Original Work Progress Assessment #2 

 
Date: ​March 4, 2019 
 
Topic: ​Neuropsychology 
 
Recap of Original Work Project-Introduction: 
 
Under the guidance of mentor figures in my ISM journey, my mentor Dr. Mark Barisa and my 
ISM teacher, Mr. Pirtle, I have been working on my original work project for this ISM year. My 
original work consists of three different components: An youtube channel composed of videos that 
explain different neuropsychological disorders, a case study collection of different neuropsychological 
disorders, and a medical seminar being hosted by an ISM colleague, Samy Kumar, in where I will be 
discussing my topic and components of my original work, particularly the case study, and the field of 
neuropsychology throughout the course of human life . I feel like these components that make up the 
total of my original work project can help my community by spreading awareness of not only my topic 
but also of mental health. 
 
Original Work Progress: 
 
Since the last work progress, it has been two weeks of working on my original work project. 
The week before was the district ’s spring break, so I was not in school and his, I worked on my 
project. I finished working on my scripts and I finalized five of them. I also managed to do some more 
research and started writing five of the different disorders out of the list that I have compiled for this 
project. That is what I have accomplished for the Youtube channel and the case study components of 
the project. For the medical seminar, there were some setbacks as the original plan was to meet up 
during spring and get the presentation together and start rehearsing, but due to lack of 
communication between the group members, that was never accomplished. The next week, the week 
after spring break, the medical seminar participants, including myself, met up with Samy, the host, to 
understand what was happening with the seminar and if there was even one happening. Once we met 
with her, we realized that there were some changes made to the seminar, as it is now not going to be a 
human life and the different doctors that work on the human body, but rather it will be a discussion of 
the articles that we are writing for the medical journal. I will be submitting my case study for that 
medical journal, therefore that will be what my topic of discussion will be over. Thus, the medical 
seminar took a slightly different path and this was not the only component of my Original work that 
ended up having some changes.  
 
Throughout the past two weeks, I have placed approximately more than 20 hours of work into 
my Original work, mainly focusing on the research and Youtube channel. I realized through these past 
two weeks that I might not be able to finish my intended ten video series b Final Presentation as I had 
initially thought due to some setback with my health as I fell sick during the week I was supposed to 
film, spring break. Therefore, I decided that while I still want to continue with the ten video series, I 
will have five videos filmed and posted on the YouTube channel by Final Presentation Night since I 
really want to provide quality work rather than quantity. My case study will most likely consist of only 
15 different disorders, but I plan to continue to develop that as time goes beyond, even past Final 
Presentation night. 
 
 
Here is my calendar as adjusted for the changes so far: 
Calendar 

Week 1: ( Feb 4-9) 

● Talk to Dr. Barisa about doing a case study- did a week earlier 
● Talk to Mr. Pirtle about the middle school presentations and understand how I should 
persuade the higher officials to allow me to do my presentation-​deleted 
● Gather the materials for the Youtube channel- did a week earlier 
 
Week 2: (Feb 10-16) 
● Persuade the higher officials and decide on official dates to host the workshop-​deleted 
● Get the permission from the clients to use their brain scans - changed to researching 
how to do a case study 
● Research the different mental disorders via EBSCO 
 
Week 3: ( Feb 17-23) 
● Get the research necessary for my case study 
● Gather the materials for the workshop- ​deleted  
● Collaborate with teachers in middle school to understand when they might be free for 
the workshop in order to make the workshop worth their time-​deleted 
● Finalize script with mentor for videos- moved to Week 6 
● Research mental disorders/​ v​ ideo editing- moved to Week 7 
Week 4: ( Feb 24-March 2) 
● Analyze the scans necessary for my research paper 
● Create the activities needed for the workshop and presentation- deleted 
● Film the videos for the channel- changed to working on finalizing the scripts 
● Research mental disorders 
Week 5: ( March 3- 9) 
● Work with Samy and others the medical seminar by creating my slides 
● Continue creating the activities for the workshop- deleted  
 ● Start editing the videos for my channel- changed to working on scripts and film on 
Week 6 
● Go over case study with my mentor  
● Research mental disorders 
Week 6: ( March 10-16) 
● Start writing the abstract and lit review for the research paper- changed to Week 8 
● Rehearse with Samy and the others- c​ hanged to Week 9 
● Research mental disorders and do a final analysis of the scans if there is any 
discrepancies based on my analysis of the scans with my mentor 
● Upload the videos onto the Youtube channel ( two times a week)- ​changed to 
starting from Week 10 
Week 7: ( March 17-23) 
● Outline my research paper and collaborate- changed to Week 5, since I was ahead at 
this point  
● Research mental disorders 
● Write the data collection and methodology of the research paper 
● Start hosting workshops at middle school- Starting with Roach Middle School- 
deleted 
Week 8: ( March 24-30) 
● Upload videos- changed to Week 10 
● Write the data analysis and the conclusion of the paper 
● Host middle school workshop- Nelson Middle School​- deleted 
Week 9: ( March 31- April 6) 
● Upload videos/ Edit the video footage and film it  
● Go over research paper with mentor 
● Rehearse for the medical seminar and finalize the presentation for the seminar 
● Host final workshop with middle schools- Maus Middle School -​deleted 
Week 10: ( April 7- 13) 
● Upload videos/ Edit the video footage and film it  
● Practice for the medical seminar 
● Edit the research paper and add more about my research 
● Collaborate with Samy about publishing my work with the medical journal  
Week 11: ( April 14- 20) 
● Conduct the medical seminar on April 18th 
● Reflect on the completion of my workshop- ​deleted 
● Upload videos/ Edit the videos and footage  
Week 12: ( April 21-27) 
● Cannot do much this week due to Orchestra and Spring trip, so relax 
● Revise the case study paper over again and send final edits to mentor for final approval  
 ● Reflect on the medical seminar  
Week 13: ( April 28- May 4) 
● Finalize my reflections and print out my research paper 
● Reflect on my youtube channel and the feedback I am getting from the comments 
Week 14 and 15: ( May 5-15) 
● Finalize my work for Final Presentation Night and tie up any loose ends 
 
Checkpoints: 
R
​ ecent Checkpoint: 
● I met with my mentor on March 19th, and we discussed my Original work amongst other 
topics of discussion. My mentor had just evaluated my Original work proposal and first 
Original work assessment and the one main comment that he said was that I might want to 
scale back on my Original work because of its sheer amount that could become more stressful 
than actually fun. I agreed with this comment because of how I got sick the week before and 
thus I told my mentor my plans of decreasing the amount of work I would need to do before 
Final Presentation night because of its amount, like decreasing the number of finished videos 
from 10 to 5 so that I can create an excellent quality work. I also reflected by myself on the 
amount of work I had done on my project and decided that I need to do my work diligently 
but also not to overkill it, therefore I will be taking a slight mental break and just work on 
filming and the research will be on hiatus.  
Upcoming Checkpoints: 
● I will be meeting with my mentor in the next upcoming week on the tentative date of March 
26th, in where I will be shadowing him with a patient but also be talking about some aspects of 
my Original work like sharing my work so far with him as I hadn't done so since I felt that my 
work was not ready yet, so I will be making the decision to share my progress with him so far. I 
also will be working on filming my videos and also finishing up the five case studies so that I 
can send them in as part of my medical seminar journal portion. 
 
Conclusion: 
Overall, these past two weeks of working on my Original work have been stressful and also 
rewarding at the same time. I got done with certain aspects of my Original work like finalizing five of 
the scripts and I also was able to take the decision to take a mental health break to create a quality 
project. I plan on doing more work in the next upcoming weeks, mostly working on the case studies 
and the filming for the videos so that I can stay on task with my calendar and work on finishing 
everything needed before their due date according to my calendar. I knew when I decided to do my 
original work that I would be taking on a hefty project, but I did not consider the amount of time it 
would take per part and my underestimation of that one aspect of the project has caused a lot of the 
obstacles lately, but I am glad I took on a hefty project because I can scale back as I need to and still be 
true to my original proposal. I will continue to work hard on my original work project and also work 
on learning more about my topic and also about mental health in general and I hope that the rest of 
my ISM journey is just as rewarding and full of hard work as it is now, because there has never been a 
flower bloom with the work of the gardener.