Blog Post #5

This has been quite the year as I conducted my research with the students in Ms. Marcilliat's health class and waited anxiously for the results.

Based on the results I received, I know there is a possibility Brand and Flow can be effective for teenagers in other schools. My graphs indicated progress in how the students are able to identify and cope with stress. Most students said they found the program to be useful in helping them navigate their stress. Looking at these graphs, we can see how through the month, the majority of students claimed they thought about and/or applied Brand and Flow at least once or multiple times a week, which indicates the program had a positive impact. Most students said they might to use Brand and Flow in the future, but they didn't know. This provides hope that the program had enough of an impact on the students that they know it is an option for them in case they need a strategy to navigate stress. Using this, I could move forward with my research and prove its complete effectiveness in high schools around the country.

Doing this project, I was able to learn more about myself as a researcher. I know that I can work well with others and I have the ability to work through solutions when things don't go according to plan. I know how to create a detailed paper and how to speak well in front of judges.

From my research paper and oral presentation, I learned how difficult it is to attempt to write everything down I needed to. I had to leave some important information out of my oral presentation because of limited time. This hurt my presentation because the judges weren't able to be given all of the information from my project, which led to some misunderstandings. All I could do was attempt to include the missing information in my paper, which proved to be difficult as well. I had a limited word count and it was difficult to write down all of the information I needed to. I did my best with writing as much information as I could in captions because those words aren't included in the word count. I can use this in my future learning because I have experience with writing detailed information in not too many words. I know how to create an oral presentation and talk efficiently and clearly.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Brian Fuller, Michele Carter, Ms. Marcilliat, and Ms Dobos for their aid during my project. Each of these people were an amazing help when I went through my research process. Without Fuller, Carter, and Marcilliat I wouldn't have been able to bring Brand and Flow into the school and have it taught to students. Without Ms. Dobos, I wouldn't have known how to go about my research process and I wouldn't have been inspired to use Brand and Flow for my research.

Abstract

This paper will dive into the workings of Brand and Flow, a program designed to help people navigate through stress, including the triggers and the ways to avoid it. It will guide the reader through how I implemented Brand and Flow into a health class at Rock Canyon High School. I worked with the creators of the program to design a lesson plan for the students. Once everything was organized, the creators of the program came into the class to personally teach Brand and Flow. The lectures were split into two days, the first one focused on flow and the other on brand. The students were involved in group and individual work, all guiding them through the process of discovering their brand and navigating states of flow. During this time, I was studying how well the students interacted with the speakers and how well they were participating with the work they were given. The students were given a pre and post survey, which helped me analyze how effective the program was. The study lasted roughly a month, where I analyzed how well the students absorbed/applied the information they learned in their lives. Everyone came back to the classroom for a debriefing and post survey for the study. I informed the students of my goal for the project and the speakers tested their memory with a review of the different states of flow. This study was important in the process of having more resources for teenagers who suffer from stress.

What's Next in My Personal Journey

Next year, I will be attending CU Boulder with a major in astronomy. I am very excited to be going to this school. It is number one in the country for astronomy, so I know I will have an excellent education. I am in the honors program for the school, which is very exciting. After college, I intend to go to graduate school to further my education. My career goal is to become an astrobiologist, which is the search and study of life on other planets. I find it fascinating and I can't wait to study it.