One idea I was thinking about doing was how there is happiness in poverty or non-ideal situations . I thought about this during the Mike Rowe TED talk because he was talking about how happy the man was who cleaned up roadkill. I would also like to do this topic because two summers ago I went to some of the poorest parts in Kenya. I was really touched by the people there and amazed by how happy and giving they were, yet had nothing. I have some good pictures from the trip that would make the presentation more exciting.
Another idea I was thinking about was the effect animals like therapy dogs have on people. I work at an assisted living facility that has 15 residents. Once a week the therapy dog comes in to visit the residents and I get to see how their face lights up. There is a cat that lives in the home too who some of the residents love to have around. I would need to do more research on it but I think it would be kinda fun to maybe interview one of my residents asking them how having an animal companion around makes them feel.
I am interested in the impact the internet and technology in general has affected youth. How it has effected them in how much they actually go outside to play, how it has maybe cut back on family time, but also the benefits it brings with school and social life. If I did thins topic I would argue against youth getting phones until 15 or 16 years old. I just think that it's more important for younger kids to spend time actually talking to each other than siting in front of the computer all day or only texting their friends.
Another topic I was considering doing was how society's advertisements today shape a false image of what women need to look like to be beautiful. Billboards, magazines, TV shows and commercials all project the ideal women to look a certain way. With the rise of technology and the amount of adds we see everyday I believe it negatively affects young girls mainly. These types of adds may lead to eating disorders for young girls and boys.
One last topic idea I thought of was arguing that the idea to pay kids for good grades doesn't work very effectively. In my AP econ class we watched a short video of a school who tried this idea out and the conclusion seemed to be that if the grades rose, it was due to the parents involvement in their child's life. I think this would be interesting to learn more about.
Shaena, I think that all of the ideas you have above would be interesting and easy to talk about. I especially enjoyed you first idea about happiness within poverty. Being able to bring your Kenya trip into the presentation is something that sounds very interesting to me. It would create a more personal experience, and I think the idea of not needing material items in today's society is very important.
ReplyDeleteThe next topic that caught my eye was the idea of how society has created the "perfect woman". I agree that the media today is negatively affecting girls at a younger and younger age. Since our class is mainly made op of girls, I think this would be a very interesting thing for us all to hear about. You could all talk about how eating disorders and issues these girls are having are affecting them many years down the road. I know Dove has done some commercials going against the idea that we as women have to be "perfect", and that we are beautiful the way we are. That may be something you could bring into the presentation or maybe find a TED talk that relates to your subject.
All your ideas sound great! Hope you're having a good weekend. :)
1. What really works for me with your first idea is the idea of patterning that around a personal narrative. The narrative would drive your speech forward, and you could pepper it with definitions as well as a really nice persuasive bent which could end with a conclusion of "we as a people NEED to begin seeing the world this way..."
ReplyDelete2. This begs for a definition structure - what is a therapy animal? Why do we need them? what do they do? how does one get one? what kinds are there? You could build this around some heavy-duty research as well as checking in on methodology in different countries, as well as the availability (or lack thereof)
3. This begs for a whole inductive study. The central idea: "how does technology change us in our formative years?" You could pepper it with studies, political rhetoric on all sides, personal experiences, interviews, and your conclusion could become a thesis - based on what you find, what should we do? What are the pros and cons of a plugged in world?
4. See my comments on #3, but add in a WHOLE lot more of a time-line for you to look at. Rather than 20 years of internet to look at, you have centuries and centuries of human history. You can compare/contrast us with other cultures/civilizations in other time periods, you can look at the impact of this on body dismorphia...so many cause/effect ideas you could look into!
5. A nice tight persuasive argument that could have you looking at a lot of good primary research (interviews, studies - there are a lot of teachers in the building who might be willing to help you out, and I bet Toward would know some good places to look for secondary research)
That's all my humble POV - the nerd in me wants to see option 4, but any one of those subjects would work depending on how you're approaching them.