Link to Project: https://www.desmos.com/calculator/tjlq4gubeg

I started this project with having done one other Desmos project before in grade 10. Since that project I haven’t used Desmos much, therefore; I don’t remember how to use it. As a start, I went back to my grade 10 project to jog my memory which helped a lot. I remembered I have to use a specific domain and range to get functions to connect accurately. Then I thought about the picture I wanted to recreate and thought about how I could incorporate the 6 functions we had to use into the picture I had in mind. Having a rough idea of what I wanted to do helped speed the process along.

One thing that I found the most difficult was the domain, because it’s one of the most important aspects of the project. This is because in most instances I only wanted to use a certain part of a graph, so using the domain just to get that certain area only was difficult. It was also difficult to get the lines to connect properly using the domain. I had to try different numbers and keep zooming in to get them to attach and not overlap.  Another challenge was making the function fit in the area I wanted it to. For example, I had the outline of the window and when I wanted to do curtains with a logarithmic function inside the window, it was difficult to get a function that would fit in the window and also look the way I wanted it to. It took multiple guesses with reflections and translations to get a function that was close to the one I wanted and then played around with the domain to make it more accurate. I used that strategy in other aspects of the card such some of the Christmas tree decorations.

Besides domain, another thing that’s very important when doing this project is transformations and reflections. It makes the project move along faster because rather than copying the same function down and then changing it so that it is where you want it to be, you can just write down the function label and add a transformation to it. This helps get the desired line. I also used a lot of inverse functions that helped me get a function where I wanted it to be. It helped me get familiar with transformations.

When I was stuck on certain things I would google how to do it on and it helped me out more than expected. It was really helpful in helping me understand how to use inequalities to shade areas and shapes. The inequality that I used to shade in my eyebrows is something that made me proud because at that point I had learned how to use equalities and functions well that I could use my knowledge to apply it to shade my eyebrows in. Besides google, I have multiple friends that have already taken pre-calc 12 and had to do this project too so I asked them for things when I was stuck. For example, I asked how to label and how to organize all my functions. Their recommendation was to make a lot of folders with less functions in them rather than fitting a lot in one folder which was really helpful when I had to go back and redo something. It was easy to find the function. They also helped me with functions that I wasn’t very familiar with such as circle functions and semi-circle functions that were necessary in this project.

At first I found the project extremely tedious, but after I got the hang of it the process quickened. I didn’t have a specific strategy that I used, but I had a plan that I stuck to. My idea was to get the basic shapes of what I wanted done and then add detail after. After that, I fixed the domain so that all the lines were connected perfectly without overlapping. It took a lot of time, effort, and detail to achieve the holiday card that I had envisioned, but in the end I learned a lot and I am extremely proud of the my holiday card.