Process Log 11/9 - 11/13

Goals from Last Week: This week I will complete my previous goals, but have not as of this moment. I have not yet completed my product proposal but I plan to finalize it over the weekend before it is due Monday. I did finally have my mentor meeting and am confident now in what I want to do for my product.

Mentor: This week I had my first mentor meeting with Mrs. Crockom and she gave me some good advice about my product possibilities. She agrees that it would have been best to implement my product during HISD poison safety month (April), but this is too late for impact to be presented to the judges. So the current plan is to start by proposing the plan to HISD earlier next year to get a better chance of having measurable impact. She also referred me to an acquiantance of hers named Jennifer Watson who is the director of public education for the Central Texas poison control center. While Haris county is not included in her jurisdiction, we fall under the branch at UTMB in Galveston which has no education director, Mrs. Crockom mentioned that she was very passionate about introducing programs similar to the one I am planning into school districts. I will contact her this week and hopefully get some valuable insight into how to best develop my product.

Research: I focused mainly on my product this week by contacting my mentor and the Manager of Risk Assesment for HISD about my possible ideas. I am still awaiting Mrs. Burris-Richardson's answers, she responded that she would look up the necessary information for me, but from what I have gathered my idea to compile informational materials and develop a lesson plan to propose to HISD would achieve my desired impact. I have gathered a huge amount of resources to use in my product, so now all I have to do is get it approved, written up, and sent off. Hopefully nothing will go wrong though I do have worries that HISD will reject my proposal and my product will have failed. However, even if this happens I could always appeal more specifically to a local elementary school where parents and the school board might be more supportive.

Goals for Next Week: My goals for next week are to make any necessary edits to my product proposal once it is returned and finish any research I need to include in my product or research essay. I also want to talk to Mrs. Watson about her ideas on implementing poison education into the schools and what information and strategies she thinks should be included.