Design Bluetooth Speaker Summative Project Reflection – Eric Zhou

Posted on January 19, 2022 by Eric

 

Design Aesthetic: Art Deco

I used a variety of different common geometrical repeating shapes and I also chose to clear coat it to add a new layer of depth in the wood. These are all elements reflecting the design aesthetic of Art Deco.

What did you struggle with most during this project?

I think what I struggled most with during the project is the cardboard phase. This is when my initial plan got approved by Mr. Layman and I was required to first create a cardboard prototype. First of all, cardboard is more difficult to work with compared to wood since cardboard is easily bendable. Despite the design for my speaker was quite simple and geometric, I still had to make different adjustments to different pieces and in result caused me to submit for the cardboard printout many times.

What’s a skill you learned or improved on over the course of this project?

I think the main concept/skill that I have greatly improved on during this project is my abilities in terms of working with wood. Before this project, I had very little experience in working and making design work with wood. In former design classes, I usually only work with cardboard, paper, and other similar materials. Over the course of this project, I have learned that working with wood might not be as easy as I thought at the start of this project. Wood is much harder physically compared to cardboard, and the techniques involved in terms of drilling wood, cutting wood, and glueing wood really helped me learn more about the vast possibilities of wood as a design material.

What aspect of this project are you most proud of?

Throughout many different aspects combined into my bluetooth speaker, I am most proud of the simple geometric pattern and shapes my speaker has. The idea of simple geometric shapes is reflected as a complete replica as to what I had originally planned for my speaker. As part of one of the most important elements of Art Deco, I originally planned to only use simple geometric shapes for the entirety of my project. Viewing my finished speaker today, I am very proud of how I was able to only use triangles, circles, rectangles, and squares as the exterior design for my speaker. As a result, this increases the design of simplicity to my project and really makes my speaker stand out. Overall, I am really proud of the simple geometric shapes that my speaker includes.

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Contemporary Fiction Book Talk: “The Sun is Also a Star” by Nicola Yoon

Posted on December 16, 2021 by Eric

In this current Contemporary Fiction Book Club humanities unit, we were tasked to create a book talk discussing the theme of the book we chose to read. Below is my book talk overviewing the plot, theme, and recommendations for my book: “The Sun is Also a Star” by Nicola Yoon. Please enjoy and thank you for watching in advance!

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Design Food Waste Summative

Posted on October 20, 2021 by Eric

During the design unit on foot waste, we were tasked to create a prototype of your invention in which solves one of the many problems that can make your partner waste certain foods. One of the problems my partner gave me was how he would waste food and not eat the pasta when the pasta has too much oil in it. To solve this problem, I thought of portable oil filter/isolator which functions like a machine that can suck up all the oil in the pasta and then store the oil in a storage component in the invention for easier disposal.

While making my prototype, I encountered many problems that caused me to change my original plan. My biggest obstacle was measuring and cutting out the 6 small circles on the bottom of my invention. I first thought of using a circular object to trace the circles out but that idea only proved me wrong since the object I found were either too large or too small. I solved this by using a compass to draw out my circles which were also the perfect size I wanted.

My biggest success while making the prototype was when I added an extra horizontal slip into my invention. Although I measured the general measurements correctly, I forgot to count in the space that the hot glue needed to take up when glueing the pieces together. This resulted in a gap of around 1cm wide between 2 sides of my invention. I figured that I needed to add another horizontal slip to my prototype to cover up the gap. In result, my horizontal slip was made perfectly and completely matched the effect that I wanted it to achieve. This improved my entire prototype and therefore I would consider it as my biggest success.

Overall, I think my prototype was a success because I successfully finished my prototype fairly similar to what I had planned to make. With only minor twists and adjustments to different measurements being made to my original plan compared to my actual completed prototype. Something that I might want to improve on next time is to smooth out the sides of my 6 circles on the bottom of my invention since I think I would visually look much better.

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Am I a Renaissance Humanist?

Posted on October 12, 2021 by Eric

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“June” Found Poem

Posted on September 15, 2021 by Eric

My poem is based on the story “Tuesday of the Other June” by Norma Fox Mazer. This story is about how the main character June meets another June that is particularly mean the her because they have the same name. The act of physical bullying then occurs both during swimming class and school when the other June meets our main character June. This story is a perfect example of a type of external conflict (person vs. person) in which our main character June constantly has to deal with being bullied by the other June every time they meet. The reader then discovers that the reason why our main character June doesn’t stand up for herself is all because that she doesn’t want to cause more problems for her mother and she thinks that rejecting what the other June says will only cause more trouble. This conflict is then resolved at the end of the story in which our main character June finally stands up for herself and discovers that not only did she not cause any problems, she also got rid of the constant bullying from the other June. The words I chose in my found poem further elaborates on the physical bullying that happens in the story during swimming class and also makes the person vs. person conflict much more clearer to the reader. The water background of my found poem is also chosen to reflect on how the conflict takes place in the setting of the swimming pool during swimming class.

Here are some books by the same author of this short story.

Here are some ways of how to stand up for yourself when similar conflict like the one in this story happens.

Written By Eric Zhou

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Interactive Mural Project

Posted on June 17, 2021 by Eric

In this unit, we learned about sewing and e-textiles. Our project 2 was to create a working circuit that incorporates both sewing and the circuit playground express. My original plan was to create a ‘timer’ thing that can make a certain noise after a set amount of time after the press of a button by the user. But that idea served no actual purpose to me so I trashed that idea. I later thought of making a interactive mural about this circuits course. I wanted to make an interactive mural that can make sound and light up LEDs. I first thought of cutting out big letters that spell ‘CIRCUIT’ and I planned for putting the microprocessor (Circuit playground express) in the middle and 2 LEDs on the sides with 2 conductive fabric pieces above the LEDs. But due to time, I had to leave out the conductive fabric part and just go for the big letter, the microprocessor, and the 2 LEDs.

During the making process, I encountered many problems and challenges. The conductive thread kept on tangling and forming knots that all took a lot of time to untangle. Throughout this process I successfully mastered both the loop stitch and the sinch stitch. I also learned many techniques about different kinds of stitches as well as how I can use the code I know to program different e-textiles such as the microprocessor (Circuit playground express) used in the project.

I can definitely see myself creating more projects such as this one. I think I will learn even more with more experience in using and coding e-textiles. If I could redo this project, I would create a much more sophisticated project that I will make. Some examples might include a project with touch sensors, sound sensors, or motion sensors such as free-fall detection sensors.

In conclusion, I learned a lot from constructing this project and I look forward in making more projects similar to this one.

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Circuits C4 Bookmark/Pin Project

Posted on May 5, 2021 by Eric

Introduction

During this unit we started to learn about sewable electronics. Our first project was to create either a bookmark or clothing pin that includes a lilypad battery holder and an LED with a color of your choice. I chose to create a bookmark because I think a bookmark would be much more useful to me than a clothing pin.

Constructing and creating my design

I enjoy playing video games a lot, so I decided why not create a decorative Minecraft Grass Block on my bookmark for this project. I also decided on 2 other simple designs just in case my first choice doesn’t get picked by the teacher (Ms. Kim picked one design of the 3 designs that you proposed), it was s Star and a Trident. After creating my 3 designs and getting my Minecraft design approved, I moved on to the next step of this process: Constructing/Crafting my design into the real thing.

I encountered many challenges throughout the sewing part of this project. There were many knots to be untangled, many hard shapes to sew. I would say the most challenging part of the sewing in this project was when I was sewing my initials onto the bookmark, the thin decorative thread kept on falling out the needle eye. I had to constantly rethread the needle without a needle threader (I didn’t have one at home). After a long time of sewing, I finally finished all sewing parts of my design for this project. This is my working sewed circuit before the gluing parts of this project (I had to crop the image because of my hand in the original photo).

Gluing and Finalizing my project

This part is the easiest among the others. All I had to do was to glue 2 pieces of colored felt onto the bookmark and then my project would be finished. Below is my final product after the gluing process.

Final product after gluing

Below is my final product with the LED lighting up

Conclusion

I learned a lot throughout the making of this bookmark project. I am now much more confident in sewing a variety of stitches. I also learned how to perform the loop stitch and the cinch stitch. I am also much better at threading the needle because of the many times I had to practice threading the needle (The decorative thread kept on falling off the needle eye). A tip for students that will attend the Circuits course next semester is to always watch how the thread goes through the fabric. The absolute last thing you want is a knot that is impossible to untangle. Overall, I greatly enjoyed the process of making this bookmark project and I also learned a lot of new information and skills along the way.

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Percy and his attitude and self-confidence at school

Posted on October 30, 2020 by Eric

Percy Jackson needs much improvement in his self-confidence and his attitude at school and with peers. He really lacks self-confidence in this quote from the book “My grades slipped from Ds to Fs” (pg.17). This strongly shows how Percy needs more self-confidence and a way to gain more confidence in yourself is to find your own ways of learning. Just like in this quote from Top 10 Study Habits: “Most of us have a preferred way of learning”. Get to know the learning style you’re most comfortable with and study in the ways you learn best.” (From: Top 10 Study Habits). If Percy can develop his own efficient way of learning, then he can definitely increase his confidence greatly. The quote from the book, “I got into more fights with Nancy Bobofit and her friends. I was sent out into the hallway in almost every class.” also shows that Percy is losing self-confidence, so developing his own way of learning can really benefit him in these situations.

Percy seems to dislike/hate school except for Mr. Brunner’s Latin Class. This point is proven through this quote “He was the only teacher whose class didn’t put me to sleep.”(pg. 2). This quote can also state that Percy has negative thoughts about school with is extremely vital since negative thoughts can really influence your actions and attitude in many situations. ‘How to focus on studying’ clearly states that negative thoughts can really impact you during study time, quote “Negative thoughts make studying all but impossible.” (From: how to focus on studying). Again, another example of Percy losing self-confidence is this quote “I know — it sounds like torture. Most Yancy field trips were.” (pg.2). In this quote, Percy has a very bad feeling about field trips, which is another sign of ‘loss of confidence’. A possible solution to this problem is stated in the article named ‘Top 10 Study Tips’ in which it states that you want to have a goal when you study to look up to since having a goal can be a really good motivation to achieving your objectives, this is the quote “When you’re studying it helps to keep in mind your reasons for doing all this hard work, like a course or career you’re working towards. It can help to have something in your study space to remind you of your goals.” (From: Top 10 Study Tips). Other that those 2 examples that express the loss of Percy’s self-confidence, there are also many examples that express how Percy needs help/aid in learning, but he just doesn’t seem to ask for help. In this quote “What was so great about me? A dyslexic, hyperactive boy with a D+ report card, kicked out of school for the sixth time is six years.” (p. 38). It shows how Percy has a sort of mental disorder and is always getting kicked out of school. We can infer from this quote that Percy is someone who needs help at school but doesn’t want to help/ask for help. According to a quote from the article ‘Top 10 Study Tips’, asking for aid when needed is really important to success in school/study time. Quote: “If you’re stuck on something, or something just doesn’t seem to make sense, you can always ask for help. Talk to your teachers or lecturers about the things you don’t understand. Talk to your friends and fellow students too.” (From: Top 10 Study Tips). This quote strongly promotes the fact that asking for help can really enhance and help you during your study time, and Percy can definitely benefit from that.

In conclusion, Percy needs help at improving his attitude at school and having self-confidence in himself, and these articles can really benefit Percy in a good way to help him improve on areas that he needs help in.

 

 

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Mini Habitat Project

Posted on June 3, 2020 by Eric

I was studying the forest/rainforest biome for my project and learned a lot of interesting information on both the biome itself and the animals and food webs in it.

I also studied four specific species in this biome. As well as the limiting factors and threats about the biome.

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Our Stories Make History

Posted on April 21, 2020 by Eric

In this unit, I learned how to better express my inner thoughts in journal writing as well as organize my thinking and thoughts into a timeline. I created a book on book creator for my final project to put all my work together in one main project. I organized my project in chronological order, from my 6-word memoir and collage to the articles that i’ve just read and analyzed recently. I think by organizing my project in chronological order, it would be easier for the reader to understand what happened from start to end. Readers can learn how I think about different events by reading my project, they can also learn how I organize my thinking into a bigger piece of information. Something that went well is that i’ve used book creator several times before so I know how to use it, which saves me time while making my project. Something that I found challenging is how to organize the format of pieces to make it look visually better and how to set each page the way I think it should look.

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