Link: https://www.desmos.com/calculator/fg66mcrrvj

The first step of creating my holiday card was coming up with a plan.  I first drew a quick sketch of how I would layout my card, such as where I was going to put my portrait, where I was going to put “Happy Holidays” as well as what other image I could include to enhance the card. When I first started my portrait, I did a quick sketch on paper to get an idea of how I would make it look like, while planning out how to incorporate the different graphs needed that we learned over the semester. I already knew that I was going to use a sine graph for my hair and lots of semi-circles for the eyes; however, I did struggle with deciding how I would use log functions and the exponential functions. I figured out how to incorporate them into my portrait by first doing the basic shapes of my portait and colouring it in with domain and range restrictions, then started to add in the more difficult functions (log and exponential) as final touches.

Throughout the process, I came across many challenges. One of them was figuring out how to colour in my hair. It took quite awhile to figure out how to colour it without it overlapping on my face and on the hat, but I managed to finally get it by playing around with the domains and ranges. The other challenge was when I was trying to use polynomial functions for part of my tree. Every time I would try to use it, it would disappear once I added in the range, which made me quite confused and frustrated. I eventually found out that the solution was to first colour it in, then add in the restrictions which was quite relieving.

I did ask my friends for some help when I got stuck, but most of the time they also couldn’t figure it out, so I just tried to work my way around the problem by playing around with the functions until I found a solution. One thing I did get help with was the shading and I referred to Ms Hubbard’s example too.

As for aha moments, it was when I discovered how to shade, and seeing the end result. It was pretty cool to see my piece come together once I added colour.

I didn’t really use strategies; however, I did find it important to have a deep understanding of functions that was required, and to have an extensive knowledge of what I learned. I also found that organization and dedication helped me with completing this graph.

Overall this assignment helped me understand how to manipulate functions, including complicated ones, and helped me learn more about transformations of functions and relations by forcing me to apply my knowledge of what I learned.