Embedded Files
9th Grade
Ted Cuevas (9th grade Math/Physics)
International Dream Makers, Inc.: Students work cooperatively in companies to design a theme park in a particular country. In addition, they must design a working model of a "featured ride" that will integrate with another company's "featured ride". "Cooperatives" are created that are defined as two companies from opposite team "pods". The goal is to develop one theme park layout design as a "cooperative" and to design a "featured ride" by designing a working "half" (end portion or beginning portion, randomly chosen) that will be integrated on "integration" day. Companies can communicate design decisions using email, websites, etc but cannot discuss face to face unless there is a scheduled "cooperative meeting".
Spawned by my experience as an Engineer of an International company and the Japanese division wanted to manufacture and market my design of a product.
The environment is continually revealing itself to be the crisis of our times. Everywhere you look, someone is telling you to “Go Green” – but what does this mean? Is any kind of “renewable” energy good for America? Are some sources of energy better than others? In this project, students worked in partnerships to develop a case for and against a national shift towards alternative energy sources. We used competitive academic policy debate as a way of exploring these important issues. This project culminated in an all-day debate tournament where the students presented their cases and arguments to the community.
Choose Your Own EPIC Adventure
Emily Neder (9th Grade Humanities)
The Choose Your Own EPIC Adventure project allows students to explore ancient Greece. The project combines historical investigation with literary analysis in order for the students to understand the cultural significance of ancient Greece. Students choose to read Homer’s The Odyssey or The Iliad; they study the historical background of Greece and investigate the common themes throughout the text (e.g. journey, power of cunning over strength, pitfalls of temptation, homecoming, glory and fame, respect, honor, fate, revenge, etc.). Then, students use creative teaching methods (in-class skits, creative writing, and discussions) to teach the themes from Homer's epics to their peers. In groups, they design and write their own "choose your own adventure" book incorporating the various themes.
Britt Shirk (9th Grade Humanities)
The Poe Project is a production-based project that introduces students to the process and structure of projects by reading several Edgar Allan Poe works and rewriting them in the form of a stage script in order to be performed in front of a live audience.
Jon Tator (9th grade Math/Physics)
This is the first project that I give my incoming freshman. At the end of the first week, students choose a
small image from the internet, and figure out how to enlarge the image to fit onto a regular sheet of graph
paper.
Phil Wagner (9th grade Math/Physics)
The slope art project demonstrates that math is beautiful while reinforcing the essential concept of slope and practicing the skill of calculating slope, y-intercept, and domain. The project allows student to get direct feedback about how they are doing and gain a deeper understanding of Algebra.
10th Grade
Building a Sustainable San Diego
Caroline Chen (10th Grade Math/Chemistry)
Our actions as humans have such a big effect on our world, and we must be conscious of what resources we choose to use and how we use or conserve them. Since buildings are the biggest carbon emitters in the US, it is crucial to find ways to cut down on the amount of greenhouse gases that are released and implement strategies to reduce the amount of energy that is used.
In this project, students created and designed a sustainable building to fit into the San Diego landscape. They studied and researched the effects of global warming and the present need for sustainable buildings. They also explored various types of architecture throughout San Diego. Lastly, students learned how to design and build sustainable buildings and then created their own.
Brooke Gonzales (10th Grade Humanities)
Throughout history and still today, people have tried to make a difference in the world around them through the use of violence and non-violence. In this project, students will explore what the results of these attempts have been. Ultimately, non-violence is much more effective in accomplishing a long-term positive change within our world. Students will also explore violence and non-violence on a more personal level. As a class, students will work together to create lessons to showcase what they learned and to teach elementary school students about non-violence. In addition, they will create a collaborative mural on non-violence. The content about non-violence that will be learned through this project will guide the rest of our year as we learn about global issues and how people are trying to make change. It will also be relevant as we learn about major wars throughout history and those that go on today, and how peace can be fostered in our world.
Our team of 50 students created this collaborative mural on non-violence, which is now displayed in the elementary school where they taught their lessons.
Modern Revolution: A Call for Change Project
Katie Lavoie (10th grade Humanities)
This project involves researching in depth, engaging in discussion and formally presenting an issue that exists in the modern world (locally, nationally or globally). In groups of four, students explore an issue that they feel is an important one in the world today. This issue is also one which they feel needs more attention, awareness and media coverage in the larger world. In other words, the students think deeply about and research an issue they think requires an urgent and immediate call for "revolutionary" action and CHANGE. Students are to identify the specific issue, the specific change that is necessary and a possible plan of action. There are three major products for this project: the research paper (individual), the "Special Report" newscast (group) and the informational piece (group). These special reports will be videotaped and presented to a larger audience.
Lauren Niehaus (10th grade Math/Chemistry)
In the atomic model timeline project, students worked in groups to create models, posters, or computer-animated presentations of different atomic models throughout history. Students studied the experiments that led to each discovery. Individually, students wrote grant proposals from the perspective of a historical and influential scientists describing their research.
Good Morning Vietnam; A journalism project.
James Richards (10th grade Humanities)
This project requires students to research the political, social environmental causes and effects of the Vietnam war. Groups of students create fictitious newspaper publications from various regions in the world and report on various aspects and individuals involved in the conflict. The project involves students taking on various roles in the newspaper publication, such as editor, reporter layout and design, and photographer. The final product consists of a 5-6 page newspaper that would appear authentic to the time period.
11th Grade
John Bosselman (11th Grade Humanities)
Everyday when we walk down the street, ride the bus or go to the store we are faced with unspoken expectations of who we should be and how we should act. This project was designed for students to demonstrate their beliefs on gender stereotypes and give multiple audiences a glimpse into the minds of teens and how they view stereotypes in their daily lives. After learning about gender, adolescents and the media, I asked students to select a topic that they found especially moving throughout our course of study. They then were shown examples from the Post-Secret blog and were asked to create their own postcard that displayed their feelings towards the topic we discussed.
Rod Buenviaje (11th grade Math)
This project teaches students about the dangers of gambling by showing them the statistical advantage that casinos have over the people that frequent their establishments.
Billie Greenhalgh (11th grade Math)
Create and perfect the autograph that you will use when you become rich and famous. How long do you think it is? If you replaced the ink with a piece of string and pulled that string so it became a straight line, how long would it be?
This project explores ways of exploring complex lines. The student creates a way to measure their own signature and discovers what it means to have errors associated with those measurements. Each student gets a personal understanding of accurately one can report one's findings.
Angela Guerrero (11th Grade Humanities)
Students collaborated with Wild Coast and the park rangers at Otay Valley Regional Park to create a magazine that celebrated the park and informed readers of the park and all of it's many resources.
Jenny Morris (11th Grade Biology)
In 1961 the Soviet Union, in Eastern Germany, constructed a wall that would divide the world into two. In the east, communism and the Soviet Union, while the west “democracy” and the United States battled throughout this Cold War. This wall became the symbol of the division between these two countries and their ideology that ultimately brought the world the closest it has ever been to annihilation.
We asked our students to create their own Wall, focusing on the conflicts of the 20th and 21st century. Each panel of the wall is an answer to their own essential questions and their own perspective on the cost of the war, both to society and to us biologically as humans. It is our hope that this Wall of Resistance is a symbol of how close humanity has come to its annihilation, whether that be of the human race as a whole, the individual human body, or even the individual human cell.
Alexis Yerka (11th grade Biology)
In this project students had a chance to use the scientific process to choose and design their own investigation while exploring the world of microorganisms all around them . They started the scientific inquiry based on observations of a Petri dish growing microorganism containing samples from the saliva of a human and their classroom door handle. They then had to develop an inquiry question that they could carry out on campus. Following their investigation they then created a claim supported by data collected from their investigation and through research of microorganisms. Using this claim they create posters and digital messages that were informative while persuaded their peers to be mindful of the microscopic world around them. The posters were displayed around the campus and the 30-60 second digital message was displayed on the screen next to the front desk of the campus.
12th Grade
Allison Cuttler (12th grade Math teacher, 11th grade math project)
In this statistics project, students will create a class survey based on an environmental topic of their choice. After designing and administering the survey, students will collect, analyze, and display data using Microsoft Excel. In addition to contributing to the refinement of the class survey and the analysis of the data, every student will create a statistical portfolio to present their conclusions about environmental consciousness to the community at HTHCV's spring exhibition.
Kyle Edmondson (12th grade Math)
Albert Einstein is widely known as one of the most influential thinkers of all time. But what did he discover? In this project students learn the basics of Special Relativity. Students research, prove, and present their findings of this counterintuitive reality.
Tim McNamara (12th grade English)
The personal essay project asks you to mine your personal history to learn more about yourself, your place in the world, and the direction you hope your life will take. As a class, we’ll read several personal essays by writers who explore the depth and complexity of their own histories and skillfully represent themselves in writing. These readings will help generate ideas for our own written products.
As part of the project, you’ll also interview an adult about their experiences at your age and present your personal essay to them as a gift.
JoHanna Simko (12th grade English)
This project will guide you in the creation of a living college portfolio. It will be a display of your hard work through the college preparatory process. After we are “done” with this unit in class, this portfolio should continue to “live”. It should serve as a place for you to organize essential paperwork, everything from ACT/SAT scores to copies of your personal statement. I will show you an example of my teaching portfolio in class in an attempt to display how essential it is to compile a professional portfolio. Whether you plan to attend college right after high school or in the future, this skill will be one you can utilize later in life.
Exploratory
Over the past 3-plus years, students have completed dozens of projects that required them to build, paint, construct, draw, create, exhibit, and more. This project, a joint effort between english and engineering, asked students to tap into this vast store of know-how to create an article for an online technical handbook that allows them to share their knowledge with current and future High Tech High Chula Vista staff and students. Students worked in small groups of 1-3 students that 1) identified a technical task, 2) interviewed a specific person who was a novice at this task and 3) composed a document or video that addressed the specific needs of the audience. Once all the groups composed their pieces, they were accumulated and posted on a class website so that others in the HTHCV community may view them all in one location.
Marisol Franco (Spanish)
This was a five-week project intended to answer the following essential questions:
What is home? (One of the essential questions for the semester as a whole)
Why do migrants choose to leave their home?
What is the cultural significance of Día de los Muertos?
To answer these questions, students in my beginning/intermediate Spanish classes were asked to:
Create a fictionalized account in Spanish from the perspective of an illegal migrant.
Create a replica of the border between the U.S. and Mexico as a class. The border was decorated with murals depicting perspectives on "home" gathered from research, interviews and student opinion.
Create 2 altars following the traditions of Día de los Muertos (1 altar for the deceased migrants they researched and 1 altar for students’ loved ones.)
Present all products during an exhibition that including live readings of the narratives and docent-led mini-tours.
Tara Giannini (Art)
Students created paintings of indigenous animal/plant life native to the Chula Vista area. These paintings were then exhibited and actioned off at the Chula Vista Nature Center to raise money for their non-profit organization. Parents, students and members of the community were invited to celebrate and participate in this exciting evening event.
Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better
Mark Poole (12th grade Engineering)
Students explored the many different components that make up different technologies. Students use project planning and engineering principles to create an interactive demonstration to allow others to explore the technologies. Through this projects, students develop heir skills in several forms of technical communication including technical reports, presentations, and engineering drawings. The final product is an interactive display that demonstrates all of the information that the individual students had discovered.
Valerie Root (11th grade Environmental Science)
The Party in the Park was the culminating event of a four week project studying the ecology of the San Diego area. Students worked in groups of 3-4 and created 24 different interactive educational games for volunteers participating in the local clean-up effort at the Otay Valley Regional Park. This event was hosted by WiLDCOAST, an international non-profit focused on preserving and restoring the coast of California and Mexico, and the Park Rangers. Over 120 people participated in the clean-up and removed over 1,000 pounds of trash from the River Valley. Raffle tickets were earned by taking part in any of the game booths with prizes donated by REI, WiLDCOAST and HTHCV. Food was provided to all participants by a student's family restaurant.
Yoli Soler (Spanish)
In this project students learned about traditional dishes and meals from different Spanish speaking countries. They researched the origins of the ingredients, and the history of the dish, and how it has evolved over time. Lastly for their exhibition, in small groups students made these dishes and shared with friends, family, and peers at our annual student exhibition, Festival del Sol.
Triple-C Project:Community Contrast Collage
Patrick Yurick (Multimedia)
How are we all connected as a community? What do we share as individuals and what makes us
different? What is your drive in life?
Students explored these questions visually and verbally during the Triple-C Project. On several different
levels students analyzed who they were as individuals and how that contrasts their inherent connection to
the community that surrounds them. All of this was done while simultaneously exploring the program Adobe Illustrator for the first time.
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