What I'm sharing today could be invaluable for anyone grappling with Extracurricular (EC) activity ideas. I'll share a personal journey that led to winning a U.S. congressional award, offering practical insights on finding inspiration and developing compelling EC activities.

Let me begin with a personal perspective on time management that proved crucial to my success. In a typical 24-hour day, after accounting for sleep and essential activities, I divide my productive hours into two segments: 85% for focused academic work, and a deliberate 15% for personal growth and exploration. During this 15%, I intentionally seek out unfamiliar territories and concepts outside my comfort zone. What's fascinating is how this dedicated time for self-development creates a positive feedback loop, enriching the 85% of my academic pursuits. Repeatedly, I've discovered that seemingly unrelated experiences during my exploration time spark innovative ideas that enhance my academic journey.

If you divide available time in a 24-hour day (after subtracting sleep and essential activities) into 100 parts, I allocate 85% to academic work and reserve 15% for personal growth and self-development. During this dedicated 15%, I make a conscious effort to explore unfamiliar territories and concepts. This investment in self-development has created an unexpected positive cycle, where discoveries made during my exploration time naturally enhance my primary academic focus. Time and again, I've found connections between seemingly disparate fields that generate innovative ideas for my studies.

During this 15% of designated free time, reading has become my primary pursuit. I'm particularly drawn to books where experts venture beyond their specialized fields to explore other disciplines. One such book that proved transformative was "SCALE" by Geoffrey West. West, a theoretical physicist, examines biological systems, corporate lifecycles, and urban development through the lens of physics. While the book spans approximately 600 pages, my breakthrough inspiration came from just three pages of this comprehensive work.

In "SCALE," I was particularly intrigued by the concept of "Linear Extrapolation" - a method where we predict unknown values by drawing a straight line between two known points. When moving from X1 to X2 on the X-axis corresponds to a shift from A to B on the Y-axis, we can theoretically predict Y values at other X points by extending this linear relationship.

To illustrate the potential pitfalls of Linear Extrapolation, the book presents a striking example from a scientific experiment conducted four decades ago. The experiment involved determining an appropriate LSD dosage for a 3,000kg elephant based on observed effects in a 1kg cat. Researchers noted that 0.1mg of LSD produced noticeable effects in the cat. Applying Linear Extrapolation, they reasoned that since the elephant weighed 3,000 times more than the cat, it should receive a proportionally larger dose - 300mg (3,000 times the cat's dose). This oversimplified scaling proved tragically flawed. While the cat experienced mild effects, the elephant suffered severe reactions and died within one hour and forty minutes.

This case illustrates the dangerous oversimplification of Linear Extrapolation - assuming that drug dosages should scale directly with body mass. The researchers' fundamental error lay in their simplistic assumption that a 3,000-fold increase in animal mass required a precisely proportional increase in dosage.

This historical lesson prompted me to examine modern medication dosing practices with fresh scrutiny. Looking at Tylenol dosage guidelines, I noticed a similar pattern: patients weighing 24-35 lbs are prescribed 5mL, while those weighing 72-95 lbs receive 15mL. This linear relationship - where tripling body weight corresponds to tripling the dosage - raised important questions about the scientific validity of such straightforward scaling in pharmaceutical dosing.

While this topic remains an active area of research in pharmacy and biology, scientists have yet to establish precise formulas for weight-based drug dosing. The simplified Tylenol dosing guidelines might exist because the medication has a wide safety margin, making precise scaling less critical.

Let's examine the mathematical reason why Linear Extrapolation failed in the elephant experiment. When an organism increases in size from a cat to an elephant, the transformation involves more than just weight - it encompasses complex three-dimensional changes. Consider these mathematical relationships:

Linear (one-dimensional) scaling:

• When a line doubles from length 2 to 4, the increase is simply twofold

Square (two-dimensional) scaling:

• When a square with side length 2 (area = 4) doubles to side length 4, the area becomes 16
• This represents a fourfold increase, not just double

Cubic (three-dimensional) scaling:

• When a cube with side length 2 (volume = 8) doubles to side length 4, the volume becomes 64
• This represents an eightfold increase, far beyond linear expectations

In scaling relationships, we see that:

• Length increases by the direct multiplier
• Area increases by the square of the multiplier
• Volume increases by the cube of the multiplier

This mathematical progression demonstrates why linear scaling is fundamentally flawed. Galileo Galilei, whom Einstein dubbed the father of modern science, illustrated this concept through a compelling comparison between ants and horses. An ant can successfully carry ten times its own mass, seeming to possess extraordinary strength relative to its size. However, a horse cannot bear the weight of even three of its peers. According to Linear Extrapolation, if an ant can carry ten times its mass, a horse should theoretically be able to carry ten horses - but this fails to account for how strength scales with size. As an organism's length increases, its strength doesn't increase proportionally, revealing another crucial limitation of linear scaling.

Let me simplify these important relationships:

• Area directly correlates with Strength
• Volume directly correlates with Mass

This parallel leads to a crucial insight: the relationship between Area and Volume mirrors the relationship between Strength and Mass. Extending this concept to pharmacology, if we consider drug dosage as analogous to Strength, we can analyze the relationship between dosage and Mass using the same mathematical principles.

Using these relationships, I developed what became known as Ahn's Hypothesis, which provides a formula for calculating the relationship between drug dosage and body mass. When applied to Tylenol's dosing guidelines, this formula reveals something striking: for a threefold increase in weight, the appropriate dosage should be around 10.4mL, not the recommended 15mL. This suggests that following the standard guidelines could potentially result in overdosing.

This theoretical framework inspired a practical application. I channeled this insight into the Congressional App Challenge, developing an application that calculates appropriate drug dosages based on body weight. The app uses available data on weight-dosage relationships for various medications to determine more accurate dosing recommendations.

The application was designed to incorporate data from various medications, calculating appropriate dosages by correlating them with the user's weight input. This innovative approach led to victory in the Congressional App Challenge, culminating in an award presentation by a U.S. congressman. What makes this achievement particularly meaningful is that the initial spark came from that dedicated 15% of time set aside for exploration and personal growth.

Let me conclude by recommending another transformative book: "Thinking Fast and Slow" by Daniel Kahneman, the 2002 Nobel laureate in Economics. Though substantial at 600 pages, this work offers unique insights as Kahneman, a psychologist, examines human behavior and economic phenomena through a psychological lens. Students may discover unexpected perspectives while reading this book, potentially inspiring their own EC activities.

I hope this student's journey demonstrates how dedicating time to exploration can spark innovative ideas for meaningful extracurricular activities. At A-One Institute, we remain committed to nurturing students' creativity and helping them discover unique opportunities across various fields.