Friday, October 26, 2007
My stem cell research report...
It's easy to find material on Stem cell research and cloning, almost too easy. No matter how i search the internet i get thousands of results. Searching and sifting through tons of articles and books makes it hard to find the ones with information at my intellectual level or articles that are relevent to my specific writing objective. So far my knowledge on stem cell research in the area of science has grown exponentially, but i struggle to find new information on the ethics side of the arguement. Scientists are generally for the research and any one with judeo-christian beliefs are generally against it.
Friday, October 19, 2007
Why and Who...
Audience:
I want my paper to apply to everyone. It seems that everyone has some opinion on Stem Cell Research either for or against it. And if we look even more in depth we find that even these two categories are divided within themselves. Because my audience is so diverse I have to touch on almost every category of research; science, religion, and politics. To choose one specific audience would be to leave out pertinent information of another category. Religion must know the science aspect to make an informed decision. Accordingly, politics must learn the religious standpoint to satisfy their constituents.
Purpose:
I want to clear up several misconceptions about stem cell research and human cloning by explaining the process. Too many people hold strong beliefs on human cloning without actually know how its done, why its done, and the consequences (good and bad). After summarizing the process I will get into the arguments for and against cloning… I want to make in known why I believe what I believe and why you should too.
I want my paper to apply to everyone. It seems that everyone has some opinion on Stem Cell Research either for or against it. And if we look even more in depth we find that even these two categories are divided within themselves. Because my audience is so diverse I have to touch on almost every category of research; science, religion, and politics. To choose one specific audience would be to leave out pertinent information of another category. Religion must know the science aspect to make an informed decision. Accordingly, politics must learn the religious standpoint to satisfy their constituents.
Purpose:
I want to clear up several misconceptions about stem cell research and human cloning by explaining the process. Too many people hold strong beliefs on human cloning without actually know how its done, why its done, and the consequences (good and bad). After summarizing the process I will get into the arguments for and against cloning… I want to make in known why I believe what I believe and why you should too.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
I've got a question...
Human Cloning: Is it possible, and what would the moral/physical implications be if we succeed?
Why do so many people oppose Human Cloning and Stem Cell Research if the projected benefits are so great?
Stem Cell Research and Human Cloning: Scientists live for results, but who dies for results?
Why do so many people oppose Human Cloning and Stem Cell Research if the projected benefits are so great?
Stem Cell Research and Human Cloning: Scientists live for results, but who dies for results?
Monday, October 15, 2007
Exploring My Research Topic
Part I: Exploration
1. Identify the issue or problem that you plan to focus on in your research project.
Human cloning and stem cell research
2. What is your personal connection to and interest in this topic?
I have a small ‘personal’ connection to cloning. It is a contemporary topic that generates a lot of debate both medically and religiously.
3. What opinions do you already hold about this topic?
I don’t think human cloning should be legal but I understand it could possibly lead to some amazing medical breakthroughs that could help many people. The negative consequences outweigh the possible benefits.
4. What knowledge do you already have about this topic?
I know only the basics of cloning. I want to learn more so that I can have a strong foundation for my beliefs rather than pure opinion and speculation.
5. What are your main questions about this topic? What are you most curious about?
What are the possible alternatives to cloning? Science today is progressing so fast there must be some way to treat horrible medical conditions without exploiting and destroying (killing) life.
6. Within what scholarly discipline (such as history, biology, psychology) do you expect to do most of your research? How does this discipline approach or study this topic?
My research will begin scientifically. No one should make a statement or an
argument without knowing as much as they can on that topic. After I gain as much knowledge as I can scientifically I hope to move on to the moral side of the argument, figure out why a topic seeming so scientific can cause debate in every age bracket, income level and every major religion.
7. How could you research this topic outside the library (for example, through interviews and/or observations)?
Everyone knows about cloning, but not everyone understands it the same way. I could go up to any student on campus and get their opinion on cloning, but that would only prove people know what cloning is and that people have opinions. It won’t prove each students has the knowledge to have an educated opinion
Part II: Focusing
Write an initial claim, or an open-ended question, to guide your research on this topic. Make it specific but exploratory. Remember that a good claim opens up an area of inquiry about a topic; a claim should invite evidence, support, and debate.
How is cloning related to stem cell research and what are the physical and moral repercussions individually and as a whole?
Part I: Exploration
1. Identify the issue or problem that you plan to focus on in your research project.
Human cloning and stem cell research
2. What is your personal connection to and interest in this topic?
I have a small ‘personal’ connection to cloning. It is a contemporary topic that generates a lot of debate both medically and religiously.
3. What opinions do you already hold about this topic?
I don’t think human cloning should be legal but I understand it could possibly lead to some amazing medical breakthroughs that could help many people. The negative consequences outweigh the possible benefits.
4. What knowledge do you already have about this topic?
I know only the basics of cloning. I want to learn more so that I can have a strong foundation for my beliefs rather than pure opinion and speculation.
5. What are your main questions about this topic? What are you most curious about?
What are the possible alternatives to cloning? Science today is progressing so fast there must be some way to treat horrible medical conditions without exploiting and destroying (killing) life.
6. Within what scholarly discipline (such as history, biology, psychology) do you expect to do most of your research? How does this discipline approach or study this topic?
My research will begin scientifically. No one should make a statement or an
argument without knowing as much as they can on that topic. After I gain as much knowledge as I can scientifically I hope to move on to the moral side of the argument, figure out why a topic seeming so scientific can cause debate in every age bracket, income level and every major religion.
7. How could you research this topic outside the library (for example, through interviews and/or observations)?
Everyone knows about cloning, but not everyone understands it the same way. I could go up to any student on campus and get their opinion on cloning, but that would only prove people know what cloning is and that people have opinions. It won’t prove each students has the knowledge to have an educated opinion
Part II: Focusing
Write an initial claim, or an open-ended question, to guide your research on this topic. Make it specific but exploratory. Remember that a good claim opens up an area of inquiry about a topic; a claim should invite evidence, support, and debate.
How is cloning related to stem cell research and what are the physical and moral repercussions individually and as a whole?
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Synthesis Time
This is my awesome, well structured outline...
Stoll-
Filmstrips, you don’t have to think
Social skills diminished, Interaction, parents, teachers… 3+4= ‘7 what?’
Don’t need them for jobs of the future, I.E. plumbers…need people skills
School ain’t fun, it’s supposed to be about Discipline, commitment, responsibility
Eventually libraries disappear
Angry about this situation
Ohmann-
Since computers parental involvement skyrocketed…Colorado springs
Union City NJ, highest test scores… Hundred W. VA. also
Larger educational implications are unknown
Kill switched to avoid internet distractions
Education is big business and Business calls the political tune
Big business sells to universities, then universities to students, what happens to teachers?
Easier to plagiarize…then new software to catch it
Good and bad, use it, don’t abuse it
First draft.... rough start, but im working out the bugs.
Stoll opens with a story that our generation may or may not relate to. He looks back to his school experiences and picks out filmstrips. For him a filmstrip lesson was a time for him to quit paying attention, zone out, and stop thinking. He challenges his readers to recall three filmstrips that really impacted our life, but assumes that we can’t. Then Stoll asks us to name three teachers and implies that can be done easily and carries far more importance. Of course we remember our teachers because they taught us for a year at a time, every subject back in grade school. So how does this relate back to filmstrips? I’ve never been through a year long course of nothing but video, if I did I would surely remember it as well as any teacher. When Ohmann speaks on the subject of technology in school he cites a documented fact; At least two schools, one in Union City, NJ and one in Hundred, W. VA., report drastically improved test scores after incorporating computers and technology. This won’t be the case with all schools. Computers can’t help every child in ever school but it helped these children.
A big concern these days is parental involvement. Stoll worries that parents will sit there children down in front of a computer and walk away. He notes that computers can’t be as interactive and intuitive as a human. Three plus four is seven, a computer can do that. But can a computer give you seven and accept the millions of abstract answers a teacher wants in critical thinking? Ohmann answers this like any sane person, no a computer can’t do all those things. But being objective, as Stoll is obviously not, Ohmann reports that parental involvement has ‘skyrocketed’ at a school in Colorado Springs since the introduction of computers.
Stoll believes that technology and computers are becoming too big a part of our curriculum. He believes in the next hundred years we’ll still need plumbers, and janitor, and mechanics. This assumption is, of course, very logical. We will need all these professions, probably forever, but technology gives us the opportunity to make them easier and faster. Ohmann points out that schools and universities are designed to prepare students for the real world and prepare us for the job market. Whether it’s good or bad, technology is important in our schools because that’s what employers are looking for.
Stoll-
Filmstrips, you don’t have to think
Social skills diminished, Interaction, parents, teachers… 3+4= ‘7 what?’
Don’t need them for jobs of the future, I.E. plumbers…need people skills
School ain’t fun, it’s supposed to be about Discipline, commitment, responsibility
Eventually libraries disappear
Angry about this situation
Ohmann-
Since computers parental involvement skyrocketed…Colorado springs
Union City NJ, highest test scores… Hundred W. VA. also
Larger educational implications are unknown
Kill switched to avoid internet distractions
Education is big business and Business calls the political tune
Big business sells to universities, then universities to students, what happens to teachers?
Easier to plagiarize…then new software to catch it
Good and bad, use it, don’t abuse it
First draft.... rough start, but im working out the bugs.
Stoll opens with a story that our generation may or may not relate to. He looks back to his school experiences and picks out filmstrips. For him a filmstrip lesson was a time for him to quit paying attention, zone out, and stop thinking. He challenges his readers to recall three filmstrips that really impacted our life, but assumes that we can’t. Then Stoll asks us to name three teachers and implies that can be done easily and carries far more importance. Of course we remember our teachers because they taught us for a year at a time, every subject back in grade school. So how does this relate back to filmstrips? I’ve never been through a year long course of nothing but video, if I did I would surely remember it as well as any teacher. When Ohmann speaks on the subject of technology in school he cites a documented fact; At least two schools, one in Union City, NJ and one in Hundred, W. VA., report drastically improved test scores after incorporating computers and technology. This won’t be the case with all schools. Computers can’t help every child in ever school but it helped these children.
A big concern these days is parental involvement. Stoll worries that parents will sit there children down in front of a computer and walk away. He notes that computers can’t be as interactive and intuitive as a human. Three plus four is seven, a computer can do that. But can a computer give you seven and accept the millions of abstract answers a teacher wants in critical thinking? Ohmann answers this like any sane person, no a computer can’t do all those things. But being objective, as Stoll is obviously not, Ohmann reports that parental involvement has ‘skyrocketed’ at a school in Colorado Springs since the introduction of computers.
Stoll believes that technology and computers are becoming too big a part of our curriculum. He believes in the next hundred years we’ll still need plumbers, and janitor, and mechanics. This assumption is, of course, very logical. We will need all these professions, probably forever, but technology gives us the opportunity to make them easier and faster. Ohmann points out that schools and universities are designed to prepare students for the real world and prepare us for the job market. Whether it’s good or bad, technology is important in our schools because that’s what employers are looking for.
Thursday, September 6, 2007
They Say/ I Say
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/06/opinion/lweb06guns.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
In my search for a writing that contains 'They Say/I Say' i came across a letter written and published in the New York Times as an editorial. The topic is gun control. The original editorial claims that a new bill, the NICS Improvement Act of 2007, has nothing to do with veterans. The rebuttal letter, written by Josh Horwitz, is a perfect example of referring to what others say, then jumping in the argument. Horwitz quotes word for word what was written in a previous editorial then he argues that the editorial he is responding to is incorrect. He has evidence that the new bill was modified in its late stages. With the help of information from a well known organization, the NRA, Horowitz aims to clear the air. It's clear that the purpose of this writing is to correct a flawed argument and reassure veterans that their rights are not being changed.
In my search for a writing that contains 'They Say/I Say' i came across a letter written and published in the New York Times as an editorial. The topic is gun control. The original editorial claims that a new bill, the NICS Improvement Act of 2007, has nothing to do with veterans. The rebuttal letter, written by Josh Horwitz, is a perfect example of referring to what others say, then jumping in the argument. Horwitz quotes word for word what was written in a previous editorial then he argues that the editorial he is responding to is incorrect. He has evidence that the new bill was modified in its late stages. With the help of information from a well known organization, the NRA, Horowitz aims to clear the air. It's clear that the purpose of this writing is to correct a flawed argument and reassure veterans that their rights are not being changed.
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