Reflection 12/18/ By Cyndi Yahya

The school's expedition on cancer, I think, is a very important topic. Many people are affected by it, and for us to collaborate with one another to create a museum to teach younger students about cancer is accommodating. This expedition was really informational, and it taught me a lot of new different things on cancer development, and how cancer have affected people throughout history.
In science class, we have individual topic relating to cancer that we have to research on. My topic of cancer is leukemia. I learned that leukemia is the cancer of the bone marrow. The three types of blood cells (platelets, red blood cell, and white blood cell) are present in the bone marrow. When someone is diagnosed with leukemia, the immature white blood cells crowds the red blood cells and the platelets. This disables the blood cells to work properly. The red blood cells are not able to transport oxygen throughout the body, the white blood cells can not fight infections, and without platelets excessive bleeding in the body is possible.
In ELA class we are learning about the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima on August of 1945. The atomic bomb attack was one one of the most disastrous event in our history. There were thousands of deaths and damages, and the aftermath of the attack was unimaginable. Although the attack lasted for a few minutes, the effects it had was huge. The atomic bomb, unfortunately, released chemicals that caused radiation which lead to health issues and more death. These radiations caused many different types of cancer. The ionization of chemicals are some factors of cancer. Dr. Nagai, a victim of the atomic bomb attack, for example suffered from leukemia because of his working with chemicals.
During the expedition, I don't think that I encountered many challenges except for knowing the fact that more than half the world's population would be affected by this disease. We have not yet found a cure for cancer but there are other types of medication to stop the spread of cancer such as chemotherapy, and radiation.
If we were able to continue this expedition, I think that we should help donate money to organizations or hospitals that benefits people diagnosed with cancer. I think that this process would not only help cancer patients, but also help raise cancer awareness.
Next year's expedition, I would like to see the same thing that I've seen this year. We as high school students, work cooperatively with one another. There was a lot of collaboration going on. Many different ideas were shared and because of this procedure, I think we learned many important facts on cancer.