A Look Through Our Semester
Humanities
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Serial: On the second day of school, we learned about the story of Adnan Syed and how he may not have received a fair trial for the murder of Hae Min Lee. We used the podcast Serial to enhance our reading skills by analyzing the story as if we were analyzing the text.
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Perspective : In our literature class, we looked at different perspectives and analyzed how we could apply these perspectives in our writing. We learned the following 6 critical literary lenses: Psychoanalytic, Feminist, Reader Response, Marxist, Queer Theory, and Critical Race. We dissected our novel, In Cold Blood, using each of these lenses and eventually wrote a critical analysis paper focusing in on one specific lens.
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In Cold Blood reading : This was the main literature/novel we read and analyzed this semester. We practiced how to analyze stories using critical lenses we previously learned about. While reading and finishing In Cold Blood, we were in charge of writing a critical lens essay using one of the lenses.
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Nuggets :
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Partnering and Interviews
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Nugget or Theme of interview
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Look through interview, find an idea from it to start the creative writing
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Writing groups: These were the group partners who edited our writing, giving us critical feedback that helped to improve our creative writing piece. These were the people we depended on for helpful feedback and edits.
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Kinetic art: This is one the independent art pieces that help us explain our own creative writing piece in an artistic piece. This piece used perspective by showing one art piece with two different images and the way you look at the piece determines what perspective you see. We designed two images then put them together to create the final kinetic art piece
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Mural : This part of the project focused on the partner/person we interviewed for the nugget inspiration and we created a second art piece based on our partner's story of our own nugget. We received one block of 50 pieces of the main art piece. When all the pieces were placed together each side connected to the other paintings around them. The word perspective was cut out in block letters and pasted onto the big piece and each painting was painted over the words to pop out and create a pop out effect.
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Imaginative Nonfiction: In this writing piece, each student interviewed another and took one “nugget” from the interview. With that5, they wrote their piece based off of that broad story. Each student choose how they would incorporate their nugget through song, poems, a short story etc.
Biology
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Why Microscopes?
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Lenses in general serve a sole purpose whether they are to see images in a different light, either up close and personal or from far away, or in a different perspective somehow. We can bring this idea back to how we viewed In Cold Blood in different metaphorical lenses. At first, a reader with no lense may view the book as a murder mystery. However, through envisioning the book with a marxist lense, people could see the book differently. Microscopes too can turn an ugly lifeless picture into an intricate unique piece of art or vice versa.
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Brainstorming Types of Microscopes
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Cell phone microscope
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Full microscope
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In case lens
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Microscope adapter
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Blueprints
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We focused our microscopes on blueprints we found online or by modifying blueprints from a template microscope on Adobe Illustrator.
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Prototypes
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They are on display in William Raschke’s classroom.
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We all had lots of test runs through the 3D Printer or the laser cutter to perfect the microscopes.
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We also used adobe illustrator to design an image and change it to perfect5 the angles and template.
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Final Products
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These microscopes are fully functional and they are able to be used to photograph images cleanly.
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This final part of the project is a competition. The best microscope will be a useable design for future students and will be duplicated for the other High Tech schools to use in their classroom
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OUR PROCESS
Quote:
“If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at will change.” -Unknown
Overarching Perspective Project Blurb:
Per·spec·tive
Pərˈspektiv
noun
A particular attitude toward or way of regarding something; a point of view.
In our Perspective Project we devoured the meaning and use of perspective in different mediums. Perspective may seem like a very broad topic, and, as students, we struggled with this at times. In Humanities, we abstractly considered the layers of our personal perspective and explored how these layers shape our understanding of ourselves and those around us. We analyzed the imaginative nonfiction novel In Cold Blood by Truman Capote and the podcast, Serial, to learn how people and ideas can change, form, and challenge our perspective. We tried our hand at creating our own imaginative nonfiction piece that began as an in depth interview, a dialogic conversation, with a peer. In Biology, we made microscopes to look at common objects and zoomed in on them (literally) to find their beauty. These microscopes will be recreated and passed on to younger generations in the High Tech Village so that students can continue to look and learn from the perspectives we built. In this project we used critical lenses, interviews with peers, creative writing, artwork, and hand-built microscopes in order to help us look at life through a myriad of specific views. Perspective is constantly around us; it is important to understand our own critical lens of life.
Humanities:
Step 1:
Getting Started
During dialogic interviews, we chose a partner, sat down for an hour, and had deep conversations about meaningful experiences in our lives. We asked questions on topics ranging from the happiest to the lowest events in our lives.These conversations served as the starting point for our imaginative nonfiction* pieces. We focused in on a piece of our partner’s story that stuck out the most -- a detail that we wanted to write our story around. We called these pieces nuggets.
(evidence- notes from interviews. Take pictures of notes and laminate them)
*Imaginative nonfiction - a genre first created in by Truman Capote in In Cold Blood, imaginative nonfiction is a genre of writing that relies on literary styles and techniques to create a factually accurate narrative.
Step 2:
Imaginative Nonfiction
Using these nuggets as inspiration, we created imaginative nonfiction short stories, poems, lyrics, and plays. We combined our partner’s real life stories with our creative imagination, maintaining the essence of our partner’s real life experience while making it our own. We wrote, and wrote, and wrote. Revision also played a key role. We took time to look at our own writing in a critically reflective way, while also giving feedback to our peers on their writing. We each ended up with a polished work of imaginative nonfiction that belonged to us, but blended our creative writing style with the inspiration from our partner’s life.
Step 3:
Kinetic Art
Kinetic - of, relating to, or resulting in motion.
We put our writing in motion by combining two pieces of art that speak to each other and together represent the spirit of our imaginative nonfiction. As you walk by, you can see the image shift, blur, and reassemble into a new image, changing your view and perspective of the whole.
Step 4:
Perspective Mural
In our final step of this recursive process, we investigated the imaginative nonfiction piece written about us, discovered our own re-written nugget, and expressed it visually in an art piece. As our final challenge, we took each individual art piece and created one cohesive mural that blends all of our perspectives together.
And reshaped it for a 3rd timefinal time- as a mural piece.
Nugget- one specific detail that really stands out to you that you want to develop
Is this nugget solely our partner’s story, or is it how we interpreted it?
Evidence?
“If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at will change.” -Unknown
Quoted student testimonial:
“What I really liked about this project was having the chance to interview people in order to interpret their story from my perspective.”
Biology:
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Our Purpose
Our task in Biology was to work in groups on a design competition to create the best cell phone microscope for middle and high school students. The competition fueled our innovation and encouraged us to work even harder to win. At the same time, we were driven to create quality, student-made materials to pass down to generations to come. When brainstorming our microscopes, we had multiple factors to consider. We had to think about research, development, and design, while considering the functionality and creative attractiveness of our microscopes.
2) Microscope Design
In our first step, we researched four different types of microscopes: cell phone microscopes, full microscopes, in-case phone microscope, and microscope phone adapters. Thinking about materials and time management, we had to create a clear plan for getting our project done in time. After researching and deliberating the pros and cons of each design, each group decided on the best fit for their vision of the project.
3) Production
After deciding on design, we created blueprints, a material list, and any laser cutter or 3D printer files needed for our microscope. After securing our materials, it was time to get to work. We used the laser cutter to cut out acrylic, wood, and cardboard for the microscopes. We also used the 3D printer to print out various parts for our microscopes.
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Photography
The photography portion of our project plays on our understandings of perspective and shows how our given lens determines what we see. Through microscope pictures, we turned common place items into beautiful images and uncovered the ugliness in seemingly beautiful things.