mom experiment

Keenan Coffey

4/29/14

Period D

Experiment Project

I decided to interview my mom to try and break a habit of hers. She is probably the loudest person I know. In my prior attempts to break this habit, I have tried talking to her, or just being loud back to her. I have constructed an experiment involving me giving her a piece of candy when she answers questions without yelling. I decided to keep it in a controlled area like my house just so she would act like she normally would. Everytime my mom answered quietly in a quiet tone I rewarded her with a piece of chocolate. Everytime she had yelled, or raised her voice I did not give her anything in return.

My mom's realization of not recieving candy is to fix the problem of her talking so loud. I performed all of the experiments in my kitchen during dinner, or just at random hours of the day. I also took into account that my mom has ADHD medicine, and that it calms her down on most occasions. It would be almost unfair to not take this into account.

I gave my mom positive reinforcement because I gave her a piece of candy. Everytime she recieved one, she was reinforced to try and gain more. She had partial reinforcement because I was not completely consistent throughout the day. She could have been talking to my brother in a quiet tone and I wouldn't give her a piece of candy. I gave the reward only when she was speaking to me.

I gave her a positive punishment because I did not take away anything from her when she continued to be loud. I could have sprayed water on her, or I could have done something in a negative manner. My hypothesis is that she will be not as loud during the trials as they progress. The goal of the experiement is to try and make my mom use an inside voice when she spoke. Hopefully this experiment translated into the future, and that is partially why I chose to do this topic.


Day 1

I introduce my mom to the experiment. She responds by letting me perform it, and lets me series of questions just on regular events happening that day. The whole day she was yelling, and I only managed to give her one piece of chocolate.

Day 2

I asked my mom questions relating to a common theme of sports. I asked her a lot about baseball, and she knew a lot about it. She was not loud while answering questions like "How many outs are there in an inning". I then changed up the sequence of questions by making them a little harder. I then asked her to explain the infield fly rule, which I don't seem to know very well either. She got mad and responded by saying "you know I don't know that, Keenan". She did not get a piece of candy.

Day 3

This day I decided to ask her questions relating to her. I asked about what she did before she had kids, what she did in highschool, questions like that. She began to realize that she always wanted the chocolate because thats her favorite candy. I conditioned my mom to not yell, and to talk in a reasonably quiet tone the whole time. She told me she didn't want to do the experiement anymore, and I decided to use my brother.

Day 4

My brother is a lot like my mom. He also speaks loudly, but I think he could be partially deaf to be completely honest. I asked him questions about his life and he responded in a quiet tone. He got every question right and got candy everytime.

Day 5

I asked my brother a series of questions pertaining to baseball like my mom. I asked him only the hard questions though. This was to see if he responded the same as my mother. I asked him about the infield fly rule and a couple other hard concepts, and he did not explain them. He also responded loudly, and I did not reward him with candy.

The experiment went reasonably well. I did not have any problems or implications other than having to buy more chocolate, and my mom not wanting to stay in it. I luckily had my brother to test on, though. I achieved many goals I made at the beginning of the experiment process. I wanted to see the response to a stimulus from both my mom and brother's perspectives. They were both successful in doing so and realized the purpose of it all.

I also wanted to keep my mom to a quiet tone when she was speaking. Days after I noticed that she was reasonably quiet around me. It definitely worked in this case.

My brother was a different story. After the experiment he continued to talk in a loud tone. He was not the initial volunteer in the first place, so it is still a success.

NBA playoffs

The NBA playoffs this year are sure to be one of the most exciting, athletic playoffs of all time. I believe that the Pacers, Heat, Thunder, and Spurs will probably advance to be the final four. I believe the two teams advancing will probably be the Heat and Thunder. The Thunder will hopefully prevail. They are completely due for a championship win. I personally would hate to see the Heat win again. The amount of hype LeBron gets is ridiculous. He deserves to be put in his place. The Thunder will be victorious.

Newspaper Column

The Sneaky Scandal

There are too many mentally unstable people in our world. Jerry Sandusky was a very messed up individual. He molested little boys in showers while he was at Penn State University. Obviously this brought a lot of emotional stress to the 26 men that came clean in the end. This was one of the most disturbing and saddening sports scandals of all time. Jerry Sandusky was known to have a lot of charisma and being a happy person. After this ordeal, everyone except his wife was absolutely disgusted with him. Even after being proven guilty, his wife still claimed that her husband was innocent.
I personally hate people like this. There is no excuse for this, and Jerry Sandusky is a sorry excuse of a human. The amount of distress he brought to these peoples lives is unacceptable. Jerry Sandusky was looked up to by many, and ruined it for himself in the end.

Seabiscuit

4) The press and radio played a huge role in the Seabiscuit phenomenon. Howard used the media to gather fans and to proceed the Seabiscuit hype. It helped his career for moral support and help during many matches.

5) Many lessons can be drawn from the successes. Perseverance is a good lesson, and determination. Anything can be done if you put your mind to it, and if it's broken then you should fix it. The story shows that they have great character.

Jerry Sandusky Scandal

I have a bitter taste in my mouth when reading anything involving Jerry Sandusky. I don't really know how a sick human like him could even exist. I believe there are thousands of lies in the trial, but it obviously is evident in scandals like this. I believe that Dottie Sandusky truly was unaware of the actions taken place in her home. That is just what I believe, but realistically only Jerry and the 26 men know what really happened. The trial is such a touchy subject because no one really knows what entirely happened, and how can you prove anything without noticeable evidence. No one is above the law, however, and obviously this cannot be taken lightly in any regard. I think that cases like these involve very important, influential people. This can result in proceedings taking years, but it is all in good time. People have to realize the money involved with lawyers defending the individual. They get paid so much money, and can provoke officials to postpone the trial for longer than it needs to be. We just live in a country with an imperfect court system, but honestly how can it be perfect? There will always be flaws, and loopholes.

Interviews

Steroids in sports have been an ongoing issue that is very controversial in our world. Illegal enhancement in any form is seen as morally unjust, and basically cheating. The breakout of steroids began in the late 70's, when multiple scientists perfected the "drug". It was primarily in football, until the late 90's. Baseball was struck by many allegations and scandals following the 96 season. This issue is very relevant in my life considering I play baseball, and other sports as well. I also am an avid fan of the MLB, and it breaks my heart to see players cheat. I asked a series of questions pertaining to steroids in sports as a whole. The questions were as follows; what are your thoughts on steroid use? Do you believe people inducted into a profession Hall of Fame should be removed solely on past steroid use? Do you think the majority of steroid use is in Major League Baseball? When do you think steroids were first made public? Would you consider steroids if you were on a Major League Baseball team in danger of getting benched, or cut?
I interviewed Matthew Bukouski and Andrew Steele, both having decent intellect regarding the subject. I interviewed Matt first, and he had a strong opinion. He said that steroids are very bad, and are considering cheating. He believed that if steroids impacted their performance in a way that should not allow them to be in the Hall, then they should not be. He stated that baseball is the focal point of all steroid use. The late 1990's is when he believe steroids originated. Personally, Matthew said he would not use steroids in any instance considering the danger in taking them. He believed that they are bad for his body, if he were to take them, that is.

Andrew Steele also believed steroids are cheating. He said that people already indicted, should stay inducted. He stated that steroid use is mostly in the MLB. He believed steroids started in the 1970's. He said he would not take steroids no matter what. 

CBS article

Lebron scores 61

 

Lebron James played a record breaking game against the Charlotte Bobcats. He had the best game of his career with 61 points. This solidified his spot for MVP many say, but others say its just too expected of him to over-preform. He helped the Miami Heat prevail 127-104 in a game where he had 8 three point shots. He was 22-33 from the field, and broke his previous record of 56 points in a game with the Cavaliers. At the half, Lebron had an outstanding 24 points, which was surpassed by 39 in the last half. His coach Erik Spoelstra stated, "he was in a great grove tonight." Sports Center gave Lebron multiple segments on 3/3/14, and 3/4/14 showing how great of a night he had. Not many people believed a troubled child from Akron could be doing so many great things like James. This accolade just adds to his prowess as a renown basketball player. On the international level, Lebron definitely has made his mark for being one of the best players in the world. This milestone was a small one compared to the large quantity of future milestones he will undoubtedly achieve to solidify his attempt at being the best basketball player to ever live.

 

 

 

http://www.cbssports.com/nba/gametracker/recap/NBA_20140303_CHA@MIA/lebron-scores-career-best-heat-record-61-points-in-win