AP Research Week 1: Beginnings

Hello everybody!

My name is Alan Grinberg, and I am a student who is currently enrolled in AP Research. For this week’s blog post, I will be introducing my topic of inquiry, briefly explaining where I am in the process of my research, and describing what I have planned for the future.

Have your parents ever told you that staring at a screen for too long will ruin your eyesight? Or have been told that eating more carrots will improve your eyesight? Well, my topic of inquiry centers around determining the extent to which environmental factors, such as light exposure, near-work activities (reading a book, staring at a screen, etc.), and diet affect the prevalence of myopia in Jewish adolescents within the city of Brooklyn. For those who are wondering, myopia is the inability to see objects at a far distance, which also means being nearsighted. Currently, I am conducting an online survey in which participants take roughly 2-5 minutes to answer 11 questions regarding the quality of their eyesight and what may be affecting it. I am planning to have at least 50 responses to analyze for my research project, but so far, I have received 35 verified responses from my survey. In order to get more responses, I have asked a rabbi from my local synagogue to help me send out my survey to a larger audience. As the weeks progress, I will be updating you all on the progress of my survey, as well as any interesting findings that may result from this survey. Stay tuned for the upcoming info. All the best, Alan