Blog 5b: Science Fair Proposal

1. What is your topic?

• Cancer survivorship.

2. What is the driving problem behind your experiment and the quote by an expert to support that problem? (Expert citation must be MLA format.)

• The driving problem behind my experiment is: Most people who survive cancer go through depression. A quote from an expert regarding this problem states:

--> “In addition to physical effects, adolescent cancer survivors may experience psychological effects such as depression, anxiety, poor peer relations, low school performance, loneliness, post-traumatic stress disorder (Stuber, 2006), and obsessive worrying (Hewitt et al, 2004; NCI, 2004) which contribute to low self-esteem and a poor outlook on life (Zebrack & Chesler, 2001).” 

CITATION:  Jones, Barbara L. "Cancer Current Trends:€“ Adolescent Cancer Survivors and Substance Abuse Risk." Cancer Current Trends – Adolescent Cancer Survivors and Substance Abuse Risk « Helpstartshere.org. National Association of Social Workers, n.d. Web. 04 Nov. 2012. <http://www.helpstartshere.org/health-wellness/cancer-current-trends-adolescent-cancer-survivors-and-substance-abuse-risk.html>

  3. What is your hypothesis? (Must be in If-Then form.)

• If a cancer survivor has minimal or no support systems, then that individual will experience depression. 

4. Write a paragraph summary of how you will perform the experiment.  Include the tools you plan on using.

• For my experiment, my goal is to survey at least 25 cancer survivors. The more survivors I survey, the more accurate my experimental results will be. The survey I will be using will act as my tool for this experiment. The survey is called the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, or the CES-D scale from the National Institute of Health. It was invented by Lawrie Radloff in 1977 and "was found to have very internal consistency and test-retest repeatability". I will also be additionally asking them how many support systems they have. I will compare their answer to this question to their test data to hopefully track a correlation between the two.

5. Select one of the following Project Categories for your experiment:

• Behavioral/Social Science

Blog 5a: Problem Statement

1) Cancer Survivorship

2) Problem in your topic. 
-The problem in my topic is that some cancer survivor refuse to go to support groups. This is a problem because it affects their emotional and mental stability after cancer. This can lead to depression and suicidal thoughts. This is most common in teen cancer survivors. 

What will you do once you solve the problem?
- Once I solve the problem, I will use my data to create awareness for those cancer survivors who visit UCAAN and reassure them that support groups are ultimately beneficial.

3) Problem in your topic.
- Some cancer survivors refuse to have check ups with their doctors.
   
What will you do once you solve the problem? 
-Once I solve the problem, I will use my data to create awareness for cancer survivors at City of Hope Medical Center to prove that frequent check ups with the doctor can prevent the cancer from returning.