Encyclopedia Project
DescriptionFor this project, students were assigned a mathematical topic that they would reasearch. I was assigned to research radical functions. As part of this, I was required to define the topic, list skills that would be needed to utilize the mathematical concept, create a list of jobs that use the topic, and find a specific example of how it is used in the real world. We would then add these to a document created by students from previous years and revise this document. I finally chose to make my example about the hang time of rockets from a NASA website.
|
Reflection I found this project to be more difficult than I anticipated. It allowed me to research how a topic that I studied in algebra is used in real life; however, this proved to be challenging as neither the internet, nor the library has much information on how radical functions are used in the real world. To this end I discovered that interviewing individuals who use this type of math is the most efficient way to gather information. I also made the project harder for myself as I accidentally began to search for many more sources and examples than were required. I learned through this project that sometimes math really is rocket science and not just in the way that it is used; sometimes it can be rocket science just to try and find out about it.
|
Polynomials and Art
Description This project allowed us to use math to create art. We started with an image of our choice and then found curves on the image. We drew X and Y axes on the image and then traced the curves we wanted. After that we created polynomial equations that created these curves. We revised these equations and transformed them into a different form. Finally, we drew these parabolas onto a sheet of graphing paper and used them to create our final drawings. I chose the hills around my house as my starting image, and then I duplicated those curves in my final art piece.
|
Refection This project was extremely challenging for me. I don't consider myself very artistic when it comes to drawing and I don't enjoy it. Because of this I am not pleased with my final drawing. I am also displeased with this project because I was unable to change the form of my equation correctly, and so each equation showed a different polynomial when it should have showed the same curve. I did however complete the challenge extension to find examples of how polynomials are used in the real world. Overall, I felt overly challenged by this project and because of that I neither enjoyed it nor was I able to make it as refined as I would have liked to have done.
|
Pride in my Work
The piece of work that I am most proud of is my Semester Exam Project. I am proud of this example because it allowed me to apply my learning in a new way by writing problems, and this method helped me to better learn the content. I am proud of being able to succeed in this new way of learning, and my grade is evidence for this. This project helped me learn the content more effectively as I had to apply my learning towards writing problems, not just solving them and this helped me get a 98 on the first part of the final and 104 on the second. This project taught me that writing math problems, especially writing easy problems, is much more difficult than I realized. I also found out that writing your own problems, and then solving them is a very helpful way for me to study.
|
|