Weather in Athens

For my action project for my STEAM class I was told to create a slideshow about any city I wanted to choose. I chose Athens, because I've always wanted to go to Greece and I thought it would be good to research before I try to go. This project did slightly changed my mind after doing my research, because previously I never knew how bad the CO2 emmisions are in Athens. I would still go since Athens would be warm and sunny due to the CO2. 

HIV and AIDS

For my Action Project in my Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) class I was told to write an essay about MDGs six. seven, or eight. I decided to to write my essay on the sixth MDG which was “COMBAT HIV/AIDS, MALARIA AND OTHER DISEASES”. Within the UN’s sixth goal I’m going to focus on fighting HIV/AIDS. This project was a pretty interesting topic to learn, because I didn't know that having HIV/AIDS would have such an impact on people's lives. As the virus continues to multiply and destroy immune cells, you may develop mild infections or chronic signs and symptoms such as Swollen lymph nodes, Diarrhea, Oral yeast infections, etc. When I learned about these symptoms I realized just how bad HIV could be, and it made me wonder when HIV and how started spreading. There has begun to spread of HIV/AIDS everywhere starting in the 1980’s. Scientists believe that the chimpanzee version of the immunodeficiency virus most likely was transmitted to humans and mutated into HIV when humans hunted these chimpanzees for meat and came into contact with their infected blood(T.I.A.). HIV/AIDS has been a real threat and there isn’t enough people who are aware of it, or how to defend themselves from it. There are simple ways to prevent getting HIV/AIDS.



About 50,000 people get infected with HIV each year in the U.S. (C.D.C.). In 2010, there were around 47,500 new HIV infections in the United States (CDC). The world is being attacked by HIV and too many people don’t know how they’re getting it. The alarming rate of new infections proves that the HIV/AIDS epidemic is a real threat to the world and has to stop.

(MJF Bad HIV)

HIV and AIDS has been spreading throughout the world and it’s hard to get rid of. There is no cure for HIV or AIDS, therefore the only way to fight it is to prevent it. MDG six it tells us to combat AIDS and HIV as well as other diseases. That basically means we should prevent or try to spread of AIDS/ HIV and other diseases. The UN made a lot of progress, in fact new HIV infections fell by approximately 40% between 2000 and 2013 (U.N.). “According to estimates by WHO and UNAIDS, 36.9 million people were living with HIV globally at the end of 2014” (WHO). Also in 2014, 2 million people became newly infected, and 1.2 million died of AIDS-related causes (WHO).

In Greece, a large amount of people are beginning to get infected with HIV/AIDS, but the government is trying to take action to prevent further spread of the disease. The amount of people in Greece getting HIV/AIDS has gone up 8.4% and the numbers are increasing (HCDCP). Even though Greece is having trouble with AIDS and HIV, they have done a good job keeping their number low. Only 12,000 of 11 million people in Greece are infected (J.K.).The government is trying to lower the amount of prostitutes there in order to make sure no one is getting HIV. Limiting the number of prostitutes in Greece will reduce the amount of people that get HIV/AIDS, since prostitutes normally don’t get tested for it. Greece’s government are also distributing more clean needles at pharmacies so no one gets infected from other people's blood.

HIV and AIDS doesn’t have to be as big of a problem as it is, and we could help fix it by simply preventing getting it. An easy way to prevent HIV and AIDS is by using condoms while having sex. Another effective way to prevent HIV is by making sure the needles when you use are clean when taking medication. Lastly, to slow down the spread of HIV/AIDS is to limit the amount of sexual partners you have. If we can slow down the spread for an entire generation then our children won’t have to worry about getting HIV/AIDS.

HIV/AIDS are threatening so many people's lives and everyone needs to stop it and practice. There isn’t anyone who wants HIV and AIDS. If you want to prevent getting it make sure to use condoms, limit your amount of sexual partners, and use clean needles. Make sure to spread awareness on these ways so you can protect your friends and family.

Works Cited

• "United Nations Millennium Development Goals." UN News Center. UN. Web. 23 Oct. 2015.
• "HIV in the United States: At A Glance." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1 July 2015. Web. 23 Oct. 2015.
• "Greece's Latest Crisis: Rising HIV Cases." NPR. NPR. Web. 23 Oct. 2015.
• "HIV in the United States: At A Glance." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1 July 2015. Web. 23 Oct. 2015.

Gender Equality

Did you know that about 75% of microcredit borrowers in Afghanistan are women(Microfinance Times}? Gender equality is something that is fought for in America, and we’ve come a long way from where we used to be. I’m going to be comparing the United States and Afghanistan. There is is so much inequality between men and women in the world, and our community should be treated the same.

(AFP)

The United States is famous and infamous for many things, and gender equality is definitely one of those things. In 2010, there were approximately 65 million women in the labor force and 53 percent of these women were concentrated in three industries education, trade, and local government (BLS 2011a). So not too many years ago there was still gender equality. Women still get payed less than men, and don’t get many jobs because men get them over women. In fact women make 79% of what men make (Hill, Catherine).

Afghanistan is also infamous for a couple things, like the Taliban. The Taliban is actually a perfect example of gender inequality. The Taliban is a male dominated group, that controls most of the Middle East. They don’t allow girls that are aged ten and over from going to school, and women had to wear the all-covering burka. Even though it’s hard for men the rules that the Taliban gave men were still biased towards men. For example Men were required to grow beards.The punishment for going to school is death or serious injury. A famous story of a girl being attacked was Pakistani Taliban attacks took place in “October 2012, when schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai was attacked on her way home in the town of Mingora” . There is only a few incidents where men in the middle east are attacked severely that were reported. There are protests to stop these attacks, but their effort isn’t strong enough which is why the Taliban rules most of the middle east and some citizens fight back.

There are some similarities between these two countries. For example there are protests all the time to promote gender equality. In the U.S. the situation isn’t nearly the same as afghanistan since we don’t have terrorists attacking us every day, but in America we still fight hard for gender equality for men and women. In Afghanistan they fight to promote by doing protests like we do in America. The main difference is that in the U.S. women are fighting for better pay and better jobs, while in Afghanistan they’re fighting to get in school, and better jobs and pay, which is a lot more.

It’s easy to tell that in Afghanistan there is a lot more to fight for, but most countries are still fighting for gender equality. In the U.S. it’s to promote gender equality just the same as Afghanistan.

Works Cited

"Gender Equality in Afghanistan." - Wikigender.org. Web. 15 Oct. 2015.

Water Filter

For my second action project in my water class I was told to create a water filter. My filter had to get rid of contaminants and particulates, as well as changing the pH level of the water to a 7. To figure out the pH level of the water I used a digital pH reader. To show my proccess and results I took pictures and showed the change in the pH level of the water. It was't hard to build the filter and it worked pretty well. The only thing I had a problem with was getting materials, but I solved that problem pretty easily by going to Pet Smart and getting them.

I wanted everything in my filter to be completley snaitized which is why I bought all my materials. I believed that if I found all my materials then my results wouldn't work as well as store bought materials.

The filter will work since it is the same proccess the earth that filters ground water. Larger gaps will filter larger particles and smaller gaps will filter smaller particles. I layered my materials so that the largest gaps are at the top and the smallest are at the bottom. The water slowly trickled through the filter, the natural strainer left the particlulates behind.

Materials List:

• A plastic bottle
• A knife
• A coffee filter
• Activated charcoal
• Sand
• Gravel
• A container for the water 
• A digital pH reader

Steps:

1. First cut the bottom of the plastic bottle so there is a hole to pour your materials into.
2. Place the coffee filter between the the cap of the bottle and the bottle.
3. Poke some holes in the cap to let water drip through when you use the filter.
4. Make sure the the side of the water bottle with the cap is facing downwards and add a layer of Activated Charcoal into the bottle that fills about a third of the bottle.
5. Add a thick layer of sand 
6. Add the final layer of gravel

I tested my water filter three times. 

1. The first time I filtered it the water was translucent from the side (almost transparent), clear with slight grey color, cloudy, and no odor.
2. The water was transparent,clear, no odor.
3. The last time I tested it the water was transparent,clear, no odor.

Before I tested the waterit was Nasty, Dark Brown, had particulates and smelled like coffee.

Works Cited

• "How to Make a Water Filter." WikiHow. Web. 12 Oct. 2015.

Food! A Need and a Right

Over 800 million people in the world are suffering from hunger. There are many people in the world who struggle to feed their families. This is obviously a problem because no one wants others to starve. Starvation and malnourishment can’t continue, and we as people who have more than enough, are the ones who need to stop it. This won’t happen all overnight of course. We need to explore the problems of world hunger and fix them one by one. Food is a human need as well as a right, and no one wants to go through hunger.



To begin I should say that, if we can’t stop hunger from being a problem, then the number of people dying will raise by the millions. Hunger is a basic need in the physiological section in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. In fact it’s the first and most important need on the list. As stated previously, 800 million people are malnourished, and are dying. These problems either came from us not caring about others in the world, or just not knowing about these issues. Now millions of people with families are dying, because they have no access to food. Not doing anything would only make these numbers grow. If that isn’t sad enough, more than a third of child deaths is from starvation, so imagine your children or future children dying from hunger, and in pain. It's almost too sad to think about isn't it?

Next, if we are able to feed the people that can’t feed themselves then, millions of people in the world will be able to live on. Malnutrition is a high cause of maternal mortality, and child deaths so fixing that would allow millions of people to survive. We would be heroes to those who need to be saving even if we can’t help them all, but it should be our moral obligation to help others. Helping solve world hunger could also help poverty because no one would be spending all their money on food, and more people could focus on getting jobs or promotions. In this way we are hitting two birds with one stone.

Lastly, in order to help with ending world hunger then we have to do something about it. A way we could try to help is by, donating to organizations that send food to places that need it most. Another example is by helping give access to education where schools pay for lunch as well as teach children. This way could solve both Millennium Development Goals 1&2 where we are trying to solve problems with primary education and hunger issues. My final examples are to start urban farming programs to help make more food in places that need it, and reducing how much food we eat in the U.S. and give to those in need. Since there are large amounts of people who can’t get food in urban environments, we should help address the hungry in cities.

We seriously need to help the hungry people in the world. It is an actual need for the human body. Everybody has been a situation where they're hungry, and maybe even brought to the point of tears. There are people who go through that every day. Depriving food from people who need food is inhuman and just plain selfish. How would you feel if you or someone you know is fighting for food every day?

Works Cited

• “2015 World Hunger and Poverty Facts and Statistics.”World Hunger Education Service. 24 March, 2015.http://www.worldhunger.org/articles/Learn/world%20hunger%20facts%202002.htm
• Zachary Patterson.”10 Ways to stop world hunger”.The Borgen Project.2 Oct. 2013.12 Sept. 2015.borgenproject.org/10-ways-stop-world-hunger

Finding My Water Usage

Finding My Water Usage

 This action project for H2O, (a STEAM course) was about finding how much water I use, and how my personal data compares to the rest of the world.

I began by figuring out how much water I use per day using close observation. I was able to figure out I use somewhere around 78 gallons per day. My initial guess for how much water I use was 50 gallons, so I use a lot more than I expected. I was kind of sad to realize that because I had figure out how long it would take me to get to my water for the day if I had to go to my nearest water source and back. I decided I would hold two gallons and it would take me about 6.5 hours to get my water every day. I'm sure I could do it faster if I have a trashcan of water and I use the wheels on the bottom then I can roll larger amounts of water  from my nearest water source.

After figuring out how long it would take me to get my water per day, I chose 4 categories of water usage and I figured out individually how much water I use for each one. The categories I chose were showering, brushing my teeth, washing my hands, and my toilet. All of the water I use (per day) together is 69 gallons. Below I wrote my collected Data

• Showering for me uses 50 gallon and was the largest percentage and it was 74.1% of my graph.
• Using the toilet used 12 gallons and was 15.3% of my graph.
• Brushing my teeth used 2 gallons and was the smallest percentage and was  2.5%  of my graph.
• Washing my hands used 5 gallons and was at 6.1%  of my graph.

I compared my data with the averages of water in the UK. Taking a bath there uses about 80 liters, a five minute shower is 45 liters, a full load in the washing machine can take up to 100 liters, and it can take up to 20 liters to run a dishwasher.

Citations;

Felicity Lawrence.”Revealed: the massive scale of UK's water consumption.” 19 August 2008.http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2008/aug/20/water.food1

"How Much Water do You Use".14 Sept. 2015.http://www.cambridge-water.co.uk/customers/how-much-water-do-you-use.