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Megan Breitenbach Allison Cai Jessica Herring


 * Big Idea:** American Teenagers


 * Essential Question:** What does it mean to be a teenager in America?


 * Challenge:** We will explore the challenges and benefits a teenager faces in their environment.


 * Guiding Questions:**
 * 1) What things pressure a teenager and what are they pressured in to?
 * 2) What problems does a teenager face in society?
 * 3) How does school influence a teenager?
 * 4) What goals should teenagers consider to make the future a better place to live in?


 * Guiding Activities:**
 * 1) Make a Quia Survey
 * compare results in Pascack Valley Community to the rest of the country
 * 1) Take clips from the show "If You Really Knew Me"
 * include clips in iMovie
 * use topics discussed
 * in iMovie, use the topics in the polls and what we can do to change the negative?
 * 1) Research Articles
 * use information from articles to support claim

http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE6104Q420100201  http://teens.lovetoknow.com/Statistics_on_Peer_Pressure   .
 * Guided Resources:**
 * Quia Results:**

 406 of 406 respondents answered this question. || Respondents**** || ****Percent**** ||
 * || || |||||||| ****Question 1 (Multiple select)****
 * Do you feel that American teenagers are pressured to participate in activities that are not suitable for their age group (drugs, alcohol, sex etc.)? ||
 * || ****Number of
 * Yes || || [[image:http://www.quia.com/servlets/img/spacer.gif height="1"]] || [[image:http://www.quia.com/servlets/img/spacer.gif height="1"]] || || 291 || 71.67% ||
 * No || || [[image:http://www.quia.com/servlets/img/spacer.gif height="1"]] || [[image:http://www.quia.com/servlets/img/spacer.gif height="1"]] || || 74 || 18.23% ||
 * Not sure || || [[image:http://www.quia.com/servlets/img/spacer.gif height="1"]] || [[image:http://www.quia.com/servlets/img/spacer.gif height="1"]] || || 41 || 10.10% || || ||

|| __[|top] __ || 405 of 406 respondents answered this question. || Respondents**** || ****Percent**** ||
 * || |||||||| ****Question 2 (Multiple select)****
 * Do you feel like adults and politicians do not respect American teenagers enough? ||
 * || ****Number of
 * Yes || || [[image:http://www.quia.com/servlets/img/spacer.gif height="1"]] || [[image:http://www.quia.com/servlets/img/spacer.gif height="1"]] || || 271 || 66.91% ||
 * No || || [[image:http://www.quia.com/servlets/img/spacer.gif height="1"]] || [[image:http://www.quia.com/servlets/img/spacer.gif height="1"]] || || 72 || 17.78% ||
 * Not Sure || || [[image:http://www.quia.com/servlets/img/spacer.gif height="1"]] || [[image:http://www.quia.com/servlets/img/spacer.gif height="1"]] || || 62 || 15.31% || || ||

|| __[|top] __ || 406 of 406 respondents answered this question. || Respondents**** || ****Percent**** ||
 * || |||||||| ****Question 3 (Multiple select)****
 * Do you feel pressured by the media to have a certain image? ||
 * || ****Number of
 * Yes || || [[image:http://www.quia.com/servlets/img/spacer.gif height="1"]] || [[image:http://www.quia.com/servlets/img/spacer.gif height="1"]] || || 166 || 40.89% ||
 * No || || [[image:http://www.quia.com/servlets/img/spacer.gif height="1"]] || [[image:http://www.quia.com/servlets/img/spacer.gif height="1"]] || || 210 || 51.72% ||
 * Not sure || || [[image:http://www.quia.com/servlets/img/spacer.gif height="1"]] || [[image:http://www.quia.com/servlets/img/spacer.gif height="1"]] || || 30 || 7.39% || || ||

|| __[|top] __ || 406 of 406 respondents answered this question. || Respondents**** || ****Percent**** ||
 * || |||||||| ****Question 4 (Multiple select)****
 * Do you feel the need to change your image/personality when around other people in order to fit in? ||
 * || ****Number of
 * Yes || || [[image:http://www.quia.com/servlets/img/spacer.gif height="1"]] || [[image:http://www.quia.com/servlets/img/spacer.gif height="1"]] || || 148 || 36.45% ||
 * No || || [[image:http://www.quia.com/servlets/img/spacer.gif height="1"]] || [[image:http://www.quia.com/servlets/img/spacer.gif height="1"]] || || 214 || 52.71% ||
 * Not sure || || [[image:http://www.quia.com/servlets/img/spacer.gif height="1"]] || [[image:http://www.quia.com/servlets/img/spacer.gif height="1"]] || || 44 || 10.84% || || ||

|| __[|top] __ || 406 of 406 respondents answered this question. || Respondents**** || ****Percent**** ||
 * || |||||||| ****Question 5 (Multiple select)****
 * Do you think that your parents support you? ||
 * || ****Number of
 * Yes || || [[image:http://www.quia.com/servlets/img/spacer.gif height="1"]] || [[image:http://www.quia.com/servlets/img/spacer.gif height="1"]] || || 346 || 85.22% ||
 * No || || [[image:http://www.quia.com/servlets/img/spacer.gif height="1"]] || [[image:http://www.quia.com/servlets/img/spacer.gif height="1"]] || || 37 || 9.11% ||
 * Not sure || || [[image:http://www.quia.com/servlets/img/spacer.gif height="1"]] || [[image:http://www.quia.com/servlets/img/spacer.gif height="1"]] || || 23 || 5.67% || || || ||

1. What things pressure a teenager? 2. What problems does a teenager face in society? Being an American means many different things. It means living in the country leading the free world. Although we live in the free world, there are Americans who don't feel free. These Americans are what many people know as teenagers. Teenage girls and teenage boys have many aspects to their life they don't feel free about. They are forced to suppress their true selves. For some reason, the teenage society has expectations of conformity for themselves. This makes them feel controlled by some force that prevents them from widening their comfort zone. The expectations of boys would be "be a man", "don't be a mama's boy", "be athletic and fit", etc. Meanwhile, the expectations of girls are "lose more weight", "have the best clothes", "keep your reputation", etc. Other than the different expectations of their own genders, they have mutual pressures as well. In the Pascack Valley Community, 72.37% of students that took a survey said that they believe that teenagers are pressured into participating in activities that aren't suitable for their age group (such as drugs, alcohol, sex, etc). Another question that some of the student body answered pertained to how the media controls the expected image. Over 42% of the students who took the poll answered that the media does control their image, which means the other part of the students who took the survey believes that there either isn't an expected image, or something else gives them this idea of the "perfect" person. The source of this is most likely themselves.
 * Solution**

3. How does school influence a teenager? 4. What goals should teenagers consider to make the future a better place to live in?

As teenagers enjoy socializing with friends and going to parties, it is important to attend school and receive a good education. Throughout a teenager's life, there are many opportunities to engage in adult activities, such as driving. Many schools offer a driver's education program, which educates teenagers on how to be safe and alert driver. The driver's education course discusses the rules of the road and sometimes has guest speakers who can tell the students about their personal driving experiences. Besides being taught how to become a good driver, school helps teenagers resist the temptation to engage in peer pressure and bullying. There are several assemblies held at Pascack Valley High School that motivate children to be more respectful to each other and not harass one another. In the past few years, there has been a decrease in the amount of students who attend college. With the help of guidance counselors and good college information courses, teenagers are encouraged to attend college. Also, since teenagers are very influenced by their friends decisions; sometimes, teenagers may decide to apply to college based on their friend's great recommendation. Teenager's success should be awarded. Therefore, at Pascack Valley High School, when students get either straight a's or a's and b's, them and their families are invited to attend an honor roll breakfast. The breakfast offers family members bagels and has the honor roll students stand up to have their hard work recognized. This breakfast influences teenagers to work hard in school and earn good grades. By having teenagers going to school, it influences them to live to their potential and make good decisions.

In attempting to make America a better place for the future, teenagers should have goals that will help resolve the global issues. However, before teenagers decide to make big goals for themselves, it is important to make small goals that are achievable. Since many trees are continually being cut down, teenagers should consider recycling. Recycling can save money and prevent the loss of hundreds of trees. . If teenagers across America recycled, less trees would be cut down and more money would be available to the American citizens. In order encourage students to participate in community service, there are wide range of clubs offered at Pascack Valley High School. Some of the clubs offered are, The Just About Caring Club, Habitat for Humanity, and HOPE. Each of the clubs inspires teenagers to get involved in their community and help people. By participating in these clubs, teenagers are more likely to donate their money toward helpful organizations. Donating money is a good goal for teenagers because it could men helping find a cure for a life-threatening disease. Having teenagers work towards these small goals can hopefully make America a better place for the future.