Blog Post 13
End of the Year Reflection
I have seen a lot of personal growth this year. Especially because of the changing of school. This meant I had to adapt to a completely new environment. This was especially challenging because of the difference in people, teachers, and staff. So I feel that I have become a lot more patient after the switch. Academically, I have grown in a few ways. I have noticed I am able to delegate time much better. I can sit down with a large amount of work and break it up into manageable parts. Also, my ability to think ahead has vastly improved. Whether that means, planning a woodworking project on a piece of paper before starting it. Or making sure I have a list so I don't forget things on a camping trip, I am much stronger in this field. My spanish has also improved vastly because I speak with my parents at home. Before only every once in awhile we would talk in spanish, now we try to everyday. A big part of my growth this year was in photography. I started this years taking all my photo’s of my phone. From what I knew, they were great photos. Now I own over one thousand dollars in photography gear. This means my photography has really grown into a big passion of mine. Astro-photography has grown me in a way beyond being able to use a camera. It has taught me the importance of patience. Usually your first photo of the night does not come out perfect. Or when shooting a star trail or time lapse you can be standing in the cold for hours. I believe in the beginning of the year I would not have had the patience for this. But photography, astro-photography in particular has developed this for me.
I have seen a lot of personal growth this year. Especially because of the changing of school. This meant I had to adapt to a completely new environment. This was especially challenging because of the difference in people, teachers, and staff. So I feel that I have become a lot more patient after the switch. Academically, I have grown in a few ways. I have noticed I am able to delegate time much better. I can sit down with a large amount of work and break it up into manageable parts. Also, my ability to think ahead has vastly improved. Whether that means, planning a woodworking project on a piece of paper before starting it. Or making sure I have a list so I don't forget things on a camping trip, I am much stronger in this field. My spanish has also improved vastly because I speak with my parents at home. Before only every once in awhile we would talk in spanish, now we try to everyday. A big part of my growth this year was in photography. I started this years taking all my photo’s of my phone. From what I knew, they were great photos. Now I own over one thousand dollars in photography gear. This means my photography has really grown into a big passion of mine. Astro-photography has grown me in a way beyond being able to use a camera. It has taught me the importance of patience. Usually your first photo of the night does not come out perfect. Or when shooting a star trail or time lapse you can be standing in the cold for hours. I believe in the beginning of the year I would not have had the patience for this. But photography, astro-photography in particular has developed this for me.
Blog Post 12
Camping
Below was Bryce's and I photo of Sagittarius. This was taken on a A77sii around 3 in morning. I learned a lot about taking photos of nebulas during this camping trip. I was able to shadow Bryan and Josh while they took photos of multiple galaxy's and nebulas. Also, Bryce and I had to align and set up a telescope. That was challenging but I learned a lot about how to affectionately set up and align the telescopes.
Below was Bryce's and I photo of Sagittarius. This was taken on a A77sii around 3 in morning. I learned a lot about taking photos of nebulas during this camping trip. I was able to shadow Bryan and Josh while they took photos of multiple galaxy's and nebulas. Also, Bryce and I had to align and set up a telescope. That was challenging but I learned a lot about how to affectionately set up and align the telescopes.
Best Photo of the Semester
This photo was taken during sunset in Bishop CA. The climb is called "Checkerboard", it is a Bishop classic. I was shooting on a Canon 70D, with a 18-135 stm kit lens.
Settings:
ISO: 1000
SP: 1/200
Aperture: f/8
WB: Daylight
Settings:
ISO: 1000
SP: 1/200
Aperture: f/8
WB: Daylight
Final Book Page
Blog Post 11 Part 2
I think the Juno and Cassini mission are really cool. Just the fact that we can get a robot that far away from us is crazy. Ethically I am pretty split about either landing or not lading on Saturn. Its cool how we can learn more about the formation of our planet and the universe by getting statistics of Saturn. It's crazy how old and big it is relative to the earth. One question that I have is, when we do analyze Saturn how much will it reveal to us?
Juno is orbiting Saturn and taking photos of it. Its mission is to study Saturn for things like what it is made of and its magnetic field. It is important for us to learn these things about Saturn for many reasons. One being, that is of its old age. Learning about how it works and was created will help us learn more about earth. Also, we do not know a lot about Saturn so Juno will answer a lot of unknown questions. Helping us not only with questions about earth but our solar system.
Juno is orbiting Saturn and taking photos of it. Its mission is to study Saturn for things like what it is made of and its magnetic field. It is important for us to learn these things about Saturn for many reasons. One being, that is of its old age. Learning about how it works and was created will help us learn more about earth. Also, we do not know a lot about Saturn so Juno will answer a lot of unknown questions. Helping us not only with questions about earth but our solar system.
ARE of Monkeys in Captivity.
1. Find the hypothesis. It is one sentence that summarizes the question that drove the experiment or research.
Do controlled habitats cause irregular behavior in monkeys.
2. Locate three findings. Findings are bits of information that the scientists discovered during their research. Type these up and explain how each is part of the author’s answer to the hypothesis. This is one paragraph
The biggest irregular behavior scientists found in the monkeys was the eating feces. A Lot of activities like this were observed in captive but not in the wild. The other abnormal activities included plucking hair and rocking back and forth. These are not normal activities and of captivity is causing them we should figure out how to fix that. We should also figure out if these are getting worse.
3. Answer these questions: “Are these results strong or weak? Do you agree or disagree with the result? Why?” This should be a paragraph.
The conclusion was that captivity is causing abnormal behavior. I would agree with this in moderation. Obviously if you move any species into a non natural habitat, it will never be the same as nature. One thing that may dilute this study is that it's a lot harder to observe monkeys in the wild then in a zoo. So maybe some of things that they observe in the zoo and not in the wild are more common in the zoo. But also, maybe they do happen in the wild but are much harder to find.
4. Choose five vocabulary words or unfamiliar terms and define them.
Prevalence: the fact or condition of being prevalent; commonness.
Pan (latin): All
Troglodytes (Latin): Cave Dweller
Piloerection: involuntary erection or bristling of hairs due to a sympathetic reflex usually triggered by cold, shock, or fright or due to a sympathomimetic agent.
Bipedally: (of an animal) using only two legs for walking.
5. Write a short reflection on what you have learned from the text or about yourself
I have learned a good amount from this article. Although, I was aware of how, when monkeys are put into captive they behavior changes. I was not aware it was to this degree. The main thing that I learned from this is how a scientific paper works. Learning about the abstract was big for me.
Blog Post 10
Laguna Astronomy Night
Messier 16
Magnitude: 6
Size: 7 arcminutes
Located in the Eagle nebula
Rises at 19:00
Partner: Bryce Belshin
Messier 16
Magnitude: 6
Size: 7 arcminutes
Located in the Eagle nebula
Rises at 19:00
Partner: Bryce Belshin
Elon Musk is Really Boring
4/26/17
When first hearing about Elon Musk's Idea I had multiple thoughts. One being it was great, but also knowing there was going to be a lot of complications around this idea. But Elon Musk's usually delivers on what he says he is going to do. I would not put it past him to complete this project. The major problems I think he is going to run into is safety, permits, and public participation. I also heard people talking about fear of earthquakes, but I have a few reasons why this shouldn't be a problem. One being, they should be able to engineer a tunnels that won't be destroyed by most earthquakes. And if it is a big enough earthquake to destroy the tunnel, chances are you were going to die anyway. A lot of good could come from this. For starts if we could get a lot of the traffic off the street, cut pollution, and cluster. Also, underground we have a lot more room for lanes. Another idea I had was the possibility for collecting the emissions of the cars from the tunnels and finding a way to filter them before they are let out into our environment. I know Elon Musk is big on climate change so this could help kill two birds with one stone.
For San Diego I think we live in a such a beautiful place, with such good weather, walking and biking should be focused on. Again we could be helping two things at once obesity and climate change. Also, we should follow the public transportation model Japan shows. I don't think completely eradicating cars is a good idea. But making traveling the city much easier without it, is a great idea.
For San Diego I think we live in a such a beautiful place, with such good weather, walking and biking should be focused on. Again we could be helping two things at once obesity and climate change. Also, we should follow the public transportation model Japan shows. I don't think completely eradicating cars is a good idea. But making traveling the city much easier without it, is a great idea.
Blog Post 9
Alan Watt Secret To Life
4/26/17
4/26/17
The video we watched recently in class, although it was short it made me think about a lot. The main point that struck me was when he wondered why people were so afraid of dying. This didn't strike me because it's a new idea. But because is confirmed recent thought I have been having about death. Why are we so afraid of something that is inevitable. Something that every living thing goes through at some point. I think fearing death is not smart but ignoring it also is harmful. We should have a healthy fear that motivates but not that cripples us. That is what Alan Watts Secret To Life made me think about.
Size of Universe and Future Exploration.
4/24/17
I think the size of the solar system is unbelievable. This is why I think we should get out. Explore more, there could be a hole planet out there identical to earth. With the size of the solar system theoretically there should be. When you think of how small earth is, we could find a planet as big as the sun that could inhabit us. That is the end to so many of our problems. But with all this greatness does come problems. Will people start fighting over planets? aka space wars. Also if we do find aliens, humans are very aggressive and protective creatures, we could destroy or be destroyed. But still with all of this downside looked over I still think vast space exploration is the key to the future.
Smallest to Largest
It was insane to see the theoretically smallest and largest things in the universe. The program was very interesting how you just continue to scroll backwards and the objects get smaller and smaller. The string theory is still something I am very interested in because I do not fully understand it. I think it is hard for us humans to think of something that small. Honestly I didn’t know If there was much smaller than the atom. But theoretically there is much more that is smaller. In the reverse of large I had a pretty good idea of how large the universe is. Still, when it fully zoomed out and showed the universe still expanding it was crazy. Two other things caught my eye. The first being how truly small our sun is compared to everything else in the universe. Also showing how small we are, because we are tiny to the sun. Next was the Pillars of Creation, mainly the name is so relevant and awesome! When I saw the photo of it, my mind was blown.
Planet Earth: Cities
I liked the leopard section of Planet Earth II. I found it very interesting not only the nature part of it, but how they filmed it was amazing. With a little research i found they were using military grade thermal cameras. I like this a lot because then we are not disturbing them at all with shining lights. But we still get an awesome video that clearly depicts what is happening. Also, how the leopard was able to sneak up on the pig family in the middle of the city is amazing. It's so cool to see how big cats like that hunt. I see a comparison to that on how humans hunt back when we were hunter gathers. We would stalk and then go in for the kill. Singling out the weakest of the group. This is what the leopard did and its crazy how to completely opposite creatures can hunt like each other.
Perfect Community
In this perfect community we tried to first think of all the necessities. How we went about this is thinking of what we need on the day to day. This includes things like clean water, housing, public services, sewage, roads, hospitals, and electrical. We tried to cover everything but we also knew that a lot goes into making a city and we would forget or overlook a few things. We decided to put the housing in the middle so it would be easier to access all parts of the community. On the corners we had our fresh water source, agriculture, wilderness, and garbage disposal. We decided these things should be secluded from housing. We placed hospitals all around these and the housing because they have to be quickly accessible. Roads connected everything. On the left side we had the school system, we made it large because we know the importance of education in a community. Another smaller school is also available for special education.
Blog Post 8
My Energy Usage
3/22/17
When I found out how much energy I used in the problem set I knew it was a lot. But once I found out how much coal that really was I did not understand how that was sustainable. I mean for every single person, to be using that much energy everyday, it can not go on forever. That's why I strongly agree with re usable energy. It just makes sense, take something that is always there and free. Turn that into something that we need. It is a win win, we get energy and help the planet. That just seems so obvious to me, we all benefit from it. The San Diego mayors plan is a great idea, to be 100% re-usable energy by 2035. This would be helping our planet out a lot. This is something I strongly agree with.
Ocean Beach Photo's
3/10/17
San Diego Water
3/9/17
I think we can conserve our water in new innovating ways in San Diego. The salt water desalination process is interesting. I have a feeling we won't need it until we are truly out of water. I know this process is hard and very expensive so it may not be the most effective way of conserving water. I think educating the public about current water problems is really important. This way they can begin to cut back themselves. Without that even if we continue to supply water it will just be diminished quickly, and the cycle will continue. Truthfully I need to dive into more options but for now educating the public I think is the best bet.
Blog Post 7
We Got It From Here Thank You For Your Service
3/9/17
Recently in class we watched a speech about education. It was really powerful and inspiring. What made it so powerful was the ideas brought up. The keynote speaker was not holding back when it came to controversial topics. He pointed the racial profiling, the enemies in the crowd and he made the problems clear. I have to be honest that made me a uncomfortable. But that was part of the point, the second we become comfortable with a certain education and that becomes gospel we are failing. We have to shape school and the culture of the youth. What the culture is today will change. The education has to change around that.
The Most Astounding Fact
3/9/17
The video “The Most Astounding Fact About the Universe” narrated by Neil Degrasse Tyson really struck me. Although it was quite short it conveyed a powerful message about life. I already knew the information but I guess It just really hit me then. It’s amazing how we are all part of this universe. It makes you think back to social problems, how we are all connected in a way. So that fact that we choose to kill and hate not only other humans but also, things like trees for useless objects is interesting. But of course we are human, that is our nature.
Article of What To Do Little Italy
Draft #1
3/8/17
Little Italy is a great place to spend the day. It offers great art, farmers markets, and delicious food. San Diego's Little Italy has a great trendy Italian feel. If you are looking for a great cup of coffee Pappalecco or Caffe Italia are great local cafes. These cafes are highly rated by the community. Also, these cafes offer a great selection of great food. If you're looking for a meal, Little Italy has great selection Italian food. Some of the best places are Boun Appetito, Bencotto, and Mimmo’s. Hanging out in these restaurants is a great way to spend your time. On the weekends the Italians farmers market or, the Little Italy Mercato. It is held on Saturdays from 8am to 2pm. This long farmers market offers every type of food and art. It is a great way to spend your Saturday with friends and family. The farmers is located in the central of Little Italy. During this event live music lines the street. Usually solo performers on guitars or accordions. Little Italy isn't the largest but is jam packed with great authentic Italian food. My personal go to restaurant for gnocchis is Buon Appetito. These are very good with a great sauce. Learning about Little Italy's history is a great way to spend the day. The street is filled with culture and history. Little Italy also provides great art studios such as Mee Shim Fine Art. If you are trying to cook an authentic Italian meal I recommend the Mona Lisa or Filippi's Pizza Grotto. They have a large selection of food from Italy. From pasta to pastries they will have it all. Also talk to the local store owners for great recipes. They are unique and hold amazing choices of food. Also my go to sandwich shop is Influx and the Mona lisa. They both had different styles but both are great.
Blog post 6
Water Writing piece
3/8/17
I probably use around 80-90 gallons of water a day. This is really crazy for me to think about. I really feel bad about this and would like to do something about it. Witch I already do but I would like to more. I think the biggest thing I do in wasting water is showers. I usually take 2 a day because if I didn't I would smell and feel bad. But would I could do is cut the time it takes to wash myself in the shower. Especially after a long workout I almost fall asleep in the shower. That wastes a lot of water. The biggest thing that surprised me about this article was the statistics about how much water we use. Also I was happy about how much we have improved on water usage. I am interested in salt water sanitization, I think this could work. Also, not having grass lawns in places like San Diego and other desserts. It is not meant to grow there, we should try to convert to more desert landscapes.
Companion Piece
3/8/17
Little Italy provides a lot of art options. It has 3 main art studios in the main section of Little Italy. Although the main Downtown has many more options. The main studios just in Little Italy are Kettner Art Studio and Gallery, Brushworks Studio & Gallery, and Mee Shim Fine Art. These all provide unique art that you won't find anywhere else. Mee Shim Fine art and Brushworks are both rated 5 stars with. But these are not the only studios just the highest rated. If you are interested in doing art yourself Blick Art Supplies is a perfect shop for picking up supplies. It is located in the middle of Little Italy and is quite large. Also is it highly rated at 4.6 stars with 110 reviews. So Little Italy is a great place for things other than food, it also provides a great art.
Water Usage
3/7/17
I probably use around 80-90 gallons of water a day. This is really crazy for me to think about. I really feel bad about this and would like to do something about it. Witch I already do but I would like to more. I think the biggest thing I do in wasting water is showers. I usually take 2 a day because if I didn't I would smell and feel bad. But would I could do is cut the time it takes to wash myself in the shower. Especially after a long workout I almost fall asleep in the shower. That wastes a lot of water. The biggest thing that surprised me about this article was the statistics about how much water we use. Also I was happy about how much we have improved on water usage. I am interested in salt water sanitization, I think this could work. Also, not having grass lawns in places like San Diego and other desserts. It is not meant to grow there, we should try to convert to more desert landscapes.
Blog Post 5
Ethics of James Webb Telescope
2/23/17
I think it is a great idea to send the James Webb telescope into space. We could find out so much about space and time. For me I think its crazy that we as humans do not know nearly anything about the space that we live in. With this telescope we could find the answers to many questions we don't know. This could help us find more about how we were created and unearth secrets to life. If that doesn't sound duper cool to you, your crazy. There are many people that want to learn more about space. So this would be a great use of resources. This telescope could also prove or disprove many theory's.
Sagan's Final Interview
2/23/17
Recently in class we discussed the quote by Carl Sagan "science is a way of thinking, a way of skeptically interrogating the universe." This phrase is significant because it's telling you that everything you may know could be wrong. Also to not blindly follow everything some one tells you even if they are in a passion of power. This quote tells you to get out there and find your own answers. Carl would even question everything his fellow scientists said and him self.
Previously in science class we were told information and then tested on it. We were told that this is the information and that there was no way around it. After one class at High Tech High I knew how ignorant my old teachers were. This also only proved my point when I would challenge what my teachers said, resulting in me getting in trouble. Sounds tyrannical? Yes it does, they wanted you believing what they told you and not questioning it, like Hitler )-:
Previously in science class we were told information and then tested on it. We were told that this is the information and that there was no way around it. After one class at High Tech High I knew how ignorant my old teachers were. This also only proved my point when I would challenge what my teachers said, resulting in me getting in trouble. Sounds tyrannical? Yes it does, they wanted you believing what they told you and not questioning it, like Hitler )-:
Blog Post 4
Problem Set 2 Optics
2/9/17
Lens and Prisms
2/9/17
Recently in class we had time to work with lens and prisms. I had a lot of fun doing this because I was able to turn my phone camera into a macro camera. These lens gave me the ability to get really close up to flowers and animals in great detail. This gave me a great idea of how camera lens work. Also the prisms gave me a great idea of how cameras work. I was able to look into one side of the prism and see to the left and right, others you could see yourself. I still want to learn more about how camera lens work and what makes a great lens vs a bad one. One of the most interesting things that I found was that when putting some of the lens next to our eye it gave you super macro vision. Not just like a magnifying glass, but with more bokeh. Below are some examples images.
Lighting in Photography
2/9/17
his week I learned a lot about lighting in photography. Originally when we took photos I knew nothing about how to set up proper lighting. Although ,before, having friends that were photographers I knew that a lot goes into it. Initially I was not very pleased with the photo I took, below there is an example of the first photo I took in the studio. The photo was slightly out of focus and the lighting was not prime. The next day we watched videos on how to properly set up lighting. These videos really helped me, I took notes to remember. The biggest thing that struck me was the ratio lighting. For example 3:1 key to fill lighting. I thought how these different techniques each give the photo a different look was cool. So after watching those videos we went back into the studio and this is what we got. As you can see below the lighting and shadows were much better in the second photo. This is because we were able to perfect the lighting.
Photo #1 Photo #2
Blog Post 3
Link To Old Town Sample Page
2/5/17
https://drive.google.com/a/hightechhigh.org/file/d/0BxpwhsiT2sHMMUpqeU9pVnRXTTA/view?usp=sharing
Waves and Photography
2/2/17
The golden ratio really interested me. I think the spiral technique is really challenging but when used correctly it looks amazing. It was scientifically proven to appeal to our eyes. This is really cool because if you can perfect it then all your photos will look amazing. I plan to incorparate this by really focusing on the spiral and other photo grid techniques.
This photo uses the rule of
thirds. The stop sign
is right at the intersection
of the rule of thirds grid. I wasn't
aiming to capture anything in
paticular. Just practicing the rule of thirds.
thirds. The stop sign
is right at the intersection
of the rule of thirds grid. I wasn't
aiming to capture anything in
paticular. Just practicing the rule of thirds.
Blog Post 2
5 Mile Radius Map Final Draft
1/26/17
When it came to completing our five mile radius map there was a lot of teamwork involved. It wasn't something that is easily done without working together. We both played crucial part in creating that map. I worked more on the visuals and drawing. Jashad worked on the back work like finding the restaurants and helping me remember the best local ones. To create this map we both started out with going through our favorite Mexican restaurants. Then we drew the map and located them on the map. Although our focus was Mexican food we still though in a few important landmarks. For some areas of San Diego like Coronado we weren't sure what the best place was because we don't hang out there often so we had to look it up. The one with the best reviews was placed on the map. Our roles came pretty naturally because I have drawn many land masses before in past. Jashad was a great partner to work with because he was very easy going. There was no arguing when it came to roles, colors of map, and what to make the map of. We decided to make a mexican food map because we both really like it. Also we believed that its a big part of experiencing San Diego. The Mexican food here is some of the best in the states. Also it affordable and easy to access. It's in every part of town. The creation of our map went really well. The drawing was easy and nice. WE started off in pencil writing everything. Then went over it in sharpie, so it looked a lot nice. After this we colored in the Ocean and Bay. We colored the land green witch I don’t know how smart that is but it just rained so whatever.
Light
1/26/17
Recently in class we read a National Geographic article on light. Before this article I thought I knew a lot about light. After reading it I learned no now really knows much about light at all. It still stands a mystery to the human race. Its powers could be used to the power of great things or bad things. For example they are working on a machine to create nuclear fusion. If they were able to successfully complete nuclear fusion the energy problem would be solved. How this is done, in theory, is that very powerful lasers bounce off mirrors until it hits the the atom attempting to split it into two atoms. The energy produced from this would be great. On the other hand if the advancements of light transformed into military power we could see a new type of warfare. Light has all these amazing powers and we have just begun trying to understand something that has been around us for all of time. One thing that I did not know and really struck me was that we used light to measure the distance to the moon. When I learned that it really made me think of the future of light and all the things it can and will do for us.
5 mile radius map draft #1
Nature of Space
In class we recently discussed space. We focused on the size. This conversation although not the first time I've heard it really struck me. I found it interesting that humans can't imagine a universe that we live in. Other questions came up like, will we ever find the answer? How will we find the answer? Is there an answer to this question? I believe one day we will find out. I have always been interested in space and I think its amazing that there is still so much exploration to be done. The theory that i believe is the most possible is the "Crunch" theory. How the universe expands to a point in witch gravity catches up then begins to compress until the Big Bang occurs.
Pictures That Tell a Story
We decided to go to Trader Joe's for the free samples. Everyone loves these. In this photo Raina enjoys chocolate covered peanuts. She is unawere that this photo is being taken but I believe that is when you get the best shots. This photo tells a story of the daily routines that a lot of us do. As simple as going to Trader Joe's with friends to try samples. Its all part of our day.
Again this photo tells a story of day to day actions. Here Priscilla enjoys the moment of meeting good friends. I think we take these types of things for granted because we are so used to it. This photo shows how much joy we may get from friends.