John
THE Policy of the PANDEMIC
About me
I am John Lazzara, a ninth grader at Darien High School. I have been in Idea since third grade at Hindley. My interests consist mostly of space, science, history, and running my Minecraft server of five years. Since I began Idea, I've always expected to make my project based on one of those aforementioned topics, but the recent circumstances of the pandemic gave me an opportunity to examine something that is still in the forefront of everyone’s minds. This particularly excites me because no one has had a chance to make it yet and there are still many facts to be uncovered.
MY PROJECT
My project is a research-based project on the policy of the pandemic. It will cover relevant political actions from the early Chinese cover-up to our most recent developments here in America. This includes executive orders, judicial opinions, and legislative proceedings, but also rhetoric from our nation's leaders. The project will also have a secondary focus on comparing the policies of states and large cities, maybe even including our town.
How do policies on mask mandates, vaccine mandates, lockdowns, and more compare state by state, and how have they changed? How did they affect case rates and death rates? What can elections and protests tell us about the changing opinions of citizens? And finally, after two years, is the pandemic over, whether due to widespread immunization or endemic status? My goal is to provide concise and well-rounded answers to these burning questions with visuals to accompany.
My Achievers' Night presentation will center around a screen displaying my video, which I estimate will be thirty minutes long. It will be formatted in such a way that viewers can glean information from it whether they're watching the whole thing intently or just milling around by my table. A trifold with background information and a timeline will accompany this. My table will also have playable demos of my Scratch game, Infection.
My Mentor
My mentor is a professor of nutritional epidemiology at Brown University. Her field of study is concerned mostly with the effects of human nutritional habits on disease and other conditions. Over the pandemic, she, her colleagues, and her students have been tracking the consequences of some pandemic policies, including obesity, malnutrition, malnourishment, and hunger.
INFECTION: The Game
EXPERIMENTAL
STABLE
I named this game "Infection" long before I even thought about naming my final project. I created it in September because our Idea teacher, Ms. Bosson, always liked us to have a fun activity accompanying every progress report. Naming it was simple because this game was a virtual version of the playground game Infection. When it came time to decide on a name for my final project, I chose to name it after my game due to its clarity, conciseness, and intriguing nature.
REFLECTION
In 2021, when the district was reorganizing its finances for the upcoming year, they very nearly canceled the achievers' program. Many Idea students (including me) wrote them letters and ended up saving the program for at least another year, and maybe more. In the middle of eighth grade, when it was time to select classes for my freshman year of high school, I thought it was a given that all the Idea students would be continuing with the final year of the program. Yet, when I asked my Idea classmates what selections they made, fewer than half said they would be continuing. I was astonished. I had been long awaiting the Idea grand finale since I attended my cousins' Idea nights years before. This year of Idea has been my favorite so far, and while I didn't get to finish everything I had hoped in time, it kindled an interest in this topic that I will be continuing to look into for the foreseeable future.
CURRENT MINI GOAL (#6)
I will finish my timeline and my script, and then record the vocal elements. Next, I want to collect graphic, video, audio, and other assets to use in my documentary. Theoretically, I can start that process now, but it would be best to focus on more crucial details first. I need to meet with my mentor again soon to get her advice and cameo. I will then edit my video once I have all these parts organized, and show it to a few test subjects independently, mainly to judge viewer experience, understanding, and reaction, after which I will revise, compile, and render its final version to display at Achievers' Night.
PROGRESS REPORT #5
PROGRESS REPORT #4
Progress Report #3
Progress Report #2
For my second mini-goal, I collected and organized more research, both online and in print. I accomplished sorting my articles into categories and creating an even bigger stack of newspapers. Luckily, I haven't yet had to make adjustments to my plan.