I’d say that this math project was definitely one that I took valuable lessons away from, particularly involving time management. Time management was something that I could have done a lot better and I underestimated how time consuming this project would be, and so I would definitely say that I could have managed that part of the project a lot better. But I have finished my final copy of the desmos art functions card project. The first picture is the original picture that I used, and then the picture underneath/to the right is the picture that I used functions and all sorts of things to re-create this picture.
As far as which equations I used and how I figured that out, I would definitely say that I tried to use new equations/function types that I wasn’t quite familiar and proficient at, for example: instead of using a parabola I would use semi-circle functions to more precisely re-create a part of my picture such as my hoodie shape. There we’re definitely equations that I used that I was familiar with but for this project I tried to step out of my comfort zone and kind of experiment with the different kinds of functions and how I can manipulate them to match with the line/shape that was on the picture. I definitely took a look at each part one by one and thought about it through in my head first as to how I could go about using the different functions to create this part, and for some of the parts I had even written it down on a piece of paper so that I wouldn’t forget at some point in the day.
I definitely did have challenges, that was something I struggled with as a whole throughout the project. I made a huge mistake of starting the project maybe 2 and a half weeks before it was due, when I could have started a while before (during winter break), Time management was definitely a huge challenge, but in terms of the project itself and the equations and replicating the picture I also did have some challenges, and I would say that one of the biggest ones were the restrictions on the equations. On functions it isn’t possible to use range (y) restrictions, it should only be used for shading. Domain (x) is the one that must be used for restrictions on equations and so there was a lot of times where I got stuck as to how to use domain restrictions strategically in order to cut off the lines where desired, and it was a huge hassle when I made a very steep linear equation (to act as a vertical line) and the restrictions took longer than some entire body parts because it was domain only but I managed to figure everything out in the end which was definitely something to be proud of in my opinion.
In terms of “any aha moments” I’m going to go ahead and assume that this means a moment of realization, and a moment where I thought of something brilliant that would benefit my project and speed up the process of something. There we’re definitely some “aha” moments throughout my project, and I would say that a prime example was figuring out how to incorporate some types of functions into my project, more specifically absolute values. Something I hadn’t mentioned in the previous question about challenges was talking about how hard it was in order to incorporate absolute value functions into my project as the shape of an absolute value function is pretty hard to match with an image like mine. But, I actually found 3 places, 1 being the bottom of my Adidas logo and 2 being in my hairline and so I was really proud of finding those out because it was definitely frustrating to find where to put it (especially the bottom of my Adidas logo, I’m really proud of that one).
Did I get any help? Yes and No, but mainly no and I’ll explain why I was completely fine with that. Why I said yes was because there we’re times where I asked my teacher about the criteria, or how to use this and this function and include it into my project. There we’re also times where I got my friends to help me decide what would be best for a specific area of my project. But, if the question is referring as to a “Did you get any of your work done by your peers” kind of question then definitely no, it was definitely that my peers/teachers would tell me what I could do and they would give me recommendations, and then I would do the rest on my own. I interpreted this question in 2 different ways, so I would say yes and no but I’m grateful towards the people who did take their time and who did give me suggestions.
Did you use any strategies? Yes, I actually used a couple strategies and one of the ones that I was more proud of was with the use of semi-circles. As someone who wasn’t very familiar with semi-circle functions and how they work in general I decided to test them out with my eyes, and it went so fast because all I did was use a semi-circle function and then turn the negative into a positive sign and it made a duplicate of that same function just flipped upside down, so it gave me a full circle. I then re-adjusted each semi-circle, put on restrictions and then I was done with the eyes in maybe 10 minutes maximum. I think that it saved me a lot of time especially considering that most of the people I know used quadratic functions that were really stretched, but I found a strategy that saved me a lot of time. Another small strategy would definitely have to be with my glasses, I made the outline on the outside of the glasses and then used the exact same functions but just decreased the size and restrictions, and it cut me a lot of time as well so I would say that with my eyes and my glasses I used some time-saving strategies.
This task/project/assignment definitely did help me understand more about transformations of functions. I would say that this project not only developed my skills in quadratic functions and how to graph them pretty quickly using vertex form, but I learned more about how each function works, how I can transform it (whether it may be rotating, flipping upside down, or simply moving left to right), or how I could stretch or compress it. Apart from quadratic functions though, I’d say that a pretty good aspect about this project was the fact that we were allowed to sort of play around with the different types of functions and we were given the opportunity to learn on our own, and with things like absolute values (which we didn’t cover too much in class) it allowed me to change the different values and see what each variable does to change the equation whether it’s increasing the size or flipping it upside down. In terms of learning about functions and things like that I’d say that I learned quite a bit, I was given the opportunity to play around with the different variables to see which variable does what and so on so forth.
This was a huge learning experience for me, I took a lot of valuable things away from this project as a whole that I never really thought I’d take away such as time management and when an appropriate time to start an assignment may be. Lastly, I have included my core competencies as a PDF file below and so feel free to take a look at that one as well. Overall, I’d say that I’m quite satisfied with my final product, after putting in consecutive hours of hard work it’s safe to say that I’m pretty happy with my final copy.
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