Empathy: Spot the Fake Smile

I think that I've always been pretty decent at "reading" peoples emotions. Perhaps this comes from the fact that my step-father is a pschologist, and he spends alot of his time analyzing people. I could also come from the fact that my family doesnt really wear theor emotions on their sleeve. Instead we have to try to figure out whats going on by trying to look underneath facades, the find the realo problem. I have always been one of the people in my family that is both good at finding the emotions in others, and hiding my own. Becuase of this i found BBC's Spot the Fake Smile quite easy. After recieving the respectable 18 out of 20 correct guesses i went back to look at the ones i had missed.http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/mind/surveys/smiles/movie4.shtmlthis video i had marked as a fake smile, but it is infact a genuine one.What threw me off in this video is that the womans eyes do not seem to hold any expression at all. I was judging the smiles on the peoples eyes, and since she didn't appear to have much emotion in her eyes i marked it as a fake smile.http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/mind/surveys/smiles/movie17.shtmlThis was the other video i marked incorrectly. I had marked this smile as genuine when it is actually fake. To me the man in the video had "laughter in his eyes", but as it turned out this laughter was also fake.

Learning is Changing: Math

As a general concept throughout these examinations of my learning in each subject has been the element of story. Obviously this is a main thing math subjects lack. This is perhaps why I find math the hardest subject to master. This year I began math in an honors geometry class. I had been in some form of accelerated math calss since 3rd grade, and it seemed right and appropriate to contine on that track. Unfortunatly the class turned out to be much more difficult than I expected, and I soon fell behind. At semester I decided that taking a class that was too difficult and sacrificing my gpa, just to say that I was in an honors math class wan't worth it. I am now in a regular geometry class, and I am excelling in that class. I would not say that my learning in math has changed all that much, but instead that my attitude towards learning has changed. I have learned that it isn't so much the class you are taking, but how you work, and thrive within that class that really matters.

Learning is Changing: Science

Science is a hard subject to generalize. It ranges over so many topics, some of which i much prefer to others. This year I am in an Energy Reservation Education or ERE. this class is basically the general 9th grade math class. I am not a big fan of this class, but I work through it anyway. I think the reason the science and math are my less strong subjects is because they don't need empathy, or story. History and English are taught with an empathetic background where as science is taught as simply factual. I can't say that i think my learning has changed thus far this year, but i do think that m learning and ability to learn changes from subject to subject. For instance I am much more interested in the theory of evolution than the different chemicals on the periodic table. This shows just another example of how story is important in my learning.

Symphony: Negative Space

Negative space is used in a large range of objects from logos to furniture. It is important to look at this negative space, just as it is important to look at all sides of an issue before taking a stand on that issue. When you look at the following image there are one of two things that come to mind immediately.

1. A butterfly, or some form of bug. This is the white space and is what comes to mind first for me

2. Two men facing each other, and giving a thumbs-up. This was the more difficult image for me to see.

Like this picture I think that it is very important to see different points of views in every aspect of life. then you can use the different information gathered to create your own idea. This idea will then be a symphony of all the other information presented.

Change in Learning:History

I think one of the important factors in studying history is the ability to relate history to my own life and experiences. That is also the reason we study history; it is a way to keep bad things from re-occurring as well as to keep the good things in society. I discovered the importance of connections in my 7th grade European history class. Suddenly because of the ability to connect things to my own life, I became very interested, and remain so today. I found that 'I was able to retain information much better, and I still remember it to this day.
When I began high school this year, I was put into a US History: 9 Honors class. Immediately I knew this class would be different from previous US History classes. The first day the teacher introduced herself, and said that she was not only a teacher, but also had a major in psychology. She told us that history and psychology are connected in many ways, and that in the class she would be teaching history with a background from the psychology standpoint. I was scared of this new idea, but I was also excited. She was just the type of teacher that would be able to make connections from culture today to things in the past. I believe that this class has changed my thinking even more in other classes because I connect everything to something I relate to in my own life. This makes the information more retainable.

Story: Photo Finish

Karen waits. Waits for Mommy to come back out from the garage. Mommy told Karen to wait there, she would be right back. That was a long time ago now. Karen wasn't always at the big white building. Once, not long ago, Karen had lived with Mommy and Daddy in their big apartment in the city. There were big buildings with cars there too, but they had a different car then. Not the blue, old truck that makes the loud noises, but the big and white one, with soft, squishy seats, and a little t.v. in the back for Karen to watch on long rides to Manhattan Island. That's where Karen is now, Manhattan. Mommy says that they were only going to live there for a little while, and then they would go back to the apartment and see daddy again. Karen cant wait for that day to come.

She sits in the snow now, her legs are tired from standing so long. Karen thinks its been about 3 hours, but she isn't sure, Karen is used to this now, but the waits are getting longer. In the beginning Mommy would only be gone for a few minutes, now shes gone for hours. Karen wonders why that is. Mommy is no longer the same when she comes back from the garage either. Karen doesn't like her mommy when she comes out of the garage, shes just like all of the other people that come out then. The other people scare Karen, especially the big man. The big man isn't very nice to Karen or Mommy, and he smells really stinky. Mommy smells like the big man when she comes out of the garage, and that makes Karen sad. Mommy also looks bad after being in the garage, she says she goes to a happy place in the garage to take her medicine, Karen doesn't know what the medicine is, but she doesn't like it. The medicine makes Mommy's eyes red, and makes Mommy act funny. Karen doesn't like Mommy then.

Karen stands up as someone comes out of the garage, they are taller than Karen with brown hair, and bright blue eyes like hers, but now the eyes are smokey, and red. The person stumbles out and walks slowly towards Karen. This person scares Karen, and she wants to run, but she won't. The woman's dirty jeans with holes in the knees almost seem to engulf her body, and what figure is left is covered by the grimy gray sweatshirt, wool scarf, and trench coat the lady also wears. Karen wishes the lady wouldn't look so sick, it frightens her, but she moves on.
"Come on honey, time to go" says the woman, and Karen follows Mommy to the car.




This project was part of the Story portfolio. In this i took a picture from an artist web site, deviantart, where people from all over the world submit their artwork. After finding this particular picture at random, i wrote a story of how i interpreted what was happening in the picture. My story is written from the point of view of Karen, a 5 yer old girl, and her experience with her mothers drug addiction. I also wrote this story in third person to give it more of a childish feeling. When writing the story, i took a simple picture and made it into something relate able the provokes emotions. That is the goal of story, to help people relate. Story is used in advertising, medicine, and other main businesses around the world. Story can get people to relate more easily, and in turn care about the people. After reading this, how do you feel about the girl in the picture? Now what if i were to tell you that this girl was actually a woman's daughter who got an umbrella for Christmas, and was so excited to use it that she went outside in the snow with it instead of waiting for rain? Now you feel differently about the girl in the picture, just because of the change in story.

Intro-Chapter 3

A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink explores the impact that the right side of the human brain will have on the world in the future. People who are more right brained oriented tend to be more creative, and emotional where are left brainers are more logical and linear. Pink explains that it is important to have both sides in order to function. He also says that we are heading into the Conceptual age, in which the more left brained jobs will become obsolete.

He states that there are 3 main reasons for this transition for America to the right side of the brain. These reasons are Abundance, Asia, and Automation. Abundance is the fact that today there is an overproduction of materials ranging from cars to toilet brushes. Because of the amount of products, companies need to find a way to make their product more appealing. One of the most productive ways of doing this is making the product more design oriented, more appealing to the right side of the brain. The second "A", is Asia. Daniel explains that today outscoring is a HUGE part of American culture. Nothing is made here, but is instead shipped to countries like China or India. As a result people in these countries are doing "American" work for much less pay. This means that even more jobs will be outsourced in the future, making blue collar work even more obsolete. In addition to blue collar work, white collar work will also be outsourced. This means jobs like lawyers, accountants, and computer programmers will soon no longer be the career of choice.