ROUGH DRAFT

GROUP MEMBERS: Jacob Capezi and Haley Mohler

Our draft has not yet been finished due to our inability to work an in-person meeting into both of our schedules. We both have jobs, as well as full-time enrollment. Please disregard the unfinished parts of our draft.

For students entering college, choosing a major is a big deal. Most of the time, students have an idea of what they want to do. Other times, students have no clue what they want to do with their future. This is where research comes in handy. Going into college, I knew that I wanted to me in the health-care field. I did not know; however, what specific field I wanted to work in. Under the options of majors, there is a major called health sciences. Other schools might call it pre-med or medical sciences. In the field of health and medical sciences, there is more than meets the eye to the research and theories that create a platform for future learning. I interviewed Amy Reesing, a human development professor who focuses on the development of the physical, cognitive, and socioemotional aspects of life.  

After interviewing Amy Reesing, a professor in human development, there is a more defined way of studying our selected discipline. Reesing graduated with a degree in studies of human development. After being asked about the continuing debates in the field of health sciences, Reesing focused on brain development. Reesing stated “The field of medical sciences is never black and white, that is the first thing to know and accept when entering this discipline.” We can not just place a brain in a jar and watch it grow. Even if we did we can not know why or what growths and what age mean what. Reesing said that the biggest debate is over the importance of brain development within the first three years of age. Some say that it is life-threatening important and critical to create the right stimulation for the brain to grow. Others say that the brain has a quality of plasticity to always be growing, not placing such strong importance on the criticalness of the first three years of development. Reesing agrees with both ends of the argument. Reesing opinion is “I agree that the development of the brain in the first three years of life is extremely important, yet I do think that there is compensation that can be made.” When it comes to the general understanding and knowing of the discipline that Reesing is specifically in, she focuses on how and why people change and remain the same over the span of life. She mentions the three categories of development (cognitive, socioemotional, and physical), and places much importance on their interactions over several years to understand development of the human being. Reesing states that in her discipline, both quantitive and qualative data are accepted. “Quantative data including numbers and a wider-range of results are more accepted and used in the health sciences field.”

We also conducted another interview. Recently, I conducted an interview with a woman by the name Michelle Jung, an ASU employee who works in the Motor Behavior field. Throughout the interview I questioned her on many aspects of her discipline in order to see how different her ideas, view points, and research vary from others in the same or similar field. Early on in the interview I as her “What are some of theories or main ideas seen throughout her field”, in which she responded by saying, “The two main theories you would encounter are the Motor Program Theory and the Dynamical Systems Theory.” These both involve how the body produces signals to make other parts of our bodies move. Personally, Michelle comes from a Dynamical Systems back round which is more involved with the effects of the environment on the functions we perform. In order to understand how she comes about her data, I went on to ask her “What kind of evidence is more reliable, qualitative or quantitative?” She quickly, without even a blink, went on to reassure me that the field she is involved with relies heavily on quantitative data by informing me, “Any type of research done in the field relies heavily on numerical data because it provides the best type of evidence.” As the interview progressed and we became more comfortable with each other was given the opportunity to ask, “Have you come across any gaps in your field of study?” Granted this was slightly more personal than previous questions I had asked, but she had no problem explaining to me about the constant gaps in research she has come across in the past. Moreover, I asked her to provide me with an example in which she had no problem doing as she went on to explain to me, “[She] conducted a lab where she tested postural stability, but instead of testing it from the ankles she measured the posture from the torso and the results were nearly the same as those from the ankles.” This is a fantastic example of how she tests the gap to see whether or not more can be done then what already has been. Overall, the interview went extremely smooth and lasted close to twenty minutes and I am extremely happy I was given the chance to meet her because she was able to give me some different views not only in her field but my field of study as well.

Part 2:

Each field at any university will have specific research articles for their discipline. After finding a couple articles from the discipline of health and medical sciences and comparing them to those of other disciplines articles, there are distinct differences that set my major and discipline apart from others. In the first article that was analyzed, the research was focused on the composition of the tendons in our body. Titled “Collagen Structure of Tendon Relates to Function” this article claims that the collagen cells located in tendons are formed a specific way to aid in the function of the tendons. According to Tuhlmans way of analyzing research, this claim has other aspects. The data collected from the article states that under microscopic view, cells of the tendon appear to be in zig-zag or crinckled in appearance. The author states “At a first stage of tendon stretching, with very slow forces, a flattening of tendon crimps may occur. Increasing the stretching, but still at small strains, a straightening of molecular kinks of collagen fibrils may happen. Finally, higher strains lead to molecular gliding within the fibril structure.” This leads us to conclude that the warrant of this article is that tendons are capable of more stretching due to the composition of the collagen cells that form the tendon. Backing of this article includes microscopic examinations as well as cell samples and physical observations. There is a reservation that qualifies for this article as well, it is shown that although tendons are more easily stretched because of their unique collagen cells, stretching of tendons vary form one individual to another. The qualifier is that tendons are structures that attach bone to muscle and require an ability to stretch more than other collagen structures, thus they have specialized cells that allow more stretching. In the interviews, it was stated that quantative data is more broadly used in this discipline. The article supports this by creating a range of expieriments that slightly differ in their observations to allow a wider range of information gathered instead of one large experiment. This increased knowledge of the research done in this discpline because it was entirely based on science. In other disciplines articles, they may have an expieriment included in their article, yet for the health sciences discipline, the experiment is the article. It goes into more depth than a side experiment included in other articles. In our next article according to Tuhlman.....

Part 3:

*review interviews

*review articles

*make connections between the two

*discuss pros

*discuss counter arguments

*conclusion

In class blog 4-10

 What is the argument’s purpose in your article? (Is it an argument: to inform, to convince, to persuade, to explore, to make decisions? It can be more than one of these.) What does it hope to achieve?
The arguments purpose is to inform, convince and explore the composition of tendons in the body. It hopes to achieve a better understanding of how and why tendons are formed with the fibers of collagen. It hopes to explain their function and tendency to reinforce movement and stay as strong as they do.

What assumptions does the author make? Every argument contains an assumption that is crucial to its validity. The assumption, sometimes stated sometimes left unstated, lies between the claim and support, connecting the two with logic. For example, a claim the authors of They Say/I Say make is that “The authors you summarize at the college level seldom simply ‘say’ or ‘discuss’ things; they ‘urge,’ ‘emphasize,’ and ‘complain about’ them.” They then go on to give the following illustration: [claim] … The Declaration of Independence doesn’t just talk about the treatment of the colonies by the British; it protests against it” [support] (38). What then is the assumption? That the colonists had had it with British rule, they were done talking about the issue, and were readying to revolt. Saying that the colonists wrote the Declaration of Independence to tell England how they felt doesn’t accurately express what the colonists intended.
In health sciences, there are not necessarily assumptions. There are hypothesis, which are a type of prediction to be tested. The hypothesis is that if a tendon can stretch and retain more movement, then it’s composition differs in a sense of collagen

  What types of evidence are used? Highlight/underline different forms of evidence used. (Types of evidence: Firsthand evidence and research includes observations, interviews, surveys and questionnaires, experiments, and personal experience; secondhand evidence includes library sources, films, photographs – anything beyond yourself.)
Evidence used in this article is mainly observations, and experiments. Health sciences one of the only fields where interviews do not matter much to the articles and research. Most information gathered in the field of medical sciences is hands-on evidence and experiments. In this case an observation would not work because the tendons are inside of the body.

In class blog 3-3

Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Claim: The woman is a witch

Data: She looks like one, and weighs the same as the duck

Warrant: If she looks like one and weighs the same as a duck, then she is a witch

Backing: witches are made of wood and float, so if she weighs the same on the scale as a duck than she will be determined a witch

Reservation: They faked her looking like a witch

Qualifier: If a woman is a witch than she should be burned to death because witches are bad

Article 1:

Collagen structure of tendon relates to function.

 

CLAIM: a tendon is a tough band of fibrous connective tissue that binds muscle to bone, and have crimps in the cells that allow extra stretching

 

DATA: under a microscope a tendon shows crimped cells that flatten in the first stage of stretching

WARRANT: A tendon can stretch more easily becuse its tissue cells are crimpted to allow extra stretching

 

BACKING: This theory has been tested to prove furthur stretching in the tendons of the body.

 

RESERVATION: Stretching varies in collagen tissues among individuals

 

QUALIFIERS: tendons differ in collagen compisition to create easier movement and stretching

 

[The three-dimensional ultrastructure of the collagen fibers, reticular fibers and elastic fibers: a review].

Claim:Fibrous components of the connective tissue are light-microscopically classified into three types: collagen fibers, reticular fibers and elastic fibers.

 

Data:The collagen fibers are shaped like tapes or cords about 1 to 20 microns in diameter. Each fiber is a bundle of fibrils running roughly parallel to each other.

 

Warrant:These fibers are considered to play an important role not only in adhering the cells to the collagen fibers, but also in constituting the skeletal framework suitable for individual cells and tissues.

 

Backing:The elastic fibers consist of two different components: elastin and fibrillin.

 

Qualifier:For a comprehensive understanding of the fibrous components in the connective tissue, the author proposed categorizing them into two systems: the collagen fibrillar system as a supporting framework of tissues and cells, and the fibrillin-elastin fibrillar system for distributing stressing forces uniformly in tissues.

 

blog due 4-2

“Four Meta-genres”

            After reading all four of Carter’s main ideas of meta-genres, I have decided that my major of health sciences fits best into the category of “responses to Academic Situations that call for Empirical Inquiry.” At first I wasn’t even sure what empirical inquiry meant, until Carter explained it. He states, “Empirical inquiry is a way of doing that consists of answering questions by drawing conclusions from systematic investigation based on empirical data.” (Cater, 396)The word investigation got my attention. Investigations directly relate to experiments, which play a big role in science majors. He gives an example of Microbiology and Political Sciences. Of course, microbiology relates more to my major, as I have to take that course in Fall 2013. With the information I know about my major, almost all studies start with a question. For example, “why do we sweat when we workout?” or “why do some people sweat more than others?” Under the points of microbiology, it mentions asking pertinent questions to formulate hypothesizes and designing experiments. I am very familiar with these steps. The points also mentioning observations and presenting findings in the appropriate forms. I am only a freshman in college, but have had science focused classes since my freshman year of high school. When it comes the other example Carter gives, my major may not directly relate to political sciences, but it does have some similarities. Health sciences as I know it, is a lot of research and experimenting. Political sciences have different types of questions, yet both subjects have hypothesizes and outcomes that support or deny that hypothesis. Before reading this article I would have never thought as to political sciences being similar. Finally, each of the assignments listed at the bottom all looked familiar. At some point in my career as a student I will use each and every one of the examples written on page 398.