Discussion 1 
In this first week of the Psychology of Learning, we explore personal fulfillment and what success looks like for you. We also take a close look at the role of self-awareness, and how to leverage that awareness to keep moving toward your goals. This weeks reading assignments examine the ingredients for success, benefits of self-awareness, and how to examine your own personal strengths.  
Take a moment to consider your own strengths and how they relate to your personal goals. Respond to the following in a minimum of 175 words:
How do you define success?  
Consider some the ingredients for success (self-awareness, self-direction, self-esteem, and positive thinking). Which of these are the most difficult for you and why? 
Why is it important to understand your own strengths and weaknesses?  
How can becoming more self-aware help you reach your goals? 
What resources do you consider vital to your success (support, mentors, additional skills, etc.)?

DISCUSSION 2
Respond to these student post and be constructive and professional in your responses,
Christina post
 I define my success as helping others and becoming a better person as well. Success to me would be more successful when you put in work with a job that you enjoy and understand. As a mother of two beautiful girls, I feel successful and joy. For most things are a challenge to me because you never know how well things may go or the outcome at something new. Strength is something that I feel I have to wake up everyday an have because I support more than just myself. The career and life I want to build for myself is something that I have to be able to stay strong. Lost of interest is one of my biggest weakness. I had started school multiple times and because I lost interest in subjects or titles I gave up on myself. As I took a break from school I had to work on myself and push my fears out the way for my goals. It took me a few years to get out my fears and try to reach my goals again. I have to thank my family and friends for helping me see that I can overcome my weakness and fears to be the person I achieve to be. My family and friends is supportive of me even when I down myself. With the support I have now and learning myself I believe I can reach my goals with nothing holding me back. 

Kimaya post
How I define success, is meeting your goals whether its a short-term goal or a long-term goal. I think success is how far you can reach your full potential and overcome challenges. I believe reaching success also can meet failures and try again to reach passing those challenges. I think the most difficult ingredient for my success would be my self awareness. I say self awareness because I get distracted on what I want in life. I get this way because I worry about what others want out of me and forget what I want for myself. I also take what people say into consideration and it begins to distract me on my goals. I think it is important to know your strengths and weakness so you can have an realistic self-image. You also can work on how to maintain your success trying to make a way thru your weakness, so they would not be weakness anymore. Becoming self-aware can help you by being realistic to your inner goals and keeping a positive impact to yourself. It can also help you reach your goals by helping understanding yourself academically, by helping identify distractions and bad habits. The resources I think could help me with my success is having mentors to help me when I’m down or when I don’t believe in myself. Also, having a strong support system so when I do fail my system can help me put be back together. I use self-mediation to clear any doubt I have in my mind and try to make a solution on the issue I find within myself.

DISCUSSION 3
 When responding to Shalamar and Angela discuss how their questions relate to the natural sciences. Share how you could clarify your post based on what you learned from reading theirs. When replying to your peers, your tone and language should be respectful, and your feedback should be constructive. This means that your comments should focus on the positive parts of their post and how the ideas might be strengthened. 
Shalamar post
 
The news story I chose is “Look beyond opioids to solve national substance use epidemic.” I chose this story because opioids are a huge issue in our country. Where I live, just about everyone is addicted to some sort of prescription drug. Overall the article is about the opioid crisis; it started in the early 1990s when strong pain medications first were prescribed. People became addicted and began to abuse the pills. Patients become admitted for addiction; they are usually on multiple drugs. Doctors unknowingly focus on only opioid addiction, which can cause complexes for the patient. 
If I were a natural scientist, I’d ask: Were pain medications purposely invented to cause addiction? If a patient does not tell you all of their habits, how will you know? If one is addicted to a synthetic drug, how can they naturally detox?
Angela post
 
I chose the article: A Replacement for Exercise. Michigan Medicine researchers performed a study with mice and flies. They found that a naturally produced protein, Sestrin could replace the effect of routine exercise with more research.  An earlier study found that Sestrin forms in muscles after exercise. When looking at mice, the study showed that almost all the benefits of exercise, such as improved respiration, fat burning, and aerobic functions, were unimproved in the altered mice. Leading them to believe that it was Sestrin has many benefits other than just endurance. 
Scientists believe that Sestrin can turn on and off different metabolic pathways, which is needed to mimic what exercise does to our bodies.  Scientists still have some work to do in studying Sestrin and replicating it for use in human bodies, but this could help many people if scientists figure everything out.  Not only could it help people that are bedridden but also people who have certain health conditions that enable them from exercise. It could potentially cut peoples rehabilitation needs and give people a brighter outlook on recovery in certain instances.
My two scientific Questions

When studying the effects in human trials, could the age of the patient play a role in overall results?
Could the effects of Sestrin improve other health conditions such as type 2 diabetes?