Hybrid: A Look Into The Future
This was an absolutely amazing project to undertake. I learned many things
about the future of the way we travel. This project entailed almost two
weeks of research on how the hybrid [car] works. I discovered that there
are two different types of hybrid systems: the parallel and the series
hybrid. Of course the parallel was the more efficient of the two, but
the series was the easier to build and longer lasting. The project led
me to two or three email conversations with Honda engineers. This project
was completely relevant to my life in one main way. The hybrid concept
is not just a flash in the pan but might actually become the future of
the car industry in America and the world. (Patrick Colley, grade 10)
Humanities: Things Fall Apart
One of the great things about Lara’s class was her dedication to
teaching us that every civilization has its importance and its history.
Like everyone else, I was very Eurocentric in attitude before we studied
Africa. After reading Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, I realized
the impact white colonization had on African life. Pre-colonial Africa
had its own mores and folkways prior to Europe intervention, and these
aspects are emphasized in Achebe’s book. Our final for the trimester
consisted of writing a formal in-class essay on Things Fall Apart. I
was very proud of my efforts and what I had learned in our class discussions.
(Bryndan Bedel, grade 10)
Physics:
Bridge Building Project
This was the very first project I did in the first trimester. It was
my first experience planning and working with a teammate at High Tech
High. It was a valuable experience.
The main goal was to create the
strongest bridge we could out of popsicle sticks. Our bridge had to
weigh no more than 300 grams and could span no more than 30 inches.
The project was difficult yet fun. Although, we canned our basic design
and instead we made a plank instead of a bridge. Our class was unable
to break the plank bridge until the next trimester (when we came back
from winter break).
We were disappointed to discover
that our “plank” curled up over our vacation and then it began
to crumble right in our hands. We still received credit for trying.
(Joseph Baptista, grade 11)
20th Century Art Project
My 20th Century Art Project is where I had the opportunity to mimic
the style of a famous American artist. I chose Franz Kline, who is an
Abstract Expressionist of the 20th Century. I was interested in Kline
because he did not really paint anything, but he rather painted process.
When I first hung my painting in the hallway I was getting questions
like “what is that?” I told them that it wasn’t really
anything. I told them that I painted process and they were like “whatever.”
(David Madrid, grade 12)
Transformation of E. coli
During the second trimester in Biology of Junior Year, we worked on
a very prestigious and advanced lab project. Basically, we took a gene
(originally from a jellyfish that glows) and put it into E. coli to
make the bacteria glow. After that, we worked to purify the glowing
protein using chromatography and gel electrophoresis. This project gave
us a hands on approach to laboratory science and helped us better understand
the complex concepts that we were learning. (Linh Tran, grade 11)
Spanish Influences on San Francisco
This project was done with my partner Chelsea Elsasser. Our assignment
was to pick a city and research Spanish influences to that city. We
had to find the Spanish backgrounds and history if it had any. In this
case it did, the city we chose was San Francisco. In fact the name San
Francisco is from Spanish dialect. We also had to find food, populations,
and tourist attractions that have to do with Spanish influences. (Jeremy
Gabasan, grade 10)
Our Triangles
In this power point project my math group and I, we went around the
school and took pictures of transversal lines, corresponding angles,
supplementary angles, alternate interior angles, same side interior
angles, complementary angles, and vertical angles with the school’s
digital camera. Then we made lines that emphasized where the lines and
angles were in adobe photoshop during time in class. Next the group
got in front of the entire class of 16 people not including teachers
and talked about the pictures of different angles and lines. Everyone
in the group had to say something or else points would’ve been
taken off the final score of the presentation. (Dieu Ho, grade 10)
Humanities: The Harlem Renaissance
Two other students, Laura Madruga, Nick Zimmer, and, myself (Starr Kirkland),
created a book on the Harlem Renaissance. Each student researched at
least five different people who were important to the Harlem Renaissance.
We found work pieces from the writers and artists and included them
in our book. Currently we are still working on a CD with a compilation
of songs from all of the musicians. (Starr Kirkland, grade 11)
Black Holes and Wormholes
At first this project was meant to build a web site on wormholes. After
starting to do a great deal of research into wormholes, I realized that
in order to understand wormholes, you also had to understand black holes.
Therefore, I built a web site that allows people to easily understand
black holes and wormholes. Honestly, I believe that this web site gives
the best information about the above subject, because as I did research
there was a lot of useless information on the web and it took a long
time to find the information that I did. (Julio Diaz, grade 12)
Anti-Art Presentation
The Anti-art presentation was my second trimester 10th grade Presentation
of Learning. Anti-art is a term we coined for art that is created without
need for the standard skills. By definition art is the use of skill
and creativity to create aesthetically pleasing objects. With the advent
of powerful personal computers which are available to the masses and
powerful image editing programs such as Photoshop people can create
aesthetically pleasing final products based on their creativity without
having to rely on the standard technical painting skills usually associated
with art creation. (Gil Shafir, grade 12)
Conversation About Math
We’ve had conversations in class where we talk as a big group about
math. Sometimes we talked about the problems we were working on, or
a new idea that Mr. Blount just taught us. This gives us a chance to
hear what other students think about the math, and it also lets us explain
what we think. Most of the time the conversations were more wordy, which
is fine, but it was more interesting when we got into the mathematical
side and started talking about the actual math, because otherwise people
started repeating other people. (Erin Hassidim, grade 10)
Homosexuality in the United States
For my Presentation of Learning during the Winter Trimester of Junior
year, I decided to talk about a touchy yet often overlooked subject.
Homosexuality, from my limited point of view, still needs to be more
accepted in the United States, so therefore the reason for this POL
was to raise awareness and prevent discrimination. After doing some
research I was shocked to find that the treatment of homosexuals was
worse than what I had originally perceived. Doing this project has helped
give me a new perspective about this topic since I had to look at both
sides of the story. (Linh Tran, grade 11)
Spanish: “La Casa Ideal” (the
ideal house)
In this project I was grouped with two other people and over the time
of three weeks, we designed and presented what our ideal house would
have in it and look like. My part of the project was to draw out what
my room would look like and make a poster for us all to present. I can’t
show you the picture of my room, but I will try and explain it. First
in the corner was my bed; [it] doesn’t really matter how nice my
bed was seeing how I wouldn’t be in it for more then four hours
a night. Then hanging over my bed you would have a nice flatscreen t.v.
Not too big of course, it is just right over my bed... Then near the
headboard of my bed is a row of computers, used for anything from gaming,
to rendering my 3d art. There were 11 computers in total, one of them
being my web, ftp, game, linux, and IRC server. Then a big screen t.v.
on the other side of the room with a nice big couch in front of the
t.v. (Dominick Pirela, grade 12)
Famosa Slough Project
I was the project data manager of our group. I worked excellently with
three other students in this Biology project. I helped plan, propose
and produce an experiment that tested the effectiveness of the treatment
ponds filtering fecal coliforms from the water at the Famosa Slough,
which is located in Point Loma. We showed a Powerpoint presentation
of our project to the Friends of the Famosa Slough, teachers, parents
and students. (Anabel Manuel, grade 11)
Historical Fiction Project: Ryan’s Struggle
In my last term for this year, I was to write a historical fiction story.
The story had to involve a time period in history. I chose the U.S.
advancement into Cambodia to get rid of Communist property owned by
North Vietnamese Communist people. After choosing a topic, I was to
go through several steps before writing the story. It started out with
a simple 3-sentence assignment that would sum up my story. This is to
have a structure in what I’m building towards for my story. From
there, I did a paradigm. For the paradigm, I divided my story into 3
acts, and within those acts, I inserted a plot point that would change
the story in a new direction, leading to the next act. After so, I wrote
up my story. Throughout the story write-up, I wrote up a bio on the
hero and antagonist of the story. This was to get a stronger understanding
of the goal that the main character of the good and bad guy were striving
for. My climax and dialogue were also worked on. I was to pick them
and re-write it to a more effective piece. After several proofreadings
and corrections, I reached the final product of the story. (Quan
Ton, grade 11)
Revenge Ad
During the first portion of the trimester, we were to choose an abstract
noun. The project was to study the noun throughout history. My group
and I decided to study revenge throughout time. We then composed our
project through a magazine. Each of us researched and wrote articles
relating to revenge from the 1400’s-1800’s, 1900’s, and
1990’s-present. We learned how to write articles. In the magazine,
we also included adds, games, and other fun extras relating to revenge.
(Lindsay Cotter, grade 10)
Moon Hoax
Everything that the US recorded in history textbooks and government
documental files about the moon landings is all faked. We never went
to the moon...it was all filmed by NASA at a studio in the Nevada Desert.
For example, one picture shows the US flag bending, rippling, and waving
on the moon, even though there is no breeze. How can that be? Also,
why aren’t there any stars in the background of the pictures? Did
NASA forget to include the stars for the background? Or was it just
too much work to perfectly match the constellations?
Our whole project is very relevant
to not only the ’60s but today as well. If Thai and I are right
(which we are) our entire society is based upon widespread conspiracies
and corruption in our government, our country is living a LIE!!!!! We
connect our web of ideas to one main point: WE NEVER WENT TO THE MOON!
As well as evidence to support our statements. We also connect our theory
to why it is relevant to modern society. (Thai Cao, grade 11)
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