Proposal


 * Senior Year Project Proposal**

Even though at Newton North it is practically impossible not to find a class that both challenges and excites you since the amount and scope of opportunities for classes are endless, the fact is that the same old repetitive and monotonous routine of class-homework-tests, gets terribly tedious after four years, especially when it leaves you with no time to pursue any other passions you may have. This is why I am so enthusiastic about senior year project. To finally be able to set aside the stresses of the regular schoolwork cycle and focus on researching and developing something on my own will be both a refreshing break from high school and also a much-needed wake-up call for the self-motivation that will be needed in the future. Speaking of wake-up calls and the future, my goal for my senior year project is to remind people that we need to stop taking nature for granted! More specifically, I plan to produce a documentary that will raise awareness about the drastic impacts of the vanishing relationship between today’s children and nature and also to inspire people to get their kids, and themselves, outside into the wilderness more. This would be “so cool” because I really do believe that if kids continue to be raised primarily with video games, television, texting and computers like they are now, rather than with tree-climbing, mud-sledding, and bird-watching like they were in the past, eventually people will lose respect for nature completely and no amount of conservation groups will be able to stop the masses from treating the Earth like trash or simply as a source for natural resources that humanity can exploit. I think it’s really important to start to reestablish the child-nature connection if we want to preserve the Earth for the future. Like I said before, the main focus of my documentary would be the relationship between “modern” children and nature. More specifically however, I would like to focus on the phenomenon called “nature defecit-disorder” which is essentially the theory that the recent drastic increase in behavioral/developmental problems (ADD, depression, aggression, anxiety etc) in today’s kids is in part due to a lack of unstructured and explorative contact with nature. Also, in relation to this, I would also like to research how this decreased contact with nature affects people’s views of the world as a whole. Do they have less concern for what will become of the litter they leave in the woods? Are they less aware of the fact that their food comes from other living animals? Do they think of the outside as something gross or as just a means for getting more “stuff?” These are just a few of the questions I intend to answer. I’m also hoping to discover some effective ways of getting people to go outside and explore; to reconnect with nature. When I lived in Switzerland/Hungary, my family took me hiking into the complete and utter wilderness every single weekend. Growing up being surrounded by enormous glaciers, undisturbed mountains, and just pure nature is really what sparked my love for the outdoors. Even today I spend a good deal of my time outside especially since, as a Hungarian Eagle Scout, I go camping with my troop almost every month and spend every other weekend teaching my patrol group of six 10-12 year old girls about the wonders of nature. It really bothers me though that so many other people don’t appreciate the beauty of the outdoors even a fraction of the amount that I do. This is partly what inspired me to choose this topic. A more direct influence was a book that my older brother gave me a couple of weeks ago. This book is __Last Child in the Woods__ by Richard Louv and it is about the dangers of “nature deficit disorder,” the disorder I mentioned earlier. I had no idea that not being in nature could actually have such tangible psychological and medical effects, nor did I know the extent to which the majority of American children have completely disconnected with nature. I was also shocked to learn that it is in fact the discouragement (both conscious and subconscious) of parents. I’ve only read a few chapters of the book so far, but I definitely know that this is a topic I want to explore further. For the research aspect of this project I am planning on finishing __Last Child in the Woods__ and continuing to learn about how today’s kids relate to nature through a variety of sources including interviews/surveys, books, articles, documentaries and whatever else I can find. For the field work part of the project I plan to create a documentary highlighting the facts that I discovered during the research phase. Outside of school, I will need to contact people to interview (preferably people who have some sort of relation with either nature or with technology, both adults/parents and children of varying ages, a psychologist/behaviorist who has some knowledge on this would also be cool,) and also I will need to talk to people who have ideas about how to get people motivated to be outside more. Other than these people, the resources that will be needed are a video-camera, a computer that has the iMovie software on it, music and information. I don’t believe there should be a large amount of costs associated with this project, however whatever costs do arise I’m sure I could meet them by selling candy in school. As for the challenges that I anticipate, there are a few of them. Firstly, I’ve never made a real documentary before so figuring out how it will flow will probably be challenging, as will organizing and filming interviews and other events. The editing and research should go fairly well however. At the end of this project, I will know if I am successful when I end up with a really cool but informative documentary about the relationship between today’s kids and the time they spend in nature. It would also be really nice if I could actually get people to go outside more with their kids on their own, but I’m not sure how I could accomplish that. For now, the tangible “success product” will be a dvd of my film and hopefully the revelation that will exist in people about nature after they watch it.
 * Note: this is the original proposal, plans for fieldwork have changed since it was written.
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