February 15th
Last month's SDA/Midterm relied heavily on collaboration. The C's I aim to focus on in the upcoming project are critical thinking and curiosity. In last week's post, in my head, I was starting to formulate a goal towards the SDA and an audience/significance to it to improve my critical thinking. I already know I will have no problem hitting creativity, or I would have included it, but in my SDA in November, I lost that drive/passion for the project, which I think is clearly shown. I chose SDA ideas with an artistic side to simulate this alongside the freedom to do what I want. Also, I am choosing to focus on what happened to me, so I will obviously be curious.
I am making a picture book this month due to several factors. I can keep the idea smaller/more light-hearted than a podcast or ripple effect. I also have a long plane ride ahead of me, which made me think to choose this because that is [rime drawing time. I also have developed a solid idea of what to write and how to execute it. This SDA can move fast, but I am moving faster, especially with a break coming up. My vision for my SDA this month, will be a case study" on Keratitis- an eye infection that is common after not taking proper care of contacts. My target audience would be people who want to wear contacts in the future or are new to them because they do not understand how serious taking that care is- generally speaking (I am guilty). Due to this purpose, I want to name the book "Care"-atitis, as a play on words. This SDA should read like a story rather than a nonfiction book. I also am aiming for it to have a dual ending. One is where the character goes to the doctor and gets treatment (that I will research), and the other is where the character had permanent effects from the infection, which the doctors say could have happened had I come any later. The dual ending would work like in the book The Oregon Trail, with page numbers to turn to for different "choices."
Again, thinking ahead- I know I need to hit that critical thinking C, which I planned out using SPECS.
Significance - It is important because there are so many contact lens wearers throughout the United States and the world. Also, I like to think of it as a personal project because I need to know what happened to me since I research things to do with eyes as my passion.
Perspective - As I mentioned earlier, this picture book will affect beginner contact lens wearers or people thinking of contacts because the risks were something that my eye care providers never taught me. Now I really wish that they had.
Evidence - I still have to do research and find my scholarly source for this SDA, but after my incident, I switched my eye care to the ophthalmologist who helped me with my "blindness." I have an appointment set for sometime next week, so I can ask them a few questions and consider them an outside source. Another source I have is some picture books I signed out of the library to help structure and set up my own. The other two sources are at the bottom, and I will be digging for a scholarly article since I plan to be done story writing in the next 2-3 days.
Connections - This idea of care applies to anything in life. Things will not be healthy or stable if you do not put care into them and put in the time and effort to ensure they are well, whether that be eyes, a different part of your body, or even relationships.
Supposition - I want to change the assumption that contacts will make you blind. Yes, I know- not a great start, but talking about what happens behind contacts going wrong makes you realize it is not so bad. Many people shy away from contacts because of this fear, which I want to lessen by opening up about problems rather than just guessing random things about contacts getting stuck in your eyes and other issues. It is never wrong to assume things- we are all guilty of it, but it is wrong to yourself to shut off an entire world because of it.
Two Sources:
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/keratitis