Written By: Matthew Matta
This project thoroughly changed my views on war and mental health. The book, The cellist of Sarajevo was a great introduction for our group to understand the scenario of being in a war zone. This lead us to think about our group question, how does war affect people. Having to focus on mental health as my topic, I really believe I learned a lot about how mental health is as important as physical health. I learned about the tragic effectiveness of PTSD over time with people who suffer from it. I learned that they experience many traumatic flashbacks which are tragic to their lives, sometimes even making them think life is not worth learning! My research of mental health also made me evaluate my own mental health and making sure it is as good as my physical health. This project also helped me become a better group member. Having only 8 days to complete this project, I feel a thought it made us all come together and having to collaborate with each other. The project also helped me realize the horrible living conditions in war. As I am from India, I am aware of the lack of economic growth in a country and how poor places can be, although looking at the times in war people have to go through is inhumane. Overall, this project was a great learning experience for me and helped me learn more about the tragic events that occur in our world. This PBL project was an interesting one for me because I have a connection to my mom who had experienced the Vietnam War when she was young. Through this project I made deeper connections to my moms history along with my own. The hardships my mom went through when her family fled the Vietnam War made her a stronger and more hardworking person. I can learn from her and even though I haven't gone through such devastation, I can still apply it to my own life. Thousands, even millions, are suffering because of war in many countries around the world and it is saddening to know that such pain is caused by humanity fighting against humanity. After this project, I understand in more depth what the effects of war are on people, and it is terrible. Though we live in Canada, which is currently peaceful, the struggles of other people around the war are still our responsibility so we should do what we can to help. The novel, The Cellist of Sarajevo and this PBL project, have taught me a lot and I've made connections between myself, my mom's experience with war, and the suffering still taking place around the world. Written By: Kate Woo
I have learned a lot over the course of these eight days, researching, collaborating, and putting together this PBL project together with my peers. I have learned about myself and how the Vietnam War affected my own family and my learning process as a scholar and peer. Now I know that I am (just a bit of) a controlling and bossy person. I've learned it's the not so great side of me that likes things in a very specific way, but I've made progress already on collaborating more with peers. I have more experience now with making compromises with other people because everyone has a valid and unique idea that can help benefit a group as a whole. Again, I've learned about myself that I enjoy visual designing and "making things look pretty," which is one of the areas I put my skills into for this project. Lastly, I learned about myself that I have the ability to stand up and help direct a plan for the group. It is easy for me to communicate with them and I still do enjoy group projects. In addition, I have learned many things about war and the effects it has on people. It was at first, hard to imagine how many are affected by war when you don't see it playing out in front of you, but after all the research I did, I now know millions of people are impacted by war and thousands die almost daily. It is devastating to think about how people are destroying one another for things like resources, or land, or power. Along with that, I learned more about PTSD and how it lasts long term with a person after their traumatic experience and can increase risk of health issues. This project has taught me a lot, about mental/emotional health, war, but most importantly to help others when possible. Greed and power can corrupt a person and lead to such disasters like war, but doing what is right and helping those in need or people in my daily life is a small bit that can better the world. Written By: Kate Woo
Written By: Rayna Payne
During my time creating this PBL project with my group, I have learned so much information surrounding the topic of our driving question. Our driving question was what are the economical, mental, physical, and emotional effects of war on people. My subtopic was the physical effects and was the topic I learned the most about. I am very interested in medicine and things similar so physical effects was perfect for me. I learned new information about radiation, old medicine, diseases linked to war, and a bit more about how the human body reacts to different problems. Not only did I learn about my own topic, but I also learned about my group members topics. Somethings I took out of their articles and the information they have shared with me is that many people felt the effects of war economically, mentally and emotionally, years after the war has ended. Economies rebuild and small businesses recover, many people face mental challenges that were caused by the war that do not leave when the war does, and the same thing goes for emotional impacts. This project has really opened my eyes to the realities of war and the number of people who are affected by it and how, and I am grateful for that because everyone should be aware of it. This project gave me a deeper understanding of war. As I come from Pakistan, my mom is always talking about the wars and fighting in the Middle East as it is close to her and her country. It was very hard to relate and understand what it is like to go through that. After reading The Cellist of Sarajevo and researching about the lasting effects of war, I can now start to get an idea of what hardships the people go through and sympathise more with them, although I can obviously not understand full as I have not experienced it. My grandfather was in the Pakistani military and fought battles to gain independence for my country. I appreciate him much more now that I know what he experienced even after Pakistan no longer was fighting.Written By: Awais Malik
From this project, I learned the great extent of the impact that war has. The devastation that it can cause is massive. Not only to the people either, but just the entire government and the standard of life, including infrastructure and the economy. Even with people, the things they go through during war has a much deeper effect than what one can see on the surface. All the research about the mental and emotional scarring, and the length it stays for all really opened my eyes about the issues caused by war. The research about the mentality and such gave me a deeper understanding about our novel, The Cellist of Sarajevo, and what was going through the heads of the characters and even the general population’s head during the book and what they probably went through after it.
Written By: Awais Malik Written By: Alexandria Yovanoff
a connection from me to the world. if anyone goes far enough back in their family tree a person has probably killed. war has influence our world so much. without war, our political climate would be dramatically different. our entire civilisation would probably not be here. It's kind of sad. Written By: Alexandria Yavonoff
I learned about war |
WritersAlexandria Yovanoff |