1. Do adolescent youth have a genetic predisposition for [EI]?
 Adolescent youth have a genetic predisposition to be educationally irresponsible. According to the video “Changing Education Paradigms”, there has been a large rise in the mental disorder ADHD over the past couple of years. I personally know, since my little brother has ADD, that ADHD makes it difficult for people to focus on one thing for an extended period of time. Due to their unfortunate condition, these kids that suffer from ADHD are called “lazy, inattentive, and disruptive”. The article “Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: Causes of ADHD”, written by WebMD, states that “ADHD has a strong genetic component”. “The genes that control the levels of certain chemicals in the brain called neurotransmitters seem to be different” (WebMD) in people who have ADHD. The article “Do you have the lazy gene? Some rats do” poses another interesting explanation. According to the article, “experiments on rats suggest there could be a genetic predisposition to laziness” (or educational irresponsibility). If this study is correct and is applicable to humans, it might provide an alternate explanation of why some adolescent youth have such a hard time being engaged in school. Another explanation for educational irresponsibility would be related to culture. In the article “My Lazy American Students”, it states that the “C, D, and F students this semester are almost exclusively American, while [the] students from India, China, and Latin America have…become valuable class participants”. I personally know people who do not like to go to school or do not see the value in being educated. I think this negative attitude towards education comes with the American mentality. Many Americans don’t appreciate things, such as education, as much as other countries because they’re so readily available for us. American students, for the most part, tend to not to try as hard as other countries because they rather relax and do something else. This mentality is similar to the mentality of the Nalewalu people that Mr. Patino mentioned in his blog. According to Mr. Patino’s blog, the Nalewalu people were people who starved because they wanted to stand in the shade while others worked. Americans want things but don’t want to work for it. However, in the BSCS Biology textbook, it states that both heredity and environment affect an organism by changing the organism’s genetics. Therefore, even though heredity has a role in making students educationally irresponsible, I think that environment also has some blame in this matter. During our class lectures, I learned that the environment an organism lives in affects the organism significantly. According to the video “Changing Education Paradigms”, the kids of this generation are currently in the “most intensely stimulating period in the history of the earth”. Adults provide kids with iPhones, computers, video games, commercials on television, and other things that spark their interests, and then penalize kids for being distracted. I am currently what you would call an “adolescent youth”, so I personally know that sometimes it’s very hard to focus on what my teachers are trying to hammer into my head because my mind is on other things. I asked my classmates if they felt the same, and they said they do. Instead of being in class, most of my classmates would rather be checking their Instagram, messing around on their Facebook, playing video games, or watching the newest episode of Vampire Diaries. In conclusion, adolescent youths have a genetic predisposition to be educationally irresponsible, but the environment that the youths are raised in also play a big part in their educational irresponsibility.

2. What are the evolutionary advantages of being [EI]?
 A person who is educationally irresponsible has an evolutionary advantage over a person who is educationally responsible. Even though it sounds backwards, being educationally irresponsible has its benefits. Notice that being educationally irresponsible is NOT the same as lazy. According to Mr. Patino’s blog, educational irresponsibility is “a decision made by a student in an effort not to learn”. Keeping that definition in mind, the main benefit of being educationally irresponsible is not being domesticated. (In unit 9, we learned that domestication is a subcategory within the overarching evolutionary mechanism called artificial selection.) According to Jared Diamond’s article, domestication is the process of genetically changing an organism in order to make it more useful to humans. Education is one of the means by which society domesticates people. I personally have experienced being domesticated in the classroom. I am taught to see the world in a very black-and-white matter. Similar to what the video “Changing Education Paradigms” states, students nowadays are taught that there is one answer and one way of doing things. This mindset of conformity is beneficial to society because it makes things run smoother when everything is the same. However, conformity and uniformity is not beneficial to the student because it limits his/her creativity and ability to think outside the box. I know some of my classmates are very creative and divergent thinkers, but they are ridiculed or disregarded as nonacademic for thinking differently and just being different in general. Like stated in Mr. Patino’s blog, “most often, marginalized populations are [called lazy] for acting in a manner that is different from accepted norms”. I believe these people shouldn’t be degraded for being different because it’s from these unique people great things derive from. We can also parallel this situation to reproduction. As I learned from class lectures, sexual reproduction promotes genetic diversity. Genetic diversity is a positive thing because it limits the chances of diseases/deformities. However, asexual reproduction promotes genetic uniformity. Genetic uniformity is a negative thing because it makes the organism more susceptible to diseases and develop the inability to defend itself. Uniformity in thinking is similarly negative because it makes the student more susceptible to weak thinking and develop the inability to think for him/herself. As a recap, being uniform isn’t beneficial to the student, but it’s useful to society. People who educationally irresponsible have the ability to choose whether or not they agree with what they are being taught or not. They are the people who challenge authority and are the leaders of tomorrow. I have been personally experienced being educationally irresponsibility because I chose not to learn the content that was being taught by my teachers. However, I don’t think this was necessarily negative thing because challenging our elders is a good thing sometimes. On multiple occasions, teachers have told my classmates and I that they make mistakes and that they’re not always right. Sometimes students have to be the judge and determine for themselves what is right or what is flawed. Students have to be able to think for themselves and not be uniform thinkers. I believe teachers should provide opportunities for students to be diverse thinkers rather than uniform thinkers. In conclusion, the main evolutionary advantage of being educationally irresponsible is not being domesticated and being able to think for one’s own self.
3. How does the learning [e.g. home and school] environment promote being [EI]?
 The learning environments of most educational institutions today promote students to be educationally irresponsible. According to the BSCS Biology textbook, environment really affects an organism and its behaviors. From personal experience, I know that the learning environment at Kamehameha Schools promotes educational irresponsibility. From the mo’olelo I’ve learned in school, I know that our Hawaiian kupuna worked outside and learned everything outside. They learned by doing what they were being taught with their own hands. Their philosophy was ‘imi ‘ike, not gimme ‘ike (seek knowledge, not give me knowledge). However, Hawaiians are currently taken out of their natural learning environment when they are placed in the classroom setting. As stated in the video “Changing Education Paradigms”, with structured desks and standardized testing, students are taught to be uniform. Students are also forced to engage in lectures, where the only senses that are really being stimulated are sound and sight. Students, especially Hawaiians, should be given more opportunities to learn outside and stimulate all of their senses. From personal experience, I know that learning things by doing hands-on activities helps me remember the information that my teachers are trying to give to me. For example, I like when we go outside to learn about the plants in the forest during Biology class because then I can stimulate all of my senses (except taste). After asking several of my classmates, I found that they all concur with me in regard to benefitting from learning outside. I also think that students should be responsible for teaching themselves information. Even though this responsibility will make students panic, I believe that if students are placed in a situation where they aren’t being spoon-fed information, they will work harder to learn the content themselves. This situation can be paralleled to kalo. In order to change kalo’s genetics, you need to put it through a stress cycle. I did this in my Environmental Science class. I placed some dryland kalo in water and then keep them in there for a while. The kalo showed signs of distress such as changing the color of its leaves. However, in the end, the kalo survived and was able to live in the watery environment since it was able to adapt. Like we learned in class, an organism will develop mutations in order to adapt to its new environment. This is what the kalo did. Uncle Jerry Konanui addresses this in his video. He says that it doesn’t matter what environment the kalo is in; the kalo will be able to survive as long as planters have the ‘ike kupuna. This is the same with students. Teachers should place students in an environment that they’re not familiar with, so the students can adapt and become stronger students. However, similar to the farmers, teachers can’t just let the struggling students sink. Teachers have to place students in an environment where they can actually swim and not just drown. To bring this concept to full circle, most educational institutions are promoting educational irresponsibility in students because of the learning environment that the students are being placed in. The students are choosing not to learn because they are not able to adapt. Students, especially educationally irresponsible students, are giving up on themselves because like said in the video “Changing Education Paradigms”, they are labeled as “non-academic”. Society tells these “non-academic” students that they aren’t going to amount to much unless they change their ways and be like everyone else. It takes too much work to change, so these students develop the mentality of “Well, I’m never going to be good enough, so why even try?”. So these students don’t try and don’t learn things. In order to help these educationally irresponsible, self-degrading students, we should encourage them that they can survive in the learning environment they are being placed in.

4. How does your culture respond to people who are [EI]?
 The Hawaiian culture does not support people who are educationally irresponsible. My 7th grade Hawaiian language teacher told us a phrase that has resonated within me ever since I heard it. “’Imi ‘ike, not gimme ‘ike” has been a phrase that I have incorporated into my academic heart and soul. The translation of this phrase is seek knowledge, not gimme knowledge. What this phrase is basically saying is seek knowledge. Work for your knowledge. Do not just sit there and expect knowledge to come to you. I remember growing up and my mom saying, “Ok. You don’t want to do your homework. Go ahead, but don’t come crying to me when your teacher scolds you for choosing not to learn.” My mom was very strict on doing homework, but she never forced me to do it. If I didn’t want to do it, she just let me not do it. It was by her allowing me to do whatever I wanted that I looked that I needed to be responsible and to work hard. It was work hard or failing. Failing not only meant shaming yourself; it meant shaming yourself, your kupuna, your mākua, and your kumu. The motive for learning and doing things well back then was not to reward yourself; it was to bring honor and pride to your family. Working hard was a necessary thing to do back in the kanaka maoli times. Back in the ancient days, our kupuna had to work or they would starve, similar to my mom’s thinking of “do your homework or fail”. In Mr. Patino’s blog, he speaks of the Nalewalu people. These people were well-known for starving to death because they rather stand in the shade instead of working hard like the other families. In that sense, the Hawaiian culture supports working hard for everything you got and to maintain everything you got. Every teacher I ever had at Kamehameha Schools told me that I was “so fortunate to be educated at such a fine institution”. They told me to remember that to be educated at Kamehameha Schools was “a privilege, not a right”. Hawaiians were very appreciate of their education, and it’s this thankful, appreciative mentality that made the Hawaiians have the highest literacy rate in the entire nation after the missionaries came. Learning is about being the best you can be, not for you, but for your kupuna and the future generations. In my Hawaiian Culture class during my freshman year, my Hawaiian Culture teacher would take us out in the mala, and we worked without complaining because if we complained then we would be shaming our ancestors. We learned new things without complaining because we were learning things for the future generations. From a genetic perspective, people should work hard, so the lazy gene doesn’t get passed on. According to the article “Do You Have the Lazy Gene? Some Rats Do”, a gene that transmits laziness might exist! According to the article, the offspring of two lazy rats were significantly less likely to work out than the offspring of two active rats. So in that sense, people should work hard to ensure that their children are hard workers as well. In conclusion, my culture, the Hawaiian culture, does not support educational irresponsibility. Educational irresponsibility, or as Mr. Patino says, the unwillingness to learn is not a Hawaiian way of thinking because the Hawaiian way of thinking is working hard for everything and anything you have or want. You work hard to bring honor and pride to your ‘ohana and ancestors. Learning is to build stronger children for the future that could carry on the culture when all of us are gone.
5. Does my course promote [EI]? For instance I use the following practices
a. Use an even distribution scale instead of the 100 point scale
b. Use a hybrid [flip/blended learning] instructional format which utilizes technology
c. Base a final grade on 95% assessment
d. Offer multiple options to demonstrate understanding via diverse assessments.
e. Adjust deadlines to obtain work from students
f. Provide quick and responsive feedback
g. Teach metacognitive skills
 Mr. Patino’s class does, yet at the same time, doesn’t promote educational irresponsibility due to his unorthodox teaching practices. According to Mr. Patino’s blog, educational irresponsibility is the decision to have the unwillingness to learn. From personal experience, I feel that Mr. Patino’s class does promote educational irresponsibility because he forces you to learn on your own. He makes kids not want to learn because his class is so challenging. From several classmates, I have heard things like “Why even try anymore?”. However, I think Mr. Patino’s challenging class is beneficial because it makes the students able to survive in different learning environments. Similar to the kalo stress cycle, Mr. Patino pushes you underwater a little, and you have the choice to fight back and trend or just give up and drown. However, even though Mr. Patino tries to kill you, he gives you a couple floaties (his unorthodox teaching practices like the even distribution scale and adjusting deadlines to obtain work from students) to keep you afloat. Many students don’t like Mr. Patino’s class because they aren’t used to his methods and are unwilling to change to develop the skills needed to pass his class. I think this is part of the problem. Like stated in the article “Are Lazy Students the Real Problem in Public Education”, the problem with education nowadays is “students who refuse to put in the work required to earn a good grade”. From my mom’s stories, I know that kids now are significantly lazier and unwilling to work hard than the kids back then. Kids nowadays just don’t know how to work hard and have this mentality of “give me information now” instead of the mentality of “let me work for my knowledge”. Mr. Patino’s high expectations of metacognition skills and basing students’ final grade on 95% assessment promotes educational irresponsibility because the students give up when they see the hard work Mr. Patino gives them. However, Mr. Patino’s class does not promote educationally irresponsibility because he allows students to recover from their mistakes with his even distribution scale, adjusting deadlines to obtain work from students, provides quick and responsive feedback, and offer multiple options to demonstrate understanding via diverse assessments. Students feel like they can try new things and use divergent thinking in his class because if it doesn’t work out, they can recover themselves. Mr. Patino also encourages educational responsibility because he uses a hybrid [flip/blended learning] instructional format, which utilizes technology. By using technology, Mr. Patino engages kids because kids are more tech-savvy nowadays. Even though Mr. Patino’s class is challenging and very unorthodox, I would have to say that I really appreciate it. From personal experience, I have tried new things in his class that I wouldn’t have done in different classes because of his even distribution scale. For example, this year I taught in front of a class for a test grade. I think in another class I would have been a little more hesitant to do that in fear that if I failed, I wouldn’t be able to recover my grade. The aspects of his class that I appreciate the most, however, is the fact that Mr. Patino taught us metacognitive skills and used a hybrid of education with technology. I believe that these skills really prepared me for the future, and for that preparation, I really owe Mr. Patino. In conclusion, Mr. Patino’s unorthodox teaching practices promoted educational irresponsibility and responsibility, both in a good way. Even though, his class was challenging and tiring at times, I think students have and will really benefit from his unique teaching style.

6. How should teachers address [EI]?
 Teachers should change their current teaching practices in order to address educational irresponsibility. Like Mr. Patino said in his blog, students in the past 10 years have become increasingly lazier and unwilling to learn (educational irresponsible). According to the video “Changing Education Paradigms”, this should be no surprise because the kids today are living in a very stimulating time period. With exciting things like new video game consoles coming out in stores everyday, why would a kid want to sit in classroom for 8 hours and learn stuff that kids don’t believe apply to their daily lives? According to the article “Are Lazy Students the Real Problem in Public Education?”, teachers are becoming “frustrated by unmotivated students”. This article pins the blame on students for not getting work done or not care. However, the question I pose to those teachers is “What are you going to do about it?” My mother used to tell me all the time that you can’t change other people; you can only change yourself. I think it’s time for the teachers to realize that scolding and reprimanding students is an ineffective way to make students to do their work. According to Albert Einstein, the definition of insanity is “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”. It’s about time to stop being insane and finding a solution that actually solves the problem. I think to solve these teachers should apply some business principles in their curriculum. Teachers should appeal to students’ interests and incorporate them into the class similar to a salesman with his/her product. I have personal experience with teachers doing that. For example, in my Hawaiian classes in freshman and sophomore year, my Hawaiian language teachers would include the students’ name into the sentences we had to translate. So the sentence would be “Kelly is going to the mall today” instead of “The girl is going to the mall today”. Seeing our names sparked our interests and made us engage in the work. Another example is that in my English class with Mrs. Tavares in freshman year, Mrs. Tavares would include modern examples in her teachings to draw parallels to. For example, in class, she would compare the book characters we were reading about to celebrities or people we knew like Jessica Alba and Brad Pitt. I think another great idea comes from Mr. Patino’s class. I believe that all of the teachers at Kamehameha Schools should adopt the even distribution scale because it’s a more accurate measurement of what students are actually capable of (Mr. Patino). Like Mr. Patino has said multiple times, the 100-point scale is an inaccurate scale that is unfair to the students. However, the even distribution scale allows students to recover from their mistakes and to try new things. From personal experience, I believe that Mr. Patino’s usage of the even distribution scale has been beneficial to my education because I tried more things that I would have normally not have done because I would be scared of bombing the 100-point scale. Students will be more engaged if they can have more creativity, less structure, and not having to worry about failing all of the time. In conclusion, by incorporating things that students are interested in into the curriculum and changing their grading scale, teachers will make the students more interested in what the teachers are saying and diminish the number of students that are educationally irresponsible.

The BioBlogs I did during this school year helped me share information with the world. One of our 21st century skills was to be able to use technology to communicate with others effectively. By using blogs as my means of communication, I was able to share my mana'o on a larger scale. Not only did I get to share the information with my teacher and classmates by the usage of the blogs, my information is now online, so anyone who wants to learn is able to look at them. Being able to share information is very important because according to an article done by Nature, majority of Americans are science illiterate. This means that majority of Americans are unable to make informed decisions about science topics. For example, banning hand sanitizers has been a something to consider for a while now. However, the people that are pro-banishment don't realize that hand sanitizers aren't the problem. According to the Red Queen Hypothesis, bacteria has evolved, so to avoid extinction, humans must evolve to keep up to par with the bacteria. I spoke about this topic in my BioBlogs. By discussing this topic in my BioBlog, I was able to put up information that was accurate and well-supported with evidence from multiple sources. This blog could possibly educate someone who was science illiterate and make them understand that topic, thus making them one step closer to being science literate. As a reflection, I think BioBlogs endorse a student's learning by providing them with opportunities to educate others with accurate information, promoting science literacy.

Mr. Patino's feedback on blogs had a positive impact on my intellectual growth over the school year. His feedback provided a new perspective on the information that I had learning. His feedback has made me reflect and really assess my working habits. For one, I have improved my self-assessing skills because due to Mr. Patino's feedback, I realized how to more effectively communicate with others. The personal one-on-one communication between Mr. Patino and I helped me learn how to communicate with teachers on a regular basis in a professional, efficient matter. In conclusion, I think future students should listen to Mr. Patino's feedback because he helped me become a more improved, intellectual student. 

My understanding of evolutionary theory and the Kumulipo helps me explain the Red Queen Hypothesis. According to class lectures, the evolutionary theory explains how a population genetically changes over a period of time. The Kumulipo, according to Lakea’s lectures, is a genealogy and a story of how life began. As seen during the class activities with Lakea, the Kumulipo and evolutionary theory have many similar qualities. The main difference between the Kumulipo and the evolutionary theory is that the Kumulipo includes the spiritual side of things, while the evolutionary theory is based on empirical fact. Besides that, the Kumulipo and the evolutionary theory are essentially the same thing. According to http://www.indiana.edu/~curtweb/Research/Red_Queen%20hyp.html, the Red Queen Hypothesis states that constant evolutionary struggle between two species to avoid extinction. The evolutionary theory and the Kumulipo help me understand what it means to evolve. From class lectures, I have learned that the evolutionary theory has 5 mechanisms of evolution, and the Red Queen Hypothesis deals mostly with natural selection. The Kumulipo helps me see that there is dualism in symbiotic relationships. In the Kumulipo, whenever a sea creature was created, a land creature was created as well. This shows that species are paired together to benefit each other like the clown fish and the sea anemones (a symbiotic relationship). In conclusion, the evolutionary theory and Kumulipo provide the background information required to understand the Red Queen Hypothesis.  

***Note: The title "Off With Her Head!" derives from the phrase that the Red Queen screams during the movie Alice in Wonderland.

Problem based learning (PBL) supports to the process of obtaining an education. According to video 1, receiving an education is different from going to school. Like said by one of my teachers, receiving an education is improving yourself as an individual for the greater good of society. Problem based learning does not follow the tradition methods of school. It does not require the regurgitation of facts to be thrown up in the teacher’s face. Problem based learning requires you to apply the facts you have learned to fix real life problems. I know this system of learning is effective because the medical school JABSOM (John A. Burns School of Medicine) uses PBLs as their curriculum. It helps the medical students prepare for what it will be like in the real medical field. In Patino’s class, we use the PBL system. The Standard 9 CER Question was an example of a PBL. Patino asked us to answer a question relating to a current problem in the Hawaiian community. I believe this question helped me convey my understanding for evolutionary theory. For example, the question I decided to answer was on GMO kalo. I had to apply all of my biology knowledge on evolutionary theory that I learned in Biology class and then use that knowledge to solve a relevant, current problem. When answering my question, I mentioned the mechanisms of evolution affecting the kalo (mostly artificial selection and mutation). I also talked about more specific things like how we need to help the kalo evolve now that it’s domesticated because it has lost the majority of its defense mechanisms. In conclusion, problem based learning helps students get a valuable education that will aid them in surviving in the real world.

            In order to be science literate, you need to be constantly updating your mental database of knowledge. I believe this was my greatest struggle with being science literate. It’s hard enough to grasp the concepts of science in the first place, and when I finally get those facts down, it changes! Science is constantly changing and updating, so you really have to be on top of the ball when it comes to this field of study. However, despite my challenges with science literacy, I believe that over the course of this year, I have become a person of science literacy. According to Engrade, I did pretty well on the Standard 9 Exam. That means that I am able to use the facts that I learned in class and apply them to real life situations (such as the GMO kalo). I am proud of my accomplishment of being able to understand different science topics and being able to contribute helpful discussion about these topics. Science literacy is a skill that the general public should strive for and one that I am working towards mastering myself.

             

This video contains both misconceptions and biases. In the video, the speaker said, “People who believe in the fairytale of evolution expect you to think that people are really low-down, dirty animals.” This is a misconception because according to http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/0_0_0/evo_02, “biological evolution, simply put, is descent with modification”. If you examine the two definitions, you can see that they are very different. Based on the Out-of-Africa theory discussed in my A.P. World class, by the second definition, we are examples of evolution. According to the Out-of-Africa theory, we are all derivatives of the species homo sapiens sapiens, not monkeys like the video says. When people moved out of Africa (evolution mechanism of migration), people evolved and changed genetically based on their new environment (mutation). For example, people who moved to places closer to the equator had darker skin than people who moved farther away from the equator. Another misconception I noticed in the video was when the speaker mentioned that the theory of evolution was inaccurate because humans don’t look like animals. (“Man shows no physical characteristics to animals at all.”) According to the video we watched in class (Ian Dunnings), this point is a fallacy. What does looks have to do with anything? Personally, I don’t look like any of my siblings; does that mean that I am not related to them because I don’t look like them? No. The speaker in the video has many misconceptions, supported only by fallacies, that show that he is science illiterate.

            Science knowledge is different from other knowledge because science knowledge is obtained through the scientific method. Even though all knowledge helps explain the natural world, science knowledge has 4 requirements that it has to meet in order to classify as scientific knowledge. According to the Biology textbook, the four requirements are as follows:

1.     Science is based on the assumption that the natural world can be investigated and explained in terms we can understand.

2.     Science is based on the results of observations and controlled experiments.

3.     The results of these observations and experiments must be (at least in principle) repeatable and verifiable by other scientists.

4.     The findings of science must be refutable.

If knowledge doesn’t meet these qualifications, it does not count as science.

            There are definitely consequences in not understanding biological evolution. If you don’t understand biological evolution, that means you are science illiterate in that topic. According to Patino, if you are not science illiterate, you are not able to make informed opinions about things. This video is an example of that. The speaker, who claims that people that believe in evolution are Darwin worshippers against religion, clearly doesn’t understand what evolution is. Due to this ignorance, he made a video that made him look foolish. Along with looking foolish, he has become unaccepting of other views. This situation draws parallels to GMO. Since people don’t understand what GMOs are, they are against it. This resistance is very similar to the speaker’s resistance towards evolution. From my personal experience, I have learned that people are against things that they don’t completely understand. In conclusion, I believe people could strive to have a solid general understanding of things and to be science literate because not understanding science concepts, like evolution, definitely have consequences.

Photo Credit: http://animalfacts-pictures.blogspot.com/2011/10/gorilla.html

There are mechanisms of evolution involved in drug resistance. According to our class lectures, there are 5 causes of evolution: mutation, migration, genetic drift, natural selection, and artificial selection. The main mechanism of evolution involved in drug resistance is natural selection. Natural selection is “the process whereby organisms better adapted to their environment tend to survive and produce more offspring” (Dictionary.com). The problem that people worldwide is that these diseases are developing immunity to the medicine that people once took to get rid of them. This is an example of natural selection because the diseases, also referred to as “superbugs” in the article, are changing their genetics in order to be able to survive. This genetic adaption is very similar to humans. For example, personally, I had a bacterial infection a few years ago. However, my body changed itself, so that I could be immune or at least less susceptible to this infection. This is what the “superbugs” are doing. They are identifying what is harming them and building immunity to them. This should be very concerning to everyone. Illnesses that we could heal with a quick scrawl of a doctor’s prescription no longer can be stopped. This means that even the common cold could become strong enough to kill people, drugs or not. As stated in the article, “there are an increasing number of infections for which there are virtually no therapeutic options”. We should definitely start “new discovery, research and development” for new medicines and treatments. It is a matter of survival. We either have to adapt and build immunity to these diseases, killing many people in the process, or start developing new medicines. If not, we will be out-adapted by these superbugs.

Photo Credit: www.123rf.com

Doing something with the skills and talent you have and acquire throughout your life rather than just keeping them for your own use is crucial. Like it says in the Bible- “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal”-, you could have amazing talents, but if you don’t apply them and use them for other people, you’re as useless as a clanging cymbal. Personally, to prepare myself for the world of application, I will work on not only memorizing the knowledge I acquire, but making it pa’a. My kumu always tell me that there is a difference between memorizing and things pa’a. Memorizing is the step below pa’a; you know the information, but you can’t apply it. Pa’a is when you know the information and you can use it to make the world a better place. This is similar to test taking. Personally, I am a horrible test taker. I know all of the knowledge most of the time; I just can’t put it on the test paper. Like my history teacher told me, knowledge isn’t worth anything unless you can show other people what you can do. In conclusion, in order to prepare for a world that doesn’t care what I know but rather what I do with what I know, I will make sure my information is pa’a, firm in my mind, because if it’s not, I might as well be a worthless, noisy gong. 

We need to continuously genetically modify domesticated organisms.  We, as humans, need to do this because domesticated organisms, both plants and animals, need protection. According to Webster’s New World Dictionary, the word “domesticate” means “to tame (wild animals) and breed for human use” and “to adapt and cultivate (wild plants) for human use”. Notice the words “tame”, “breed”, “adapt”, and “cultivate”. All of these words mean that humans changed the organism, and this is exactly right. Domestication starts with a wild organism. This wild organism has its own defense mechanisms to protect itself and can survive in the wild without human intervention. For example, as stated in the article “Hawaiian Kalo, Past and Future”, “kalo is considered poisonous because its tissues contain an acrid component.” This acrid component is an example of a protective measure that wild kalo have. For animals, from personal experience, I have seen the behavior of wild dogs. Wild dogs tend to be more aggressive, vicious, and very wary of a human’s actions; this hostile behavior is a defense mechanism that allows the dog to survive. However, over time, humans are able to change the genetics of the organism by placing the organism in a different environment or methods such as cross-breeding (which was commonly used by the native Hawaiians to create favorable kalo varieties). However, when changing the organism’s genetics, humans typically get rid of all of the defense mechanisms that the plant or animal has created for itself. For example, roadkill shows that domesticated cats do not have the same heightened awareness of their surroundings as their wild ancestors did. In the case of plants, pulling from my neighbor’s mana’o, unattended plants will die because bugs will eat them or weeds will overpower them; the domesticated plants cannot survive on their own! In addition to bugs, cars, and other predators, domesticated organisms are less able to protect themselves due to the increased likelihood to develop diseases. Domesticated organisms are genetically uniform (class lectures). Pulling from my prior knowledge, genetically uniform organisms are more likely to develop diseases than wild, genetically diverse organisms. For example, kalo tends to be a pretty genetically uniform plant due to a tendency to reproduce it asexually. According to the Bishop Museum website, a cutting of the huli (a cutting of the parent plant) was planted into the ground. This means that they were growing a clone of the parent plant, thus perpetuating the genetically uniformity. Now let’s go back to the definition of domestication. The second part of the definition says, “for human use”. Humans domesticate organisms not to benefit the organism but to benefit us as humans. GMOs provide humans with money. Seedless grapes are an example of this. By grafting methods or the usage of a chemical called giberellic acid, grape farmers change the genetics of normal grapes and are able to grow grapes without seeds (soilassociation.com). If you think about it, growing grapes without seeds is completely impractical because the seed is how a plant is able to reproduce. However, you have to remember that domestication is for human benefit, not the plant’s benefit. Therefore, it is not impractical in the eyes of domestication to grow seedless grapes because humans like them better than grapes that do have seeds. Humans also continue to modify domesticated organisms to make the organism evolve. Like I mentioned earlier, domesticated organisms are genetically uniform. This means that they don’t have many genes to pull from the gene pool. Humans help the plants to become more genetically diverse again by breeding them with other varieties of the organism. One example of this is the cross-breeding of kalo. According to my kalo breeder neighbor, cross-breeding kalo allows new varieties of kalo to be produced. This is beneficial because kalo is typically reproduced asexually (cutting the huli and creating a clone of the parent plant). Cross-breeding allows diversity to come back to some degree and helps the kalo to be more diverse. One example of this is cross-breeding for dogs. According to my friend who is a dog cross-breeder, cross-breeding dogs can be good because purebred dogs are more immune to diseases since they are so closely-interbred. Cross-breeding allows a more evolved type of dog and kalo emerge. Sadly, without this humanistic intervention, not much evolution would take place in these domesticated organisms. In conclusion, humans constantly genetically modify domesticated organisms to promote evolution (even though it’s artificial) and to benefit the humankind financially, not the plant.

    When Sir Ken Robinson said, “Brilliant people don’t think they are”, he meant that brilliant people are often degraded to believe that they aren’t smart. In the video, Sir Ken Robinson talks about the schism of the “academic” and the “nonacademic” people. The word “academic” in this video had the denotation of people who get good grades. However, from personal experience, I know that grades don’t necessarily determine how smart a person is. I know people who have a 3.0 GPA, but could beat my 4.1 butt in geography or any other subject any other day. This is where the schism comes in. For some reason, there is a belief that if you don’t have good grades, you aren’t smart. This is what Sir Ken Robinson means by his statement. Brilliant people are tricked into believing that they aren’t smart, just because they don’t have the best grades in the class or have the highest GPA. Hopefully, one day, this flawed mindset will change.          
Kamehameha Schools supports, yet at the same time, doesn’t support the factory model of education. According to the video, the factory model of education is based on the two pillars of intellect and economics. Unfortunately, the current system in place was designed and conceived for a different age (the Enlightenment). People don’t realize that education needs to fit the student’s needs in THIS day and age, especially with all of the kids with ADHD. Kamehameha Schools supports this outdated model of education because school is very rigid. Most of the learning consists of the student sitting in a chair, while the teacher tries to force-feed information down the student’s throat. This is a very outdated technique. However, Kamehameha Schools doesn’t support the factory model of education because it also has outside learning. Although most of the learning at Kamehameha School is force-feeding, it also has learning being taught outside of the classroom (ex: the mala). The fact that Kamehameha Schools offers this kind of learning shows that it is not supporting the factory model of education. 
Using divergent thinking to solve problems is effective. From personal experience, if you have tunnel vision and can only look at the problem in one light, you will have a very difficult time solving the problem. One time, my friend and I had a dispute. Since my friend wasn’t willing to look at any other perspective than her own, the problem was never completely resolved. Divergent thinking also helps people find the most effective solution to problems. By looking at the problem at different angles, you get to find the solution that will fit the situation the best. Makawalu relates to divergent thinking. According to Hawaiian legends, makawalu literally means “eight eyes”. Hawaiian thinking is that people, especially students, should be able to have many different views/perspectives of the same situation, being able to have “eight eyes”. The word divergent, according to dictionary.com, means “increasing as more terms are added”. Thus divergent thinking is being able to look at all of the possible venues or solutions and being able to choose the best solution to solve the problem. Both of these things require people to have an open mind and look at every aspect of a problem before deciding on their decision. In conclusion, makawalu and divergent thinking are the same thing under different names.  

High school is the pinnacle of your pre-college education. According to the article on the website http://www.santafewaldorf.org/high-school/importance-of-high-school/, “High school students embark on one of life’s most profound journeys, which ultimately leads them from childhood into adulthood. This journey is characterized by a pursuit of truth.” High school is where one starts to understand who they are as a person and start to develop an answer to the ultimate questions of “Who am I?” and “What is my purpose?” In addition, as my older sister (Yale graduate) would say, high school helps you narrow your interest focus, so you can create more prolific results in a beloved field of study, hoping changing the world in some way. In 10 years, I think I will remember maybe 10% of what I learned in high school. However, as my mom (who has clearly been graduated for more than 10 years) said when I asked her this question, it really depends on the subject. How much you like a subject, the quality of your teacher, and how studious you are all make a great impact in how much you remember according to her. Personally, I think I will remember what I learned in A.P. Chemistry, Honors English, Biology, and Hawaiian the most because those are all subjects that interest me significantly. 
    Autodidacticism relates to education. According to Wikipedia, autodidactisim is self-directed learning, and education is about learning and improving one’s self academically. An autodidact is a self-taught person, according to dictionary.com. One example of autodidacticism is problem-based learning. About four days ago, some students from John A. Burns School of Medicine came to present to my Health and Human Occupations Exploration class. They talked about how they do PBLs at their schools in order to improve their independent learning skills and lessen their dependency on the teacher to lecture all of the information to them. Autodidacticism relates to me personally (and everyone else in Patino’s Biology classes) because in Patino’s class, we have weekly PBLs to complete. Similar to the medical school students, Patino uses the PBLs to increase our metacognitive skills and independence in preparation for further learning.
    Intelligence is inherited and not inherited. We can justify this claim by the findings of genetics. According to class lectures and the Biology textbook, genes are affected by the environment and DNA code. Intelligence that is developed by your environment is not inherited. For example, if your Biology teacher teaches you all about Biology, your intelligence does not come from your genetic code; it comes from your teacher, or in other words, your environment. Intelligence can be inherited however. If intelligence is a dominant trait, then it will be embedded in your genetic code. For example, if your family is amazing at math, being proficient in math is in your genetics, thus making the probability of you being good at math extremely high.  

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