Research Log #6 - Solutionary Project 2020 (Book)

 
Date: 11 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: #3 Depression affects their relationships with other students and teachers.
 
 
Excerpts (These should provide insight into the Point to Prove): 

One of the first questions asked during the interview, Dr. Schatz responds by saying, “‘How does
depression affect family life?’ ‘It’s a systemic problem, so if a child’s depressed, the parents are
gonna have concern over their physical and mental well-being and it is going to create
potentially an unhealthy dynamic of blaming the patient for these familial issues…’”

Dr. Schatz goes into more detail, “Well there’s a lot of negative symptoms that include lack of
focusing, lack of sleep, inability to connect with other, low self-esteem, and all of those can have
a horrible combined effect on someone’s academic life.”

Dr. Schatz talks about how it can affect their relationship with teachers, “Not only does
depression have all those emotive effects like sadness and crying, but have interpersonal effects,
people might not feel comfortable, they might feel embarrassed or ashamed, or they don’t want
to share their problem again, no one cares. There can be a whole internal dialogue that that
person has that has a negative effect on that person’s teachers and peers.”
  
Analysis (How does this source support the Point to Prove?): 
 
Dr. Schatz gave us a lot of insight from an actual teacher’s perspective on how a
student’s depression can affect their relationships. Her first quote talks about how it may cause
close problems with the student’s parents or close loved ones. She states, “…the parents are
gonna have concern over their physical and mental well-being and it is going to create
potentially an unhealthy dynamic…” creating an atmosphere in which the parents nor the student
feel comfortable with each other. This could in turn get rid of the student’s support group,
decreasing their motivation, affecting their school life later down the line. This isn’t only
possible with their parents, but with teachers who could be an inspiring figure to them.
Another symptom of depression is making it harder to connect with others. Dr. Schatz
states later in the interview, “…negative symptoms that include lack of focusing, lack of sleep,
inability to connect with other, low self-esteem, and all of those can have a horrible combined
effect on someone’s academic life.” Like the first quote, the inability to connect with others can
worsen the student’s depression, making it harder for them to concentrate in school and out of
school. Not having that one person that you could normally tell everything to can really hurt their
motives and feelings. Not being able to talk to your teachers could also worsen the student’s
situation, because if that student usually goes to a certain teacher or faculty, and they can no
longer be social with them, it can make their days much worse. All of this can avalanche to
worse grades and a horrible school life.
Interpersonal effects from depression could also hurt the student’s ability to connect with
other students and teachers. Usually, if a student can’t talk to another person about their
problems, their situation will only worsen, and their academic life could also become worse. Dr.
Schatz expands on this during the interview, “Not only does depression have all those emotive
effects like sadness and crying, but have interpersonal effects, people might not feel comfortable,
they might feel embarrassed or ashamed, or they don’t want to share their problem again, no one
cares.” The phrase “No one cares” hurts your motivation to do anything substantial. For a
student, it could be to get good grades, impress your teachers, this interpersonal negative effect
could hurt a student’s motivation to talk to other and become successful.

Work Cited (correct MLA format): 

Schatz, Naomi. “Effects of Depression on Society.” Interview by Micah Watanabe. Maryknoll

School 11 March 2020.

This is a reputable and reliable article because Dr. Naomi Schatz has a doctorates degree from Temple
University, and a Master’s degree from Boston University.
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 log 3, research log 4, and just finished

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

research log 6 which was an interview. Additionally, our group just conducted our first

interview, and are thinking of ideas for our community service.