange and electrical activity. Since we knew going into this project that this wouldn’t take long, during the third week, we started figuring out how I would research and study a disease related to both the cardiovascular and respiratory systems as my next steps, and what this would look like throughout the trimester and at the end. I came to our meeting the third week with a list of possible illnesses (arrhythmia, specifically atrial fibrillation, heart failure, including valve abnormalities and heart disease, including coronary artery disease and congestive heart failure), and from there narrowed it down.

• arrhythmia (causes atrial fibrillation)
• heart failure
  • valve abnormalities
  • heart disease
    • coronary artery disease
    • congestive heart failure

From there, Daniel and I narrowed it to arrhythmias, and I have started researching that using both reputable websites and scholarly articles. So far I have been looking at types of arrhythmias, symptoms, causes, prevention, and treatment. In the next steps of my project, I will continue this research to narrow in on the goal of this component of this project. It is exciting that I get to use what I learned last year, and combine it with what I have learned so far this trimester to dive deeper into the subject at hand.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Update on Progress from Weeks 4-6 (include any photos or video if relevant):

During the beginning of this second segment of the trimester, I researched and started studying arrhythmias, and their biological processes. I’ve learned a lot from this, including how the gene sequences caused different mutations of different genes, and how all of these variables could affect how the electrical process works, and if you were to develop an arrhythmia, the type of arrhythmia also depends on all of this. But ultimately, we decided to change our course a little bit. We decided to focus on Cystic Fibrosis, because it directly ties into what I have been learning about over the last two trimesters, and also, some things that I have learned about in my Biochemistry science class. It’s great to be able to use what I’ve learned throughout this trimester and apply it to class, and vice versa, apply what I learn in my class to my honors project.

Update on Progress from Weeks 7-9 (include any photos or video if relevant):

Over the last couple of weeks, I began to outline my final poster and worked on/created it. I figured out what information to include, along with how I would be able to tie my work from these past two trimesters together, specifically through this one disease. In making the poster, I did a lot of research to confirm some hypotheses I had and looked back at my work from last trimester. It was really satisfying to see all of my work and time since March come to fruition, and additionally connect the two specialized focuses.