Alzheimer's Disease Group Diagram and Paper

 

I took a Pathophysiology class my sophomore year of college in spring 2021. In my Pathophysiology course we were tasked with choosing a topic to research more deeply relating to the risk factors, clinical manifestations, and pathophysiologic concepts of a specific disease in order to write a research paper and create a diagram (Original Research Level 1). This was a group project and my group members and I chose to research Alzheimer's Disease, which is a form of dementia. This project helped me to extend my knowledge of the disease, especially what occurs at a cellular level which was cool for me to see the connection between what we learned in class and how it worked within a common disease (Original Research Level 2). The information we discovered such as the immense risk factors such as sedentary lifestyle, genetics, Western diet, and smoking made me think more about my lifestyle choices and the impact they could have on future diseases (Information Literacy Level 3). In order to not only write a research paper, but synthesize the information to create a diagram, we drew upon a multitude of sources including credible journal articles and websites that were all written within the last five years to ensure the information was relevant and up to date (Information Synthesis Levels 1-3). This paper helped me better understand the entire research process as I was not only writing a paper with the information, but also putting that into a diagram form as well. This can be challenging as information needs to be in short phrases within the diagram for clarity. This helped me to learn how to not only find and evaluate sources, but also integrate the knowledge into both paper and diagram form (Information Synthesis Level 4). I now feel more prepared to conduct a larger research project with faculty. The skills of evaluating sources, increasing my knowledge based on information found within the sources, and creating a display of our findings will prove useful when conducting and disseminating research in the coming years.