This week we wrote and finalized our Big 8 essays and turned them in today. Finally done! It was an extremely stressful week with the Calculus mid-term, the Big 8, and a project in Engineering. I guess the next step to the Big 8 project is getting our information out there. I actually came up with a theory in my essay and I think it might be an interesting one to get out to scientists that study music and its relation to the brain. Not entirely sure how to do that though.
I think it would be radical to have some sort of reading project for next semester. A creative writing project might be interesting as well. 

The answer to my original big question (though it has changed over time) is basically this: in a lot of ways. My big question was, "How does music affect the brain?" The research sort of started leaning more towards everything interesting regarding music's effects on the brain and mind. I guess if I were to answer my question in a more cohesive sentence it would be: Music affects the brain in many ways, most of which are extremely positive, but, though less common, music can also very negatively affect the mind. 
I want my target audience for my Big 8 to be music lovers and the occasional listener alike. I feel that much of the information I will present in it will be interesting enough to hold the attention of nearly any reader.
I'm feeling a little worried about next week and putting together the Big 8... We are going to have a very difficult test in math (pretty much two times) and then we have to write the longest essay we've ever had to write on top of that. The fact that we spent a lot of time researching and writing makes me less nervous though and makes it all seem do-able.

This week we are doing our 2fers on a book of our choice that relates to our topic. I chose Musicophelia by Oliver Sacks. I have not finished reading the book yet but everything I have read so far has been incredibly interesting. Sacks reports on how music affects the brain through actual accounts of different people that have experienced extraordinary musical experiences. Instead of telling his audience about, for example, musical hallucinations, he shares multiple accounts of people that have actually experienced them. This makes the book feel more personal and makes it all the more interesting. The book is very hard to put down and I absolutely recommend it, even to the non-musical.