Week 3

This week we watched another great TED talk about how students can learn on their own if you give them the materials they need. I think this relates to our Genius hour projects because we are figuring out these projects on our own. We came up with these ideas ourselves and we are working on them on our own. So far, I've been looking up how pets can be beneficial to a child. There have been so many great things that I've found so far. Some things I already knew, but other benefits were quite surprising to me. 

The most obvious benefits were companionship, entertainment, and physical. Pets provide a friendship for children, especially for less outgoing kids. They can also be social facilitators by allowing shy kids to approach other children if there is a pet present. Pets are definitely entertaining, especially for children. They can stay occupied by a pet (even something simple like a fish swimming around) for a long time. They can even get exercise with a dog by taking it for walks, playing fetch, or just running around in the yard. 

I discovered a few benefits that I did not expect to come from having a pet, but I was pleased that they exist. Pets can help with the cognitive development of children, if they want to learn more about their pet, whether from the veterinarian or their own research, it sparks a desire for learning. Pets can also be good health benefits to children. A pediatrician, Dennis Ownby found that kids who were exposed to 2 or more dogs or cats as babies were less likely to develop common allergies such as pet, dust-mite, ragweed, and grass allergies. Early exposure to pets may also decrease a child’s risk of developing asthma and help with other respiratory problems. 

Watch my Genius Hour trailer that will introduce what my own Genius Hour project will be about!

I'm very pleased with my progress so far, and I hope to learn more as I continue my research. Next week I will be looking up what are benefits of not having a pet, or the disadvantages of having a pet while growing up. I'm very interested to see what information I can find as I keeping digging.