Final Projects
By Jonathan Lam on 06/05/18
Tagged: academia
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Hello! I haven't posted much in the last four months, and I regret it. It's been quite busy, especially with AP exams and all the final projects. Every class I took this year second-semester required a final project, and all but Journaling required a presentation. Now that they're all done, I think it's worth posting them here.
I'm going to deviate from the usual posting directly to EiS because of the volume of some of the works. Instead, you may download any of the files below.
1. AP Calculus BC: An Introduction to Group Theory (feat. the Rubik's Cube)
Synopsis: In AP Calc., the final project was to research any interesting mathematical concept outside the scope of high school mathematics. Since Rubik's cubing is an amazing hobby, I decided to study more about the mathematical structure related to Rubik's cubing, known as Group Theory. Groups fall under Set Theory (and subsequently Abstract Algebra), and are mathematical structures designed to model mathematical and real-world objects that have some sort of form-preserving "symmetry."
It looks better with a Rubik's cube for demonstration, but here it is nonetheless.
2. AP Physics 1: An Introduction to Statistical Mechanics
Synopsis: The project for AP Physics has the same assignment as for calculus. An idea that my dad originally suggested I consider was statistical physics: the use of statistics to describe some interesting properties of physics that would seem impossible in every way except if you consider a probability distribution (in which every state is possible). He considered it in a quantum-mechanical sense, but I stuck to the classical-mechanical treatment of thermodynamics and other large-DOF systems for sake of simplicity.
3. Spanish 6: Community Outreach Project
Synopsis: The most ambitious, time-consuming, lengthy, and painful of all of these. And perhaps the most enlightening as well. For the project was a five-month endeavor (two months planning, two months on-site) of learning Spanish via cultural immersion. I chose an easy route here, which was still not very simple: I volunteered at Thomas Hooker School's Lighthouse Afterschool Program. Many of the previous Spanish 6 students had gone to Lighthouse, making the process more streamlined, and the school that I went to was very accommodating (compared to what I've heard from the other schools), so I'm grateful for that.
There were multiple parts to this, so I will simply include the presentation slideshow and the packet that contains all of the other materials (e.g., outline, journal entries, handout, etc.).
4. Wellness 12: Senior Advocacy Project
Synopsis: The Wellness project aimed to have students advocating a cause they were passionate about. In the end, I simply used my Spanish Community Outreach Project, as did all the other Spanish 6 students, because it already fulfilled nearly all of the requirements. Attached below are the additional or translated assignments.
Downloads: Slidehow | Reflections
5. AP Computer Science Principles: AP Create Performance Task
Synopsis: This is not actually the final project for the class, but is instead one of the AP requirements and one of the final major projects of the year. We were prompted to write a program that demonstrated several programming concepts and write about it. We were given a month. For this, I worked with Rahul Kiefer. You will need a computer for the display and at least one (and maximum four) smartphones as controllers. The URL of the completed project is: https://racing-game-csp.herokuapp.com.
As for an actual senior project, that is a project we are writing in Processing (a superset of Java), but it's not nearly as intensive as this project.
Downloads: Report | Source code | Video explanation
6. Journaling: Pseudo-memoir
Synopsis: The class is named, "Journaling: The Art of Memoir." As a culminating project, we've experimented with different memoir forms as the class progressed, often mimicking the styles encountered in class. This includes traditional essay-style memoirs, poetry and free-form, graphic memoir (not imitated), and reportive journaling. And the cool thing is: memoir is true! (This is true! I think).
Downloads: Pseudo-memoir
7. AP Statistics: Statistical Analysis of Rubik's Cube Timers
Synopsis: The AP Statistics project was to analyze a real-world application of our choice with statistical methods. I chose, once again, Rubik's cubes as the subject. Specifically, I wanted to compare whether different common scramblers had an effect on my solving times. In the end, it appears that there is (most likely) no significant difference between the scramblers.
(There's really little real-world significance to this, because this can't be extrapolated past myself. It was fun anyways.)
Downloads: Slideshow
Edit: 6/13/18: Uploaded re-compiled memoir and statistics project.