Preston's Epic Blog

  How Checklists Train Your Brain To Be More Productive And Goal-Oriented  by Lauren Marchese This article was all about dopamine. Where it's released, when it's released, what it does. Having a major in the biology/chemistry subjects, I am very familiar with dopamine and the effects it has on our actions. Marchese really surrounds the article that creating an interest in something, our body is releasing dopamine to give us that pleasureful feeling. That's what happens when we click that "X" in our top left (or right) screen at the end of the day, see that green check mark, get that anticipated notification, etc. Our body gets a wave of pleasure and ease. As humans we are wired to crave that pleasure and ease; we crave dopamine! Marchese argues we should create our checklists to keep ourselves in line, tame our body to essentially crave finishing these tasks, to ultimately get that dopamine.  The ne urotransmitter molecule dopamine.  Wikimedia

 In high school I was in a Peer Leadership class where we got paired up with groups of freshman/middle schoolers to mentor throughout the semester. The class was an awesome experience and we had a solid group of students. At the end of the class we created our own website surrounding who we were; it was basically a huge life reflection after high school before college. Anyways, we used Weebly to create these sites and because of this I'm (or was since this was 3 years ago now) pretty familiar with the Weebly website. I noticed this site is an option for our projects this semester, so I will definitely be using it to complete my project. Super excited to use Weebly again and see some of the changes they might have made! Future Super Bowl LV champion Tom Brady.  Wikimedia

So far this week I've really liked the untraditional online setup for this class. First of all I really like the idea of the blog posts when it saves all of your posts to one location. On canvas you can do this through the discussions link, but these can get cluttered and it can be difficult to find your posts. This class setup is much different than any other class, and the changeup in my opinion is much needed.  It can be a drag doing the same thing over and over for every class week to week. Things start to jumble together and confusion sets in. That ultimately leads to improper learning and the ideas similar to the ones from the growth mindset assignment.

 Learning about Carol Dweck's ideas of growth mindset, I have to say there are some thing I agree with and some things I disagree with, like many others. In my opinion, Dweck, especially in her TedTalk, talks mainly of the students: what their problem is, what they can do to improve, their mindset when learning, etc. I feel like she's putting a lot of the blame on the student in a way. This is what Dave Paunesku centers his article around: what a learning environment can do better, what that environments problem is, and essentially amending the school system.  I'm totally on Dweck's side about motivated students. If a student is not motivated, well then there's absolutely nothing even the best system can do to motivate that student. I firmly believe that no matter how good of a system you have going, there will always be a few individuals that simply aren't interested in education.  Difficult is not impossible.  Growth mindset meme blog

In the fall of 2019 I signed a lease to a rental house for the 2020-2021 school year. The lease began in the summer (June 1st to be exact), so that fall I decided to enroll in a course for that upcoming summer. I was already going to be living in Norman because of my lease, so I thought why not? While the dampers of 2020 were not known at the time, I could surely not "un-sign" my lease, and the class I enrolled in was an extremely important one for my major, so I followed through with my plan. Last summer I moved into the home I'm living in now and attended my first lecture of biochemistry. Going into the class I had no idea what to expect! What topics does biochemistry even cover? I knew it was very important that I not only earned my A, but that I truly retained the information taught to me. Along with my major I'm pre-med, which essentially means I'm going to have to take the MCAT at some point in order to be accepted into medical school. Having a good foundati...

The Good Demon I chose this as one of my favorites I clicked through because the title was such an oxymoron at first glance. Reading further in the intro, you know this good demon's name is Ghatotkacha, and learn this oxymoron is actually true. This is because as humans, we simply have a stereotype of what a demon is, and what we think a demon isn't engraved in our brain. In the introduction the author gives a brief argument as to why they believes we as humans have adapted into this ubiquitous belief on "demons". I thought the author's introduction and page layout was remarkable in sucking the reader into more interest for the story. Inserted image by the author of Ghatotkacha's death. Wikimedia Looney Tunes Goes to India I clicked on this story book simply because as a kid I loved watching Looney Tunes as a kid at my grandparents' house. When my parents went out of town and we stayed with them, I would actually watch Looney Tunes all morning long, pro...

 I'm sad to say, I've never actually visited Peru yet. Through pictures, videos, and stories (friends and family), I know it's going to be my favorite place when I finally get to visit. In the fall of 2019, I was looking at a Global Brigades mission trip to Peru that would've taken place in May of 2020, but we all know how 2020 ended up. Looking to the future, it's not an "if", it's a "when" I visit Peru. This is my optimism at work here, but I know I will make it happen one day!  Machu Picchu  Coastline in Lima, Peru

Hello, just got the COVID vaccine this morning. Laying under some blankets with super bad chills. 👎