Hello, my name is Laura and I am/was a high school student at Southwestern High School, located in PA. This website will be used throughout the duration of my education to display the work I have produced in selected classes. Here is a brief description of each of the listed courses.
Ceramics 1: This course was selected my first year in high school, year 2017-2018. I had taken this course since I enjoy making ceramics. Overall, this course is designed to introduce students to basic techniques and tech students how to maintain our clay throughout the duration of the semester. To start out we go through 'boot camp' where we learn our needed techniques, and them demonstrate what we learn on various projects. My biggest take away form this course was to try not to touch dried out clay as much as possible. I tried to check on one of my pieces in this dried out state and broke a part of it. I then spent that Friday afternoon fixing the part instead of at home. Graphics 1: This course was selected my first year in high school, year 2017-2018. I took Graphics since I had enjoyed doing graphic design projects in middle school. Graphics 1 first familiarized us with the elements and principles of design, and proceed with introducing us to Adobe Illustrator where we completed several project to exercise our skills with the program. In addition, we would also need to complete three online tutorials. My biggest take away from this course was learning the different processes that are performed to make the product we use. PLTW Introduction into Engineering and Design: This course was selected my second year in high school, year 2018-2019, to gain experience of the engineering field. We worked on various assignment and projects that built on our problem solving, designing, teamwork, analysis, and leadership skills throughout the course. In addition, we were introduced to the 3D modeling program Inventor where we gained experience with, and we had been shown how to 3D print an object. My biggest take away form this course was time management, especially in the projects. They can be time consuming and for some it was difficult to stay on a planned schedule. CAD/Mechanical Aided Drafting: This course was selected my junior year of high school, and I took it to become acquainted with the use of technical drawings. They would be important in my desired job of engineering. What are technical drawings? Technical drawings are a precise and accurate drawing of an object. If drawn by hand, precise drawing tools would be use to guide the hand of the drafts person, and there are specific standard that must be used. If drawn on the computer, which is used by majority, you must set the drawing program to the correct standard and then may begin drawing. We start out in the class doing 15 hand drawing before moving onto the computer and using Auto CAD. My major takeaway from this course was the time and technique it takes to develop a technical drawing. |