Introduction
For my second Apollo project this school year I chose Epilepsy. Epilepsy is a neurological disorder in which nerve cell activity in the brain is disturbed, causing seizures. For my project I looked at different medicines for epilepsy and I gained a better understanding of the challenges epileptics.
Language Arts
For the language arts portion of my project I wrote a writing piece in the form of a journal. I incorporated perspective into my project by writing the journal in the perspective of an epileptic. My journal had five entries. The first entry explained what epilepsy is and what is it like for an epileptic when they have a seizure. The second entry explained what life is like for an epileptic and talked about the social isolated that epileptics tend to feel. The third journal entry I explained the different medications epileptics take and the side effects that come with them. The fourth journal entry discussed the other different types of treatments that epileptics can try if medication is not working for them. The fifth journal entry was a conclusion for the journal and summarized everything that was discussed in the other four journal entries. If you would like to read the journal click the button below.
History
For the history portion of my project I wrote an argumentative essay that discussed different animals that are used to make medicine. The essay argued that it is not okay to kill animals to make medicine. Animals that were discussed throughout the essay include Pangolins, the Asian Tiger, and Water Buffalos. If you would like to read the essay click the button below.
Art
For the art portion of my project I decided to create a painting. Originally I was going to create two paintings. For one of the paintings I was going to make the painting vibrate to incorporate the perspective of someone with epilepsy having a seizure. For the second painting I was going to paint the same thing just without the vibration to compare the two. However, making the painting vibrate and painting while it was vibrating was very difficult and I couldn't quite get it to work. For my painting I decided to paint a penguin because during the research portion of my project I remembered finding an article explaining why penguins symbolize epilepsy. The article compared penguins living in the harsh, cold conditions of Antarctica to people living with the harsh conditions of epilepsy. The penguin is also the logo for the National Epilepsy Foundation. I looked up a simple and easy tutorial video online and followed along with that. After practicing a few of the penguins I realized that I wanted my penguin to have a different look, so I looked up another tutorial online. Once I decided that I really liked those penguins and they were easy enough for me to pain I started thinking of a background. For my background I decided to paint a sunset. I went with purple for the color of my sunset since purple is the national color for epilepsy. Once I decided I liked the sunset I decided to put everything together. The final painting was of a penguin standing on a rock with a purple sunset background. Below is the final painting.