Guide for Reflection Piece on Chapter Project in HL 322

Team Name: Queen Bees

1. As a team and as we reflect on our chapter project work, how much do we feel our work helped
us to meet NMU mission-central concepts of independent thinking/self-directed learning, critical
thinking, lifelong learning habits, awareness of diversity, and sensitivity to being productive citizens
in the global community? Please explain and give examples.
As a team, we (The Queen Bees) have thought independently and used self directed learning
while working on our project, separated from our teammates and professor. Since the
second portion was an online class, we had to be very self-directed and think about many
topics on our own. While thinking about these topics, we have made many connections and
thought through different problems with a critical mindset, all in an effort to form a judgment
of a problem and find ways we could help. Critical thinking is a very important lifelong
learning habit. The three of us have also worked as a team to put our website together, which
is another important lifelong learning habit to obtain. We have become more aware of
diversity as we learned that the many different countries in Africa are not one in the same
and that some of them (like certain parts of Nigeria) actually resemble developed countries in
many instances, which has definitely opened our eyes to the world around us. One of the
most interesting things we have learned in regards to diversity is that some people of Nigeria
believe strokes to be spiritual attacks. This, and other examples of diversity, has made us
aware of differences globally and more likely to be able to understand/solve global health
issues in the future.
2. As a team and as we reflect on our chapter project work, how much do we feel our work helped
us to meet the Liberal Studies (LS) outcomes of writing/communicating clearly and effectively, of
being able to evaluate various forms of evidence/knowledge, of being able to engage in analytical
reasoning and argument, of being able to understand and apply quantitative analysis and scientific
processes, and to see across disciplinary boundaries? Please explain and give examples.
As a team, we (The Queen Bees) feel that our work has helped us meet the Liberal Studies
outcome. Communication was critical in completing the assignment; we communicated
through google Docs on our Queen Bee document and through Facebook Messenger
everyday. It was a challenge to communicate in an effective way when we were all in different
areas, but we learned how to do it in an effective manner. In addition, it was crucial to write
clearly so that people will understand what we are talking about when looking at our site. We
worked together to improve each others skills, not only in writing but communication as
well. We have evaluated evidence and knowledge from many studies for scientific proof for
our website. We also learned to recognize the difference between credible and non-credible
sites when looking into various different information portals. In order for our website to be
accurate for others, we have attempted to use credible sites like the Center for Disease
Control and others like the CIA, World Stroke Campaign, and Mayo Clinic, along with many
peer-reviewed journal articles. Also, we have engaged in analytical reasoning through
researching different aspects of the issue, drawing conclusions, and truly making an attempt
to understand as much as we could about the issues of stroke in Nigeria. We have all
understood and have been able to apply the quantitative and scientific process by looking
into different data sets, comparing them to other countries, and finding patterns. For
example, Gapminder allowed us to compare Nigeria to other countries where we found that
Nigeria, although relatively wealthier and more developed than many African countries, had a
very low life expectancy, which was intriguing. We also looked into comparative data from
the CIA World Factbook and the CDC. Lastly, we saw across disciplinary boundaries by

understanding that international health issues like stroke arent just relative to community
health majors but nursing majors, business majors, philosophy majors, history majors, etc.
Issues like stroke are rounded out, large issues that require different ways of thinking, and
not only those directly related to health.
3. As a team and as we reflect on our chapter project work, how much do we feel our work helped
us to meet the Social Science LS outcomes of understanding the scientific process (gathering data
methods for the project, analyzing the effectiveness of interventions, etc.) as it applies to the social
sciences (cultural, economic, historical, environmental and political aspects)? Please explain and
give examples.
The project work that we have done in this class has helped us understand data gathering
methods and other aspects of the scientific process immensely. Through one section of the
project, we had to specifically discuss data collection and the scientific method. This
particular task allowed us to learn about the scientific method more in depth and how it can
be utilized in qualitative and sociological studies as well. When researching the scientific
methods use in qualitative studies, we were able to see that much of the data that was
collected for the different types of aspects had used the same methods as that of the
scientific method. Although we didnt personally create experiments and conduct interviews
in order to gather information, we utilized information from those that had. We read many
peer-reviewed journal articles that described for us exactly what they expected to find, some
background information, their methods, data collection, results, and conclusions. They went
through each step, in every experiment, as someone would do when experimenting in
biology or chemistry. The scientific method is definitely not only utilized in those types of
sciences, but social sciences as well.
4. As a team and as we reflect on our chapter project work, how much do we feel our work helped
us to appreciate another world culture? That is, understand another (vs. our own) distinctive
worldview (values, norms, and beliefs -- culture) and understand how culture is expressed in terms
of health issues and understand how factors such as racial, ethnic, gender and class differences
affect health issues for a people?
Learning about Nigerian culture, we have learned how the Nigerian people think and how
their day to day life is, since it is different from ours. The differences of Nigerian culture
allowed us to appreciate their belief system. Learning what Nigerian people believe and why
they have these beliefs also helped us to further understand the health issue that we have
been discussing--stroke and its risk factors of hypertension, obesity, physical inactivity, etc.
The beliefs in Nigerian culture explained why stroke is such an issue here. One issue that
arises about culture with its relation to stroke is that people of Nigeria have thought strokes
are spiritual attacks and many had a fear of hospitals causing them to be anxious and
hesitant to go see a doctor when needed. Another aspect of culture that affects the
prevalence of stroke includes the race and ethnicity of Nigerian people as it may cause them
to have a higher chance of becoming a victim of stroke. Interestingly, of gender men seem to
be at a higher risk of having a stroke than women. Finally, when discussing economics,
those in a low to middle class seem to have a higher prevalence. Due to their culture and
background, most Nigerians have a higher risk of stroke, yet have the least amount of
preventative care.
5. As a team and as we reflect on our chapter project work, how much do we feel our work helped
us to engage the health outcomes of assessing/identifying a health need in a target population,
researching for effective or evidence-based interventions, seeing how the interventions were

implemented (administered and managed), and understanding how they were evaluated? Also, how
much did we see the need for capacity-building interventions vs just aid-based interventions? Please
explain and give examples.
Our work allowed us to engage the different health outcomes as we definitely identified a
serious health need in the country of Nigeria and assessed the issue while attempting to
come up with potential solutions. Also, we rigorously researched for effective and evidencebased interventions and sought out the results of such implementations. We found what
organizations are doing for prevention in Nigeria as well as for stroke in other countries. We
were happy to note that interventions regarding stroke are on the rise as its being
recognized as a serious hazard to health that is definitely preventable. Also, we saw that
capacity-building intervention is needed in addition to simply using just aid-based to begin
having stability and sustainability that will improve the possibilities for prevention. They
have hospitals and clinics but knowledge about stroke itself is scarce so we cant just throw
money at them to improve their hospitals and clinics. Instead, we need to teach them about
preventive care and the risk factors for stroke, along with how to better treat strokes when
they do occur and the need to react fast. We also need to better equip doctors and medical
personnel with improved knowledge on the issue. If they have a basis of knowledge for the
health issue, our aid will go much farther than it would without the knowledge. For example,
if we sent them aid involving sphygmomanometers and blood glucose checkers but didnt
teach them how to use them or why they were important, once we left, they would be back at
square one. Capacity-based intervention allows them to survive on their own, and thrive on
their own.
6. As a team and as we reflect on our chapter project work, how much do we feel that we engaged
the NMU vision-central outcome of having students engage in a high tech learning environment?
Please explain and give examples.
We feel as though we did engage in a high tech learning environment as we were required to
create a website filled with incredibly in-depth research, relevant videos, relevant
images/infographics, and appropriate navigation buttons throughout. Everything was done
online, from communication with our groups to communication with our professor to
research to composition of pieces to the creation of the website itself.
7. As a team and as we reflect on our chapter project work, how much do we feel that we engaged
creative and innovative practices. Please explain and give examples.
We engaged in creative and innovative practices by attempting to think outside the box in
regards to different solutions for the issue of stroke, like suggesting using celebrities in
order to increase social awareness. We also found creative ways to present our information
throughout the website, as seen when instituting different videos, infographics, slideshows,
and even a SoundCloud account with newscasts from Nigeria that discuss different health
issues. Reading information can be tedious and overwhelming but complementing the
information with relevant images and videos gives the reader a way to visualize it, which is
oftentimes very helpful. For example, we discussed herbal healers and wrestling matches
throughout the cultural aspect but its much easier to actually get a feel of their reality once
you see the pictures. In addition, we tried to present the text in different ways. For example,
our pages regarding the scientific method, wow factor, and our hope for 2030 were compiled
with minimum amounts of text, but information that was still relevant and thought-provoking.