Logan Ridings reflects on a research project about PTSD. They learned a significant amount about PTSD, including how it is defined, symptoms, and how it has become more prevalent among returning veterans. The biggest challenges were finding relevant information on medical advancements for treating PTSD. Overall, the group worked well together and stayed on schedule. The most difficult part was getting a response from an expert they had emailed. Through this project, Logan improved research, organization, collaboration, and curiosity skills.

1. Logan Ridings
Mrs. Lester
Honors Lit Comp
1 May, 2012
Summative Learning Reflection
1. Throughout this research project I have learned a lot. I know a lot more about PTSD
right now then I did when I started the project. I learned that we spend a lot of government tax
dollars funding medical programs and research. PTSD or post traumatic stress disorder is defined
as a mental health condition that's triggered by a terrifying event. Symptoms may include
flashbacks, nightmares and severe anxiety, as well as uncontrollable thoughts about the event.
PTSD has become a lot more severe over recent years, more and more Iraq and Afghanistan
veterans are coming home with PTSD. However some researchers and doctors believe that
PTSD is not a legitimate illness.
2. In my opinion this research project was a lot easier than the one we did first semester.
The biggest challenge was finding information and researching, because we found a lot of
information on PTSD and a lot of information on medical advancements. It was hard to find
information on medical advancements in the field of PTSD. I felt like working with a group was
a lot easier this time compared to last time. I thought throughout the whole project we have been
ahead of schedule and really haven't had to rush.
3. The most difficult part of this research project was emailing an expert. We emailed
several people but only got a response from one guy, and he only replied once. My group and I
worked several days trying to find an expert and typing up the email to send to the expert. The
most rewarding part of the project was finishing it. I liked to be able to say that we were done, to

2. have everything done and not a lot to worry about.
4. Even Though I enjoyed reading All Quiet On The Western Front and Soldier Boys,
neither one really played a big part in my choice to research PTSD. The fishbowl discussions
played the biggest role in my decision, I wanted to find out how we have helped soldiers cope
with shell shock and PTSD since WWII. In All Quiet On The Western Front Paul the main
character came back with shell shock which is the old name for PTSD. I wanted to find out since
that time what medical advancements have been made.
5. In my Opinion reading the non fiction articles and researching PTSD will have the
longest lasting impact on me. I learned a lot from researching our topic. Like I answered in the
last question, the books really did not help It was all the research and articles I read. What also
helped a lot was that most of these articles had statistics with them. That made reading and
understanding the articles a lot easier.
6. I was in charge of researching, putting our symbaloo together, finding an expert, and
uploading everything to the wiki. I felt like i did all that well. We had 20 informational sources. I
added 22 tiles to our symbaloo page. I found multiple experts and we emailed all of them. So far
everything is uploaded to our wiki. I feel like I have done a good job this project.
7. The most challenging part, like i stated earlier was finding an expert to email and
getting a response back. I found multiple experts to email except none of them replied. We really
did not “run into any bumps in the road” on this project, besides emailing an expert. But I feel
like a lot of groups struggled with this it was not just us.
8. I improved on a lot of skills over the course of this project. 1.1.1- Follow an inquiry
based process in seeking knowledge in curricular subjects, and making the real world
connections for using this process in like. I was able to see how we need to spend more

3. government tax dollars on PTSD research. I saw how much veterans suffer in the real world and
how little help they get. 1.1.4- Find, evaluate, and select appropriate sources to answer questions.
We have only used trusted sources and research databases on this project, where as last semester
I feel like we used a lot of google sites. 2.1.2- Organize knowledge so that it is useful. That was
what our symbaloo page was for, was to organize all the sources and put them in one convenient
place. The last research project I did not use the symbaloo page, but it makes everything so much
more convenient. 3.2.3- Demonstrate teamwork by working productively with others. I feel like
my group had very good chemistry and worked well together. We split the project up evenly and
divided the work among ourselves. On the last project I worked with a group and we worked on
everything together, this just slows everything down. 4.2.1- Display curiosity by pursuing
interests through multiple resources. As I stated earlier we used over 20 sources on this project.
We did not just limit ourselves to a couple of sources. This was good because we got to see a lot
of different views, angles, and opinions from different researchers and doctors. Since we used so
many sources, I feel like it is better to have to many sources than not enough.
9. Doing a Prezi for the second time was a lot easier than the first. I was more familiar
with the software and understood how everything worked, compared to last semester's research
project I did not know anything about Prezi. The more I use Prezi the better I get with it.
10. Our Symbaloo is very basic but detailed. The tiles we have on our Symbaloo are the
sites that we visited the most and got the most information from. We have 22 different tiles. It is
very convenient to have all your most visited sites in one place. I plan on using it again in the
future for any big project I do.
11. Coming into this class, I felt like I was already a good analytical reader and I still
believe I am, but my skills have gotten better. I feel like I am more of a 21st century learner than

4. I was when I entered this class. I feel like I can use any type of digital literacy or digital
composition and do well with it. My research skills have gotten tremendously better this year. I
feel like I am a lot better researcher and that I can find more valid information than I could prior
to this class. I am able to use research databases better and find good reliable sources.