M.C. Escher (Maurits Cornelis) was born on June 17, 1898 in the Dutch province of Friesland. Later, Escher moved to Haarlem, studying architecture and decorative arts. After a short time in the city, he later acquainted with Jessurun de Mesquita, an artists that encouraged Escher's art. M.C. Escher is most famous for his intricately detailed tessellations, in addition to his numerous paintings, many of them physically impossible. For example, the Impossible Triangle, which he popularized, not created, or the Inifinite Staircase/
To create my own rendition of M.C. Escher's tessellations, my initial shape to begin with was a SQUARE. I was out of ideas, and the shape suggested to me was a giraffe. After several trials and errors, I ended up wit the shape as shown. The cuts made are shown in the diagram.
As my medium for this project, I decided to use a computer, creating my tessellation digitally, as opposed to using paper in the analog fashion. I chose to use Sketchup and Photoshop to create it. The reason I went Computer over paper is because Sketchup/Photoshop objects can be much more easily manipulated and created, without any waste in materials. If I were to use paper, cutting would be a permanent choice, and could not be undone. If I were to make a mistake, or wish to change my design, I would need several pieces of paper, wasting many resources.
In terms of Geometry, I learned much from this project. It taught me how different shapes, based on their angles/measurements, tessellate, and why others don't.
To a new Geometry student, I would first and foremost tell them to go Digital over Analog. The reasons why digital is better are previously mentioned. I would also tell them how important saving your work is, because it only takes one crash to lose a lifetime's worth of work.
MC Escher Project: Reflection Time
Emulating Escher: Project overview
The Emulating Escher project project is a project based on creating tesselations, in the manner of M.C. Escher. By learning about geometry and the different shape transformations, we were able to replicate what M.C. Escher is most known for.
M.C. Escher (Maurits Cornelis) was born on June 17, 1898 in the Dutch province of Friesland. Later, Escher moved to Haarlem, studying architecture and decorative arts. After a short time in the city, he later acquainted with Jessurun de Mesquita, an artists that encouraged Escher's art. M.C. Escher is most famous for his intricately detailed tessellations, in addition to his numerous paintings, many of them physically impossible. For example, the Impossible Triangle, which he popularized, not created, or the Inifinite Staircase/
To create my own rendition of M.C. Escher's tessellations, my initial shape to begin with was a SQUARE. I was out of ideas, and the shape suggested to me was a giraffe. After several trials and errors, I ended up wit the shape as shown. The cuts made are shown in the diagram.
As my medium for this project, I decided to use a computer, creating my tessellation digitally, as opposed to using paper in the analog fashion. I chose to use Sketchup and Photoshop to create it. The reason I went Computer over paper is because Sketchup/Photoshop objects can be much more easily manipulated and created, without any waste in materials. If I were to use paper, cutting would be a permanent choice, and could not be undone. If I were to make a mistake, or wish to change my design, I would need several pieces of paper, wasting many resources.
In terms of Geometry, I learned much from this project. It taught me how different shapes, based on their angles/measurements, tessellate, and why others don't.
To a new Geometry student, I would first and foremost tell them to go Digital over Analog. The reasons why digital is better are previously mentioned. I would also tell them how important saving your work is, because it only takes one crash to lose a lifetime's worth of work.
Barbie Bungie Jump REVIEW
On the 3rd day of the Barbie Bungie Jump activity, we were to review a partner's DP and its contents. We are to critique it, and fulfill Mr. Fozi's checklist:http://wp.nc.hightechhigh.org/vfozi/2008/10/22/barbie-bungee-jump-day-3/
I decided to review Gabby's DP: http://wp.nc.hightechhigh.org/golivas/2008/10/21/barbie-bungee-jumpday2/
I was able to clearly understand the information provided on Gabby's digital portfolio.
Checklist:
-All the points are on the same graph
-The rubber bands are correctly represented on the x-axis
-The distance traveled is on the y-axis
-I was able to clearly understand the purpose of the x ad y axes.
-The slope IS between 10-40cm. [21.17 to be exact]
-And finally, you were able to solve the linear equation using the 400cm rubber bands problem.
What I learned
In this project, I was able to learn how to use equations to figure out situations on a bigger scale. Let me reiterate; we were to find the equation for our data. It was at a small scale - the barbie was dropped only a few feet up. But using the equation, we were able to find out how many rubber bands are needed to safely launch Barbie from 400 cm. It is a very handy skill to learn, and this project really helped in the learning process.
Overall, this was a very good project that helped me learn things I've never known before. Woo! Enlightenment!
The Barbie Bungee Jump
Explanation of the experimental procedure
1. The first step of this activity is to attach different amounts of rubber bands to the Barbie (or Ken doll) in bungee-jump fashion. First, attach 2 rubber bands, then 4, 6, 8, and 10.
2. The doll was dropped from a certain marked point.
3. Once the doll is dropped, the group was to find the lowest point the doll reaches when dropped.
This scatter plot shows the results of the experiment.
In this diagram, the y-axis represents the distance the doll traveled from its initial point (in centimeters).
The r-value shown (.99) is a representation of how close the line-of-best-fit is to the actual points. The line of best fit is a straight line that is as close to all the plots on a graph as possible. The closer the r-value is to 1, the closer the line of best fit is to the plotted points.
The slope of this equation is as follows: y=21.17x + 33.27
Predict the number of rubber bands needed for Barbie to jump from a height of 400 cm.
To answer this question, simply input 400 cm into the y of the equation, because the y value represents how high the drop is.
Once completed, the answer I've come with is about 17 rubber bands.
This means that Barbie can safely bungie jump with 17 rubber bands from a height of 400 cm.
HTHNC's Hollywood-theme Dance
Photos are available in a nice Zooomr-smartset I've made. Click the photo to view the set.
Spirit Week Update
Haven't been posting much lately, in lieu of 3 different projects due on the same day. But that's aside the point. This week was spirit week, and everyone was encourage to show their school spirit by dressing up accordingly.
Mix-match Day
Diamante and her mix-matching.
70's Day
Mrs. Howard/ Miss Fisk and their grooovy loook maannn
Mrs. Rojas/Mr. Acker as Sonny and Cher
There was also a Favorite Actor's day where everyone dressed up as their favorite actor, but unfortunately, I didn't have my camera on me. But I was lucky enough to get some of the Community Meeting.
Crowd gathered
Quick Announcements from Harrison, Katherine, Kendalyn, and Izzy
A few from Mrs. Howard
And then our host, Mrs Clark
Miss Fisk, Mrs. M, and Mrs. P bein...cool?
Devil Sticks w/ Rein
Here Comes the Sun, performed by Hannah/Kayla
The Main Event, the Fame SIG
Disturbia dancers
Mark/Katie
Then Everyone!
College Night with Chris White (and JUMP!)
Chris White introducing the event
Chris explaining the importance of extra-curriculars. 
Even with a high GPA, you still have lesser chance than someone with more extra curriculars, and lower GPA than you.
There were much more people than expected, so Nikki moved everyone out to the deck.
The gist of it: start clubs, have extra-curricular activities, and make sure the colleges know about these. Mention them in applications, interviews, etc.
After the whole presentation, some of us wanted to have some fun. So of course, we jumped.
It was a fun day.
One of My Best Shots In a Long Time
Today during SIG, yearbook photog. needed to take pics of High Tech High's habits of heart and mind. Once we finished with that, we decided to have a little fun with it.
School Pride
[click here to view in full-size glory]
Forrest really helped out with this one, getting everyone in the right places. Once everyone was down, I went up to the roof and shot away. This is actually 3 pics stitched together to make a mini panorama. Probably my new favorite shot.
Other than that, Jordan/I took a panorama of the construction of the new school.
The a bit of fun during lunch
This is How Our School Elections Go
Autumn's Epic Dance from John Torres on Vimeo.
Autumn ran for class president [and sadly lost to the well-deserved Daniel Witzel] and said her speech and did her whole spiel. But Autumn was original. Instead of just leaving it at a speech, she decided to do something no one else has ever done. Just watch the video, yeah?
Come Back Dominique.
Come Back Dominique. from John Torres on Vimeo.
Cameraman: Harrison Lynch
Director/Editor:John Torres
CoDirector:Izzy S.
There was once a time when High Tech High North County was happy. An amazing person named DOMINIQUE existed at this school, and made it fun, happy, and exciting. Most well known by her "Dominique Laugh", style, and so much more, she easily became everyone's favorite person.
But this source of happiness has left us.
John Torres [me] and Harrison Lynch created a video depicting what High Tech High is without Dominique, and why we need her back.
Come back Dominique.
A World of Difference: Pt. 2
The final day of the ADL workshop was even better than the first. In just one day, I noticed the group got much closer, and we definitely had a lot of fun.
We spent most of the day practicing different "Ice-breaker" activities. We broke up into groups and led everyone in an Ice Breaker.
Nikki dropped by
Alyssa and Aubrea with a presentation
Me/Diana getting bored?
Watching Presentations
One of the instructors, PAM
And the other, LLOYD
More Presentations?
Shani! The Ultimate Art Teacher
With her previous students
The "Dominoes" Game
The Final Activity
This was the final activity of the day. (forgetting it's name). The point of it was to point out someone who stood out to you in the past 2 days, and throw the string to them, creating a giant, unique web...then we let it fall.
Evan/Ariannah-HTHMA
HTHNC feat. Evan/Ariannah
And finally, the Whole Group
This was definitely the most fun I've had this year. It wasn't just learning all these facilitation skills, I also got a chance to meet a lot of new people from the other High Tech Highs. Hoping for another one of these in the future.