The following week, in AP Biology, taught by Warren, the quiz bowl coach, the group project is announced for the quarter.
"Your group project for the quarter is about a public health issue, explaining the biological principles behind it, as well as providing research support for any solutions you put forward, and the logistics of implementing these solutions, too" Warren starts the explanation of the group project in front of the class. "For the group project, given the complexity of the notions being tackled, I see it fit to form teams of four for this quarter's project, as opposed to two for labs"
With Warren, we have no control over team composition, Pablo seems to be shaking in his seat prior to the announcement of teams for this group project. And prays that he won't be with anyone among a certain set of students, whom he knows will make the whole team's life harder, or at least no more than one among that set. However, he also takes notes about what is expected of teams going for this.
Questions about the scope of the project are flashing in some students' minds. By far the most common about the content of the project relate to the geographic scope, since prevalence and solutions are tied to it in the minds of those asking questions about it. Pablo raises his hand, but asking a different kind of question to his teacher:
"If it turns out, at some point during the quarter, that a student is dropping the course, or wants to ask to change a teammate that has caused issues to them, how would that be handled?" Pablo asks the teacher.
"You're asking about two different things. No extensions shall be given to a team if a student drops the course, but should conflicts arise over the project, you must notify me immediately" Warren answers him, before moving on to the next student question.
After all the common concerns of the students are addressed, it's then that Warren puts the names of the 7 teams in this section on the screen.
"One thing I might have forgotten about is the deadline. The project is due at the end-of-quarter final" Warren informs the students in his class.
Let's see: I'm assigned to a team with Audrey, Natalie and Tyler. My biggest concern about this team is Audrey. Not that she can't pull her weight, but she's on the basketball team for crying out loud! Being on the team is a lot of work for one-third of the year, and said third starts two weeks from now, Pablo tries to get a mental feel for how the team will mesh for the next two months in that course. They meet with each other during the time allotted to get contact information and decide on a topic.
"Before we begin, I say that we should have Audrey handle the introduction and conclusion since she won't have time to contribute much due to the demands of the basketball season" Pablo opens the discussion.
Natalie and Tyler both suggest topics such as drug abuse, gaming addiction, teenage pregnancy as well as obesity, while remaining mindful of not talking about homosexuality as a public health issue. However, Audrey just quietly takes in what the others have to say.
"What about teenage mental health?" Audrey suggests to her teammates.
"This is far too broad a topic. The other topics Natalie and Tyler both suggested all have mental health dimensions" Pablo comments. "Do you have any idea of how you can narrow the topic down?"
"Sorry if I was too broad, but what I'm talking about is the pressure to perform academically pushing students to attempt suicide" Audrey follows up on her suggestion.
"Just be cautious of making sure that we don't delve too much into academic pressure as a risk factor for other health problems. Eating disorders, for one" Natalie advises caution.
"Yeah, we should address risk factors, but Pablo's right. It's a risk factor more so than a public health issue in its own right" Tyler comments on Audrey's suggestion.
"I think we should do eating disorders, and Audrey should do either introduction and conclusion, or do the overview of the issue" Pablo adds to this discussion of potential topics.
This group project feels very health-focused for an AP Bio group project, Audrey keeps to herself, while she realizes that she already has her teammates' contact information from past extracurricular encounters with them. And same goes for the other three: after all, they all knew each other for years, and since elementary school.
Yet, they belonged to different grades, which is common in AP classes, and, for some, it seemed to be the only way to meet kids in different grades outside of extracurriculars. Like the other two. They start scheduling a new meeting for the group project, which is to take place at the home of one of the members:
"When are you guys available to meet?" Audrey asks her teammates to share their availabilities.
"Friday night is off-limits to me; it's our season closer against South Beauregard" Pablo makes his objection known.
By far Pablo has the most timeslots blocked off, since this week's football practices take place after school. The other two's blocked off timeslots overlap with Pablo's, so they must meet later at night.
"We're going to meet at my home after Pablo's practice tonight" Audrey announces to her teammates, before they register eating disorders as a topic for this term's AP Bio group project. "Understood?"
"We still need to decide who does what, so we know clearly what we will do tonight" Pablo retorts to them. "I volunteer for risk factors"
"Because my schedule will get a lot more hectic two weeks from now, I will do the overview of the issue" Audrey locks in her part on the project.
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"Policy solutions for me" Natalie adds.
"Treatments for me" Tyler closes this designation.
I can't do a whole lot of coursework this week, Pablo seems to be a little concerned about how much, if any, work he can get done, and he feels like the outcome of this game against South Beauregard will determine when he will be able to focus on coursework more. If we go into the playoffs, sure, it will mean more football and people in town will be happy, but even football players must still study and work in class to keep playing.
Once the football practice ends, he promptly notifies his parents that he will be doing the AP Bio group project at Audrey's home. Upon arriving at Audrey's home, he's clearly the most tired of the team, since, for the season closer, drills intensify to be sure that the VAs will be ready to play the most crucial game of the season. Not to mention last to arrive. The Google Drive folder for this project is already given out to the people on the team via SMS.
"Finally, you're here, and we can start working on this group project, as well as do any AP Bio homework" Audrey tells the team, while her AI-powered research is running for an overview of eating disorders, is underway.
"Remember, guys, relying on AI alone is not going to fly, even if it was appropriately cited!" Natalie, a junior, warns her teammates, while Pablo reads the preliminary overview of eating disorders, as a public health problem as well as its biological bases, in search of risk factors.
"Also, please keep risk factors, treatments and policy solutions specific to the issue we pick!" Pablo sermons his teammates as he starts researching risk factors himself, using AI because his energy is a little low.
Of which the most obvious ones specific to eating disorders, to Pablo's eyes, are sports performance pressure and unrealistic beauty standards. However, some of the less obvious risk factors (to him) include Type I diabetes, but when he comes across some material mentioning family history of eating disorders, he is also reminded of the rest of the material of the day. Genetics.
"Does anyone else come across genetics as a component in dieting disorders?" Pablo asks his teammates, who are also busy working on their respective parts.
"Yes, since Type I diabetes has a genetic component, as does metabolism" Tyler answers him, as he tries to understand what his own research suggests.
"Not really for me, since genetics does not come into play in policy solutions" Natalie feels left out of the discussion on the genetics of eating disorders.
They keep discussing not only genetics, but also how does that affect treatment of eating disorders, either directly or indirectly through other health conditions that affect dieting, such as lactose intolerance. Because they realize that sometimes, behind a history of dieting, there may be other underlying diseases. And it's then that everyone put their files in the Google Drive folder.
"I'd say, we're making good progress, but we should also do our assignment for that course, too. Then we can go back to working on the project" Audrey tells the team, as she starts working on the genetics assignment.
"I get it, it's because of you that we're doing the group project this early" Pablo then yawns, letting his fatigue show.
But then, as the other three do their AP Bio assignments, Pablo seems not to contribute as much on the genetics assignment as he did on the group project. Too tired to contribute much of anything, he falls asleep on his host's couch. However, his nap doesn't last that long since his teammates wake him up once they get closer to the end of it.
"Wake up, Pablo!" Audrey wakes him up.
"What's... happening?" a confused Pablo groans, still feeling some pains due to the drills he undertook earlier. However, said pains didn't seem to impede him in working on the risk factors of eating disorders earlier.
"Everyone else has finished doing their AP Bio homework and returned home. You didn't even start!" Audrey leaves some notes on the table for him to use for completing the homework. "Do you want something?"
"Maybe a cup of coffee..."
Once Audrey makes him a cup of coffee, and Pablo starts drinking it, he starts doing more on the genetics homework, starting with alleles, and how they relate to genotypes and phenotypes. Additionally, a Punnett square is his to do after he answers questions about genotypes and phenotypes. Good, good, Audrey seems to be on the lookout for signs that Pablo might be struggling to do one thing. Yet, he appears to be taking longer than the others to do his homework but isn't otherwise struggling.
After Pablo finishes his homework, slower than he would have liked because the coffee hasn't kicked in as he hoped, Audrey makes some comments on his work on unrealistic beauty standards as a risk factor in eating disorders:
"Pablo, I can't help but notice that you might have gone into a lot of detail of what made these beauty standards unrealistic, and how to tie that into people's usage of social media..." Audrey sighs, when she looks at the list of body parts that are most commonly photoshopped with AI Pablo came up with, by gender.
She's far bulkier and taller than these girls who come up in discussion of unrealistic beauty standards as a risk factor in eating disorders. But that doesn't mean she's ugly! Pablo's thoughts seem to drift away from eating disorder risk factors and to Audrey's physique.
"When people compare themselves to what they see on social media, especially those who use it a lot, it's common to feel like they are too fat, or they are ugly in some way even when they don't see themselves as too fat" Pablo took his time to formulate a response to her.
"Am I too fat for you?" Audrey, spurred by these remarks on fat perception, asks him. "Sorry if I ask this of you, maybe I shouldn't have, it's just this group project making this topic surface in my mind"
"Of course not" Pablo answers her in a low voice. "Basketball keeps you healthy"
"And same with you in football, I guess... you do get hit some, but you need to exercise some to play on the team"
"Thank you for the coffee"
I wonder how our teammates feel about body image; we talked about that as a risk factor for eating disorders earlier, but Audrey is the first person I got a chance to discuss what it means to her, Pablo reflects on this little exchange just before he leaves Audrey's home after spending a good portion of the evening with her on that group project.
When Pablo returns home, his parents confront him about what took him so long at Audrey's home, around the dinner table.
"Pablo, what took you so long?" Pablo's father asks his son.
"My teammates took forever talking about unrealistic beauty standards as a risk factor in eating disorders!" Pablo answers in a raspy voice and feeling a little tired and hungry after a football practice. "And they see fit to add genetics into the project! However, we had to do a lot of work now because one of my teammates plays basketball and, when basketball is in season, she can't do as much work in class as she would now"
"Right until this week, it was the reverse: you had your friends do more work and you only did small chunks of work here and there because of football!" Pablo's dad comments on his ethic. "The defensive tackle and defensive end both rubbed off on you!"
"Yes, I know, Dayton and Finn are bad influences, but they aren't in the same grade as I" Pablo retorts. "In the off-season, all I did with them was some strength training last year! And football is very draining when in season! Speaking of which, it may very well end this Friday as it may end a month from now! Everything depends on this week's game"
But more realistically, I don't expect us to make it past the second playoff round, and we might win the first playoff round if were lucky, even if we won this week! He keeps to himself before taking a painkiller pill.