Research Log #5 - Solutionary Project 2020 (Book)

 
Date: 3 March 2020
Name: Micah Watanabe
Essential Question: How does depression affect society?
 
Three Points to Prove: #1: Depression reduces productivity in student’s classes.
                                     #2: Depression encourages substance abuse in students.
#3: Depression affects their relationships with other students and teachers.
 
Point that this Source Proves: #1 Depression reduces productivity in student’s classes. 
 
 
Excerpts (These should provide insight into the Point to Prove): 

This book provides a generalization of side effects of depression, “…depression, is characterized

by a combination of symptoms that interfere with a person’s ability to work, sleep, study, eat,
and enjoy once-pleasurable activities.”

While going into the symptoms of depression, “Difficulty concentrating, remembering details
and making decisions.”

No one’s depression is the same, “The severity, frequency and duration of symptoms will vary
depending on the individual and his or her particular illness.”

  
Analysis (How does this source support the Point to Prove?): 
 
This book highlights the relationship between deep depressive states and a normal
person’s life. From a young teen, to an adult in graduate school, the side effects are the same.
“…depression, is characterized by a combination of symptoms that interfere with a person’s
ability to work, sleep, study, eat, and enjoy once-pleasurable activities.”, these side effects of
depression are usually lead to student suicide, or them giving up on their classes and dropping
out. The exponential growth in students dropping out have significantly increased, but the board
of education doesn’t take depression as a serious topic.
One part that equals the reduced productivity is the cloud your mind is in. When
depressed, the little things stress you out, making basic concepts hard to think of. Usually, school
work is the least of a student’s worries. You can become more self-conscious of yourself and
decisions, “Difficulty concentrating, remembering details and making decisions.” If you are
depressed and have a test that you tried to study for, you’ll forget all that work you done because
of the depressive episode.
Many people think that depression in students are over exaggerated and they are just
growing. However, the severity of one’s depression is completely unique, “The severity,
frequency and duration of symptoms will vary depending on the individual and his or her
particular illness.” It’s hard to tell if a student either is just sad because of a bad grade, or is
distracted from their personal lives. Psychological tests should be done to students who
unusually get bad grades for a short period since it is out of their character. Depression in teens
are so difficult to highlight because young people are so good at masking their emotions because
they think they are the only ones experiencing it.

Work Cited (correct MLA format): 

National Institute of Mental Health. Depression. 2007. 

This is a reputable and reliable article because the National Institute of Mental Health is a reliable
funded institute that does a lot of research into the human mind and how it affects everyday lives.
Journal on next page
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  Journal 4
 
         As a group, we collaboratively created the idea to help temporarily reduce student’s stress

and hopefully depression. We want to post funny memes that are popular between teens among

the country that many of our classmates find humorous. IF the student laughs, serotonin will be

released into the brain calming and improving their mood. We are still debating whether to create

a scavenger hunt with food at the end of the tunnel by having QR codes to scan that gives a hint

to the next meme. So far, we have created both a written proposal and proposal video. The

written proposal highlights what we hope to accomplish with our project and how we aim to get

there. Since stress has become more and more common within schools especially, our idea to

post memes around school is aimed around making students laugh. In our video, we talked about

how common depression has become in our society and how we plan to combat it with laughter

within our school. 

         Individually (Micah), I helped with the overall idea of the meme around school. I came

up with the idea since I was a former victim of depression, so I wanted to help others that are

going through what I went through. I am still debating whether to create a scavenger hunt in

addition to the meme, but as a group we are still debating. I also helped on the proposal by

coming up with the title to our project, and with the central solutionary idea which was number

1. The group and I are still trying to find school appropriate memes that will make people laugh

and reduce anxiety. This is difficult because many things today are considered offensive so we

might have to run it through Mr. Madriaga to be sure it is school appropriate. As a single person,

I haven’t done much other than the research log alone. As a group we have collaboratively
bounce ideas off of each other to be sure this project is the best it can be. We are still finding

locations to put the memes up around the school. Lastly, I have done research log 1 on

depression in students, finished research log 2, research 3and just finished research log 4. I

worked on my outline for my solutionary project outline, and just finished my research log 5

which was a book.