Nature Vs. Nurture Debate
Psychology has always been a field of interest for me and Shawn. When we heard that the topic for History Fair was dealing with debates, the first thing that came to our mind was the debate between whether it is nurture that shapes a human being, or nature that ultimately decides. Shawn and I have also had our own debate about the subject. This debate has been ongoing, pondered over, and heavily debated since the 13th century. The amount of time it has been stretched over gives us a lot of information about how the scientists, psychologists, and philosophers then, and now, use the information.
We split up the work in between ourselves because our schedules did not allow a lot of time together. We did, however, stay after school some Tuesdays with our History Fair sponsor, Mr. Gonion, and did our annotated bibliography at school. The research was spread out over a couple of months, utilizing the internet, mostly. We did make a few trips to the library, but the majority of books we found there were more about the science behind either side of the debate, rather than a historical outcome or effect. This created a challenge Shawn and I knew we could overcome: using the information at our disposal draw conclusions. Instead of having a book tell us about what the historical effect was, we researched and drew conclusions. The time Shawn and I had together was focused on making the website look neat and creative. We decided together what should go where and what would be more pleasing to the eye.
Shawn is very interested in technology, and the idea of creating a website sounded fun to him. He has had experience with creating a website from his project last year, and I was open to creating a project I didn’t have much experience with. Since it is my senior year, I wanted to challenge myself and do something I have never done before. We are both creative, determined people, so challenging ourselves would only bring out the best. A website also offers an outlet for a multimedia presentation. Having the option of creative liberty appealed to me and my partner, so we went ahead with the website.
The nature vs. nurture debate has had many effects on society. Throughout history, the accepted belief, either nature or nurture, has affected the way parents raise their children or the way people (jury or judge) judge and indict criminals, and has contributed to the ongoing debate between the two ideas. The successes of certain cases are only temporary, before they are defeated by another case that proves them wrong. There may be no wrong or right, just many successes and many failures. Either way, this debate is far from over, but the effects that its successes and defeats leave will always go down in history.
We split up the work in between ourselves because our schedules did not allow a lot of time together. We did, however, stay after school some Tuesdays with our History Fair sponsor, Mr. Gonion, and did our annotated bibliography at school. The research was spread out over a couple of months, utilizing the internet, mostly. We did make a few trips to the library, but the majority of books we found there were more about the science behind either side of the debate, rather than a historical outcome or effect. This created a challenge Shawn and I knew we could overcome: using the information at our disposal draw conclusions. Instead of having a book tell us about what the historical effect was, we researched and drew conclusions. The time Shawn and I had together was focused on making the website look neat and creative. We decided together what should go where and what would be more pleasing to the eye.
Shawn is very interested in technology, and the idea of creating a website sounded fun to him. He has had experience with creating a website from his project last year, and I was open to creating a project I didn’t have much experience with. Since it is my senior year, I wanted to challenge myself and do something I have never done before. We are both creative, determined people, so challenging ourselves would only bring out the best. A website also offers an outlet for a multimedia presentation. Having the option of creative liberty appealed to me and my partner, so we went ahead with the website.
The nature vs. nurture debate has had many effects on society. Throughout history, the accepted belief, either nature or nurture, has affected the way parents raise their children or the way people (jury or judge) judge and indict criminals, and has contributed to the ongoing debate between the two ideas. The successes of certain cases are only temporary, before they are defeated by another case that proves them wrong. There may be no wrong or right, just many successes and many failures. Either way, this debate is far from over, but the effects that its successes and defeats leave will always go down in history.
