Hospice Volunteering

After completing about 15 hours of volunteering with hospice patients, I have found that I keep learning more and more every time I meet with a new patient. I spent about 6 hours last Saturday with an elderly man named Paul, who is 86 years old but is still talking and walking like someone much younger than he. Paul was diagnosed with Malignant Melanoma (the deadliest type of skin cancer) a little bit over a year ago, and over the course of the past year the cancer metastasized (spread) to his spine, pancreas, and liver. I can’t speak for everyone, but I know that if I was diagnosed with cancer of that degree and only given a mere 3 months to live, I would be in poor spirits. Paul on the other hand, has accepted the fact that he is going to die soon and is just trying to make the rest of his life the best that it can be. Since my career goal is to become an Oncologist of some sort, I think that it is very useful for me to be volunteering with hospice patients because if I become an Oncologist, I am going to be the one telling patients that they don’t have long to live and trying to save their lives. It is extremely emotional but I am making it so far!

Where Debot Goes #4

Last night Tyler, Ian, and I worked on our project and on when we are going to present it. We decided that it will be best to show it in the HEC for more than one day so more people get to see it. We decided on times to show it which are Tuesday from 10:45-12:00, Wednesday from 12:00-12-50 and Thursday from 12:45-2:00. If anyone wants to come on down to the HEC during these times feel free. We will have surprise snacks that are good for your digestive system each day. Here also are some pictures that show the progress of our poster.

After making several trips to the CPS Daycare I have definately came to the conclusion that in the future I will be working with children forsure. I love working with them and learning different things from them. With this project I am learning that patience truly is a virtue. I am a babysitter and I have been for around nine years so throughout my life I have learned that with working with children you really have to control your patience. I have also learned that some children do not respond to certain approaches by teachers such as when some one says "no," obviously children like to rebel against what they are supposed to do. It is interesting to learn different ways to which the children do follow the rules such as; just asking them to do something, or if they are not moving fast, race them. So far working in the daycare has just helped my future decisions in life and I hope it continues to do so.

Where Debot Goes.

For my groups service learning project we are setting up an informational poster and possibly some healthy snacks in the HEC. The poster will have a diagram of the human digestive system and also list the functions, common afflictions, and how to keep each of the main organs healthy. We dicided that the HEC is an ideal location because it is a health education environment that gets alot of students going through it. I have contacted the people in charge of the table there and we got the go ahead, we just have to tell them the specific times and dates that we are going to have it set up. My group should be done with the poster by the end of this weekend. Keep an eye out for us next week and stop by to check it out.

Hold your horses!

Theres not too much news about my project, I am still plugging away at making the webpage, I only have one more color specimin to find, and than my picture taking fun is over. There is one new thing that happened which is kinda a disapointment. At St. francis horse rescue, mary (the owner) was talking with the insurance company and now there is a new rule that we can't go into the pasture with the horses unless Mary is home. Well, that puts a good damper on our fun. Since its pretty hard to hang out with them when they are all out on the far end of the pasture. I see the purpose behind it though, they rather us not get hurt and sue them. Understandable.

This weekend I had to come back home for some various things and offered to help out at the farm I volunteer for down here, which is a therapy riding center (for children with disabilities) they needed people to feed the horses this weekend. So waking up near the time I go to bed on the weekends I headed over there to feed. It was nice to see how all the critters were doing. I also found my Black horse, Dimma (which means darkness in icelandic), who is an icelandic pony and is all black with no bleaching Bleaching is a problem that I was having with the horses I was finding, where they are classified as black, but they have lighter spots by their legs, face, and mane from the sun. I also have to learn how to lunge a horse before summer, when I have to ride full time (oh darn) so I tried on this little fat mini horse, Steve, ( his head reaches about my waist) ... who is about the same size around as he is tall. He did not want to humor me! We would run down the pasture ( i would take big walking strides) and then try to lunge, as soon as we got set up for lunging (which is basically having the horse do circles around you while attached by a lead rope..) he started refusing, he would just turn his body enough, and then try to kick me. He is a very bitter little horse, he tried to kick me while I was feeding him earlier. I still have the rest of the weekend to work with him, if all else fails, I can work with one of the more trained larger horses, but wheres the fun in that.

I found it funny that when I was feeding I managed to tell one of the horses to well, hold you horses... I laughed out loud.. and horse just stole the hay while I was being amused by my unintended pun.
It was dumpy weather this morning so no pictures. Will edit the ones in of the critters at the barn here in MN.

Weekly Update

This past week our group met on Tuesday and accomplished quite a bit. We sat down and were able to get a rough outline of the entire animation, along with text/narration ideas, down on paper. We were planning on meeting yesterday but due to some scheduling conflicts that did not pan out. Though from what I have been told by next week Liz was going to have some of the basic backgrounds and figures developed and with our continuous refining of the information things are becoming much more concise and effective.

Humane Society

I went to the humane society today at around 1:00 pm and volunteered for two hours. Vicki and I first went to the dog kennals to walk the dogs and let them run and play around in a larger area. We took the large, three legged Saint Bernard out because we haven't took him out for a couple of weeks and he needed some attention. I feel kind of bad for him and think he should get more attention than some of the other dogs because I have noticed that the younger and prettier dogs find a good home faster than the older scruffy ones like that Saint Bernard. We went on a short walk with him and then just took him in a room to brush and pet him. After we took him back to his kennal, we took out a very nice black dog that was really easy to walk. When a person came in and saw this beautiful dog, she asked if the dog was up for adoption, and she wanted to see it. Just because we walked by with this dog, we could have possibly found it a good home and a nice family to take care of it. We then went in the toy room to play with a few cats. The cats are really funny to watch; there were many toys around but the cats went for the paper bag instead of any of the fansy toys around them. I love voluteering at the humane society. It not only makes me feel good, but it is also helping all of the animals living there find a home and people adopting find a friendly new addition to the family.

Sturgeon Patrol

Chad Leanna and myself are scheduled to go on sturgeon patrol this wednesday night starting at 7:00 pm and will be stationed at a well known sturgeon viewing position along the river all night until 7:00 am. Our duties are to ensure the safety of the sturgeon from anglers or poachers who attempt to harm them during their run up the river to spawn. We are instructed to be at the sturgeon camp by 6:30 pm in order to receive a breifing on our jobs and locations. It should be an interesting night. I have seen sturgeon before but never in large numbers or of any size so this will be a new opportunity for Chad and I. It should make for a long night though and an extremely long day on thursday considering we will not be getting any sleep. The Sturgeon project will be providing all the tools we will need throughout the night including a cell phone to call in any suspicious activity involving the sturgeon. They also provide us with a supper apon arrival, a midnight snack if we so choose and a breakfast after we are releived at 7:00 am. We were also instructed to bring a camera, flashlight and reading materiel or something to keep us busy because they suspect that there will not be much activity in the form of poachers or tourists in the wee hours of the morning. It should be fun and i am excited.

Cellular Respiration

My group meet yesterday to plan what we will be doing on the animation. We used some references from the Internet to reword and simplify for high school students about cellular respiration. We came up with three main steps and an extra step if needed. We are only planning on using the three steps though. We also drew a few sketch's on what each slide will look like. We could not do anything on the computer yet but wrote out the outline for the script. We want to start recording the next time we meet. The next time we meet will be on Tuesday after Bio. We hope to work for a few hours on the animation and the talking. We meet this time for over an hour. The planning of what we are going to say is not the easiest due to the fact that we have to bring it down so everyone can understand what we are talking about. This project or what we have so far should help many students have a better understanding.

Sturgeon Patrol

Andy and I are both looking forward to our service learning. It is going to be a big day. After class on Wednesday we are going to pack up a cooler of soda, some lawn chairs and some flashlights and our cameras. We are going to leave Stevens Point around 4:30 PM. We will drive 60 miles to Shiocton. We then have to go to “fish camp.” Here we get a meal and they then train us on what to do, give us a sack lunch, and assign us to and area. Once we get to and area, we are stationed there until 7 AM. While here our job is to make sure nobody harasses the fish or tries to catch them. If they do we will call it in on the supplied cell phone. Then we are going to drive back and be back in time to go to lab at 9. We are going to nap a lot before going to this because it is going to be a long time to go without sleep. I think it is going to be interesting to watch the sturgeon. They are such a prehistoric fish and a large fish.

autism night at the childrens museum

last week we went to autism night at the childrens museum. I was a little unsure of what to expect as i went there as i have never been around an individual with autism. when i got there there were 2 children with autism. they were the complete opposite of each other. one was extremely hyper while the other child was calm and quiet. each one had there little niche that they would do to i guess calm and collect themselves. the quiet one would touch your face and keep to himself while the hyper one would hold things close to his face and hop around a little bit. over all i definately think that this was a learning experience and it was fun as well

CPS Daycare

Going into the classroom I never know what the next little kid is going to say to me and that always keep me smiling. Of course you get the kids that are at times a pain in the but because they are not very happy but they get happy by the end of class. Sitting and playing with the kids is a great way to start my day because I just love spending time with them. Today I met some new little girls and we danced and sang together, I would do this with my friends but I wasnt sure if I should do it in public : ) With little kids it is nice because it is like they bring out the inner child in you. The best part of the day today was the little girl that said she only gave certain people hugs and that I was one of them and I got some good hugs let me tell you : ) I love working with kids and always smiling and giggling with them.

Service-learning project

I have been working on my service learning project but I have realized it would be a lot easier to something here in Stevens Point or Plover rather than going all the way back to my hometown. The weeks are getting down there but I should have everything set-up by the end of next week. I was also thinking of doing something different than teaching children because I have already experienced that. Even though it is a good feeling to know that you had something to do with the child's education but I would like to do something different than I have done. I will know everything for sure by the end of next week and I'll keep everyone in touch of what how everything is going and what I decided to do instead.

dorm room sickness

Our project is coming along and we have a pamphlet made up. We are still working on ways to make it more aesthetically pleasing and easier to read. One thing I thought of overnight was do we have to get our posters approved for being able to be put up or are we allowed to just tape them to the walls. I know in the dorms some things are just on the walls but around campus theres things that say UWSP approved or something like that. On our pamphlet's we covered common infections and sicknesses you could get staying in a dorm becuase of the close contact and company of having a roomate. We tell how you get it, what it is, the symptoms, and how to treat it as well as the duration of the infections. As for now, thats all we've done but we plan on getting together this week and take care of a few things.

common dorm sicknesses

So far everything is going well. The members of our group are working together well and we are starting to see some good progress. Bathroom signs have started to go up and they seem to be going over well. We still need to figure out a date for an infomational and questions session but everything else is going smooth.

The significance of our work is to help educate students about some of the common sicknesses and diseases in the dorms and how to prevent them. I think this is important because keeping students healthy can only benefit there academic experience at there respected college.

Four Hoofed fun!

I have more pictures than I could imagine what to do with. Though its mainly because I have gotten distracted while at the horse rescue by either taking portraits of my friend for her mom to print out and hang on the fridge, or the sheer thrill of trying to take pictures of the horses as they run all over with spring fever, and taking pictures of that instead of my project. Everyone is still pretty filthy, even though we did go out with brushes these kids needs a hose or something!

So far I have 4 pigments on the page (Bay, Chestnut, Dapple Gray, and Roan) Though the roan is the only one in the format that I want it. Where there is a thumb of a focused point.. I am in the process of putting text on 4 more (Appaloosa, Paint, Palomino, and Silver Dapple) and than I still have to find a good picture out of my stock of oh.. 500 pictures of a good gray (which looks white) a black (without too much bleaching) and edit those.

As for the service part, the last few times we have gone out there, the owner Mary, had already gotten the chores done. So this last time we didn't know a head of time. So we just swept the isle and than picked up the trash around the pastures. I learned twice that the fence was on (which it usually isnt) due to that had a close contact with what I hope was mud, but I know it was 90% not.

I really could use some feedback on the website, since my roommate has no idea what I am going on about half the time.
and that is http://fadedoak.com/uwsp/project.htm

Also the pictures included are are Shakira, who decided to roll in what we are going to call mud, you can see on her inner leg and her face what color she SHOULD be, but isnt. There is also a picture of the farm from the road, its only one of the pastures, theres about 30 horses there or so. (PS, the on lying down is not dead, he just enjoys sunning himself) The pictures of the horses running are of the two new rescues, they are both untrained, and nearly ran me over. The cat is patches, who is just as much as this project as any of the horses, she will jump up into your arms if you want her to or not. That little dent in her fur is where she burned her head on a lamp. Shes not the smartest thing...

Animation

This past week I went through the information that I had about cellular respiration and tried to break it down step by step into a fairly simplified version of the complete cycle. Trying to simplify something as complex as cellular respiration has been much more difficult than I first thought it would be, but going through this process I am learning quite a bit. First I am learning how to think different, thinking differently in trying to figure out a way to make others understand the points I'm trying to make, this has required me to change my tactics several times and overall is starting to make me a more adaptable person in a sense. Also, by running through the steps so many times in my head I almost know the entire cycle like the back of my hand.
Our group also met this week Thursday after lab got out. During our time together we began making preliminary sketches of what the animation is actually going to look like along with a very primitive script which will be easier to refine later on. We discussed back and forth the information that we believed to important and what information we absolutely needed in order for the whole process to make sense.
Our next meeting time is after lecture next Tuesday.

Humane Society

This week, I went to the humane society on Tuesday, April 14 and Wednesday April 15. I spent two and a half hours volunteering on Tuesday and an additional hour on Wednesday. On Tuesday, Vicki and I mainly focussed on walking dogs. We took a young light brown pitbull out. Vicki was really scared of it because of all of the stories of these dogs being mean, but actually this dog was really nice. Then, we walked a border collie. This dog was one of my favorites. She was so nice and easy to walk . Then, we went and played with a few cats for a little while. The next day we walked a beagle and then a black lab. All of these dogs were so good and friendly. I was actually really surprised that almost all of the animals at the humane society are nice to people, but I found out the people there test the animals to make sure they are kind to humans. They test the animals by grabing their tail and bothering them while they are eating. They need people to voluteer with these animals so the animals become use to humans and become more friendly, loveable animals. By voluteering, we make these animals kinder creatures, so they will be more likely to get adopted into a nice home. I try to play with the older more scruffy animals because they are are less likely to be adopted and need a lot of attention.The first day I volunteered, I was really surprised to see how small the kennels and homes were for these animals. They should have more room to run and play. I think the community should raise money to help build a larger humane society. The society should also make paths going back into the woods, so we are not restricted to just walking the dogs around the small building. These dogs should have a large fence outside so we can let them off their leash and play catch with them outside. By volunteering at the humane society, I'm helping the community and gaining knowledge about animals at the same time. I am always excited to voluteer at the humane society, and I look forword to it every week.

My service learning project is going great so far. I really love working with the elderly, especially the Alzheimer's patients. I've been doing about two activities a week the past couple of weeks, and every week we do the same one. Basically we take big baloons and throw them to the elderly person and they hit it back. It really doesn't sound like much, but to them it must be a lot of fun because they are always smiling. The little movement it takes to move their arms is great for them too. Another activity is taking a foam bat and having them hit the balloon which is on a string. I was surprised with how well they all did this. One patient in particular couldn't move her wrist or arm enough to fully the swing the bat. All she could do was lightly tap on the ball with the bat. It was really sad to see that she could barely move, but when I rolled the balloon to her she could really kick it! It surprised me that she had so much more movement in her legs when she is even in a wheel chair. A few of the patients are better off than others, so I took about 4 of them and put them in a small circle and had them kick a ball back and forth to each other. They were sitting though because they have pretty bad balance. They did really good kicking the ball and were smiling and laughing the whole time. I also help with just moving the patient's arms and legs up and down, so they get some movement since most of them can't move them much on their own. It is really a weird feeling to feel how stiff they are and how hard it is to move their joints.

While talking with one of the patients, she asked me what my name was and where I was from. I told her my name is Kayla and I grew up in Green Bay, and she asked if I liked it and I said I did. She then answered well that's great and gave me a big smile. I walked away and came back about two minutes later, and I was surprised that she asked me the same exact question, and had the same responses. I know this is from her dementia, but it still surprised me.

This past week I went in on Wednesday since I had some time, and I hadn't been there since the friday before. I was very surprised when one of the patients who's dementia is pretty severe came up to me and said," Oh your back again!" She then asked what we were going to do that day, so I really think she rememered me. That was such a great feeling because I felt like it really means something when I come in and spend time with them. Even though I work there, the patients don't remember who I am, and always aske me my name, so it was great to know that doing the extra activities was giving us a better relationship.

Cellular Respiration On Track #2

It was another productive week for our group. We met at the library Thursday, April 17th from 3:45-5:30pm to continue the work we've already started. Steven, Steph, Liz, and I brought more information to the table and began, as a group, the discuss the specific outline for our animation and the narration to go along with each step/slide. We found it easy to artistically interpret what information we wanted to get across during glycosis, the kreb cycle, and electron transport stages, but it was difficult to put this information into terms and words that could be used for a variety of biology classes at all levels. There are a lot of technical terms so we worked on breaking down the information to be more suitable for learning and for teachers who are looking for a basic understanding for their students. Liz has spent the past week working on the backround template for the slides and next week we will begin making masks and seperate slides that will eventually run together for an Imovie. This weekend I am going to try to find additional information on the Kreb cycle to see if we can interpret this more easily. Our group is going to meet again on Tuesday after class to do some computer work and gather our thoughts on some lingering issues. Overall, I'm happy with how our project is turning out but we certainly have a lot of work to do yet.

Sunshine and Schmeekle

This week, Lauren and I ventured out to Schmeekle again to check out how it looks since we've had such nice weather. The trails were almost all dried out from the rain and snow, so we got to work clearing out extra brush and debris that could get in the way of bikers, runners, or people just walking and enjoying the scenery. We picked up A LOT of litter as well, which really enhanced how pretty the environment is out there. In addition, we looked around for a type of weed, which is an invasive species in Schmeekle, but we didn't see any. We actually walked in pretty far since it was so nice out, and saw a variety of wildlife including ducks, several birds, a few rabbits, and a small rodent or two. It's a great feeling to be helping out in Schmeekle, especially with the nice weather because we're helping others enjoy wildlife without having to step over a bunch of litter and debris. It's also good to know that the animals don't have to deal with it either. It should be fun to go out there more now that it keeps getting warmer!

Service Learning- YMCA

Last Monday at the Y, there were only two kids working out, so when they were done, I went to the other section of the room and played air hockey and pool against James who come to Family Prime Time. I learned that his father is a physical therapist who works in Stevens Point, which I found interesting because that is what I planned on going into. It was fun switching up what I do from working out to having fun, it was a good change of pace. In my time at the YMCA, I learned all that kids can do to get into or stay in shape from a very early age. The Y offers many programs for the kids ranging from the machines that only work by resistance, to exercise programs that involve running and being aerobically active. I believe that this volunteering has helped shed some light on what I want to do with my life. I learned that I really like working with kids and I also like making muscled work correctly, so I think my thoughts about becoming a physical therapist are very good, maybe I should specialize in pediatrics. Based on the service I had, people can really make a difference in the community. I found myself looking forward to Mondays because I got to go volunteer at the Y and have a good time doing it. The people who work there have a really sweet gig. They get to play with the kids or help them work out and they get paid for it.

Where Debot Goes #3

Our project on Where Debot Goes is working fairly well. Tyler found out that the HEC is free, we just have to sign up for a certain time. Last week we met and planned out what we all would be doing. We all agreed to take different parts of the digestive system and to explain how that part works, one of the most common problems with it, ways to keep that part healthy. This weekend we are going to put together all of our information on a poster and get ready to hopefully present next week or the week after that.

Update

The bathroom notices have worked pretty well they haven't been torn off the walls so I see that as having a positive response to them. Working together with the other guys has been fun we get along with each other really well. Now we are starting to put together a strategy for our dorm board stats and facts. Also starting to plan for the question night in the dorm. Both should go very well and be very benificial for the people that stop by or observe the notices. The sicknesses we are researching are very interesting and I am learning some new things about them that I never knew about before. Some of the ways to treat them are very cool and the medicines can be sometimes be very advanced. Hopefully things will continue going as smoothly as they have been for the rest of the year.

Enjoying the nice weather

My partner and I were once again out at Schmeekle, however we had much nicer weather this week so we got a lot more done. Most of the trails are now dry so we began cleaning the trails. We cleared any debris away, as well as any litter. The guy in charge of the center told us also to look out for a type of weed. This weed is an invasive species that they try to get rid of. We did not see any; it is probably still a little early.
I think that the work Sarah and I are doing provides a great service to the community because we are allowing the public to observe the natural surroundings without any distractions. With clear and clean trails visitors are allowed to see a wide variety of habitats as well as animals. It is only the beginning of spring and so far we have observed many kinds of birds, rabbits and other small rodents. It would be nice for the public to be able to enjoy these animals to.

Praire Chicken #2

I went out last week with some people from the TWS to watch and count the praire chickens. I had to be up at 4am and leave from the parking lot here at 445am so we could be in the blind before it started getting light out. That was the first day that the DNR was also there to try and trap the praire chicken to tag them and get a blood sample from them for the records. Well they had a big net set up in the middle of this big praire, and the chickens did not want nothing to do with it, they said it takes some getting use to. I did see maybe 7 total, a couple of them were all bloomed up, but they really were not close enough to get a real good look at them, I am going to try and get out again this week to watch if there is room, and for sure next week. I took my camera out, but they were too far away for a good picture. It was a long morning, and I hope the next tie I go it goes a little better. April 14, 2008 12:31 PM

Praire Chicken #1

For this week with my project I went to a meeting in the TNR to learn how to keep records on the Praire Chickens. Starting next Tuesday, it sounded like everyday in the month of April they will leave here between 530am and 500am to drive about 15 minutes to Buena Vista to watch these Praire Chickens. I have now only got two days that I am signed up for, next Tuesday and the Tuesday after. I am also going to try and get in on a deer capturing effort before they are done with it for the year, this should all be very interesting.
March 26, 2008 11:03 PM

Oh Deer!!

The work that I am doing with the deer project is significant to many in the Stevens Point area. The deer herd on and around campus has grown to significant size and it is important that we understand how this herd works and monitor the deer for disease and overpopulation. I think with what I have learned working with the deer project it just further solidifies my desire to work in the wildlife management field. It is becoming increasingly important, especially in urban areas, that we learn to better manage the wildlife that are a integral part of our environment. Getting to work hands on with the deer on campus excited me for my future career and gave me some insight into what my future job may hold. I also got to know the types of skills and knowledge needed to work on a project like this one. It is important to understand the species you are working with and be able to understand how they make react or respond in certain situations. Trapping even the seemingly tame deer in Schmeekle is no easy task and requires knowledge of deer behavior. You can’t simply expect them to walk into the most obvious traps. You must account for their instinctive behaviors and plan accordingly. One of the biggest surprises to me was the amount of planning and behind the scenes work that goes into a project like this. Adam, the deer project leader, works nearly year round to keep the project working. He has to write a budget and lobby to college financial boards to receive funding for all his work. Him and his dad also spent much of Christmas break building the drop net that the project uses.

Adults or Children?

Last Friday (4/11) I volunteered again. The first activity we did involved showing the residents flash cards of random items and they had to tell us what it was and what it was used for. I showed the first card to an older lady and I asked her what it was. She looked at it and shouted out "A brush!?" and gave me a somewhat confused looked. It was a look of "are you seriously asking me what that is?". This really bugged me. She looked at me as though I was treating her like a child and like I was almost questioning her intelligence. But my first day at the health care facility the activity director told us that many of the residents have trouble comprehending what’s going on and understanding what you’re saying, almost as if they have regressed to when they were children. But the more time I spend with these people I just do not think that’s true. Maybe they can't tell us in words that they understand because they’re basically trapped in their own heads, but i think they know exactly what's going on, at least for the most part.

Well after the first 20 minutes it was very clear that all the residents were bored out of their minds, because most of them had fallen asleep at this point. That day, me and the other people I volunteer with were left alone and in charge of what we did for that hour. We all looked at each other and decided that this was not in any way helping to better these people. So we decided to turn on some music. This seemed to wake a few of them up. One of the residents (who happens to be someone I enjoy talking to and spending time with very much, not that I'm choosing favorites or anything :]), gave me an awful odd look when I started dancing and rocking out to 'Sweet Home Alabama'. I saw him staring at me and asked if he wanted to dance with me. When I grabbed his hand I felt him hold on real tight, and he gave me a big smile. After the song ended I got a beach ball and asked him if he wanted to hit it back and forth. He really seemed to like this idea. I'd throw it to him and he'd spike it right back. I told him that he could probably have started on my volleyball team in high school and he seemed to get a kick out of that.
The next activity we did was playing with the big ball again. This week I took some pictures so that you guys could get an idea of what exactly we do with them.


This particular activity seems to be pretty popular with the residents. They enjoy getting to kick the ball as hard as they can. At the same time this really helps them to get some blood flowing because as you can see from the pictures every single one of the residents is confined to a wheel chair.

It’s really starting to become clear to me that these people just want someone to spend time with them. They all seem so lonely and want someone to show them some form of love. One lady in particular always reaches for my hand whenever I’m near her. She just wants to feel that closeness to someone and feel the kindness from something as simple as me holding her hand. Doing this service learning project has really been an eye opening experience. It’s almost been like a slap in the face about how fortune we all have it and how precious life really is.

Reflection on Hospice Volunteering

After about 7 hours of visiting with hospice patients, I have learned a great deal. I believe that what I am doing is very important in the community, because I think that older people don't always get the attention that they need and they appreciate how I have been educating them about what I have been learning in biology! Some of the patients that I have visited have a very dreary outlook on life, and when people like me go to visit them it brightens up their day. Everyone should perform some type of service whenever they have time, it helps people out in ways that you could never know! Some of the people that I have talked to told me that not even their family comes to see them- how sad! This experience has been harder than I thought it would: when one of the women that I was visiting passed away, I had no idea what to do. I realize that there may be some negative aspects of performing community service, but the perks are worth it! I was invited to a 99th birthday party for a man named Philip that I have been talking with. His memory isn't in working condition anymore, so he reminds me every couple of minutes how much he loves learning from me and how much he loves seeing me! What I am doing is improving the quality of life for these people, and it makes me feel very good inside. I hope that everyone else can feel as good as I do about what we've been doing!

Where Debot Goes #2

Adam, Tyler and I have been working out what all is going on our post. We decided to that we are going to talk about all the different important areas in the digestion system. We are going to include what each one does with the food and what some common diseases are that are found in there. We are going to be talking to someone from the HEC to see when we can set up a stand for our poster. Our post will include a complete picture of the whole digestive tract and all the information that we have been gathering from get sources. Our sources are giving us the perfect information that we need to complete our project.

Autism Night

The Children's Museum of Stevens Point holds autism night on the first Monday of every month. A young mom was there with her four-year-old son, Austin. He was a very happy little boy with enough energy to run a marathon. When Austin was born he appeared to be a normal healthy little boy, but when he turned two his development hit a standstill and almost everything he learned dissappeared. With the help of specialists he is learning to talk again, although is speech is limited. Being the mom of a child with autism is without a doubt a full-time job. Austin eat's anything. He will literally eat his clothing. He also has a problem with running away. He's a master escape artist (they live on 40 acres of land with alot of water). He also has no concept of pain. She hasn't taken him to a grocery store in over 3 months. The last time she took him to a grocery store, he cracked his head open. His whole body is almost insensitive, except for his head. His mom has a hard time brushing his teeth and he's already had to have surgery to remove some of his teeth because of decay that led to his gums. Something that is unique to his form of Autism is that he does "edging". He has rituals that he does to calm himself down in exciting situations. When new people walk past him he swings his arms in excitement and hops up and down in order to take-in new information. He also lines up his hot-wheel cars. He lines them up every time in a specific order. If he turns his head for a second, after he lined up the cars, his mom will move one just a slight bit. When he turns around and looks back at the cars, he is quick to realize it.

The other family that came in had a son named Logan. Logan was very passive, but he was very verbal. He even came over by us to talk and asked us a few questions. Logan, has a lower form of autism on the "spectrum" as his mom called it. His parents knew that Logan was autistic from when he was only a baby. He was always behind on development. Logan only goes to a school for kids with special needs for half a day. He hates loud noises. The Children's Museum has a train that the kids can play on and he was scared to even walk into that half of the building because he doesn't like the noise. He doesn't handle busy areas or stressful situations very well. The difference between the two boys shows the variations of autism.

Cellular Respiration Animation

With the two tests these last couple of weeks, our progress has moved pretty slowly. But now that we can get some real work done, I think we'll have something to show pretty soon. We finally decided exactly how we are going to begin and go about the animation. We will start with a broad shot of the entire cell, complete with organelles, and a basic definition of cellular respiration. Then we'll zoom in on each of the important components of respiration and give basic definitions of those. Then we'll go step by step through the process, being specific, yet simple enough for high school biology students to understand. Finally, we will quickly review the process one last time. We plan to leave the loop running with out our voices a few times as to allow the instructor some time to say things. My task as the art major, is to begin creating the image files we will use in the animation, starting with the overview of the cell. The others will be coming up with the simple steps and definitions. We hope that in a week or two, we can begin the recording process.

Humane society

This week I went to the humane society and voluteered for two hours. Vicki and I went straight to the dog kennels to walk and play with the dogs. However, it was raining so we couldn't take any of the dogs outside , so we just took them into a large room. First, we took a fun and loveing mixed puppy, and just played some catch with him. Then, we took a large Saint Bernard out because he looked like he needed some attention. He only had three legs but was still almost stronger than I was. When I took him out of his kennel, he started barking really lound at the dog in the end kennel. I could bairly get him away from the small dog at the end. I found out later the small dog just had surgery, so he wasn't acting himself and would bark at any dog that passed. After playing with these dogs, we descided to play with some of the cats and kittens in a small room with many cat toys. I was playing with them with a rope that they chased around the room. When it was almost time to leave, we took out another black puppy and took him into the room to play catch. I had a lot of fun and can't wait to go again next tuesday.

Service Learning Day 2 - YMCA

First off, I need to clarify a few things. In my last post I said that kids ages 3-12 can use the exercise equipment. I misspoke. There is two rooms at Family Prime Time, the “weight room” and the play room. The play room is open to kids in grades kindergarten to sixth. The weight room is open to kids ages 7-12, which is much safer and makes sense. I am sorry for the wrong information. The Body Motion machines that the kids use were donated by Ministry Health Care. According to Ashley, the person working in the weight room, these machines are rare, not many places have them. The machines have five settings, they progressively get heavier by utilizing more of the person's body weight. The maximum that the kids can use is three quarters of their wight, which is a safe amount and will not stunt growth or have other side effects. There are 10 stations using legs, back, chest, shoulders, and abs. The kids are told to do around 15 reps and they do one circuit. They have to warm up by running on the treadmill of bike for a few minutes then stretch after the workout. Also, the kids can only work out three times a week so their body has time to heal. When someone new wants to work out, they have to go three orientations. The first and second orientations the kids have to do the exercises as the instructor tells them and the third orientation is in front of their parents and instructor to show the parents that they can do the exercises. I also found out the date of the earth day activities, but still don't really know what I will be doing there.

Autism Night

This evening my group took a trip over to the children's museum and spent a few hours there for autism night. It was a great learning experience, even though only two autistic children came in. The first boy's name was Austen and he was four years old. He was diagnosed with autism when he was two years old. He was very hyper, and very rarely stayed in one place for more than 15-20 seconds. He is always on the move, and he loves to dance around and climb on anything possible. While we were watching him play, his mother was anxious to talk about him and his condition and she was willing to answer any questions we had. She mentioned that Austen has a very high pain tolerance and never cries. When he hits his head hard she said that he just lets out a death scream. A little later Logan came in with his parents and little brother. Logan was also four years old and knows Austen from school. Logan was different than Austen in that he was much more calm and was not running around and climbing on things all the time. He could speak much better than Austen and had a much longer attention span. Logan's mother and father were also very much willing to talk about his condition and were happy to answer the questions we had. Neither of these two boys were completely potty trained, which makes it very hard for their teachers when they go to school. Later we went and painted and drew on the chalkboard with the children. I know it has got to be hard for their parents and could not imagine what a handful it must be. I really enjoyed playing with these boys even though they were a handful. It was great talking to the boys' parents and I could tell they enjoyed telling us anything we wanted to know.

Sturgeon Patrol Update 1

This week in sturgeon patrol I was expecting to receive an email from the coordinator of the program concerning details about our volunteering. The schedule was to be posted by April 1 but was not posted. I received an email that information would be sent out by Friday afternoon concerning the missing information and it still did not come. I did find out some information about what we are going to be doing from some who are involved while I was making phone calls. It sounds as though Chad Leanna and I will need to arrive a little before 7:00 pm where we will be briefed about what we need to do. This will include making sure people don’t tamper with the fish while they spawn. The locations we will be watching include shallow stretches of the river as well as some commonly used rock piles that are popular for the sturgeon. The shift will be from 7 to 7 and the program will provide us with 3 separate meals including dinner when we arrive, a midnight snack, and a breakfast before we leave in the morning. We signed up for 3 different night shifts on April 23, 24, and 30. Hopefully by next week the dnr will have a schedule out that will let us know when we will be watching the sturgeon. The reason for the delay on scheduleing could be because of the weather because the movement of the sturgeon as well as when they spawn is directly dependant on the weather and the water temperature. If the conditions are not right then the fish will not move up into the river.

fun at the childrens museum

Today my group which includes tyler nigon and amy simmons went down to the childrens museum and worked with the kids and talked to them about birds. we had a fun project for them which was making bird feeders with pinecones, peanut butter, and bird seed. most of the kids came and went which we didnt expect so much. we planned on talking to a group and then letting them build the feeders but this didnt happen. instead we each talked to the kids about birds as they built there own feeders. it was really interesting to hear what they knew about birds wether it was true or not. we talked to them about where they lived and wuth kinds of birds they knew. we also talked about some of the more common types of birds like ducks and geese and morning doves. i was aslo suprised as to how much they wanted to learn by asking questions. it was a lot of fun to do, even the parents thought it was fun. they thought it was a great project for the kids especially since we talked to them about birds. it was a big mess playing with the peanut butter and seed. peanut butter got all over, my hands were coverd with it and seed and looked like a bird feeder themselves. it was also pretty funny cause a couple of the younger kids one boy in particular keep trying to eat the peanut butter off of the pine cones while they were putting it on.

Children's Museum

Today at the children's museum, my group and I went in to talk to the children about birds. We did not have an organized presentation like we expected, but instead the children came in at their leisure. When the kids came in we talked about migration habits of different species of birds like robins and Canadian geese. The kids had a fun time talking about the birds and their different habits while we worked on the project. For the project we had pine cones that the children covered with peanut butter and bird seed that they made and could take home to hang on a tree. We told them to watch their feeders and see how many different species of birds they could get to come eat off of it. They were very excited to make their feeders, but the peanut butter was a huge mess! We all had a great time, and I had more fun teaching the kids about birds and helping them make bird feeders than I originally thought I would. Amy took some pictures of us and the kids while we were working with them that she has posted under her blog.

Cleaning Schmeekle

This week, Lauren and I took a walk out to Schmeekle to see what we are dealing with. When we got there, we discovered that the area is still quite flooded from the snow. However, we did observe a few animals like a rabbit, a duck in a puddle, and a couple of birds, which could suggest that they are migrating back in for spring. It's very interesting being out there at the turn of the season to observe how the environment and life in it is changing. When we walked around a little more, we noticed that there was indeed a lot of litter. We picked up what we could see, but I'm sure that once the snow is completely gone we will find more. It was fun just to walk through some of the trails and survey the plants and animals while helping make the environment a little cleaner and more pleasant for them.

Children's Museum

Today we went to the Children's Museum and our subject was birds. We were hoping that the kids would come all at one time and we could do a short presentation and then we could do our project, but the kids came and went so instead we did the project and while we were working on it we talked to them about birds. They were eager to tell us about the birds that they have in their backyards and the many colors and sizes that they have seen.

We didn't get many action shots with the kids because it was a flat out mess. We took pine cones and had them cover them in peanut butter and then they poured bird seed on the peanut butter. We also had attached strings to the pine cones so that they can hang them from trees in their yards to feed the birds. We literally had peanut butter up to our elbows while trying to help them. It was messy, but definitely fun.

I was surpised that alot of parents had never seen this type of bird feeder before. They were really excited that they finally had a purpose for all of the pine cones in their yards and they thought it was a great idea to get their kids interested in birds.

We also had books about birds that we rented out from the library for the kids to look at before or after they did their projects. I had alot more fun than I originally thought I would. Next week we're going to an Autism Night that is held by the Children's Museum.

Where Debot Goes #2

Our project on “Where Debot Goes” is coming along. Right now we are in the information gathering stages. I found an extremely helpful website that tells all about the human digestive system, all the parts, a detailed description of all of the parts and the problems that can go wrong with each part or problems patients have had. We are planning on for sure having a few informational posters to show the digestive system and maybe we will make a model to show a more 3-D view. We also plan on getting a hold of someone in the HEC so we can put our project on display. Soon we are going to get together to combine all of the information that we have found and then we will start working on the posters and the potential model. I really think I will learn a lot about some of the problems that you hear people have with their digestive system and overall it will be a good experience.

Dorm Sickness

Like Chris and Eric both have already said, our project is coming along. We found a lot of good facts that we are interested in, its now just a matter of choosing which ones to use. The pamphlets are about ready to be printed which means completion is near and toilet users will become more knowledgeable and amused. I like working with these men, a lot of fun, and we work together which is nice to have from a group. Soon our pamphlets will be coming to a toilet stall near you!

Dorm sicknesses

Reasearch on our common dorm sicknesses is going ahead as planed. We have been able to narrow our search down to the more common sicknesses. There is alot of information and it is a little overwellming but we are making go progress. We have already started and are close to finishing our bathroom pamphlets but we are trying to think of ways to make the pamphlets alittle more exciting so people want to read them. One of the challenges that we have run across so far is trying to put the information we have collected into laymens terms so that people will understand the material. We are thinking of ways to make it a little more appealing to the eye aswell, which might include some pictures here and there. Other than a few bumps in the road everything is going well.

Humane Society

This week, I went to the humane society with Vicki Bieschke. We spent an hour and a half at the center playing with the many animals. There were so many animals to play with including dogs, cats, rabbits, and even ferrits. We first played with the kittens because young animals need a lot of attention. I played with these fun and highly energized kittens by spinning a cat rope around and letting them chase it. I made sure all of the kittens were running around. Then, we went to the bunnies, and I held the white bunny for a little bit. After a while, it got a little scared, so I put it back in its cage. Next, we took out a few of the older cats and let them run around and play with one another. Lastly, we desided to walk the two black lab puppies. They were so cute and had a lot of energy from being locked in their cages for so long. It was hard to get a collar on both of the labs because they both ganged up on me in their cage. When we finally got them outside, the collar didn't fit one of the labs, and he almost escaped. Volunteering at the humane society was so fun, and I learned a lot about animals.

When Pigments Attack!

This project has proven to be great and grand, inside and out. So far I have collected over 200 pictures, but maybe about 50 of them are good, and not all of them are of the project material. Its the sloppy mid season, (spring) so all the horses are all muddy and gross looking so I have to go out with a brush and try to clean them up, that sometimes fails within itself as well. So thats a challenge that I have run into. We are having quite a bit of fun though, I go volunteer with my friend Lauren, so because I have to have her keep the critters attention while I take pictures we tend to spend 2/3 of our time running around in the pastures saying hello to everyone and then taking pictures. Then only about an hour and a half feeding and scooping poop. Which is pretty joyous.

Over the time that I have started this project, (even though I have been volunteering for a few months prior) the facility has found new homes for about 8 horses, and since then they have gotten about 6 new horses, including one that is getting over lymes disease, which can happen to horses too.. Alot of the horses that come in have been abused or poorly trained, though a few that come in have no background stories, and were just given up because the owner didn't want to go through the lifetime commitment of owning a horse. Which means in the sense of this project that its more opportunities to get colors! Since most of the horse population is this foundation color called Bay, about 70% of the horses at the farm are this color. So since I needed some of the rarer colors, Liz so kindly offered to take me up to where she worked so we could roam with those critters and get some of the colors that my rescue didn't have, such as roan, and silver dapple, I was quite happy.

As for the webpage portion, I have it all designed, and few things are filled in. Since I stole the html off the page I coded for my online portfolio, some of the coding disagreed with how I wanted to write a lot. So after fighting with it for a few days, I decided to cheat and write the things I needed within the image, so it would be a text and image combo thing. So if you guys want to check it out its at http://fadedoak.com/uwsp (click projects to get to well, the project..) there are two thumbnails in the right corner, the first one doesn't work because I have had it with trying to figure it out before this is due. But I wanted to give you all a taste of what its planned on looking like.

I realized that this project is going to take possibly far over the required time to spend on it, but its something that will also be useful to a whole lot of people and such.

Oh yes, the pictures included, because everyone likes pictures The first one is of the new horse that came in, who is an excellent example of how no one is clean..

And then the second one is of my lovely assistant and another filthy horse.

Then out of pure entertainment, "Mustang Sally" who was really happy and jumping all about, and a how horses can be completely airborne...

Cellular Respiration: 2

This past week I finished researching the subject and have looked at quite a few different illustrations gathering ideas to put together the animation. Some of the illustrations we might even be able to use in the animation, that I believe will help give a big picture of things in a better way than I thought we could do by ourselves. I have also put together a list of the main steps in cellular respiration that are necessary to cover at any level, I tried to keep things simple enough for a large target area to understand the information provided. I haven't and won't be able to meet with the rest of my group until next week, due to work conflicts, but I will be trying to sending an e-mail to them so that they can use the information I have gathered to start working on a story board....which the last I knew will be the basis for the animation.

Service Learning - Day 1

Monday I started my service learning project at the YMCA in Stevens Point. I got to help kids ages 3-12 use weight lifting equipment. I thought this was dangerous, as I had always been taught that lifting before puberty was detrimental to growth and could make people permanently short. Marissa, the person in charge of the Family Prime Time fitness section, showed me that the kids cannot lift more than their own body weight. The machines are designed to convert the weight of the kids to a certain level of resistance so the kids cannot strain of otherwise injure themselves. Some of the kids are pretty new to the machines, so Marissa had to take them through every machine and show them how to do the exercise correctly. This actually took quite a long time. I had to try it, as it looked like it would be really easy. It wasn't. It is actually a good workout. I also learned that the YMCA has a large family event planned for Earth Day and I will be able to work with them during the entire activity, so I am pretty excited. I really enjoyed my couple of hours in the Y and am looking forward to doing it again next week.

Deer Project

As I mentioned in my first post I am working with The Wildlife Society and the deer project in specific. I may have to find other opportunities however, as deer trapping may soon be coming to an end as the weather gets warmer and does begin to drop their fawns. The goal of the deer project is to monitor and learn more about the deer herd that lives in Schmeekle and the nearby areas. This is done in large part through radio collaring. Radio collaring allows for tracking of the deer which can tell a lot about its habits and life style. Right now we are trying to get more radio collars on deer through trapping. There are two types of traps that the deer project uses to try to capture deer. The first is a basic box trap. The trap has doors on both ends and is baited in the middle with corn, when the deer enters so far into the trap it trips a wire that closes both doors. The box traps are left open nearly all week and we check them at 7am and 8pm. The other type of trap is a drop net. This type of trap takes a little more work. It is a large net held up on ten foot poles. Volunteers sit in a nearby blind and when the deer move to the bait in the center of the net it is dropped. The deer must then be tackled, blindfolded and radio collared. So far I have not been present for the collaring of any deer although we had deer near the net one night only to be scented by a doe that had moved down wind of us. Overall, it is a very exciting project and I am hopeful that I will get to tackle and collar a deer.

Cellular Respiration On Track

This week we acquired a new teamster to help out with the service learning project. Steph will now be apart of our Cellular Respiration project and we are happy to have the addition. The past two weeks have been spent doing more specific research on the steps of cellular respiration in hopes of finding difinitive stages that are clear-cut and easy to understand. Stephen and Liz are mapping out how to animate these steps by making each slide a PDF file. Since we now have another group member we will meet next week again to make sure everyone is on track with their assigned work. Our goal is to have the steps planned out by next week as accurately and efficient as we can and continue work on steps to animation. Once we have an outline of exactly what we are showing on the slideshow, we will be able to come up with a script for the educational component of the animation. This is definitely going to be a lot of work but the end product is going to be great!

Cellular Respiration-new group

I just switched groups due to a problem with volunteering at the humane society. I will now be working with Cody, Liz, and Steven. We have not meet yet but plan on meeting this week to catch me up in what they have already started. We will be doing a animation video of cellular respiration. We will be using video and photo shop to create this presentation. The presentation can be used to help many people of all ages to better understand how the process works. We hope this will help teacher so they can use it in there classes to present to the students. I am starting to look up information and diagrams on cellular respiration to help the group. I hope I learn and master how this processes works myself. I also hope I learn some more technology of computers so I can make more videos. This should be very interesting and helpful to many.

Bingo!

For my project I am working with people with Alzheimer's and dementia. Alzheimer's happens in stages, and at this place most of the residents are in the final stages. They can't function on their own and need help with bascially everything: bathing, eating, and dressing. They can still talk, but a lot of the time it doesn't make any sense because they talk about past events and people as if they are happening now. A good way to picture them is think of a toddler in an elderly person's body. It is extremely hard to see people like this, its sad and frustrating at the same time. It's very hard to remember they are still people, and they once had lives just like you and me.

I played bingo with the residents for activity last week. I was nervous because I didn't think they would understand what to do. They did really well though, especially one resident in particular. She can't dress herself, feed herself, or even move herself. But when it came to bingo she was a pro. She put all the chips in the right places without me helping her, and it was great seeing that she still had some cognitive ability.

I also gave the residents a snack, a vanilla wafer bar. Their response to these bars was overwhelming. They all thanked me and some said "Oh I love you!" It was such a little gesture, but I felt like I made their whole day because they were so excited. One resident however looked at me with confusion when I gave her a bar. She asked me, "Waht do I do with this?" I told her to eat it, but she still didn't get it, so I had to motion a gesture as if I were eating, and she understood and ate it. It was hard to see this old woman not understand how to eat, but seeing the other residents so excited about the snack really makes this project enjoyable and meaningful to me.

Dorm Awareness

Research is going really good on our common dorm sicknesses. The amount of information is a little more than expected but we are getting through it ok. The hard part is finding the information that we want to convey to our fellow students that is understandable. We are making good progress and our bathroom pamphlets are almost ready to go up. We are thinking of ways to make it a little more appealing to the eye and also to make it a little more fun to read. I think throwing in some fun facts along with it will help. Other than that everything is going really good and we are working really well together.

Cleaning Schmeekle

Due to the weather, we are not yet able to fully help out at Schmeekle until it gets warmer. But Sarah and I figured we could at least do a little help, even if it isn't official. We went to Schmeekle and took some observations and thought of some ideas that we could do to help. One big thing we notice and wasn't really expecting, was the amount of litter. I am sure we will find even more when the snow melts. The effect of pollution on the environment can be devastating so we want to do as much as possible.

Another thing we noted was the return and awakening of some animals. Along the trail we noticed many birds chirping and a lot of rabbit droppings. This is definitely a sign that spring is on its way. Catching the eye of some ducks swimming in a puddle of what use to be a nature trail, certainly tells us that we have got some work cut out for us.

Humane Society Day One

Yesterday I went to the humane society with Lynnea Chelmo for my fist volunteer opportunity. We stayed for about an hour in a half. When we got there Lynnea and I did not know where to start. When we looked around there were so many animals that just looked like they needed some love. So what we did was we spent a little time with all the different types of animals they had. First we started with the kittens. We played with them and made sure to get them all moving. Lynnea played the with the wild one of the bunch as I held the lazy super cute one. The next thing we did was move onto the bunny. The bunny was a little skirmish so after a while we put him away because he seemed to want to go back into his cage. The cat cages are right by the bunny room so we hit that up next and let some cats out to play with they were all very social and nice. The last and most exciting adventure we went on was walking the two puppies they were so cute and innocent looking. But they were naughty Lynnea was practically wrestling with them in the cage trying to get there collars on which we never quite got and one of the dogs almost escaped. I learned a lot and enjoyed myself. I learned how to take care of these animals and just exactly how much attention these animals really need. I am looking forward to Thursday, which is the next time we will be going to the Humane Society.

Hospice Volunteering: Take One

On Saturday morning I arrived at the nursing home which I was going to be volunteering at. I had to go through a brief training session, which basically explained to me what was acceptable/unacceptable to talk to these patients about, what I should expect, and some general information about the patients that I would be encountering. The typical patient that is put on hospice is expected to live 6 more months or less. The first patient that I visited and talked with was an elderly woman who was very friendly and glad to see me. I learned that she was not diagnosed with anything specific; she was just dying of old age. In other words, her body was just giving out after having worked so hard for so long. In my training I learned that when patients are dying of old age an obvious sign that they are slipping is that they stop drinking and their body produces very little urine and it is not diluted at all. The lady that I was talking with told me that she had suffered from 3 minor strokes within the last month, which made it a little bit hard to understand her but I was able to make out what she was saying after I got used to it. It was disheartening to think that this nice old woman may die before the next time I get to see her.