Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Making a List, Checking It Twice: The Countdown Begins

The man on the right also used to have a beard,
but it was likely removed as a sign of dishonor
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, SATURDAY. I CAN'T BELIEVE IT. I can count the days I have left on this beautiful campus on one hand. Last night I realized this, and madly started packing up my room. If I have most of the packing done already,  I won't have to worry about it in the last few precious moments of my trip. I am doing my best to take advantage of my last few days. It's a combination of juggling the increasing workload leading up to the last day of class and cramming in the last few things on my to do list before I leave.

I really enjoyed today's lecture about Autism, and was quite taken with our guest speakers. We had two women come in and speak about their work in Applied Behavior Analysis, where they performed home visits to help young children with autism improve problematic behaviors and gain skills to function successfully in the world. They both seemed very passionate about their work, and laughed about how lucky they were to be in the minority of people who love their jobs.

After lunch, we spent some time analyzing the previous night's reading on the influences of socioeconomic status on the development of language processing, and then moved on to the topic of video media influence on youth. This was interesting to me, since my group's final project related to media influence on body image in teens. This part of the lecture was mostly about whether or not children were able to learn from video, and whether watching TV and movies had any negative effects. Apparently kids under three years old are definitely unable to learn from television, and although after three they are capable they are still much better at learning from someone in person. Some television shows may be beneficial, but fast paced cartoons or adult targeted programming can be extremely detrimental.

Ivory instruments, the reason
hippos and elephants went
extinct in the area
After class, I decided to go to a small museum on campus called the Oriental Institute. It featured artifacts and history from many ancient societies, including Egypt, Mesopotamia, and several others. I took an audio tour, which gave me some extra insight into some of the artifacts. I can now officially say that I have visited four museums in the past four days. I was having a fantastic time on my own, but was suddenly interrupted when I ran into a large group of friends who had apparently had the same idea to visit the museum after class. I ended up leaving with them to attend an admission information session about the UChicago. It was interesting, and the presenter had a great sense of humor, but it honestly wasn't that informative. It felt a little bit cookie-cutter, but it was good to have my information confirmed by an authority figure.

After a day filled with information and fun, I now have to seriously buckle down and finish my homework. Our final 10 page paper is due on Friday morning, wish me luck!   

1 comment:

  1. Four museums in four days. Wow you are quick. All good !
    You know one of the interesting questions about exposure to ideas on young children is how much violence they are immersed in through video and cinema the question being does that exposure normalize violence as a problem solving tool for them. Since they usually start watching before the so called age of empathy I wonder if their developing empathy is reduced or curtailed.
    Sounds like you are incredibly busy and productive. Hugs and kisses

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