Mental Health Reflective Assessment

     "1 in 10 children and young people aged 5 - 16 suffer from a diagnosable mental health disorder - that is around three children in every class" (youngminds.org). The second unit in NEW School was mental health. Throughout this unit, Neto and Tucker taught us a lot about mental health in all three classes that are incorporated into this core, English, science and technology. There were a lot of things that I took away from this unit and there were so many assignments I completed and learned from. 

      In English, there was a writing assessment where we had to select one of the characters from the play, Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. The assignment was to study the character's behaviors in the book and decide what kind of mental illness they had. This assignment was called a psychoanalysis of a character. While reading Romeo and Juliet, Tucker decided that while reading a play it had to be performed so that the students can really immerse themselves into the text and have fun. 

Leeann and Kelly Acting as Romeo and Juliet

Riley acting as Juliet

All the students had an option to be an actor, summarizer, vocabulary finder, emotional labeler or a poetic device finder. The summarizers would summarize the selected scenes, vocabulary group would find vocabulary in the scenes that is hard to understand and they would present to the class the definition with examples, the emotional labelers made signs that the actors would wear that would tell the audience how the character is feeling and the poetic device finders found poetic devices in the text. With all these roles available, the whole class can work together to understand the text and also understand the mental health situations that each character seemed to be dealing with. 

      In science this unit we learned a lot about the neurons in the brain, neurotransmitters and what is happening inside the human brain when someone is struggling with a mental illness. We also conducted a lab experiment based on forensics where we extracted DNA and used an electrophoresis gel chamber to find out who murdered Romeo and Juliet. Neto started off the unit with teaching us about the brain and everything there is to know about neurons and neurotransmitters.

Neto helped us to understand that these are one of the factors that go into mental health disorders like anxiety and depression. After we were done reading Romeo and Juliet, Neto and Tucker assigned a new project, there was a murder we had to solve. One of the characters in the book murdered Romeo and Juliet and we had to perform a lab that involved using DNA to find out who the killer was. My group originally thought it was Capulet but at the end of the experiment, we discovered it was Friar Lawrence.

Starting our gel electrophoresis chambers

Extracting the DNA

Preparing the DNA for the gel chamber

This lab really helped me understand DNA more than I did before and understand how to extract it and figure out who killed Romeo and Juliet, even though the lab had inconclusive evidence. 

      In social media and technology, I learned a lot about filming and creating videos and I also learned a lot about depression from a webinar. After we finished reading Romeo and Juliet, Neto and Tucker put us in big groups and gave us a topic and and Act from Romeo and Juliet. We recreated the scene based on our given topic to help show our understanding of both the Act and the topic assigned. For my group, we were given Act 2 and the topic of Keeping Up With the Kardashians. This assignment helped me gain new experience with script writing, costuming and filming. Along with gaining hands on experience with technology, this unit we also got to listen in on something that we may have to experience someday in the future. One day in NEW, we tuned in to a webinar on depression by Dr. Stringaris. 

Depression In Teens Webinar

This was an interesting experience because although webinars aren't the most entertaining thing in the world, it is still something that many people have to experience whether it be listening to one or creating one. Webinars have become a big part in many people's professions. 

      Overall, the mental health unit was a very interesting unit that let my classmates and I experience many different opportunities to help us understand mental health in many different subjects. English, science and technology taught us mental health using writing assignments, plays, videos, labs, filming and webinars. This unit incorporated Romeo and Juliet very well into understanding how to diagnose a mental illness and know the behaviors of someone who may be dealing with a mental illness. Science videos and labs helped to understand neurons in the brain and DNA. Technology helped me to use new knowledge on filming to show how much I know about mental health.