Blog 5b: Science Fair Proposal

1. Zombie Culture
2. Some zombie walks are intended to contribute to a specific charity. When few people attend a zombie walk, less money is raised for the charity.
For example, money raised this year by the Houston Zombie Walk Downtown went to three Houston charities: The Houston's Children's Charity, Spay/Houston, and Dove Key Ranch Wildlife Rehab.
“It’s important because it is number one, going to raise a lot of money for the charities that we’re supporting, because it is such a pop culture phenomenon right now.”
-Darren Tompkins, the founder and president of Zombie Walk
"Events like this allow people to express themselves and still remain charitable." 
-Lady Cocchia, Zombie Walk's Executive Director
3. If we are able to get more people to participate in Zombie Walks, then more money would be raised for charities.
4. If I were to perform an experiment based off of this hypothesis, I would probably want to find out what age or population has participated the most in past zombie events and try to figure out a way to get more participants. I would have to collect the data from past zombie walks using the website to find out more information about who attended and what age they were and how much money they had donated. That way I could gain a better understanding of where to look for more participants for future zombie walks.
5. Behavioral/ Social Science

Blog 9 Working EQ and Possible Answers

1) What main aspect makes zombie culture so popular in today's society?
2) I am not going to revise my EQ at this time.
3) David Barr Kirtley, author of  “The Skull-Faced Boy” says that there are two reasons we find zombies appealing: (One) There’s an enormous segment of our brain that’s evolved for running away from packs of predators, and zombie stories give us a rare opportunity to take this primal part of our psyches out for a spin. (Two) Zombies are a great metaphor. The great mass of humanity often comes across to us as unreasoningly hostile and driven to consumption, and the image of the zombie captures this perfectly.

Author Nancy Kilpatrick thinks that zombies have ascended in popularity because they reflect society’s fear of something over taking us, making us less-than-human, or the victim of that less-than-human. It’s especially traumatizing when less-than-human is family, friends and neighbors or strangers. It’s what all sane people fear, being confronted by something/someone that has your destruction at heart and which/who can’t be stopped.

Matt Mogk, head of the Zombie Research Society believes there are three main reasons why zombies are popular: 

 1) We live in uncertain times. Weʼre faced with economic peril, climate change, terrorism, and the constant threat of natural and manmade disasters. Zombies are synonymous with the end of the world. One zombie leads to ten zombies leads to ten million zombies. The events we see play out in the news every day look a little like a zombie outbreak.

2) We live in the age of microbiology. The average person walking down the street may not be able to tell you who their Congressman is, but they have a better understanding of infectious diseases than the leading scientists eighty years ago. Zombieism is a blood borne illness, so any blood or fluid contact and youʼre toast. It makes sense from a common sense perspective.

3) Zombies are the only club that accepts everyone. They donʼt care what you look like. They donʼt care how old you are. They donʼt care what you ate last night or if youʼre cheating on your partner. They donʼt care if you just got fired or just got a promotion. Zombies want you just as much as they want the next guy. And you see that played out in the rise of grass roots events like zombie walks across the planet.