Finalist Mackenzie B Essay

Rocket Science and Brain Surgery When my sophomore year of high school was rudely interrupted by the outbreak of Covid 19, I made the choice to take eDynamics courses for elective credits. This decision impacted my future goals more than I could have ever anticipated. I first took Medical Terminology 1 and then Astronomy 1 the next semester, both classes were a positive experience and insightful as to real applications of knowledge. Both classes had profound effects on my career goal and my curiosities. This year, I have thought plenty about what my future profession is. Recently I settled on nursing, I feel passionate about protecting people and helping them heal. I feel more prepared for this field after taking Medical Terminology; in my studies I learned a multitude of medical abbreviations and Greek and Latin roots. Taking time to study the parts of different medical diagnosis certainly helps in understanding, perhaps, the name of a body part. For example, I remember that the myocardium is the muscular layer around the heart, because the root myomeans muscle. Or, that AKA means above the knee amputation. This class taught me real world skills that I am using in and out of school, and thus far, the ability to decode medical jargon has been most helpful. In addition to career applications, eDynamics has been influential in my gravitation towards certain hobbies. I later enrolled in Astronomy 1 to learn about outer space, something I knew little about. I was immediately enraptured, the concepts in the text were comprehensible yet mind-blowing in nature. My innate curiosity was well nurtured in this course, I am especially fond of the activities. My favorite project was using a measuring tool of my choice to track a celestial body over several hours; I tracked the moon with a square ruler. I am also pleased with how current the information in the readings is. I read several articles about the James Webb