The Road To Olympus

For the second action project of my Electives course, Game Changers, we were asked to showcase the games we created. Some games were solo and some games were duo-created. I had a partner who just so happened to be a great visual artist. Since I have a very creative mind as well, our partnership came to be very successful. We created a Greek Mythology themed game, where Hades has sent 7 demigods to the underworld and they must make their way up to Mount Olympus. Hades has put several different creatures on the road in hopes of tethering the young heroes, but 3 demigods must win! The process of creating this game was time-consuming and really fun! The most difficult thing about this project was definitely the creative part; specifically looking at the lore of the story, and the abilities and roadblocks. Our project was very well-thought-out and has really gotten better over the last couple of weeks. I hope you guys like it!

Our quick elevator pitch: Hello I am DR and my partner is NVA and together we have created the game, Road To Olympus, a Greek Mythology game where you can play as one of 7 demigods. Hades has captured these 7 demigods and now they must make their way back to Olympus. They must go through 5 creatures the Sphinx, the Cyclops, the Hydra, the Minotaur, Medusa, and Hades himself to get to Olympus. They can pray to the gods to help them, but their prayers can be heard by any god, even Hades. Only 3 of the demigods can be victorious in making it to Olympus.

Below is a slideshow, showcasing our failures and successes throughout the creation process:

Below is a video, explaining gameplay more in depth:

The game-creating process is no joke. This class has really showed me that some games were a lot harder to create than they are to play. Even with our almost pure random game, the experience was just really hard. I enjoyed every second of working with my partner, but we did struggle, and there's beauty in the struggle. If you ever feel as if you are struggling, then that means you are improving. The hardest thing that we had to overcome was making sure there was smooth gameplay. We wanted a very balanced game. It was very important to us that the consumer is happy. If whoever is playing the game, thinks it is genuinely unfair. then we were open to feedback. Feedback was huge in creating our game. We had feedback that spanned from our classmates to professional game developers. This made our drafts a lot easier to create because we just tried to solve every problem that we encountered. My partner and I are extremely happy you guys took time to look at our game. We truly did put our all into creating this game. When people are having fun playing it, it actually means the world to us! The Road to Olympus stemmed from our love for Greek Mythology and for just have a good time. Our 7 player game is more fun, the more people that play, and we would really suggest it to anyone! Let creativity prosper and create your own game! Games are more than rolling dice and moving. This project has taught me that.

My Fun-sized Oven

For the second action project of the last STEAM course of my Junior, my group members and I were asked to create a parallel circuit with 5 resistors, a parallel switch, and a master switch. This unit we focused mainly on power and who has harnessed it best to create different ways of shaping humanity. For example, Nikola Tesla being one of these great scientists, who created Alternating Current which can be seen throughout large areas where electricity has to travel far distances and Thomas Edison being a contributor to Direct Current whereas, it travels shorter distances, using less voltage. I learned quite a lot this unit I think the project was difficult, but quite interesting. Definitely not my favorite project, but I love the creativity that my school has put into it!

 

Break, Or Not To Break

In the first unit of my last STEAM course of junior year, we were asked to create a bridge with a random partner. KIS and I had to create a bridge using triangles because we have studied that triangles have proved to be the most effective shape in infrastructure. We used a combination of glue and popsicle sticks to create a stable bridge. There was a small amount of super glue available so we used it with caution. After overcoming some problems with our initial design, our outcome was different than expected. The main concern before testing the 10lbs on our bridge was the constant leaning of it. Not to mention we could only use 50 popsicle sticks. Despite our difficulties with the design, I am extremely proud of my bridge for holding 10lbs.

Solar Time...

In the third and final Action Project for my Winter Term, my STEAM teacher asked me to create or innovate a time-telling device. Throughout this unit, we explored the secrets and different perceptions of time. While we studied the different techniques and devices for telling time, we also started to think about how we could create something that could potentially tell time using the units days, hours, minutes, and seconds. We also started to think about how we could improve ideas or devices that already tell time. The most important thing we tried to focus on was the video that you will see below. The creation of this video was very stressful and new to me. In this project, I tried to open my mind to new things. Designing your own clock may sound a bit crazy or impossible, but this project was extremely fun and even though the video may have been challenging, isn't that what makes projects fun?

Math Concepts: 

The circumference of the face of the watch is represented as 2piRadius. The diameter of the watch is about 1.5 inches, and since diameter is just radius times two, this means that all we now have to do is multiply 1.5 by pi. The circumference is about 4.71 inches. 

Works Cited:

Seiko "SEIKO Solar and the Environment," N.D. Web. 19 March. 2016.

Solar cooking "horace de saussure and his hot boxes of the 1700's," N.D. Web. 19 March. 2016.

An Expert Musician

For the second unit of my STEAM course, "Light, Sound, and Time," we were assigned to create our own guitars, or "diddley-bows." This unit deeply revolved around how sound travels and the speed it can reach. We explored many math concepts that helped us along our road of understanding the background of sound. We studied key concepts that play a big part in the traveling and manipulation of sound as well. For example: studying how as the frequency of sound increases, the wavelength decreases and theories related to that. I loved the versatility and flexibility of this project. The creative control of the guitar allowed us to tamper around with materials. Getting the string very straight and firm was the hardest part. This consisted of a lot of screw driving!

DR "My Diddley-bow," Photo. 03/02/16

DR "My Diddley-bow," Online Drawing. 03/02/16

Above is a diagram labeling each part of my guitar. Relating my diddley-bow to a real guitar, the tin can represents the resonator, the wood represents the neck, and the battery represents the nut.

The golden question is, how does this mediocre looking guitar actually produce sound? The string vibrates as you pluck it, creating a longitudinal wave which allows molecules to travel as sound, to your pinna. There is also the tin can, which allows you to hear the sound better because it amplifies it for you. Connecting the science of the "diddley-bow" back to what we learned throughout this unit, this homemade guitar is sending sound waves out; not only that, but the versatility of the string allows you to change pitch and frequency. Can’t forget that as the frequency changes, so does the wavelength. You can use a slide to change the frequency as you pluck the string. The amplitude of the string increases and decreases when playing the guitar.

The Doppler Effect is when an object has a higher frequency and lower wavelength when approaching another object, but as it moves farther away from this other object, there is a lower frequency and higher wavelength. For ex: while moving towards a person or object, the frequency of your guitar is increasing because you are getting closer.

In order to assemble my diddley-bow, I used a string with a thickness of 0.035 inches and a length of 9 inches. To get the volume, I first had to find the radius of my resonator. Since the diameter was 3.5, the radius was 1.75, and to find the the volume of the amplifier, I had to do pi x Radius(squared) x Height. My volume came out to be 38.48 inches (cubed).

DR "The Harmonics," Online Drawing. 03/02/16

Above is the listed harmonics in order of highest wavelength to lowest. These harmonics originate from the actual sound of my guitar, where I used an online program to record the frequency of it.



If I could do it all over, I would definitely explore ways to customize my project a bit more and I would have also explored options of making my wire a lot more firm.

My Little Camera

For the first Action Project of my STEAM Winter course "Light, Sound, & Time," my peers and I had to create a bunch of pinhole cameras! The materials for a pin hole camera consist of: a box, aluminum can piece, black tape, scissors/knife, and black paint or paper. Throughout the unit, we discussed plenty mathematical and scientific terms and theories that we were required to bring up in our Action Project, such as: electromagnetic spectrum, particle vs wave, similar triangles, sohcahtoa, etc. We were required to go to a dark room to develop our photos with chemical-based liquid. This did not turn out as planned, but was still, of course, an unforgettable experience. 

DR "My Pin Hole Camera," Photo. 02/11/16

The pinhole camera is very unique and takes quite a lot of steps to develop a picture. The creation of the camera itself was very fun. To create the camera, I needed the following materials: a box, aluminum can piece, black tape, scissors/knife, and black paint or paper. All these materials came together to create a light proof, homemade camera, believe it or not. The camera works by using the light exposed to the camera from the hole in the lens, located in the middle of the camera. That same light then projects the object across from the lens. In my case, I attempted to develop the image of one of my favorite things in the world! Air Jordans! 

DR "Air Jordan 1s," Photo. 02/09/16

Then the black flap on the camera comes in handy. The flap allows you to easily cover up the hole when you don't want light passing through the lens. After I left my camera at the developing station for about 4 minutes, I proceeded to the dark room. On my way to the dark room, I had to make sure absolutely no light passed through the hole in my camera so that it wouldn't affect the quality of the photo. The dark room allows you to remove your film from inside your camera and use the special sink with special liquid chemicals to "clean" and reveal the photo that your camera developed! The idea of refraction is not presented in this project because refraction can only occur when light moves from one medium to another, such as glass and water (more specifically a glass of water). The "shutter speed" required for my photo to develop was around four minutes, even though it didn't come out too well. The part I messed up on, was the concealing my film from light part and that's ultimately why the figure didn't really show.

DR "Developed/Failed Film" Photo. 02/10/16

My camera uses the science concept of the "Electro-magnetic Spectrum," which says that, since the inside of the camera is painted black, it absorbs more sun and light energy. There was also some math terms used to represent the light rays using similar triangles! The height of my camera is 6.25 inches tall. The length of the circular top of my camera is 4 inches wide. From the pinhole to the bottom of my camera, it is 3.25 inches in height.

DR "Calculations" Google Drawings. 02/12/16

Sticky Nostalgia

For my third and last Action Project of my STEAM Electives class "Rapid Prototyping," we had to create something for our new school building. No matter if it's a bike rack or a memory foam chair, it just had to be appropriate for a work space or as we like to call it, a "family." The project was supposed to be solo, but there's certain projects that were a bit too much to handle for one person. I had one of those projects. I had an original idea of creating a hammock for the student space, but quickly changed my mind when the required materials weren't available. After a lot of thinking, my partner and I decided to still use the hammock and re-purpose it. We came up with the idea of creating a "memory net," as I like to call it. This just really consists of hanging the hammock up and posting pictures from the past on the hammock. In which the title "Sticky Nostalgia" was born. This was extremely fun, but it did take a while to gather the required materials.

"Phase 1" By DR & TC. Jan, 2016.

It was required that we have an Instructables page up in order for our viewers to fully understand our creation process. Find our Instructables page here: http://www.instructables.com/id/Hammock-Banner/

We were also quite inspired by the original idea of the hammock: http://www.complex.com/style/2013/07/summer-life-hacks/diy-hammock. Before the re-purposing process, this idea was awesome!

In all of my classes, we have something called Field Experiences (FEs). This allows us to go out into the field and understand the content of our class from a working experience; a more hands-on experience. One FE we attended was the Wasteshed in Humboldt Park. A woman named Eleanor said "the best thing about doing something for no profit is the non-stop feeling that you are helping someone else." This quote motivated and inspired me to make my project even more cooler just because there's people out there who work very hard just to give back daily to the community. Thank you Eleanor!

Below are 34 seconds of time-lapsed video, covering our whole creation process. For a every two seconds, our time lapse will capture two and a half seconds of motion being taken for each video.

While completing this project, I picked up on a lot of different safety hazards that, with common sense were easy to avoid. The only safety hazard I could really think of was the spray paint, which can become quite dangerous if you get enough of it into your system, so using that with care was a must.

Our project didn't require a lot of building, just a lot of brain power. There was the hanging of the hammock though. This consisted of hammering nails in the two hung up metal pieces in order for the hammock to be high up on the wall. My partner and I also had to gather spray paint. Generally, we wanted nice colors that would pop out on the rope like fabric of the hammock. We chose red, purple, and blue. We chose these colors because of the simple facts that they're dark and they look nice. We went into a building, not infested with people, and began spray painting our school's initials nice and big on the hammock. This was so fun! The only problem is the dangerousness of the spray paint. So I ended up leaving a lot of space between me and the spray paint. After the spray painting came the photo attaching. This was mildly easy, as all we had to do was attach the paper clip to the photo, then attach the photo to the hammock, but the knots in the hammock made this kind of difficult. The outcome was a lot nice then I thought it would be, which made me much more happy about myself. Here are 5 very important lessons I've learned throughout the entire process:

• Spray paint is easy to work with, with a steady hand and focus.
• Paper clips are quite versatile.
• Coloring is actually really important (seeing how the spray paint came out).
• Wood cannot hold hundreds of pounds daily!
• Your work doesn't always have to be compensated.

Lastly, in order for you to complete this project, I suggest a helping hand because the work load, physically and mentally is cut down the middle and this is such a relief. Remember that this project is not only for me and my school, but for you too, and I hope you enjoy our creativity!

3D Printing A Chess Set

The name of this course is "Rapid Prototyping." For the second Action Project of my STEAM course this Elective Term, we had to use a design, voted on by our class to create 3D Printed chess pieces. We also had to create a clay and cardboard model of our piece to kind of match the 3D model. This was all extremely fun, and time-consuming, but sometimes time- consuming is a good thing. There was math involved, as we had to calculate the Riemann sum of our 3D Printed piece! All, such cool stuff! The challenge was make every little thing we did precise, and this was a challenge because humans aren't perfect and the design that we had is just a little bit complex. Like I said before, this was a fun project and 3D Printers very well may be the future of humanity!!

Letter Generator 4000

The name of this course is "Rapid Prototyping," and don't worry, it's not AS complicated as it sounds. For the first Action Project of my Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math (STEAM) course this Elective Term, we had to use what we have learned the entire course to take advantage of the complex technology available to us (Cameo Cutter) and create a letter that was assigned to us. The other part of the project was to create a handmade version of that same letter. All together, we had to create a total of four letters, one letter on the Cameo and handmade, and another on the Cameo and handmade, and that's four. We did this to observe the very distinct differences between the handmade and machine-made letters. This was NOT easy, but very fun and creative.  It took a great amount of time to make my letters actually look good. On the positive side, I learned a lot about how to use the Cameo Cutter, which was pretty cool.