Here is a video about our afternoon in Philly last Saturday! Shout out to the two great interns who showed us around - we would have been lost without you!
The 8th graders today were talking about smoking and it's ill health effects. Everyone raised their hand when they were asked if they knew someone who smoked. Many stated that it bothered them, both how it made them cough and how the smell hung around. It didn't sound like any of them smoked themselves and most of them were very vocal in their dislike of cigarettes.
One student shared a story about how their Aunt, who is only 28, has smoked since she was 12 and won't let the kids be on the same level of the house as her when she is smoking. It is an interesting double standard that a majority of the students have to deal with their entire lives.
My favorite random story from kids in class during this smoking discussion: "I went to a church once where the pastor was smoking while he was preaching and then for communion we had bread and beer."
They also got to see the fantastic Blood Mobile video today, courtesy of Dr. McFarland's Biochem class I took last quarter. They were talking about how smoking causes CO to bind to your hemoglobin and not allow O2 to get to your body and I just had to share some of my newfound biochem information about blood. Hemoglobin is pretty hard to visualize as an 8th grader, so I showed them that video and a 3D model of hemoglobin in PyMol (a biochem program), so hopefully they remember it more clearly and correctly!
This post is short, mainly because I am working on another video and because I've been feeling sick and my head is not super clear :(
Grocery shopping has been an interesting experience here in Camden, NJ
We've been to PathMart, Walmart, and Save A Lot. Walmart was pretty usual, but it wasn't a super Walmart, so the grocery part was kind of slim. We grabbed toiletries there, but we went to PathMart for food. What an interesting grocery store - the layout made no sense to me. Also, they didn't sell frozen chicken, we could only find chicken breasts in the refrigerated section. Hamburger was also interesting, apparently you can find high fat content (>20%) pretty easily! I guess I am just so spoiled by my fam - I just have to go to our freezer and get a package out :)
Save A Lot = no traditional brands, except maybe a few boxes of cereal. There were some fresh fruits and veggies, but otherwise it was all dry packaged food. I'm not sure if there was a real freezer section - I didn't look to closely. I just wanted some cold medicine and had to just get what they had, which was not much. I will say, however, that the prices were cheap there!
Interesting Camden tidbit - there are no grocery stores within the Camden city limits. There is one right outside, on the South side (I think) and there are some in neighboring cities, but getting fresh fruit and veggies can be a challenge. There is a plethora of corner market connivence stores, so many families only eat prepared foods that are full of preservatives and not super healthy. Apparently this is a pretty big issue in Camden, and the high school is trying to combat it by providing their own kind of lunch and breakfast food store. We met the principal last night and he explained that many students were coming to school with non-nutrious lunches, if they brought a lunch at all. If students don't eat, they can't perform well in school, so the school is trying to foster a good learning environment through what food they offer. Apparently, the best seller is your traditional PB & J, which is definitely better than the other food they were eating.
Speaking of food - can you believe that lunch time for the middle school doesn't begin until 12:47pm?? Those poor kids (and teachers and us!) have to go without food from 8 am to then! And after lunch and recess, they only have like 1.5 hours of school left! I would not last here very long....I already sneak food during class....
Also - here is a fun video that I found for the 7th graders, who are currently studying the water cycle:
Don't you feel culturally and academically educated? apparently the 'track' and 'beats' for this song were actually from a different rap band, Cross-over (or something like that - they wore all their clothing backwards) and their song "Jump."
I havent' been able to take photos or film of the kids yet, but that is a goal of mine for Friday. Today I got to know the 7th graders a bit more by asking them what they wanted to do when they grow up and where they wanted to go to college - so interesting!
On of my goals in the past month or so has been to utilize the HD video capabilities of my camera. Accordingly, this update is in film form. I'm beginning to realize that digital media may be a good way for me to share my experiences, as I know I'm not the greatest writer and my blog posts tend to be a bit dry....
