The student reflects on a project researching PTSD where they faced challenges finding sources that weren't repetitive or outdated. While books like All Quiet on the Western Front introduced PTSD, they did not provide useful information for the research project. The most difficult part was managing different websites and platforms for the project, though creating multimedia products to portray their findings was most rewarding. Going forward, the student feels their research and information skills have improved through learning to evaluate sources, but traditional papers may be more difficult since it has been a while since writing one.

1. Adrienne Alpha
Mrs. Lester
Honors 10th Lit/Comp
3 May 2012
Summative Learning Reflections
1. Throughout the project process, I feel I have become more knowledgeable about PTSD.
PTSD varies in how it is diagnosed and the treatments used. It depends on the person, what
traumatic event they went through, and how they want to be treated. The symptoms also vary
such as flashbacks, panic attacks and also in the levels of severity that these symptoms occur in.
A question I still have is what new therapies and treatments are being developed and
researched now, because we weren’t able to go that far into our research.
2. The challenges I personally faced were finding information sources that weren’t
repetitive and that had the information we needed for our questions. A lot of the articles we
found were too old to use, or were not the right information we were looking for. To deal with
this, we had to dig deeper and find more sources. Also, with time I felt that we were given a lot
of different things to do at once and that we were confused about what exactly had to be done.
We also had websites we NEEDED that would not work at school so we had to do a good bit of
work at home. Dealing with this we have just been working at home, in a rush, to get
everything done in time.
3. The most difficult part of this project to me was keeping up with all the different
websites we had to use, and the different ways of embedding, uploading, etc. It was a lot to
keep up with and our symbaloo wasn’t very useful to us. The most rewarding part of the project

2. was that during the enitre process, we were studying WW1 in my Honors World History class
and it tied into our project. It gave us a little bit of extra information to find for our multi-genre
project.
4. The study of the books we read all together weren’t not as useful as I hoped they would
be. All Quiet on the Western Front introduced us to our research topic, PTSD, but didn't really
give any information about it. Also, my personal book choice, Purple Heart, didn’t have any
influence into our research project either. On the other hand, listening to other people talk
about their personal books in out class fishbowl discussions helped introduce and get a little
deeper into PTSD, and influenced us into choosing it as our research topic.
5. Honestly, studying this issue had little impact on me, because I am personally not
interested in the topic. None of my family members or friends have served in war, and I
personally don’t know anybody with PTSD. However, I found it interesting that people still get
PTSD from non-war related traumatic events, such as abuse, rape, etc. Studying this issue
definitely opened my mind to the disease and made me more aware of what can happen to the
psychological mind of human beings.
6. Throughout the past eight weeks we have had many different elements to our multi-
genre final product. Personally I am most proud of the multi-media products we created. Taking
different elements such as text, video, and images to create a powerful product portraying
what we have researched and discovered, I feel was our biggest strength in the project.
7. Our biggest challenges in this project was being time efficient. With all the different
mini-assignment thrown in throughout the entire project. Meeting deadlines, after deadline
while trying to do an entire project through me off a couple of times. The calendar seemed like

3. a useful tool at first, but getting further into the project it wasn’t accurate anymore and I
stopped referring to it. However, we got everything done in time, thankfully.
8. My research and information skills throughout this year have advanced immensely. I
have learned how to dig through articles efficiently, and to you creditable databases/sources. I
have learned to use the CRAAP test, and how to make sure the information I find is reliable. I
have learned how to use easier tools such as easybib to be more time efficient. The tools we
have learned about really helped out a lot in the long run. 2.1.1 Continue an inquiry-based
research process by applying skills (analysis, synthesis, evaluation, organization) to information
and knowledge in order to construct new understandings, draw conclusions, and create new
knowledge, 2.3.1 Connect understanding to the real world 2.3.2 Consider diverse and global
perspectives in drawing conclusions.
9. Doing a multi-genre project has been a little difficult at times, but I'm glad we picked it.
Being able to do a traditional text and adding multi-media products to go along with it has been
difficult, but worth it in the long run. It made it easier for our information to be portrayed in so
many different ways, that it appeals to everyone. I don't like doing traditional papers, but with
all the information we found, this one wasn't too bad.
10. My symbaloo dashboard was very dull, to say the least. I honestly feel like it was a waste
of time and effort, because I do not like having to keep up with so many different accounts and
websites, and adding tiles to the symbaloo took away time that i could have been putting into
my actual project. I feel as if it should have been optional because it was more of a tool that
people could use if they wanted to, but I don't think it reflects my learning abilities in any way.
11. I feel as if in the future, if I do digital projects, or any research project for that matter,

4. that I will be very knowledgable and off to a great start having all these skills already mastered.
However, I have not written a traditional paper in quite a while, so I feel like if that were to
come up It would a little bit more difficult for me to get done. On the other hand, the 21st
century has turned into an internet dependent era, and I feel as if most research projects in the
future are going to be similar to this one.