AISJ Middle School Publication
Volume 3 Issue 3
HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE ADOPTED?
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Are you addicted to video games?
H E E T A H SURVIVAL
How Does It Feel To Be Adopted? By Maahi Jaiswal
Why Adoption? The Decline of Adoption in South Africa is a major problem affecting South Africa. It is known that because of all the abuse that kids face, they are traumatized and do not lead a happy life. To add, in South Africa, 260 million kids are orphaned due to HIV and AIDS. Many kids are orphaned every year and this issue has to stop for the better of them. This
Opinions on Adoption In an interview with Ms. Tara Barton on April 20th, Ms. Barton talked about the service learning projects AISJ has with other orphanages. Ms. Barton talked a bit about a service learning project that we have with Urban Kids, and they have set up a partnership a few years ago. Students have worked with the orphanages' babies and helped them and it was very successful. On the other hand, she explains that orphanages are hard to work with because they deal with little kids and a few students work with one orphan. To add, that orphan may be sensitive or may have had a rough past. The biggest problem for orphans would probably be to find a family and a good home. She adds that she strongly encourages these kinds of projects because not only do the orphans benefit, but kids at AISJ get to go into an orphan's footsteps and imagine what life is like without a parent, sibling, family, etc. Lastly, she states that only organizations can help these kids as their necessities vary. For example, Urban Kids collect donations and sell some donations to get money for other toys, materials, diapers (young kids), etc. She finally states that we have to learn and know about the things we need improvement on, before we take action to support and solve the problem.
A visitation made to the Aryan Benevolent Home in Lenasia, Johannesburg
Affect on Others As a student at AISJ, I wanted to find out more about how middle school kids would feel if they were to live in the footsteps of an orphan. Recently, I have been researching an issue regarding the decline of adoption rates in South Arica. In this survey, I asked students how they would feel if they had to adopt children and what changes should be made to ensure a better lifestyle for orphans in South Africa. The goal of this survey was to find out what students may want to do if they were a parent, and what opinions students have about certain aspects of the questions. I also wanted to know that if students adopted children, would knowing the orphans' racial background matter.
I surveyed ten Grade 6 students, ten Grade 7 students and ten Grade 8 students, I surveyed five boys and five girls in each grade. I chose to do my survey at lunch because I would find a variety of students to interview. I chose the person sitting in the middle of the two opposite benches to survey. The majority of students throughout the Middle School said that they would want to have kids. About a third of the middle school said they would adopt kids. This choice was popular amongst most 6th grade and 8th grade boys. Secondly, when asked "If you adopted a child, where would you want them to be from?” The majority of Grade 6 students and Grade 7 girls said they don't care/wouldn’t mind. The people that wanted the same race/culture said they chose that because it would be easier to bond with the child and it wouldn’t be awkward. This surprised me because this may be the outlook that many people have, which caused decline in adoption rates. Moving on, 2/3 of the middle school said that if they were adopted, the most important thing they would like to know about their birth parents would be why they put them up for adoption. There were only a few people who said they wouldn’t want contact. The rest of the students said they would want to know their medical history.
Lastly, the vast majority (almost 100%) agreed that South African orphans should be allowed to be adopted by any culture or any nationality of
In an interview with Mrs. Kathleen Dolly Mkhabela on April 23rd, Kathleen talked about the problems relating orphans and some possible solutions to help orphans in South Africa. Kathleen is a social worker who works with many orphans in a wide range of orphanages/kid's homes. She explains how children need love at a very young age and need to be taken care of. The biggest problem regarding orphans is that they lack love from a good family and they deserve good care. To add, she states that some parents do not give all the physical, mental and most importantly educational needs. A problem that is very relevant today in South Africa is children being abandoned. Kathleen further explains that people do not take control and be serious when their kids rebel/change at the age of 13/14. People have a fixed mind-set that if their child isn’t blood related, they aren’t theirs; they are the government’s children. Usually, people return the kids and they do not give 100% to meet the needs of a growing child. When asked “What are some possible solutions?” Kathleen states that the parents
The Life of An Adopted Child In an interview with Maya Littlefield on April 20th, Maya talked about the life of an adopted child as she is one as well. Maya says that it is difficult because when people look at you and your family, they can see either the racial or colour difference. To add, Maya explains that people definitely judge and may treat people differently due to whether or not they are adopted. She also adds that there aren't that many positives and negatives because you feel like a normal child and feel that you belong where you belong in the first place. She says that being adopted doesn’t make her uncomfortable, but has downfalls because she cannot meet her biological parents.
What Can We Do?
Maya Littlefield, a Grade 7 student at AISJ
Many believe that the South African Government should take initiative by improving the training that parents get, or even providing better training. To add, the orphanages should get better resources and should be paid attention to. If all the kids that are orphaned live in fear, it will affect the growing economy of South Africa. This issue is important because it affects all South Africans. Orphans don't choose to have a hard life and they deserve a loving and caring family like anyone else in the world. Adoption is a good system for taking care of the 153 million orphans in the world, but people in South Africa believe that it is wrong and not "African". Kids have rights, and they deserve them as well. They should be treated as if they are their own and not like outsiders or different people. Even the vast majority of the AISJ Middle School agrees that South African orphans should be allowed to be adopted by any culture. Discrimination and abuse of South African orphans ends when the govern-
Convene for Vaccines By Chenika Bukes Why do we vaccinate? Are vaccines as safe as we thought? Quite a few cases are found per year on over vaccination and millions on under vaccination cases. Are you as aware on the topic of vaccinations/vaccines as you thought? Vaccines were thought of as the greatest medical advancement and saved lives since the major anti-polio. Scientists know about the danger of mercury yet the Vymerisol vaccine is comprised of 49.6% mercury. A neuron toxin. Sudden death syndrome, which began in the U.S. was found to kill 50% of babies due to vaccines. Pediatricians didn't consider vaccines to be at fault for such repercussions until five years ago though. There are a recommended 28 doses of 10 vaccines for kids 0 to six years old by the CDC. There aren't mandatory vaccines, but for all public schools in the U.S. there are required vaccinations to be taken, you may have religious, social or allergy exemptions though. There are only a few studies suggesting vaccines are at fault for many deaths, illnesses or diseased, but not many. Parents should carefully and thoroughly make
Survey Results Some of the middle school students of AISJ were asked three different questions on the topic of vaccines. Recently in the world, there were many epidemics surrounding vaccine preventable diseases and wanted to find out the students’ opinion on the topic of vaccines and vaccinations. This surveys'' goal was to find out the students awareness on the topic of vaccines and school vaccinations. Another piece of information was to, specifically, find out the amount of times students gotten the flu vaccine, as it is not a necessity but some families think it helps protect the students from the flu. To make this survey completely random, there were five girls and five boys asked from grade levels six to and were chosen based on their seat at the lunch table. Two students of one lunch table were surveyed; the students sitting in the far right hand corner of the lunch table and students sitting at the far left hand corner were surveyed of six different tables. The majority of the grade 6s' gotten the flu vaccine over three times in their life while the grade seven students had various amounts of the times they've taken the flu vaccine. The grade eight girls were asked the same questions and out of the five all had different responses to the questions. On the opposite side the grade eight boys mainly said they've taken the vaccine over three times in their life. Lots of the students are unaware of the many different exemptions that schools may allow to not have vaccines. There are social, religious and allergy exemptions yet most students levelled between religious and allergy exemptions; completely excluding a major reason to not take vaccines, social exemptions. Boys, across the grade levels, and the grade 8 girls mainly think that an important way
Yay or Nay to Vaccines in The Future Vaccines will always be a part of human’s life and lifestyle. It’s just a matter of fact on whether or not people want to vaccinate. Healthcare in different countries need vaccines to become available to the whole population but UN developed countries won’t change much in the future. Health organisations such as Red Cross and UNICEF will continue to help the world but not a large income for the organisations will sustain them, yet you may say a meagre amount of money will be donated to the organisations. The world will become more selfish to the point where well developed countries will with no problem provide vaccines to the whole public and UN developed countries will fail to provide the necessity, which is vaccines, to even middle class public. Either countries will apply social, religious or allergy exemptions for vaccines in public schools or the fear of disease will force countries to apply school laws that each student and staff member needs to have certain vaccines. The future of vaccines is unsure, but there are two ways it can go, either countries count on vaccines as a main reason for medical safety or an even less amount of vaccines will become present in the world. All that humans can do is choose wisely and don’t let public choices run your life but your own thoughts and opinions.
Vaccines Importance Vaccines are thought to have saved millions of lives and prevent millions of people from receiving diseases and illnesses. They were thought as the greatest medical advancement of the 20th century until theories that side effects from vaccines were killing people on the inside and outside. Vaccines are thought by many as their life savers and protectors, but its debatable on whether or not vaccines are important. Doctors and specialists in vaccines say there is no need to worry, but its questionable that vaccines are important by several experimental discoveries by other scientists.
What do they Say? Nurse Paulina works at Dr. James Esseys’ office as the vaccinator and answered four questions on the topic of vaccines. She believes that every child should take the flu vaccine and that there are many under vaccinated children in the world, specifically South Africa. Her recommendations are for children of six months to take their first ever flu vaccine, but only receive half of the capsule to suit their stature. At two years old the child will receive their second flu vaccine of a full capsule which will last them 'till the age of three where then on they'll continue to take the vaccine yearly. Nurse Paulina thinks knows that a majority of African children live without vaccinations and in danger against many preventable diseases and illnesses. The nurse said that vaccines are harmless in all the times she vaccinated and in the cases she heard about harm deriving from vaccines; they were all merely caused by improper vaccination techniques. Nurse Paulina is the vaccinator at Dr.Esseys offices and understands how the flu vaccine can help people stay healthy and safe from a wide spread disease and how under vaccination is a serious issue in Africa and needs to be treated. Nurse Mary believes all children should take vaccines and that it is a healthier choice on the side of scientists, but it is all dependent on families and is up to them. Kids should not take vaccines when sick as their health may quickly get worse. It is not only a recommendation but a safety rule for doctors and nurses. Nurse Mary definitely suggests to take the flu vaccine as a young child in our school; as being in a school you are with many different children who have weak immune systems at such a young age. If one child introduces the flu it will quickly spread to
Music is therapy? By casper Engelen Introducing music therapy Music therapy is when music is used to relieve stress, depression and mental illnesses. For example, music therapy tends to help autistic people communicate. Music therapy can also help for concentration, relaxation etc. Vista clinic The vista clinic is the leader in CPD (Continuing Professional Development) for 17 years. The vista clinic is a good place to visit because they have a Music therapy Clinic. It has a calm environment, which is needed for good music therapy. The Vista clinic has a lot of types of therapy including depression therapy, anxiety disorder therapy, bipolar disorder therapy, Schizophrenia therapy, mood disorder therapy, music therapy, physiotherapy, disciplinary therapy and more. They also have different supports like post discharge support, happiness helps etc.
WMU concert The WMU concert at Dalton Center Recital Hall is a concert where clients of
the Music Therapy Clinic of Western Michigan University will be able to perform and create music. The WMU concert is for clients with depression, mental illnesses etc. This concert took place 21st of April, at 7pm.
Soothing the savaged beast Another picture of a sign outside the Vista clinic
Have you ever heard the expression “Soothing the SavMiddle school’s perspective on music
In an interview with Mr. Ferguson, he classified music therapy as "a way to deal with depression, or mental Andeline Dos Santos aged illnesses". Back when Mr. Ferguson was a teacher he used In an interview about music therapy with Andeline Dos Santos, a profesto put on music when kids in his class when working on a sional music therapist, Andeline Dos Santos said that it is not only listening to project. First it was more relaxing music, but then kids music that they use in therapy but that they also make music for therapy. "For started to ask if they could play their own music. "Before I example, if the patient is nodding his head back and forth the music therapist folstarted to play their music, they were more quiet and conlows that rhythm. They work mostly with children with mental/physical/learning centrated". Mr. Ferguson doesn’t like to listen to music disabilities. For adults it can be easier then with young children, because some though when working on something. He listens to music young children can't even talk. This is why music is used to communicate with when he is in his car, cooking, andworking out. He also young kids. Also she said that when music is played, a certain part of the brain is thinks music is helping some kids dealing with depression activated. It is a really complicated thing, but music can actually make you learn because "it is the time of the year where a lot of projects are your brain to do things it previously couldn’t do. For example, if you can't use your finger for an apparent reason, music can make you learn it again. MS survey In this survey, AISJ students where asked about their daily uses of music. The goal of this survey was to find out if students listened to music a lot. The survey shows 10 Grade 6 students, 10 grade 7 students and 10 grade 8 students. An equal number of boys and girls in each grade were surveyed. The survey was conducted at lunch and the one person sitting in the same location of the seat at each table was picked. The majority of 6th grade boys listen to music about 30-90 minutes a day and girls listen from 0-60 minutes a day. In 7th grade the majority of boys and girls listened to music about 30-60 minutes a day. In Grade 8 the boys listen to music 0-30 minutes a day while the girls listen to music from 30-90 minutes a day. Most students at AISJ feel that music is meant to be for relaxation (about 33.3%). 46.6% of MS finds that listening to any kind of music while doing homework is beneficial for them.
Cheetah Endangerment Learning about cheetahs Three articles on cheetah endangerment that are what gave me most of my knowledge on cheetahs right now. some of the causes for the endangerment of cheetahs include hunting, poaching, religious reasons and killing for their skins. Most middle school students aren't very aware that cheetahs are even endangered according to the three question survey on cheetah endangerment. Also nineteen out of twenty students have gone on safaris and seen cheetahs before.
Solutions: Through research some solutions have come up for saving cheetahs. The first solution is that students at schools are taught more about endangered animals. This is because most of the students surveyed were not very aware of cheetah endangerment. Another solution is to have fund raisers for cheetah conservation funds. This one is because according to the survey most people don’t donate to cheetah funds.
Predicting the future: Based on research cheetahs will probably go extinct in less than 100 years. The current cheetah population is about 9000 to 1200 in the world. In the 1900s there were over a 100,000 cheetahs living around the globe. Based on how many cheetahs died over 115 years from 1900 to now cheetahs will probably die out in 10 to 20 years.
By Christian Rodriguez
An interview with a professional ranger The Lion and Rhino Park in Gauteng has rangers with knowledge about cheetahs. During an interview with a ranger, he talked about why cheetahs are endangered, breeding of cheetahs, about organizations trying to protect cheetahs and how people can help cheetahs. The ranger knew plenty of reasons for the endangerment of cheetahs. One of the big reasons are religious beliefs, he said that people from tribes believe that the skin and bones of a cheetah will keep evil spirits away. He talked about the major cheetah populations which can be found around Africa. According to the ranger some ways to help cheetahs are reporting suspicious people and donating to cheetah funds. The interview gave me lots of information about cheetah’s current situation. In the Lion and Rhino park there is a breeding centre. There were two cheetahs, one male and one female which are kept separate. They only bring them together when they are going to breed them. A ranger talked about cheetahs and how they are bred. According to him a female cheetah is very picky when choosing a male. They carry their babies for about 100 days and can have from 0 to 6 cubs.
Why should AISJ students know about this? AISJ students should know more about the topic because most students aren't even aware that cheetahs are endangered. It is important that students know because then some students might gain interest and try to help cheetahs. Right now cheetahs need help so they can get their population up. Another reason students should be taught is because its not only cheetahs that are endangered, many other species are also declining and people should know about it.
Cheetah survey I am a student in 7th grade at AISJ and recently I have found out how serious cheetah endangerment really is. Recently cheetah populations have declined lots, only about 10,000 cheetahs are left in the entire world. In my survey I asked about what animal related things students have participated in, their opinion on what is causing the endangerment of cheetahs and how many years they believe it will take for cheetahs to go extinct. The goal of my survey was to find out a bit of students’ knowledge on the cheetah situation. I wanted to know if the students are aware of this and if they know what is causing cheetahs to decline. I also wanted to know how many years they think it will take for cheetahs to go extinct if they continue to decline, so I could get an idea of how serious the students think it is. For my survey I surveyed 30 people across the middle school. Specifically is surveyed five girls and boys in each grade in the middle school. I did my survey during lunch and finished it in my bus since I ran out of time during lunch. To make sure that my survey is random I asked people at the corners of the tables and then a random eighth grade student at my bus.
A large group of the people interviewed weren’t aware that cheetahs are actually endangered. None of the students that were interviewed have donated to cheetah conservation funds or gone hunting. This is bad and good because they are not the ones killing the cheetahs but at the same time they are not doing anything to help the cheetah problem. The majority of students have gone on safaris except for one. The biggest endangerment for cheetahs according to the students that were interviewed is killing for skins. One thing I found odd is that only two people think that religious beliefs are a problem for cheetahs. I found this odd because in my interview with a rangers one of the main reasons he gave me for cheetah endangerment is religious beliefs. About 12% think that habitat destruction is a threat to cheetahs. Most students feel that if cheetahs continue to decline it will take about five years for them to go extinct. Some students are not aware of cheetah endangerment. Students are not very aware of cheetah endangerment being a serious thing. None of the students that were interviewed have donated to cheetah conservation funds. Students have many different options about why cheetahs are endangered, they are all correct because the endangerment of cheetahs isn’t happening because of one thing, it is many different things that are threatening cheetahs. I recommend that something is done to inform students about cheetah endangerment.
What is gaming addiction? Gaming addiction is becoming more complex and detailed every day. With advanced technology, games are becoming more realistic with more strategies to play the game. In South Korea, many kids would rather go and play the latest video game, then to go and hang out with their friends. “Not all the gamers are addicted to gaming, Many teens can play video games a few hours a week, successfully balancing school activities, grades, friends, and family obligations.” Studies estimate ‘’that 10 percent to 15 percent of gamers exhibit signs that meet the World Health Organization’s criteria for addiction." Many
Middle school Student survey Video game addiction is like a disease, bad for our health. Many children worldwide play videogames there are many reasons why children play video games. In this Survey I have tested the kids of middle school to find out what makes them gaming addicts. The goal of this survey was to find out why kids play video games. I also conducted this survey to find out what makes kids video game addicts. Results from a middle school survey show us that a half of the 6 grade girls play video games for 1-2 hours, and that a majority of 7 grade girls do not like to play video games. This survey shows us that 60% of 6th grade boys like to play first person shooter video games it also shows us that 7 grade girls like to play different types of video games. A majority of middle school students play
A visit with the Tech wizard
What type of platform do you play video games on?
In an interview with Mr. Barton (an AISJ teacher) on May 4 2015, Mr. Barton classified gaming addiction as an addiction that was more of a habit. He said that some students could not help themselves from playing video games. Mr. Barton also said that student cannot concentrate on studies while playing video games, and that student should only play a couple of hours of video games a day. He was asked how gaming addiction can be stopped. His Thoughts were that it takes shear willpower. He said, "It’s like a little kid picking his nose, you just have to say don’t pick your nose th
6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Girls
Boys
Girls
Boys
Girls
Boys
What ty pe o f g e nr e g ame do y o u pl ay ? 7
Grade 6
Grade 7
Grade 8
Children grade level and gender Xbox
b.
Playstation
c.
computer
d.
Nintendo
e.
Other
Gaming Addiction here is my prediction
5
NO. OF CHILDREN
a.
6
4
3
2
If the rate of teenagers becoming gaming addiction does not increase by the end of 2030, Esports could replace sports. Some solutions would be to take away devices that you play video games on, play outside instead of sitting in-
1
0 Girls
Boys Grade 6
Girls
Boys
Girls
Grade 7 CHILDREN GRADE LEVEL AND GENDER
a. 1st person shooter
b. Fantasy fiction
c. sci-fi
d. strategic
Boys Grade 8
e. Other
By Ayman Combalat
I am a student at AISJ and the school cafeteria started to sell chips for lunch and many students are buying them without being aware of obesity. People in my school don’t see obesity as a big problem but it really is. In this survey I am going to asses’ people’s knowledge and their habits of eating junk food often.
Introducing Obesity
In this survey, my goal is to find out the students’ knowledge on obesity. I also wanted to know the students eating habits and when do they eat junk food. I am going to create a table where I put my data every time I ask someone a question on obesity.
Obesity is a very big problem in the United States and also around the world. Most people are obese because of their lack of physicality, eating a lot of fast-food and drinking more soda than water each day. People are continuing to be lazy and not exercising when they need to exercise.
For my survey, I surveyed 10 people from grade 6, 7 and 8. I surveyed the same amount of boys and girls so it means five girls and five boys. I did my survey during lunch and asked random people if I could ask those questions for my journalism project.
In the future: In the future, I think that the obesity rate will decrease. Lot’s of people are continuing, but then they will start exercising and they will become skinnier. They would want to become skinnier because people will make fun of them which isn’t nice. Obesity is a big issue but some day people will be sick of being fat and they would want to be skinny so they would exercise until it happens. If they don’t want to get skinnier then they are putting their health and life in danger. Why is it important: This topic is important because everyone should know about obesity because humans are fragile so they shouldn’t hurt themselves by eating a lot. Also if people continue to eat a lot then other people will start doing it which isn’t good. Fast food restaurants are one of the main reasons of obesity. Most of the fast food restaurants are in the United States of America which is why that America has the biggest rate of obesity. Many people are hurting themselves by eating unhealthy food.
AISJ Cafeteria and Tuck Shop
While asking my questions, I have seen that students do have some knowledge about obesity. On my first question, how often do you eat food, the majority of the grade six students eat fast food once a week or month. But for the grade 7 they usually eat fast food once a month which is better for health than once a week. For grade 8 they go eat fast food mostly once a week which isn’t healthy so they need to change that habit of eating fast food. For my second question, how many people in your family have been on a diet, many grade 6 students said that their parents hardly never went on a diet. In 7th grade all the boys with fathers didn’t go on a diet. But the other grades, at least have one parent on a diet just like 6 th grade. In 6th grade, boys had one parent on a diet and for girls two parents have been on a diet. In 8th grade, three parents of a boy have been on a diet and for 8th grade girls three of their parents have been on a diet. For my last question, what would you do to lose weight, many people said the way to lose weight is to do more physical activity. Out of all the people who I surveyed, only four people said to drink water more often. It is also similar for the answer avoid fast food. Many peo-