a. What challenges did you overcome throughout this inquiry project? How did you go about overcoming these challenges? I had some challenges relating to the fact that it was my first ever project in this class. Such as the stricter criteria for each blog post. Even if there weren’t direct instructions and the inquiry projects were meant to be open and free, there were still some aspects that were hard to follow. First, splitting the project into 3 sections. I do not believe that I properly separated the research for my second blog post and it impacted the way that the other blog posts were formatted. I got through this problem, but I could have started better. Second, we needed at least three sources for each blog post and they needed to be in the proper format. This step was a little hard as a lot of the information that I wrote, I already knew or had previous knowledge of, and I did not know the exact sources. I overcame this challenge by doing additional research to find websites with the same information that I already knew and make that the source. Third, finding good photos that went along with my research and went along with the colour theme for that blog post that I was trying to accomplish. This was a smaller challenge, but it just involved a little more time to choose nice photos and format it well. In addition to these challenges, there were the mini ones such as writing a quality blog post in a week, on top of all my homework from my other classes and making sure that my writing made sense and flowed nicely.
b. How did this inquiry change the way you think? This inquiry project changed the way I think, because even though I had previous experience in the past about the brain and early childhood, I could always learn more. In this project, that is exactly what I did. It was moving to see all the negative experiences that people go through and how that can negatively impact them in their lives and even ruin their future. It was sad to see how many external factors change our identity and how we see ourselves, others and the world. This inquiry project made me realize that we have very little control over our personality as it is greatly influenced on our experiences and memories in our early childhood. I think these are good lessons that we can all learn from. This inquiry really made me reflect on what is important in life and how if we could all take a little time to be kinder and put our ego aside and help and learn from each other.
c. How did this investigation impact your future decisions? I started out by joining this class as I wanted to continue my research and see what I could learn from it and if I would even want to do more research in the future. But after my first project, I can say that this investigation has only inspired me more to continue to do this research in the future. I have already thought about studying the brain and early childhood, but even more now that I understand the importance. These are developing issues that need better understanding and knowledge. I want to make bigger projects in the future that will have more of an impact.
d. What impact will this investigation have on others locally and/or globally? This specific project may not have an impact on others locally or globally, but the possibilities may. The possibilities of where the research can go and affect more people around the world,. This possibilities of this project could have an impact globally, because we are always trying to understand more about our identity and our personality. If people just understood that if we improve childhood experiences, it could improve future mental health issues and self-insecurities. The amount of people suffering from their own negative thoughts can be prevented with a little more care for children as they grow up and making sure they have good, safe environments in their life. This investigation was meant to prove that we make mistakes as humans, and we are not always the best versions of ourself, but it is mainly because there are other things in our life that have impacted us to be who we are.
Ultimately, I am proud of how my project turned out and how much I was able to learn from it. This project has only inspired me to continue my research as I see how big of an impact that it could have in the world.