Blog Post 4: 3-D Printer

Kansas Teen uses 3D Printer to Make a Hand for Boy.

Williams, Mara Rose. "Kansas Teen Uses 3-D Printer to Make Hand for Boy." Wichita Eagle. Public Insight Network, 31 Jan. 2014. Web. 24 Feb. 2014. <http://www.kansas.com/2014/01/31/3261314/kansas-teen-uses-3-d-printer-to.html>

                         

“Mojo 3D Printer.” Photograph. Wikipedia. Wikipedia, 29 Aug. 2013. Media. 24 Feb. 2014. <http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mojo_3D_Printer.png>

In this article is telling a story about a little boy named Matthew that was born without fingers on his right hand. A teen from nearby was injured during a football game and quit sports to do more engineering during his free time.  Both of them heard about a local library that had a 3D printer and thought it would be cool to work with. The teen, Mason, and Matthews mo had the idea of using the printer to make Matthew a prosthetic hand. Mason start on it and made a hand for Matthew that would allow him to move the fingers.

The story and article doesn't relate to what we are doing in our class right now but it could relate to things in other peoples class around the world. There is kids born without a certain body part and get downgraded for it. They begin to feel self conscious about what their flaw is and its hurts them. Then when they receive a prosthetic, like Matthew did, they learn to embrace the flaw they have and others can see that it’s not as bad as they may think.

After reading this article my reaction is amazed. Hearing about how this truly affected this little boy's life by giving him the fingers he never had, made me feel like somebody's life was made better. If I had the talents to create something like Mason did to help others out, that’s what I’d be doing in my time. The way things like this can change a person’s life greatly. There is men and women that can’t afford things to help them proceed at life everyday. Then with new technologies in today's world it could cost as much as $60 and a couple hours of somebody’s time to make a prosthetic that most people would pay thousands of dollars for.  

Blog Post #3

The Higher Purpose of Doodling.

CBS News. "The Higher Purpose of Doodling." CBS News. 2014 CBS Interactive Inc. Web. 3 Feb. 2014. <http://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-higher-purpose-of-doodling/>

Hubball, Kim. "Doodles." Photograph. Flickr. Yahoo, 3 May. 2012. Media. 3 Feb. 2013. <http://goo.gl/ufPI24>

The article I picked this week was on a purpose of why people tend to doodle. It talks about the new studies that are being done to prove that doodling actually helps you remember stuff. The study was taken by ask some people to doodle while listening to a call and the other people to just listen. The study shown that 29% of the doodlers remembered more stuff. There are people wanting to say that doodling isn't good for you, but it actually helps your mind stay focused instead of daydreaming. 

This does relate to our everyday school life. Most of our teachers will get mad if they happen to see us drawing pictures while they are trying to explain something in class. There has been cases of kids being kicked out of school or arrested for drawing. Something thing that doesn't make sense is the adults know that  kids all over the world have ADHD and ADD. Drawing can help those kids that do have that to focus on their listening, while that are doing the drawings. 

When I take a side on this, I love to doodle. While my teachers are lecturing I like to draw small things beside my notes. Usually, the drawing does have something to do with what we are being taught at the moment. If I'm not doing something while they are explaining something I start to let my mind wonder off. Then after they are done, I have no idea what they just told me. I don't have that long of an attention span most of the time. I think that schools should allow kids to draw. If they want us to pay attention, then they have to find away for us to stop daydreaming, and one way is by doodling.