AP Seminar

  2.  It is very important for schools to reopen for the mental health and wellbeing of students . However , schools should determine based on the circumstances in their communities whether or not it is the safest choice to reopen schools, have a hybrid model, or be fully virtual. It is crucial that every school implements safety measures in order to slow the spread of COVID-19 and keep students safe. Some factors that schools should acknowledge are, “levels of community transmission and their capacity to implement appropriate mitigation measures in schools” (CDC). However , it is also important to acknowledge the effect on the mental health of students if they continue to be isolated at home, away from their peers. In school, students are able to talk to their peers and be around teachers, counselors, and people that make them feel safe. The CDC says,  “an environment where students feel safe and connected, such as a school, is associated with lower levels of d...

 Arguable Topics To Research: 1. Should Planned Parenthood be defunded to prevent more abortions? 2.  Is saying "All lives matter" taking away the importance of the "black lives matter" movement? 3. Should citizenship be easier to obtain for immigrants in the U.S.? 4. Is it a good idea to raise taxes for the rich, or would this be unfair? 5. Should LGBTQ+ marriage not be legalized because it goes against the Bible?

 1. Although many people agree that drugs such as marijuana should be decriminalized and even legalized in the U.S, some may argue that the legalization of marijuana will make the usage of it more common in society. For example, legalized marijuana has shown to cause higher usage rates in teenagers,  " 16.21% of Colorado teens and 18.86% of teens in Alaska reported marijuana use in the past year, compared to an average of 12.29% for the United States overall in 2015-2016" (Brittanica). If marijuana is legalized more and more  teenagers will use it and go to school high, go to work environments high, etc. While this may be true, rules won't just be thrown out the window if marijuana is legalized. Teenagers and even adults may still be penalized if they are deemed to be putting others in danger or misbehaving. If students go to class high, they may very well still get a detention or suspension for breaking school rules. The same may go for adults, if they go to work en...

 1. In the passage by Julie Charlip, she distinguishes her ideas from those of others in many ways. In the first paragraph, Charlie quotes and idea from Marx and Engels to show that the statement is not her own idea. Shortly after the quotation, Charlip says, "if only that were true, things might be more simple." If Charlip were in favor of the idea she quoted, she wouldn't have said that it was a false statement. Another way that Charlip disassociates her ideas from the ideas of others is, in the second paragraph, Charlip uses an idea from a sociology professor. She doesn't put his idea in quotation marks, rather she clearly states that the statement is not her idea by saying things like "he said" or "his definition." Finally, Charlip clearly states her ideas on class in the third paragraph. She starts by stating that many Americans, including her father would call themselves middle class, but she doesn't feel the same way. In fact, Charlip st...

 1. For this exercise, I read the essay, "' Rise of the Machines' Is Not a Likely Future" By Michael Littman. Littman disagrees with the idea that AI robots will cause an untimely demise for humans and take over the world. He disagrees multiple times in the essay, including once in his second paragraph, stating that robots taking over the Earth is an idea purely meant for science fiction. To further explain his disagreement, Littman demonstrates an example of the logic he disagrees with. He speaks on the topic of FLI (Future of Life Institute) and a book written by a member of FLI, Nick Bostrom, called Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies. In the book, Bostrom establishes an idea that there are three steps until AI leads to the demise of humans. Littman agrees with the first and third steps of the idea, the first being that AI begins by developing at an alarmingly fast rate, and the third being that AI takes over the world, outcompeting humanity and causing i...

 3.) Should children under 17 be banned from buying violent video games?                                                                                          1st Perspective: Many parents believe that their young children should be prohibited from buying and playing violent video games. The violent nature of the games can affect the development of young children and effect them for the rest of their lives. 2nd Perspective: Children under 17 may disagree with this statement. The children feel that they are mature enough to know what is real and what is fake. When playing the violent video games, they know that the actions in the game should not correlate to actions in the outside world. Due to this sense of make-believe vs. real life, they feel that they sho...