Depression Help- Our Solution
By Gabriella Vasquez, Kyle Ramser, and Christa Tsao
Our assignment was to pick a world problem that meant something to us and then use the Engineering Design Cycle to solve that problem. What I noticed in my class was that many groups chose problems that they couldn't necessarily solve such as rape, animal abuse, self harm, etc. My group went along those lines and chose to base our project on clinical depression, more specifically on how we can help others get help for their condition.
The first step to solving this problem was to start researching what we were dealing with. My group split up and researched different components of our problem. I focused on what is happening on in the brain with all the chemicals and genes and how medication reacts in the body. Kyle focused on professional help, while Christa focused on self help. We then came together to brainstorm ideas and decided the best way to incorporate everyone's ideas would to be make a website. The last couple of days working on this assignment went into creating our website on Wix.com. We split up the different pages based on what we did our research on and tried to include as much as possible and relevant. My pages were the Global Distress Survey and Gene Research pages, and we all helped design the home page. I chose to include these pages for a number of reasons. The Global Distress Survey is a series of questions that may appear in a doctors office when you go in to be assessed for depression or other mental illnesses. At the end of the survey it gives you a number and that number represents your level of distress. More information about this is on my website. My other page was on Gene research. The page includes a description of what Gene Research is: The research of how different genes and chemicals affect ones mood in the brain and how certain medication can help level out the chemical imbalances. The purpose to this would be to create better and more individualized medications. Our page also has a link to a site where you can donate to the research and another link for more information. Along with my group members pages, our website has all the components needed to give the best help of our abilities to our community. The last step of our project would be to send out the information and the link to local schools and administrators so that they can give these resources to as many people in our county as possible.
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Concepts
The Engineering Process: Identify the Problem- My team decided our problem would be the undealt with clinical depression amongst the teens in our community. Research- We split up and researched different topics related to depression help, and the pages we used for our research is written down on our "Work Cited" page on our website. I did my research on what goes on in the brain of someone who suffers from depression and how certain chemicals affect ones mood. Brainstorm Solutions- After discussing what we researched, we brainstormed a bunch of ideas. Coming up with a good answer proved to be a little difficult because antidepressants already exist and you can't do much for mental illnesses if you're a high school student. Choose a Plan- Out of all our possible solutions, we decided the best way to incorporate it all would be to make a website. This way, we would be able to include everyone's research and try our best to help others in need. In our website, we've included the Global Distress Survey, Self help tips, Professional help resources, and Gene Research information and funding. Construct a Prototype- We then proceeded to write out what we were each going to include on our pages, created an account on WIX, and then set to work on our website. We spent the next few days designing the website and finding the best ways to display the information. Test and Evaluate Prototype- After separately working on our pages, we came together and viewed our website as if looking at it in someone else's perspective. We then commented on each other's pages and went back to make the changes. We also got the opinion of other people at our school. Communicate Design- We sent out the link to our completed website to other people in our STEM class and others at our school to get their opinion on our content and give us feedback on what should be added. Redesign- Then we took that feedback and fine tuned our website to get ready to present our idea to our class. Repeat. Other Concepts: Clinical Depression- "Depression ranges in seriousness from mild, temporary episodes of sadness to severe, persistent depression. Clinical depression is the more-severe form of depression, also known as major depression or major depressive disorder. It isn't the same as depression caused by a loss, such as the death of a loved one, or a medical condition, such as a thyroid disorder. Symptoms are usually severe enough to cause noticeable problems in relationships with others or in day-to-day activities, such as work, school or social activities." -Mayo Clinic. Antidepressants- Anything (esp. a drug) used to prevent or treat depression Gene Research- "Genetic Research is a key forum for original research on all aspects of human and animal genetics, reporting key findings on genes, mutations and molecular interactions leading to a better understanding of human disease." -Cambridge University |
Reflection
This was one of my favorite projects of the year because it really gave us the freedom to go in any direction we wanted while solving a world problem. I really enjoyed this project, mostly because we got to pick our topics. Many people I know and are close with have dealt with depression and/or are too scared to search out for help, so being able to provide resources for them was a big deal to me. One thing I learned during this project was how to properly annotate and pick my resources. Writing a couple words to summarize each paragraph really helped me understand what I was reading and what information was the best for my project. Another thing I believe went well was my leadership ability. In past projects, I tended to stand back and let my group members do most of the work. But for this project, because it was based on a subject I had strong feelings about, I believe I really took control of this project and improved on my leadership skills. One thing for me that still needs work is time management. At the beginning of the project, we each created a Gantt Chart and I believe that the one we created was reasonable, but on around the fourth day of our project we started getting behind and eventually ignored the chart we had made. One more thing that I need to work on is communication, particularly in design. Since we split up the work and made different pages on the website, we never really talked about the design of our website such as color scheme, how our information was to be presented, the images that would be included, etc. When we finally came back together and looked at each others work, I realized each page looked so different, and then we had to go back and spend more time on fixing it so it came together. But at the end of it all, I am very proud on what we have created and I was glad with our presentation and that fact that we made something that could potentially help someone very much.
This was one of my favorite projects of the year because it really gave us the freedom to go in any direction we wanted while solving a world problem. I really enjoyed this project, mostly because we got to pick our topics. Many people I know and are close with have dealt with depression and/or are too scared to search out for help, so being able to provide resources for them was a big deal to me. One thing I learned during this project was how to properly annotate and pick my resources. Writing a couple words to summarize each paragraph really helped me understand what I was reading and what information was the best for my project. Another thing I believe went well was my leadership ability. In past projects, I tended to stand back and let my group members do most of the work. But for this project, because it was based on a subject I had strong feelings about, I believe I really took control of this project and improved on my leadership skills. One thing for me that still needs work is time management. At the beginning of the project, we each created a Gantt Chart and I believe that the one we created was reasonable, but on around the fourth day of our project we started getting behind and eventually ignored the chart we had made. One more thing that I need to work on is communication, particularly in design. Since we split up the work and made different pages on the website, we never really talked about the design of our website such as color scheme, how our information was to be presented, the images that would be included, etc. When we finally came back together and looked at each others work, I realized each page looked so different, and then we had to go back and spend more time on fixing it so it came together. But at the end of it all, I am very proud on what we have created and I was glad with our presentation and that fact that we made something that could potentially help someone very much.