I think this class was amazing. The content, the teaching style and the assignments/activities made learning very easy and memorable. Personally I found it hard to complete the course online because coming to class was my time to be able to focus on school without my daughter needing me (haha!). But of course, that was something none of us could have helped. The one major thing I enjoyed was Professor B, the passion you have for the course as well as seeing your students succeed really makes a difference. I think there was a very reasonable amount of time on each topic. I enjoyed this class and am excited to continue my path on the Integrative Studies major!

Again, THANK YOU Professor B for EVERYTHING!

This project has challenged my personal bias on this problem because the topic of ‘adolescent depression’ is something that has been a part of my life every day since my younger sister struggles with it. I always had said my sister was chemically imbalanced but after reading my articles I realize that a sick person views their surroundings differently than someone who is not sick and therefore their environment also triggers them. I enjoy looking at this topic from a disciplinary perspective because in my head it breaks it down for me to view it from different perspectives and I realize how truly complex this topic is.

Overall from my research I have learned that a chemical imbalance is complimented by the influence of a child’s upbringing. This is not a black and white topic and there is no specific answer to this issue. It can start from one or the other and then feed into the other OR a child can honestly be born with an imbalance as well as have a not so desirable home life.

Outside of the classroom I want to continue to view all issues and situations from a deeper perspective. I want to open up and try to understand something from multiple perspectives and be more open minded. My perspective hasn’t really changed because again, this is a personal topic to my life. But, I do have a deeper understanding and I am thankful for that.

Discipline	Title of Article	Author of Article	Focus of Insights	Evaluation of Insights
Psychology	Associations Between Depression in Parents and Parenting, Child Health, and Child Psychological Functioning	An abundance of doctors are referenced in this article	Reasons on why certain children are more at risk for depression than others based on environment of a child	Very Useful
Chemistry	Depression in Childhood and Adolescence	Barbara Maughan,​PhD,*​ ,1​ ​Stephan Collishaw,​ DPhil,2​andA​rgyris Stringaris,​ MD, PhD, MRCPsych	Talks about treatments for those with chemical imbalances, behaviors, and reasoning	Very Useful
History	The History of Depression:Accounts, treatments, and beliefs through the ages	Nancy Schimelpfening	This article is more of a generalization of the history for all depression not just within children but does allow insight on treatment development and beliefs on causes of depression	Useful

These articles are the ones I got all of my research from, I found it to be easy to find the ones that were reliable based on previous knowledge of computer research. I think the most insightful article is, Associations Between Depression in Parents and Parenting, Child Health, and Child Psychological Functioning. This article talks a lot about different reasoning for children developing depression.

For my research my articles didn’t necessarily conflict, it was more of which way I wanted to take my research question. Initially I had generalized my question on if adolescent depression was more from a chemical imbalance or if it came from the upbringing of the child. Obviously depending on what I search and how I word certain things, the article will shift a certain way. Most articles back another up saying that it is a mixture because a ‘sick’ child can always find something in their life that they think is terrible. All together, if I had to choose which side I lean toward more, I don’t think I could for many reasons. One being that I have lived with someone who has a chemical imbalance but also uses every little thing in our upbringing to shed a negative light on her life. I think the sides of this research go hand and hand.

I am not really having many questions because I feel I picked a topic that is very broad and well discussed topic. I have found many sources of research for my topic. My only concerns would be if I had enough information for each discipline, I am not sure if they have to be equally talked about or one can have more influence than the other. I have at least 2 articles per discipline with the exception of history only because the history of depression goes into so much depth. I have found the most articles about the psychology of depression and the surroundings of children because psychology deals with the brain and environment of an individual.

I start all of my searches through google and avoid websites that are from wikipedia or ‘.org’. I try to stick to ‘.gov’ or ‘.com’ as much as I can. I have looked at a few personal interviews with professional researchers about this subject and am trying to include that into my paper.

The broad model is the ‘scientific method’ of the disciplines, in my words. You have to compare your research to discipline as well as figure which field of study suits the topic best. You must do research. Understand why each discipline can back up the field of study and understand the conflict of each. Then you just reflect on your new understanding of the topic through interdisciplinary research.

For my project I either want to do adolescent depression or does environment have affects on those who get cancer and those who do not. I am pretty sure I am going to do adolescent depression because I have more personal experience with that since my younger sister has it and therefore the articles I have found for this topic are….

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK215128/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3565713/

My final chosen topic is going to be adolescent depression. More specifically, my question is going to be “To what depth does the upbringing of a child affect adolescent depression, if any?”. I justified my research because it is going to take multiple discipline perspectives to get a full understanding of this topic. I feel this type of question is very complex because again, there are multiple different perspectives and explanations to this issue. I don’t know as much as I would like to, I have a sister who is 16 and has suffered from depression since she was about 10. For her, it is a combination of environment/upbringing and chemical imbalance and therefore it is hard to tell which affects children worse. I hope to discover ways that children perceive their upbringing and how they adjust to different circumstances because as a first time mom, I would only want my daughter and future children to never feel that their upbringing was traumatic or a reason for trauma. In my research I think that chemistry, history, and psychology are just a few disciplines that I will be using.

I feel very confident in my SEO, all my classes were chosen from the concentration lists. My thematic sequence doesn’t have anything overlapping nor do I have more than 6 CMR classes. I still need to find a replacement for one of the classes that is no longer offered.

I don’t think I have any questions other than WHEN IS THE QUICKEST I CAN GET THIS ALL COMPLETED? Haha! It is so satisfying being able to see the rest of my schooling planned out rather than going to school blind.

My career goal is to be higher up in a Children’s hospital. I definitely need to shadow or look more into which exact position or branch I would prefer. But, I luckily have a close family friend who is essentially head of Administration at both the Cincinnati and Liberty Campus. I am hoping she can help me and lead me in the right direction!

I guess, now that I read this question, I need to double check and make sure none of the transfer credits I have go to waste. I have a lot of hours that do not go toward credit hours.

Every time someone asks me what I am going to school for, I say I am in the BIS program. Of course, not a lot of people know what that is and therefore I almost always have to explain. In my words I say that Integrative studies takes all of the disciplines and allows students to create a school plan that leads them to what they want to do. I also say it helps students who need more than one specific concentration but do not want to double major or have a major and minor.

My SEO has been complete for awhile, I just have to complete my rationale. I am not concerned about that part because I enjoy persuasive writing. The only thing I need to change is one of my CMR classes that is no longer offered.

One thing I have learned about BIS is almost everything because I was just kind of thrown into this major without explanation. I think this major is so beneficial to students and should be taken advantage of way more often. It also helps having instructors and/or advisors who are so passionate about BIS and want to help their students succeed!

My name is Noelle Shepherd, I am a full-time student as well as a mom and work part time at Texas Roadhouse as a server. I plan to eventually work in some type of administration in a Children’s Hospital. I chose BIS because I didn’t want to have to double major. I really am glad to be in this program with my specific concentrations, when I am in class talking about information pertaining to my future it makes me excited for my future. Honestly, I have no idea what to take for my 21st Literacy requirements…. I might have already filled my requirements.

I would be interested in a meeting to make sure I am doing what I need to be doing to get to where I want to end up and also to make sure I am doing what I need to in order to graduate as soon as I can.