First, let me start off by saying, we have all seen litter. If you live in the city you see it every day. But, did you know that because of this litter, the litter that is just a part of every day life, there is an island of trash two times the size of Texas floating in the Pacific ocean? Just think about that. You know how big your city is? Now think of your state. Now Texas. Now think of two of Texas side by side. Now imagine that is made of trash. That is a lot of trash, and the sea life is dying because of it. I had heard of this “trash island” before but I found an article on the New York Times website that I found really interesting and informative. You can check that out here.

The biggest source of litter is cigarette butts. Though small they can be very dangerous. The butts contain harmful chemicals, including arsenic, that can contaminate water and soil. The problem is that there are so many of them lying on the ground. For example: I was waiting for the bus the other day and saw just a few cigarette butts, but as I looked more, I counted at least 20 of them within 5 feet of me. So now cigarettes can harm us even if we don’t smoke.

In doing my research I also found this very interesting website that had tons of information, some of which included a pie chart on the most common litter. I did not realize until later, when I came across the same organization’s clean up project for a different year, that this information was for Australia. It made me realize that littering is not just a problem in America, but around the world, and that other countries have similar organizations that have the same mission. You can check out that website here, and the pdf for their annual “Rubbish Report” here.

My bibliography is on a public google document. You can check it out here.

In English, we are all participating in a project called You and the World. This is a project where the students all choose a topic that appears in the news, and share their findings with everyone. For my topic I chose Poverty and Hunger in Philadelphia. I chose this topic because this is one of the biggest problems in America today. People are living in the streets and are starving and sick and cannot get the right care. I see these people every day walking to school, and I think about how different my life would be in their shoes.

For starters, we should probably consider what hunger looks like. When most people think of hunger they think of Africa, or India or Vietnam. They think of the poor kids with the big eyes and the skin and bone bodies, or with the pale complexions. No one thinks about what could be happening in their backyard. In America hunger looks very different. Hunger is parents skipping meals so their kids can eat. Or a person eating one meal a day so they can pay for a roof over their head. Hunger can even look like obesity. This is because when people cannot afford food, they pay for cheap unhealthy fast food, because parents are so worried about their children not eating at all, that they will buy whatever they can afford. No one realizes just how bad hunger can be. 

Of the twenty five biggest cities in America, Philadelphia is the second worst when it comes to percentage in poverty, and average housing income. This is because Philadelphia is also one of the most expensive cities to live in. The only large city worse in these categories is Detroit. From 2010 to 2011, the poverty rate in Philadelphia jumped from 26.7% to 28.4%. In Philadelphia one in eight households are suffering from some kind of poverty. In America, fifty million people went hungry last year. The job market is also largely responsible for this. Since the people do not have jobs they cannot provide for themselves. Minimum wage jobs are not helping the situation. Of the Americans living in Poverty, 70% of the families have at least one member working some kind of job. To see some charts and graphs describing poverty in Philadelphia click here.

Hunger in Philadelphia is not just a lower class problem anymore. The bottom of the middle class is also being greatly affected by hunger, and if hunger and poverty continue to progress the way they have been, then soon more and more of the middle class will be suffering.

When you here about all of these statistics, you probably are thinking, “wow I didn’t know hunger was that bad”, or maybe “if something doesn’t get done soon, could hunger and poverty start to affect families like mine?”. Both of those thoughts are important steps in stopping hunger.

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Hello and greetings from Science Leadership Academy! I am Lindsey Jones, a freshman coming to you to inform you about a serious world issue that has affected the majority. The topic I chose was “Gay Rights”. Yes, it may sound like a very cliche topic to do, but in all honestly it is something that interests me the most. Before I go into the discussion, I would like to tell you that I am refraining from telling my personal views on gay rights and whether I support them or not. I believe that if I come into this project without a clear and free mind, my beliefs will prevent me from seeing the true picture for what it is and gathering the correct information properly. Please respect this choice. It will come in handy later.

Throughout world history there has been many controversial topics that have shaped the world into what it is today. From women’s rights to civil rights, there has been struggle. But in modern day society, one of the main topics of discussion is gay marriage/rights.  In this You and The World project, we are brought up with a world issue, and must find ways that could possibly help with it and inform the society of what is going on. I hope throughout the research I do, I will learn, and you all will be able to learn too. Some people tend to back things they are not properly educated on, or because the majority backs it. Which is something completely ignorant to do. Gay rights are something that is either are yes or no topic. You either stand by it or you don’t. But what are our reasons for standing by it? What are our reasons not to? This project is something that I hope really makes us all think about it.

My issue is gay rights and gay marriage. Though I personally support gay marriage, I am doing research to help see all perspectives on the issue, because one must know what they are fighting against in order to fight it. I am also researching how gay rights struggles reflect the struggles of African-American people in the 20th century, and the controversy on whether gay rights are civil rights or not.

Let me give a little background information. Homosexuality, by definition, is having sexual feelings for someone of the same sex. Homosexuality has been shunned upon for centuries due to different understandings of religious texts and the time-old fear of anything different from the norm. Some Christians believe homosexuality to be a sin. Others believe that marriage can only be “an exclusive union of a man and a woman,” never for a man and a man or a woman and a woman. In some countries still, homosexuality is a punishable crime. For example in Iran, any people caught having same sex relations are punishable by death. 

The civil rights movement was partially driven by the idea of black pride, celebrating ones heritages and embracing oneself. Isn’t it that same idea, of pride in being oneself, that drives that gay rights movement? Marshall Brown’s last point about being able to easily hide ones sexuality addresses this same point. If it was possible to hide the color of your skin, would you do it? The civil rights movement was a fight against having to live a life built for them - a fight to live independently and equally with everyone regardless of their differences. LGBTQ people want a life where they can live without being judged by their differences - a life where they have the rights to the same privileges as everyone else regardless of sexuality. Aren’t those fights the same? If so, can LGBTQ people win like African-Americans did?

I want to help show young people that you should take pride in being oneself - whether you are gay or japanese or black. I want to show how your own struggles with race and faith reflect gay rights and sexual equality. I want to show that everyone wants to be happy as much as you want to be happy, and why ruin anothers chance of happiness when you do not get a reward? True happiness is being free of judgement - so why not free someone else? 

I chose teen driving because now that I am in high school, I will soon reach the age where driving becomes a big stepping stone into the adult community. Many adults don’t drive; however, if our communities continue growing and expanding then driving will have to be a need-to-know skill. 

For the You and the World project I am going to be writing blog posts concerning my topic of choice - Teen Driving: Distractions. I am going to include statistics and visuals along with the different aspects of distractions while teenagers are behind the wheel.  

For teen drivers, texting is a main issue. Texting while driving veers your attention from the road, causing accidents because you are not paying attention. Another distraction is talking on the phone. Talking on the phone while driving can cause accidents too because the teen is not focused on the road and the task of driving.

This topic could be confusing because children are raised with the idea of no texting or talking while driving, but their parents may be doing the exact thing that is “illegal”. Click here to see which states have laws on cell phone use, both texting and talking. 

I know that my parents talk on the phone in the car. My mom would quickly call my dad to let him know she is almost home, or if she’s in traffic. I would call my dad when he’s driving home from work to let him know I got home safe. I think there are times you can’t avoid talking on the phone. What if your mom calls you when you’re driving? You may not answer and she’ll become super worried. Pull over and talk to her. But what if you can’t pull over? In my opinion, if you are a skilled driver and are not going super fast, then you could quickly inform your parent. However, if you use these as excuses for calling your friends about Friday night, then it’s wrong. 

Regarding the above image, teens said that they would give up cell phone use if there were legal prohibitions against and various limits on cell phone usage. Also, teens said if they got an insurance discount, they would easily give up their cell phone. When surveyed, sixty-six percent of teens said their parents could influence them in giving up their phone, whereas forty-seven percent said their peers could influence them to give up their phone.

I found this website very informative. It helped me understand the dangers of driving while texting. The site has a great interactive driving course that included driving while texting and much more challenges. In future blog posts I will take this interactive course and include my results and facts. It is an interesting challenge that will help me with my research and blog postings. 

Click here to view my bibliography and follow me on my twitter for alerts when I update.

Thank you for reading! My second blog post is found here. My third blog post is found here.

This

may seem ideal, but it is the opposite. When researching GMOs, scientists found that there was a connection between GMOs and various types of cancer, organ failure or destruction, and miscarriage. Also, while some of the GMOs are successful, many are not. This is very wasteful, and some of the GMOs end up being harmful. The USA is one of the few countries that has NOT banned the use of GMOs in food. All of Europe, Japan, and India have banned GMOs because the extent of the damage isn’t predictable or even fully known. GMOs are awful for people, and currently in the USA, food corporations do NOT have to put on the packaging label of a food product that it contains GMOs.

Recently California attempted to take a huge stand against food companies who falsely label their products. Proposition 37 also called “Right to Know” tried to ban companies from labeling foods with GMOs as “natural.” Even though Prop 37 failed to pass, this has sparked a food revolution! California would’ve been the FIRST state to force companies to label their products that have GMOs.

Throughout my research I hope to enrich my understanding of the food industry. I want to help make labeling food packages, with everything that is in them, including GMOs or antibiotics, required. I believe that everyone has the right to know what they eat. Major companies argue that labeling food packages with GMOs or antibiotics would cause unneeded panic, but people should be worried. In reality, only few people know exactly what they’re eating. In order to become healthier and stay safe, I feel that labeling food packages correctly is necessary.