Gilberto Lopez

In November 2015 of my freshman year in high school, I was required to complete an

Interdisciplinary Project (IDP), on Pertussis. My group’s task was to present in front of a panel,

including both teachers and medical professionals. Not only were we to be familiar with the

disease itself, but how to treat it. We had to look at demographics for our disease, including

things like child infection rate, and what were the connections to the symptoms. We also had to

address any common misconceptions of the disease and explain why they are false, or if they

had any truth to them. This IDP fits the category of Problem Solving, because our community

faces the problem of a higher infection rate, due to a lack of education on the disease. By

completing the IDP, not only were we becoming familiar with the diseases and presenting it to

people outside of the medical field, we were also spreading the information to family and

friends within the community. Now, people were exposed to all of the information and

functions of Pertussis, in an effort to help educate the community, and reduce the rate of

infection in both infants and adults.

I was tasked with another IDP my junior year. This IDP involved a toxic hazard to my

community of Huntington Park. This time, we sampled some soil, from our very own houses,

and sent it to a lab where it was tested for soil content. We researched the effects of lead and

analyzed the levels of our own soil. Then, we had to consider all the effects it would have on

people, as a certain amount of lead can be poisonous. We were faced with a real problem that

people in our community have to deal with. It is one thing to work on diseases, but this made
us focus on the possibility and danger of a real problem happening as we speak. We also had to

ensure our solution had an impact on the community. This IDP fits the Problem Solving

category, as lead contamination in our very house can lead to medical problems for the people

in our community. The effects of radiation can carry on through time, so this problem would

also affect those who would move into our community. By creating a public service

announcement, we were able to inform adults and children who would also be affected by the

problem. By informing the children, we are also preparing for the future in case the radiation’s

effects are prolonged.

Through both assignments we were able to fulfill the Effective Communicator, and

Critical Thinkers SLOs. We developed the effective communicator SLO when looking at

statistics and graphs, there was an ample amount of medical or scientific jargon. We had to

take all of the information and articulate it in a way for our audience to understand our

presentation. Our public service announcement also had to be organized and written in a way

that a multitude of people would understand, in order for a maximum amount of people to be

educated, whether they were adults or children. Both IDPs required solutions to the problems

we presented. We worked on the Critical Thinker SLO when we combined all of our research

and community statistics, in order to come up with an effective solution for our specific

audience.

The IDPs helped me improve my ability to research. I can now easily evaluate whether

a website is credible or not. I can even gather information from multiple resources and
articulate an overarching message into a paper. IDPs also help imitate a professional

environment and improve overall readiness for a real job interview or presentation. From these

IDPs, I became more confident in presenting, not only in a school setting, but in a professional

setting. My improvisational skills also developed, as things don’t always turn out the way we

want, and one must always be ready to take charge. The IDP also helped me be prepared, as

panelists or the audience may have questions that I must answer to make sure everything is

clear. IDP also helped me able to articulate information in a way that a specific audience can

understand.

In a real world setting, I need to be prepared to address and interact with other

professionals. Expectations are much higher when speaking to specialists or professionals. A

good skill the IDP helped develop is prioritizing tasks. With the IDP we had to take our time

into account, and decide when and what we were going to work on the IDP. Class time is not

enough, and we had to schedule meetings out of school, whether it was a coffee shop or

someone’s house. In a job, your boss only cares that the work is done, you are the one that

must figure out how and when to do so. The IDP also taught me to receive criticism, and apply

it to my work in order to make it better. In a job, many people will critique either work or

performance, and only through that feedback, can we improve our work and develop our skills

further. Whether it is for college or the real world, the IDP is sure to prepare any freshmen for

what is to come.