Melissa Serrano's digital portfolio
  • Home
    • POL 2015
    • Freshman Year
    • Scenes from Romeo and Juliet
    • Humanities >
      • History From Above Silent Film
    • Physics
    • My pictures
  • Sophomore Year
    • Humanities >
      • Mad Props
      • Borderline Cases
      • Model UN
      • The Book
    • Chemistry
    • Math >
      • ATDPTI Hackathon
    • Spanish
  • Junior Year
    • Junior TPOL
    • Chula Vista Zine Fest 2018 >
      • Chula Vista Zine Fest Final Products
      • Persuasive Writing Process
      • Social Advocacy
      • Zine Making Process
      • CV Zine Fest Production
    • Student Blog
    • Junior Internship >
      • Junior Internship Blog
      • Hopes and Dreams
      • Mentor Interview
      • Internship Project
      • Who am I now?
    • Math
    • Biology >
      • Bio Final Product >
        • Biological Root of TPW >
          • TPW Final Product Process
    • Humanities >
      • The Power Within

Physics Projects 2015-2016​

    This class is all about learning a variety of topics. For example, we've learned how to build a banner, newton's three laws, and working with vectors. We also learned how to make our own mix tape. We added parts of different songs that we liked and blended them with other sounds. We learn a lot of trigonometry, but also to be persistent. This helps us finish problems and even if they're not correct, we can still find the correct answer.

Team Banner​

Picture
Picture



      ​This picture shows how first we had to practice converting numbers before actually cutting the wood. If we didn't do that, our pieces wouldn't have been the correct size.

       I really enjoyed working on the banner project because it had many steps and a few of them were kind of challenging, so I found that very interesting and fun. The first step was to decide how it would look like. Then we looked at what colors would look better. The third step was to practice scaling the drawings, so our banner wouldn't be funny looking. The harder step was to cut the wood into the castle shape. After our group of 4 did the final cuts we started painting the parts. Every single step was difficult because everyone had different ideas on how to approach the next step. Even though it was a bit stressful I enjoyed working on it. 

   During this project I learned how to draw things to scale, cut wood, and measure. We got a packet that explained every step. The packet also involved word puzzles. The packet included the safety rules so when it was our turn to cut the wood we already knew what to do and what to expect.  I also learned how to work with people and have fun while doing it. This project showed me how things can get done way faster if you work with your team. For example, when we had to draw the lines on the wood so we could cut it, our group of 4 worked on doing that and we finished really fast. 

      ​What I'm most proud of is that we were able to finish the largest and most complicated piece of the banner in time. I would change how our team first started to draw the lines without using a yard stick. Later we realized that the lines weren't perfectly straight, so we had to redo the lines over again and that took more of our time. I learned that working with others is more effective if everyone in the group is working hand. Also, to have patience for others because not everyone is as fast.




​  

​    

Dia de los Muertos Resonance of Remembrance


      For Dia de los Muertos we had to create a sound mix tape. We added all of our favorite songs since we were really young. Before creating the sound design we looked at sound waves and everything that had to do with that. Then we looked at what songs to add. After finishing the whole mixtape we got critique from our classmates. After that, we fixed the songs and blended them together so it would be smoother. Finally, we finished them and published the whole mix tape.
     
​       After that we went to a field trip. The place was Studio West of San Diego. There we got to experience a bunch of things, for example how background music is picked for different commercials. Also how the sound is picked for video games and movies. Then we saw how music is created. Like bands and everything like that. Also how everything involved physics too.


   We were learning sound waves. We learned how to solve for wavelength and the velocities of waves. What I learned from the project is that not all sound goes together. For example there are some sounds that can't really be blended because the rhythm is different.

       I am really proud of how my sounds sounded together. At first the first mix tape was very slow and then I decided to add a more upbeat sound to it. I would change how I created my first mix tape because it was too slow and when I made it faster I liked it better.

       I learned from this project that not everyone has the same music taste. For example, some people like slow music, others like more upbeat, while others don't like music at all.


https://www.wevideo.com/hub#editor/487478836


https://www.wevideo.com/hub#editor/477321329


​​​​​

Forces and Newton's Laws


​   Newton is the mysterious man ever. He created 3 main laws. The first law is that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. The second law is that every thing will keep on doing whatever its doing unless a force is applied to it. The third law is that F= M x A.
We also learned about SOHCAHTOA. We had to find the two letters for the triangle then find the x. We learned this by singing a song.

   What I learned is that everything you do will have a reaction. In physics and in real life. After learning forces and the three laws we started to learn about trigonometry. At first it was very difficult for me but then I started to understand the numbers and how they worked together,

I am really proud of finishing the trig packet that had 100 problems. This packet really helped me understand more about how the triangles worked with the numbers and the angles. Also, I really enjoyed getting over half of the answers right on the packet. We had another worksheet and I got every question on it correct and I was really proud of that.

We need to learn this for our drones because they are really small and we have to learn to work with small numbers. Also because we will need to control them and we don't want them flying all over the place.​​​
Picture


Science Current Events​

For homework we always have to read an article and make a paragraph of our opinion on it.

Thanks to the science current events my thoughts on science has changed drastically. I used to think that science wasn't only about plants and planets. Later on when I started to read more about the articles I learned that there are a bunch of parts to science. ​I also used to think that there weren't as many things left to discover in the science world, but then I noticed how there are still a bunch of things being discovered every single day.
Picture
 Scientists found dark matter in a small galaxy called Triangulum II. This galaxy is located at the side of the Milky Way. It only has about 1,000 stars. Kirby, a scientist found that the mass inside the galaxy s a lot. The mass that was found was greater than the amount of stars. This means that the galaxy has a high amount of dark matter. I think that this research will help humanity an scientists. It will help scientists by learning more about other galaxies and what they have inside it.

Dark Matter: nonluminous material that is postulated to exist in space and that could take any of several forms including weakly interacting particles

Galaxy:​​
a system of millions or billions of stars, together with gas and dust, held together by gravitational attraction.

It is important to learn new science vocabulary because it will help you understand more about the article.​

Drones

        First, we got our drone parts. We built the nano drone in our groups of three or four. After that, we went outside to try and fly them. It was very hard to be able to control them during the first two weeks. After that, our task was to design a mission. After designing them, we realized that it would be really hard to teach people how to fly them, so instead we made a video documenting  every single step in the project. Everyone in the group had a different job, mine was to take pictures and record everything we were doing. Also, a video of our drone mission, and the drone pilot flying it. At the end, every group was at different stations displaying their work. Our group talked about about troubleshooting. We also showed people how we fixed them, our binder with all of our work, our video, and sometimes we flew the drone. 

       The physics concepts that we learned were force, velocity, distance, and gravity. During most of the project, I mostly learned about the history of drones, how they are used in war, and troubleshooting. Learning about the forces made flying the drone easier. It made it easier because I now knew how much the drone weighed and how fast it was. After learning about how the drone worked, we started learning about how they are used in war. Drones used in war are usually used to bring medicine, spy on the "bad guys", and get new information. 
PictureHomework assignment that helped us practice on forces in physics.
       

Picture
This is Nico fixing one of our drones that broke in a crash against a wall.
Picture
This is Marcus, our drone pilot completing the drone mission.
       I am most proud of how all of us together were able to work together and display all of our work. I am really proud of this because all of our hard work was showed and many people actually cared to listen to what we had to say. The only thing that I would change is the way how we prioritized things. Instead of focusing on our video, we focused mostly on getting the drone mission done and filmed. At the end it was really hard to finish our video and weeblys because mostly focused on the drone mission, ​
http://historyfromabovedrone6.weebly.com/
​
This is the link to our team Drone weebly. We wrote all of our progress, how we built the drone, and the physics behind everything.
 

Nuclear Physics 

Picture
       For our nuclear physics project, we could chose to make a book, a song, a poem, a slideshow, but we had to be creative. I decided to make a book with my friend Alexandra. Not just any kind of book, a scrapbook. We got the idea from the scrapbook from the movie "Up". Their book was called "Our Adventure Book" so we decided to title ours "Our Radioactive Book."

       We had to include the history of nuclear energy, ionizing vs non ionizing radiation, nuclear fusion, nuclear fission, and random facts. We learned that nuclear energy was first developed from 1895-1945. Then that the main focus was to use it on nuclear power plants since 1956. We also learned that ionizing radiation is really bad, while non ionizing radiation doesn't carry enough energy to cause bad damage. Nuclear fission is when the nucleus of an atom into smaller parts, while nuclear fusion is when two atomic nuclei collide at a very high speed and create a new nucleus. Everything we learned, we wrote in our book.

      I'm really proud of how we were able to work together as a pair and write everything we learned in our scrapbook. It was really easy to work together because we both had kind of the same idea in mind and what our goal was. I'm really proud of this because it turned out very well and we had fun making it. The only thing that I would change is the history page. Every of our pages had at least one image or a drawing except that one. I would add a drawing of a timeline because it looked really plain, while the other ones looked more colorful. 


Subatomic Particles and Quantum Physics 

PictureFor my project I decided to make a Charm Quark. A charm quark is a quark with an electric charge of +2/3 and charm of 1.
Subatomic particles are particles smaller than atoms. Quantum physics is the branch of physics regarding protons and photons.

During our plushie project we learned many things. Multiple dimensions, time stretching, black holes, worm holes, and subatomic particles. The 10 dimensions really challenged my thinking because they were really hard to understand. We also read an article about colliding protons, quarks, gluons, W bosons, Z bosons, Tau leptons, Higgs bosons, electrons, photons, neutrinos gravitons, and muons. This article really helped my understanding grow. 

What really challenged my thinking during this project was how atoms are made from particles. Does that mean that particles are also made of something else? Also, learning about the 10 dimensions. I still don't really understand how all of them work. 

Science Curiosity

In physics to be curious means to be open to learning new things. For example, when writing an SCE, if I find an article really interesting I will do more research on it. 

I don't think my perspective has changed much. When I first entered physics in the fall, I was really excited to learn more about classical physics, and modern physics. Now leaving physics, I am still excited to learn more about these subjects. At the beginning of the class I thought that physics would be only about forces, trigonometry, and waves. Now, I learned that physics has a lot more than that. There are multiple dimensions, nuclear energy, subatomic particles, dark matter, dark energy, radiation, relativity, etc. After learning all of these new things, I can't wait to learn more. 
Picture
This tree helped me understand more about physics in general. It challenged my thinking because I didn't know that there were many parts to physics. Also, thanks to this drawing I learned that there are many parts to classical physics and the modern physics.

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Home
    • POL 2015
    • Freshman Year
    • Scenes from Romeo and Juliet
    • Humanities >
      • History From Above Silent Film
    • Physics
    • My pictures
  • Sophomore Year
    • Humanities >
      • Mad Props
      • Borderline Cases
      • Model UN
      • The Book
    • Chemistry
    • Math >
      • ATDPTI Hackathon
    • Spanish
  • Junior Year
    • Junior TPOL
    • Chula Vista Zine Fest 2018 >
      • Chula Vista Zine Fest Final Products
      • Persuasive Writing Process
      • Social Advocacy
      • Zine Making Process
      • CV Zine Fest Production
    • Student Blog
    • Junior Internship >
      • Junior Internship Blog
      • Hopes and Dreams
      • Mentor Interview
      • Internship Project
      • Who am I now?
    • Math
    • Biology >
      • Bio Final Product >
        • Biological Root of TPW >
          • TPW Final Product Process
    • Humanities >
      • The Power Within