Author: echoy (Editor)

My name is Ethen Choy. I am 15 years old and currently enrolled as a freshman in Wake STEM Early College High School on NC State campus. I was homeschooled for 5 years before going back to the public school system in 2017.
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Honors World History – Belief and Politics Though Time Portfolio

Belief and Politics Though Time Portfolio

This collection of tasks focused on several countries and governments from all across history taught me 3 important things. The first was revolution in countries are heavily influenced by the status of the classes. If the middle class and rich classes are not behind any movement, a revolution may not create enough momentum to make a difference. If technologies like cheaper weapons are available, then the poor class can overcome wealth differences and successfully make a difference. Money and well being are major factors in changes like these.

The second is that democracy and stable governments are often difficult to achieve due to many different factors. Colonized states have it especially though; the lack of structure during its rule by a foreign power shows after they are left alone. A military heavily involved in the government can keep order but can also keep the people as a whole from holding power.

Finally, I learned that countries are heavily influenced by those around them. Once democracy stabilized in Britain others began to follow suit. Then within in a few centuries it had already spread to places like Africa and Asia. When the people see other people with power in their government, they want it too, like the French in the French Revolution. Peer pressure is real, even on this scale.

Something I could have improved on this project is the time frame I took to finish it. I went out of town in the middle of the project and did not finish it until a week or two after the due date. While I was given an extended period to finish it, ideally next time I would have finished it by the due date.

One thing I am proud of in this project was my video. After coming to Wake STEM I have done a few video PSAs and commercials, something I have never done before in my academic career. This is something I am trying to improve in, and I think I am making progress.

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Math 3 Unit 4 – Polynomial Division

Part 1

I believe the most important thing we learned this unit was how to divide polynomials, either though long division or synthetic division. This is a very vital skill because there are many tasks that require using it, such as factoring. If you have one root, then you can find the next lowest degree factor and that may be enough to find all the roots.

Synthetic division will be especially helpful, as it is an absurdly quick and easy way to find quotients with 1 co-efficient divisors. That will allow for easier factoring of quadratic and cubic polynomials, as well as assist in higher degree functions.

Mrs. Parker assigned a day dedicated to explaining how synthetic division worked, as it was not in our workbook but she felt it was important anyways. It made us understand how it worked, and was a great way of teaching us that new concept.

Part 2 – Cartoon Project

This unit we had a Cartoon Project where we were tasked to explain some concepts about polynomials in a cartoon format. We already understood the material in this unit, but that was not the goal of this project; we now were supposed to present that knowledge in an easy-to-understand format. The hardest part of this project was actually focusing on it, as it was assigned during our grade level project. I found it very difficult to prioritize working on it while we had all the other work looming over us. While this project never really demanded much time, I know I could have done better given more effort. On most projects I go all in and cover as many points as possible but it felt impossible for this one.

Nonetheless, our final result did not look bad. Our presentation looked decent, and thanks to a teammate, we had nice little characters to base our cartoon around. Our slideshow’s theme was fairly simple but pleasant. I probably would have executed a makeover given more time but I didn’t.

Next time I need be able to focus more on this project. In an ideal situation I would be assigned one project at a time, but given that nobody ever gets it all their way, I will need to be able to multitask between multiple projects at once. While in this situation the Grade Level Project was definitely more important, I will need to learn how to prioritize certain elements of two, maybe even three tasks at the same time.

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Honors World History – State of Water (Grade Level Project)

State of Water (Grade Level Project)

I learned three important things from the History division of this project. First of all, I learned that many different people and companies in NC and all over the world influence water quality and supply. For example, our role, Real Estate Agents, can affect water in several ways, such as though construction, infrastructure design, etc.

The second was that it goes the other way around too. Many people and companies don’t just effect water, they are affected by it. For our role, Real Estate Developers are influenced by how valuable land is. And one factor that influences that is how clean water in the area is or how much there is. If the local water supply in an area is very polluted, people won’t want to live there. If there is little water, then costs will be very high, and again people won’t want to live there.

The last thing is that there are many different factors that effect water quality. Construction sites can lead to waste runoff; buildings can block runoff because of impervious surfaces, old pipes can introduce lead to water supply. That is why it is all the more important for all companies and people to be extra careful about that they do with water.

One thing my group and I could have improved on with our project would have been our presentation. When we explained our board to people, we did it separately, with each person talking to a person. Instead, we could have presented as a team, with each person discussing a few points at a time to combine our knowledge together.

One thing we did very well was our design. We created a very good looking trifold and poster, thanks to a teammate and me. We were able to use our strengths in this field to make ours look very nice.

The Grade Level Project is the largest project I have ever done as of this writing. It taught me a lot about water both here in NC as well as in other places in the world. But just as importantly, it taught me many things about doing projects and working with a team towards a grand goal.

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Math 3 Unit 3 – Logarithmic Functions

Part 1

The most important thing I believe I learned this unit is how to really use logarithmic functions. This will allow me to expand my knowledge on many other topics, such as the ones we also did this unit. We learned how to calculate interest as well as the real world applications of money and banking. That will be a great life skill to have. We learned what e is, what it does, and how to use it.

Task 2.6: Compounding the Problem was a great transition from the compound interest we had just learned into continuous compound interest. As we learned how to compound interest multiple times a year, we found that as we compounded it more and more, from quarterly to monthly to daily, we got closer and closer to the irrational number called e. That explained to concept to me perfectly, and I now fully understand it.

Part 2 – College Tuition Project

In this project, we learned about the process of college tuition: how much it was going to cost, what the costs include, what loans there are to pay them off, how loans work, and of course, how to calculate the loans. The procedure for this experiment was to research the tuition of a college of your interest and choice, find scholarships and loan programs to pay it off, then evaluate an equation to calculate monthly payments.

The hardest part of this project was figuring out how to convert the equation. I used a monthly payment formula I found and it worked; I had an exponential equation. The harder step was to find the inverse of that, or the logarithmic form. Using some self-defined variables, I was able to simplify the equation into a clean, easier-to-manage set of numbers and then solve.

That also turned out to be a success of my project; after this simplification the numbers were incredibly easy to deal with. I was also able to show a few of my classmates how to do the same thing for their equations.

The design of my project was also a success and pain in the back. The website I used to create the infographic was too unstable and buggy, and my technology-design oriented mind really hated using it. That was a lot of stress that could have been avoided if I had used a better option. I will definitely use something else next time. But nonetheless, I think my final product does look good.

Speak Visually. Create an infographic with Visme

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Honors World History – Ancient Civilization Digital Story

Ancient Civilization Digital Story

In this project I learned three main ideas about Ancient China. First of all, I discovered that China had many different religions, part of it’s diverse culture as a whole. Some people were Buddhists. Others followed Taoism. But all these differences as well as other characteristics blended together to form a unique culture as a whole.

The second idea was that Ancient China was one of the most powerful and developed civilizations of its time. It had a complicated language based off of thousands of unique characters. There were many different technologies that developed, for both practical and recreational purposes, such as the lantern.

The third was that China was physically isolated from other civilizations in the Mesopotamia area. Thus, they were fundamentally separated, and developed totally independently from others. Their culture and rituals show this; while various civilizations in the Fertile Cresent and such intermingled and influenced each other over time, China remained isolated until centuries later. Even then, it was only Japan, Korea, and the few other countries in the area that they mingled with.

Something I would liked to have done better was understand the instructions in this project. My group and I missed several important requirements on the instructions and rubric and we lost points for that.

However, I am still proud of the design of our presentation. It looks very good and depicts our information in a clean and easy to read way. This is a skill I like and am constantly improving on.

There were many things I learned from this project. I found new information on China, but also discovered problems I need to fix as will my own strengths.

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Math 3 Unit 2 – Functions and their Inverses

The basic idea of inverse functions is mirroring equations by switching inputs and outputs.

I think this concept will be used later in math for changing the way functions are written and what purpose they are for. For example, a graph that has a price as the input and a number of cookies for it’s output is intended for finding out how many cookies you can get with x amount of dollars. But using inverses, we can change the equation so that its input is now cookies and its output is dollars. Now this function is for finding out how many dollars you must pay for x amount of cookies.

Additionally, this concept will be used to introduce logarithm functions thought the inverting of exponential functions.

Something I need to work on as I move on past this unit is having the patience to do some of the undemanding but very time consuming questions I encountered. They aren’t hard, but they are longer than the effortless questions I started to take for granted.

This GIF represents the idea of reflecting over the y=x line. Credit: https://gph.is/28QxT3d
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Math 3 Unit 1 – More Functions, More Features

Part 1

The most important thing I believe I learned this unit is how to graph a Piecewise Function. It was a totally new concept that I had never seen before. I think that this will be useful moving forward to create functions to visualize varied data.

The 4.1 Some of This, Some of That graph story was a great way to introduce the concept of a Piecewise Function.

The task was to label the graph as a story, then evaluate it. It was a sneak peek to the Piecewise Project (below) and the question underneath took the next step to pointing out that the graph could be dissected into a few different, simpler functions. After this, I understood the basics of this new concept, and all I needed to know was the details.

Part 2 – Piecewise Function Project

My favorite part of this project was being able to create any story I wanted with any functions. That ability to decide was very nice.

The hardest part of the project was all the evaluation. I had to find domains, ranges, 6 relative maximums and 6 relative minimums, catalog all the information, then put them all in my presentation. It was not hard in the terms of difficulty, but it was very time consuming. I made sure to do as much work as possible before the due date approached but it was still draining. I made it through though.

The part of the project that turned out the best was the design of the slides. I thought my presentation looked great; but I might be spending too much time on it. Next time I will try a minimalist design.

I would also plan out a day for me to just scrutinize the presentation and check every single point on the rubric. This time, I totally forgot to dress formally. I had too much going on my mind and I didn’t write it down. That is something I will not forget again. (I hope).

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