Section A: Investigation
The goal that I had for the Middle Years Program Personal Project was to learn how to reduce tears in the anterior cruciate ligament over the last three months. I also needed to learn what the anterior cruciate ligament does and ways to tear your anterior cruciate ligament As well as how does the stretches help strengthen the ligament. I knew that the anterior cruciate ligament was easily torn by sports. Due to my lack of knowledge about the anterior cruciate ligament I needed to contact a physical therapist of sports trainer to teach me about how the anterior cruciate ligament.
I chose the global context of Scientific and Technological Innovation. Scientific and Technological Innovation has helped me focus on researching how to prevent anterior cruciate ligament tears. Scientific and Technological Innovation works best for me because Globalization and Sustainability compares and contrasts two ideas. Whereas Scientific and Technological Innovation is just researching and re-designing something.
Regarding my prior knowledge, I know that people tear their anterior cruciate ligament very frequently. I was very curious to why anterior cruciate ligament tears happen to most athletes compared to non athletes. I was also curious to know if the athletes have properly stretched muscles and ligaments for their body to play whatever sport they are playing i.e. football, basketball, field hockey, lacrosse, volleyball, or track because I have learned that anterior cruciate ligament tears are due to sudden stops, quick lateral movements, suddenly slowing down and changing direction or cutting, pivoting with your foot firmly planted, landing awkwardly from a jump, stopping suddenly, receiving a direct blow to the knee or collision, such as a football tackle.
My highly challenging goal is to find exercises that help reduce the chances of tearing your anterior cruciate ligament and how they help strengthen your anterior cruciate ligament. This is a highly challenging goal because going into this project I did not know a lot about the anterior cruciate ligament. The sports trainer that I went to gave me a link to the FIFA 11+, which has a list of exercises that statistically reduces anterior cruciate ligament tears. The FIFA 11+ includes three levels of exercises and three parts to build up your anterior cruciate ligament.
The first source that I used was anterior cruciate ligament Injury by Mayo Clinic, I know this is a credible source because the article was written by doctors. This article describes where the anterior cruciate ligament is located and how it helps stabilize the knee. This article also describes the symptoms of an anterior cruciate ligament tear. Another thing that the article describes is the causes of the anterior cruciate ligament tear. The next thing that the article describes is the factors that contribute to the risk of tearing your anterior cruciate ligament. The article also describes that tearing your anterior cruciate ligament can also lower your risk of getting arthritis in your knee. The last description in this article is how to help prevent tearing your anterior cruciate ligament.
Section B: Planning
The three specific and rigorous criteria that I used for my product were to learn what the anterior cruciate ligament does and how they get torn. As well as learning how to prevent anterior cruciate ligament tears by doing different exercises. I chose the first criteria, learn what the anterior cruciate ligament does, because I didn’t know what the anterior cruciate ligament was and what it did. I chose the second criteria, how do they get torn, because I find it helpful to understand how something breaks or tears in order to find the solution. The third criteria I chose was learning how to prevent anterior cruciate ligament tears by doing different exercises. I chose this as a criterion because I needed to know how exercises help prevent anterior cruciate ligament tears.
The original timeline that I used for this project was to learn what the anterior cruciate ligament was and what it did in the knee. As well as know how it was torn, what caused the tearing and what happens to the anterior cruciate ligament when it is torn. I also wanted to know what the symptoms were for the first day. By the second week, I would know what caused the anterior cruciate ligament tears. For the second week, I came up with a short list of exercises and stretches and compared them to the FIFA 11+ to see if the exercises matched what was on the FIFA 11+. By the third week I knew what exercises were statistically proven to help reduce anterior cruciate ligament tears. The third week, I made up my own list of exercises based on the FIFA 11+.
The self- management skills that I used were Organization Skills and Effective Skills. I found that in order for me to complete my homework, play a Junior Varsity sport, travel an hour and a half for club volleyball that practices two days a week, and complete my project well. I would have to meet Bethany after JV practice for one day, then work on my project for 30 minutes a day, but there were days I worked on the project for more than 30 minutes either because I wanted to finish something that was part of my project in the car or I had very little homework due, so I spent most of my time on the project. Initially I thought of this project as a long term homework that I was not very happy to do, but over time I came to enjoy looking up the FIFA 11+ and compare my short list of exercises to it.
Section C: Taking Action
The process that I took to complete my product was a short one. I am thankful that my school had a sports trainer, Bethany, at the school because I can just walk in and ask for help without setting up a meeting to see her. I set my timeline back a few days because the trainer was at a sports game to make sure that the athletes were properly taken care of when/ if they were injured during or before a game. I wanted to make sure that Bethany was available after practice because I didn’t want to wait for her if she was going to a game that was probably going to end around eight at night when practice ended at five-thirty.
There was actually a great deal of research that was involved because I researched every exercise that was on the FIFA 11+ and re-ranged it. My finished product includes a version of the FIFA 11+. My goal is to find exercises that help reduce the chances of tearing your anterior cruciate ligament and how they help strengthen your anterior cruciate ligament. My project relates to my goal because my project has a lot of exercises to strengthen the anterior cruciate ligament and the reasons why and how the exercises help strengthen the anterior cruciate ligament. The biggest success that I had was understanding how the anterior cruciate ligament worked in the body and researching exercises to strengthen the anterior cruciate ligament so percentage of tearing your anterior cruciate ligament will reduce.
I had to contact Bethany, who is the sports trainer at Fitch High School, about helping me find exercises to help reduce anterior cruciate ligament tears. She recommended the FIFA 11+, which is a piece of paper that had different exercises on it as well as different levels as your anterior cruciate ligament slowly strengthens. I also asked Mrs. Donovan last year what I should do for the Personal Project, she asked what my interests were and what I wanted to go to college for. She then said that finding exercises that help reduce anterior cruciate ligament tears and why then provide a video of me doing said exercises. Due to the cold weather, I have not made a video of the exercises.
Section D: Reflecting
I did in fact meet my goal. I could have started researching my personal Project earlier because I would not need to feel as stressed out if I timed it correctly. I also could have not wasted my free time between after school and when I get my sister off the bus to watch Netflix but instead work on my Personal Project so I would not feel as cramped. While my lack of time awareness played a big role in the quality of my product. Procrastination played a huge role in my quality of my personal project because it was hard for me to stay focused on typing out this essay without getting distracted easily.
My knowledge and understanding of my topic changed because as I acquired information on how the anterior cruciate ligament works as well as how you can strengthen the anterior cruciate ligament. I know now that the anterior cruciate ligament is a ligament that connects your femur which is you thighbone to your tibia which is your shinbone. The anterior cruciate ligament is most commonly torn while doing sudden stops and changes in direction. As well as slowing down while running, landing from a jump incorrectly, and direct collision or contact such as a football tackle. There are three different “grades” or levels of sprains: in level 1 sprains the anterior cruciate ligament is slightly stretched but it still keeps the knee joint stable.
Level 2 sprains are also called partial tears where the anterior cruciate ligament becomes loose. It is uncommon to get a partial tear, most anterior cruciate ligament tears are complete or near complete. Level 3 sprain is also called a complete tear, the anterior cruciate ligament is split in two and the knee joint is unstable. There are also many ways to strengthen your anterior cruciate ligament but the most common way is through the FIFA 11+. This experience has changed my views on how to strengthen your anterior cruciate ligament because I did not know that there is a lot of research that goes into trying to figure out the best way to strengthen your anterior cruciate ligament as well as how to publicize the information. I have a better understanding of my focus of the global context of Scientific and Technological Innovation now because I surrounded my project around my global context.
As an IB student and learner, I feel like I have become more of a Risk taker, a better communicator and more principled. I was uncertain that I would have the ability to finish the project due to the amount of extracurricular activities that I had going on on top of the personal project. I did not think that I would be as resourceful nor resilient enough to complete this project. Through the support of Bethany and my parents I found that risk taking has a great benefit of that is willing to push through the hard times. As a communicator, I feel that I have made a good effort to make sure that I get help from the right people that know how to help me. As an open minded person, I learned how to decide what information was valuable and what information that I did not need. I also made sure I listened intently so all the information that I received was not going into one ear and out the other.
