Jennifer George

Mr. Leinbach

Technology 9

3 March 2017

GH Reflection #2 Blog Post

 

Our class got the opportunity to do a second genius hour presentation. For our second round, we were told to expand our knowledge, and try and research something that was a little more serious than our first topic. As a class, our goal was to come up with a topic that would be learned through not just google, but through experts on twitter.

The topic I decided to research for the past few weeks is on Abortions. Recently, I’ve been hearing a lot of stories on abortions, and jumped to conclusions, without actually knowing the process behind it. So, I took it as an opportunity to research about it. Another reason why I chose this topic, was because I wanted to spend some time studying about a topic that usually would not cross my mind.

Through this choice of topic, I was able to learn a lot. To begin, I got to deeply understand the definition of an abortion, understand the thinking process behind it, and the procedure / risks that comes with it. Some facts that helped understand my knowledge include; an abortion is the medical process of ending a pregnancy so it doesn’t result in the birth of a baby. This is done by either taking medications, or having a minor surgical procedure. It’s important to note that about one out of three of women will have an abortion in their lifetime. There are many subcategories of reasons why women would decide to have an abortion. These subcategories fit into the two main categories of it being a personal choice, or the “to be mom” just not physically being able to carry the child. Some specific reasons include:

• Not enough money to support their family
• Enough kids already
• Birth control failure
• Unwanted pregnancy
• Too young
• Endanger health reasons

In continuation, some risks that come with having an abortion are; Infections of the womb –  (occurs in every one out of 10 abortions)

• Some of the pregnancy remaining in the womb – Very very rare
• Excessive bleeding – occurs in about 1 in every 1,000 abortions
• Damage to the womb
• Damage to other organs
• Scarring of the uterine lining

Learning about abortions did help me grow as a person. Before spending some quality researching about such a serious topic, I always used to think that women that decided to go through the process of having an abortion, were cruel, and didn’t have feelings for the fetus. Learning in depth about abortions, helped open my mind to new understandings. It made me realise that there is more than one side to a story, and that I always have to listen to both sides before jumping to conclusions.

I wouldn’t say that the information I learned and shared to my class, in any way, shape, or form affected the world, or the community around me as I was only able to share my information to a small audience. However, I believe that the presentation I gave may have affected my classmate’s viewpoints on this topic as some of them – at first- shared the same opinion as I did, before spending some time researching on the topic of abortions. Meaning, before giving my presentation, I went around and interviewed a few students on their perspective on abortions. As I thought, all said, “Women who decide to have an abortion are doing it out of cruelty, and have no heart.” After giving my speech, I proceeded to ask the same students I interviewed previously, how they now felt about Abortions, and most if not all said, “Now that you’ve given this presentation, I now have a greater appreciation for women that decide to go through this, because I now understand the ideologies and motifs, behind this procedure.”

What I decide to spend my time researching in my next Genius Hour presentation, will help my community, as I will try to talk about a topic that affects the country I live in. Although I do not know what topic I will actually give my speech on, I do believe that Senegal has a few problems, that many teachers and students do not  touch on because of how enclosed in this “American like” school we go to, we are. As a student who identifies herself as a Senegalese, I do feel as though I have a small responsibility to inform the people around me about small problems in my Country. 

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