Over the past two months, we have been trying to connect with experts on the internet about our Genius Hour project in hopes of getting an expert point of view.
For my Genius Hour project, I chose to talk about the different types of Cancer and their effects. I followed about 13 twitter pages these pages were: @anticancerclub, @AboutLungCancer, @fightscancer, @AmerCancerCEO, @WPCancerCharity, @breastcancernow, @BCCare, @TeenageCancer, @CR_UK, @KidneyCancer, @SusanGKomen, @SU2C, @AmericanCancer. After finding the right accounts, I added them all into a list, where I was able to keep track of each one that I followed. This project was divided into 2 parts. First, I had to introduce myself and make sure we established acquaintances before directly asking them questions. Which meant explaining who I was and what my project was about, so that’s what my first tweet was about. For the second tweets, once I was more familiar with the accounts, I started asking them all my questions. Questions such as: Based on your research how many people are affected by kidney cancer each year? or What types of foods are recommended to cancer patients? etc.
Their response were extremely useful because most were experts who collect this information from their own research. Others recommended a lot of excellent websites or articles, that talked in depth about the cause and effect of cancer. Not many of the accounts that I followed, followed me back, but I had about 3 or 4 different cancer accounts followed me. They offered me more websites to look at. Some even @ mentioned me in other accounts that had articles on the point of view of the cancer patients. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to stay in contact with them, but I sent them each thank you tweets for all the help they gave me.
I recommend this process to students in schools because it helps you interact with the outside world. It gives you many different sources and point of views to get information from. It can also be beneficial once you’re older. People who want to hire you might take a look at your background, and get a good impression from what they see.
