Personal Reflections

What I Learned

Unit 2

I am still on chapter two, yet I’ve gathered a tantamount number of realizations. After completing the second chapter, I had three main takeaways.

First, I realized that I have been treating my ears wrong my entire life! I used to clean my ears using q-tips before and even though I have already heard from other people that I should not clean my ears using q-tips regularly, I still used them for some reason. However, after attending our ratio session and reading more about the effects of using q-tips on the internet, I have decided not to use them or at least try to avoid using them.

Second, I learned that there are several ear pathologies which may occur in a person’s lifetime. Some of these pathologies are acquired, while some are congenital or developed. While we still have the capacity to hear properly, we should do our best to take care of our sense of hearing. We should avoid doing activities which may damage our hearing. We can also use protective equipment to protect our ears (like using ear plugs or head caps while swimming to avoid otitis externa).

Third, the whole process of hearing finally made sense to me! (This is probably the best lesson that I’ve had. It took me long enough to understand this completely.) As mentioned on the page about hearing, the basic process of hearing is simple. The outer ear collects sound waves from the environment. Then, these sound waves reach the middle ear where they make the eardrum vibrate. After this, the vibrations will be transmitted through the ossicles, which are three tiny bones in the middle ear. Then, these vibrations travel to the inner ear (cochlea, in particular) which is a snail-shaped organ. The inner ear sends signals which are called nerve impulses to the brain. The brain then recognizes them as sounds.

After completing this e-portfolio, I have realized how interested I am about anatomy and physiology, which ironically is my weakest subject in high school. I love learning about how the human body works and I hope to maintain this enthusiasm about anatomy and physiology forever.