Surviving Exhibition!!!

EXHIBITION!!!

Last week we finished Exhibition (YAY!!!). My topic for exhibition was the dangers of smoking, drugs and alcohol.  Exhibition is the big culminating project for all of elementary school here at AIS.  We spent almost 3 months working on doing research and then putting it all together into a persuasive essay and then a presentation which we had to give to two different sets of parents, including using a presentation board.  Here's a video that tells you a bit more about Exhibition.

Video About Exhibition Where I'm Interviewed
https://youtu.be/xsGeKA2Kqg8


Jake's Exhibition Presentation Video

And a video of my final presentation:

Here's my persuasive essay... Are you persuaded by it?

Unhealthy Habits Affect Your Mental and Physical Health

By Jake Bilotti

Every cigarette you smoke reduces your expected lifespan by 11 minutes. Unhealthy habits affect your mental and physical health. To begin with, drugs have a negative impact on your well being. Secondly, alcohol makes you lose control of yourself and is dangerous for your health. Lastly, smoking has harmful effects on your body. Imagine if there was a world where no one had these bad habits. Would you try and make that world?

I believe that it’s not okay to take drugs. Imagine if you were a kid that was encouraged to take drugs by their friends? What would you do, would you say no even if it means they won’t be your friends anymore? In my opinion, you shouldn’t take drugs even in that situation. Kids who are called “cool” sometimes tell other kids that they will be cooler if they had drugs and some kids would do it just to be popular. Everyone knows how bad drugs are for you body but so few know how bad they really are for you. Drinking alcohol can damage your brain and make you have special needs. Marijuana gives you short term memory and can cause other brain issues. It also increases your heart rate, can harm the lungs, and can increase the risk of craziness in people with vulnerability. Research tells us, when people start using drugs, 56.2% of the time they start with marijuana.

Inhalants, the kind of drug you sniff, are really poisonous and can damage the heart, kidneys, lungs, and brain. Even a healthy person can suffer heart failure and death within minutes of the first use of inhaling a lot of a poisonous substance. Steroids are commonly misused by athletes to get stronger and to give them an advantage over the other competition in the sports they compete in. They have serious side effects like severe acne, heart disease, liver problems, stroke, infectious diseases, depression, and suicide. Even knowing those risks the temptation is still so strong that even famous athletes can't resist using it. Like Lance Armstrong who denied doping but was caught and disgraced.

Without doubt, many people use alcohol. The fact is, it’s fine unless you have too much. Even though it's not that bad if you don’t drink a lot, there are always risks to drinking. There are also many problems you can get from alcohol like liver and heart diseases, cancers and strokes. Now I learned that the more you drink the greater the chance of developing alcohol related problems or long term health conditions. Even small amounts of alcohol can affect your ability to drive.

Every day, 28 people in the United States die in motor vehicle crashes that involve at least one car where the driver was drinking alcohol. This means one death every 53 minutes. Alcohol also costs our society a lot of money. Alcohol-related crashes alone can cost more than $44 billion a year. There are some inventions that police can use (like roadside alcohol breath analyzers) that can help get people off the road that are drinking and driving, but it's not enough.

Smoking impacts your mental and physical health. Cigarettes contain about 600 ingredients. When they burn, they generate more than 7,000 chemicals. Many of those chemicals are poisonous and at least 69 of them can cause cancer. Smoking increases risk of macular degeneration, cataracts, and poor eyesight. Smoking weakens your sense of taste and sense of smell, so food may become less enjoyable. In a condition called emphysema, the air sacs in your lungs are destroyed.

The Main Ingredients in a Cigarette.

Over time, smokers are at increased risk of having types of heart  disease. Smoking damages your entire cardiovascular system. Nicotine causes blood vessels to tighten, which restricts the flow of blood (peripheral artery disease). Smoking lowers good cholesterol levels and raises blood pressure,smokers are at greater risk of blood cancer (leukemia). Smoking also increases risk of cancer of the mouth, throat, larynx, and esophagus. Smokers have higher rates of kidney cancer and pancreatic cancer. Smoking also has an effect on insulin, making it more likely that you’ll develop insulin resistance. That puts you at increased risk of Type 2 diabetes.  

The good news, however, is that it’s never too late to quit!  The effects of quitting can be felt in only 20 minutes and it only gets better from there.  All you have to do is get started.

 
It is vital that you don’t smoke if you are pregnant. Children whose parents smoke are more prone to coughing, wheezing,and asthma attacks than children whose parents don’t. Children of smokers have higher rates of pneumonia and bronchitis.  

Pregnant mothers who are exposed to secondhand smoke are also more likely to have a baby with low birth weight birth defects, and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Even with all these risks parents still smoke around their children.

 

In conclusion, unhealthy habits affect your mental and physical health. Share with your friends, family and community how smoking, drinking and taking drugs is bad for your health. Instead of smoking, drinks or taking drugs likes your friends, tell them it's not good for them and create awareness. Another thing you can do is help encourage people to quit. In the future, wouldn’t you like to think “I helped someone quit”. If you get someone to quit an unhealthy habit, and they start feeling healthier. Then they might do the same for another and this creates a chain reaction and then everyone would feel good and healthy. After all, isn’t that what we want?

Noodletools Bibliography

Works Cited

“Does Drug Abuse Cause Mental Disorders, or Vice Versa?” National Institute on Drug Abuse. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Apr. 2016. <https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugs-brains-behavior-science-addiction/addiction-health>.

“Drugs, Brains, and Behaviour: The Science of Addiction.” National Institute on Drug Abuse. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Apr. 2016. <https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugs-brains-behavior-science-addiction/addiction-health>.

“The Effects of Smoking on the Body.” Health Line. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Apr. 2016. <http://www.healthline.com/health/smoking/effects-on-body>.

“How Can Addiction Harm Other People.” National Institute on Drug. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Apr. 2016. <https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugs-brains-behavior-science-addiction/addiction-health>.

“Impaired Driving: Get the Facts.” CDC. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CDC 24/7: Saving Lives. Protecting People. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Apr. 2016. <http://www.cdc.gov/motorvehiclesafety/impaired_driving/impaired-drv_factsheet.html>

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Kite, Naomi. “Grade 5 Exhibition.” Grade 5 Exhibition. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Mar. 2016.

“1 out of 3 U.S. Citizens A.I.D.S. Death Are Related to Drug Abuse.” National Institute on Drug Abuse. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Apr. 2016. <https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugs-brains-behavior-science-addiction/addiction-health>.

Off On A Maths Quest To Barcelona...

My school entered into a really creative math competition called Maths Quest where schools from across Europe and even one from the US compete and earn points across 3 days to see who wins the top 3 team prizes and the overall individual prize.  In my school, there were tryouts for the 4 slots for this team and I made the team along with my friends Nikhil, Aman and Michael to represent our school. 

This is us making our own energy riding the bikes at the airport
to recharge our electronic devices

Maths Quest is a math competition which originated out of the schools in Europe and which is hosted in a different European country each year and this year's competition was hosted in Barcelona.  So we were able to fly to Barcelona together for the competition.  




This wasn't as easy as it sounds because of the craziness that had happened not that long before at the Brussels airport.  Plus the airtraffic controllers had decided to strike and were only letting so many planes take off each day and they weren't telling anybody which ones those were going to be until right before, so we weren't even sure we were going to get to go.  But, in the end we got there.

When we arrived, we met our host family and then they took us out to get something to eat and we had ice cream and went to see some famous historical sites in Barcelona.  
















They showed us around where they lived and we got to know them and their family.  

The next day, we woke up and went to the school to meet up with our team and start the competition.  That first day, one of the activities was the math trail were we went though an outdoor re-creation of an old Spanish city which was like a really big museum.   All along the trail there were challenging math type questions and challenges we had to solve as a team.  The picture below shows us working on one.



Different parts of the competition were held in various parts of Barcelona and it was all arranged and hosted by one of the international schools there.   It lasted for 3 days and on the final day, we were paired up to work with kids that were from other schools for the final challenge.




Our team came in fifth out of 22 teams and I came in 5th out of 88 kids.  The other teams had all done the competition before so they knew what to expect, none of us had done it before and our teacher hadn't either so it was all new to us so we had to figure everything out for the very first time.  And it wasn't like any kind of regular math type things we had every seen.  So we were very happy to have finished so high and we're excited to go back next year because now that we do know how it works, we're going to CRUSH it next year!!!!!  

While we were there, we stayed with a girl called Daniella and her family who was really nice for 3 nights.  Every night they gave us dinner and we slept at their home and then they fed us breakfast and took us all back to the school in the morning.   Here is Daniella and her mom and dad and my teammate Michael who stayed there with me as well.



Here we are at the closing ceremony...all that math and we are still smiling!

Mom was there and she helped to chaperone us on the plane and in the airport on the way there and back, but she wasn't allowed to come and watch except for the closing ceremony. While I was there I also discovered I liked horchata...do you know what that is?  You should try some!!!

Here we are at the airport...who says math can't be exciting?

Off to the Canary Islands and An April Fool's Wedding

One of the places I went this year was Tenerife in the canary islands. The place we stayed was a Melia resort which is the same kind of place like the one I LOVE in the Dominican Republic where we went for 9 years in a row.  This place had a courtyard that was designed by the same exact person and it's smaller, but looks the same.

While I was in Tenerife I did some really fun things. One of them was ride on a segway.  Mom said that normally they wouldn't let someone my age ride, but in places like Tenerife they don't have very strict rules about these things.  They did make you practice and even gave you lessons going in and out of some cones and things before letting you out on the road and trail.




We went on a tour by the ocean with them.   We wanted Nan to come but she didn't want to and in the end it was good that she didn't because we went along some very narrow trails by the edge of some cliffs and she would have definitely ended up in the ocean and mom would have had to pay for that segway.  




I also did archery and actually did really good at it. There were some people we met at archery and one of them was called Nina.  I went to archery almost every day and there were competitions and my team and I always did really well.  Here are some pictures of me doing archery.

See my arrow?  It's going straight for a the bull's eye!

I also had a chance to go scuba diving for the very first time.  


Mom even went with me and we had to squeeze into these really, really tight wet suits and I mean REALLY tight.  The water was unbelievably cold and it was also very hard to see in some places.  









Mom had gone scuba diving lots and lots of times before but for some reason she got a little freaked out and was thinking she didn't want to do it once she was out there, but the instructor told her she had to, so she did.  We saw a big sea turtle and followed it, which was really awesome.  The instructor said I did great.  

Mom said I wouldnt usually be able to go scuba diving since I'm only 10, but I was lucky they let me because I really like it except that the tank weighed like a hundred pounds and felt like it was going to break my back until we got into the water.  Mom said that Aunt Bear loves scuba diving and she especially likes to look for sharks...ha ha ha ha.  Next time we go I'm going to ask Aunt Bear to go with me!!!

Here's what poor mom goes through every time she tries to take a picture of Nan and I...one of us is either talking or blinking or has their eyes closed or all 3...ha ha ha ha.

For Easter, I went back to the United States for Aunt Bear and Lauren's wedding.  Here's my wedding outfit.  Notice I actually have some hair here...that won't last.

This is me with Alyssa and Morgan and they're who I was escorting during the wedding and we had to dance down the aisle and back.  We practiced our moves so that I was able to spin them both one at a time as we walked down the aisle.  Notice I have significantly less hair...that's what happens when Mom let's JJ and I go to the Barbers without her.










That's me and my Aunt Bear and notice how we match.  And here's mom and she has the thing around her neck and don't even ask how many stores she dragged me through so we could find a shirt to match and when you look at it you can't even see the darn shirt under that thing can you???

For the first song it was watch me whip and I really like that song.  We had practiced in their kitchen with Scuzzle, and I'm not sure they got much better, well, they got a little bit better at the wedding when they did it.

They even had smores there which were the best idea ever but the kids kept on throwing paper into the fire and it was floating up into the air on the wind and we were afraid some of the pieces that were floating in the air might light the roof on fire and that would have been a terrible way to end the wedding.   


They also had a really old piano and I had a chance to play some songs on it and even though I was not supposed to interfere with the paid entertainment,  there were still a lot of people who kept asking me to play.  Luckily Aunt Bear never gets mad at me for anything...well, except maybe for not knowing how to sweep.  Don't ask...

I also got to see Amy and CC and No No, TT and Jordan and I had a great time with Lauren's family and all of the kids and with Alyssa and Morgan and seeing Poppy and Scuzzle.

We had a great time that night because everyone was there.  Even Nan, JJ, Yummy and even Sunshine Mary was there!!!

Basketball at AIS

This year I played on the under 12 basketball team for my school. I played position 5 & 4 because I was tall and a good shooter.  

In this picture on the left you can see some of my teammates, Arman, Cassius, Antony, Aticus, Aman, Bjorn, Dominic, Kevin and Max.  This was at one of our many away games that we got to travel to and this was at Luxembourg and we were in the stands waiting for our turn to play.  

The night before we stayed with players from the Luxembourg team at their houses and I had a really nice family to stay with.


In the picture below you can see Aunt Bear and Lauren in the stands behind the basket.  They missed the first half of the game because Mom was a dingbat and forgot to tell the driver to bring them right to the school so he brought them to our house first instead.  (It's ok, I can say that because Aunt Bear says it all the time.  Or maybe she calls her a Pinhead, I don't really know with those two.)

I feel like I got better with my shooting during basketball because of the practice with my club team where we really worked on shooting drills and I learned how to shoot with one hand really well.    Here's a picture on the left of my club team and me with the medal we got for club ball.  
All of the kids on my West Malle Club team only speak Dutch, but it doesn't matter because I understand enough now that I can communicate with them and the coach and easily understand them.  It all works!

My school team had a lot of players who were new to basketball  and they had to learn the basics about the game and so most of the time we had to work on really simple things.  But we were able to travel to a lot of different countries and when we played at the final big tournament of the season, called NECIS, we stayed in a hotel for 4 nights and played at least 2 games every day and traveled like a college team all around.  It was a really great experience.





Nanny, LaLa and Mom came to NECIS and while they were there they visited this castle in Germany and here's a picture of a mini-maze that Mom says was built just for Nanny and LaLa to go through.
























This is a picture of this really amazing building in Rotterdam called the Market Hall, the city where the NECIS tournament was,  that has all of these markets where you can buy all kinds of foods and it also has little cafes and restaurants.  It looks like an aircraft hanger inside, but people live in the upper part in apartments or townhouses.

One of my favorite people that we housed were the people from Bonn.   The two boys we had were a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to seeing them again next year.