Unit 4 Reflection

The whole purpose of Unit 4 was to learn about the integumentary system and the various layers of defenses are body contains to fight off foreign particles. The main essential understandings I learned for the unit was that the skin serves a variety of purposes to maintain homeostasis in the body, and if damaged, it can be life threatening to the human body. I also learn new methods of how our immune systems defend the body can vary from broad (such as our skin) to specific (such as our T cells). The other main essential understandings I knew prior to the unit were that many different systems and organs work together to protect our body from foreign invaders, and that cancer takes years to develop and can be both genetic and environmental.
My main strengths of this unit was the basic knowledge of cancer since I have studied it before, and the various defenses of the immune system in both non-specific and specific resistances. My weaknesses however, were mainly attempting to know the specific details of each layer of the skin and the purpose of certain glands, along with knowing the difference between antigens and antibodies. I believe my main setbacks was trying to refresh the immune system in my memory, since I have not paid attention to it in such a long time.
Unlike other classes, I do believe that this class plays a big role on informing the student body about even the simplest of healthy choices we can make. Methods such as the ABCD Rule to check for melanoma or learning about our bodies' natural defenses such as inflammation, helps inform us on what to be aware of and what is safe for the body. I enjoy the class more now since we have started to include group projects and assignments. One of the group projects we had was the debate, which I personally enjoyed since it allows the class as a whole to explore a whole branch of new controversial topics. By doing the debate, I learned that I need to improve on my public speaking, since I was either stuttering or speaking too fast. However, I learned that if everyone does their assignments in a group project, it allows us to work more efficiently together that would prepare us for future success, and make the project quite easier than if it was the work of only one person. I do believe I am a better student than I am yesterday, but not because I did my job for the debate. But rather, I gained knowledge in a whole broad of topics, such as Nature Deficit Disorder or the legalization of the human organ market. I was hoping we would get to learn more about skin diseases and how they can be prevented. I still debate the fact that the skin is an organ, because aren't organs supposed to be internalized in the body, instead of being external? It will be some more food for thought as I continue down the road of discovery of the human body.

Learning How You Learn 

My following scores are as shown:

Visual 5

Aural 3

Read/Write 2

Kinesthetic 6

The preferred learning style the VARK questionnaire gave me was that I am a multimodal learning student. The results did not surprise me, since I often learn from other people's examples or if there is a visual aid such as a diagram I can follow. What I can do to prepare for the upcoming test in a visual way is to reconstruct images in different ways such as spatial arrangements, redraw pages from memory, and replace words with symbols and such. During the test, I can try to convert the symbols back into words or recall images from recent memory. What I can do to prepare for the upcoming test in a kinesthetic way is to use real life cases and examples in my notes to help memorize the concrete details for the test. I can also use pictures or videos to illustrate an idea, along with reviewing the essential understandings of my notes.