Culture Project Complete
Okay, so what can I say, I am all about the deadline, which basically means I’m all about waiting until the last minute.
Just finished the pages for my Culture Project. Finally had a moment to then post a link for my classmates. Better late than never, I suppose. I will let this sit overnight then take a final look at it in the morning and submit it then. (Nothing like a fresh set of eyes to catch stupid mistakes.)
Want to see the project? Visit the Culture Project page.
Art Project
I am excited about this art project and pretty much knew that I wanted to do something with digital photography. I have been working on learning Adobe Photoshop, so this project is the perfect opportunity to do something fun with it. My youngest daughter, Madeline, we call her Maddie, has her 1st birthday coming up soon. We’re planning on having a get together at our house, so I wanted to work on some invitations for the party. Being a sometimes-graphic designer at work, I am always wanting to put together a piece that is memorable and polished looking. When I was thinking about ideas for the artwork I knew I wanted to use a great photo I have of her, but wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. Then, on a visit to a good friend’s house, who is also a graphic designer, I saw my inspiration—an Andy Warhol print. I had seen my friend do a “Wahol-effect” using colored pencils, but I thought to myself, maybe I could do this digitally! Now the next step was to figure out how exactly I would go about this. I thought I would do some checking on the web to see if there were any helpful instructional articles on how to create a “Warhol-effect” on a photo. So, what did I do? I went to Yahoo and typed in “andy warhol effect in photoshop”, and voila, at the top of the list a tutorial! Another web site had another way to achieve the effect, but I didn’t like it as much, so ended up going with the first tutorial. Check out my Art page to learn more about this project as well as to see the finished product!
Teach Project
I have been working in the background on my teach project. I was unable to post anything last week due to it being our busiest time of the year at work, which meant numerous long days. That project is complete, so now I try to re-balance my life and look to my school projects.
This project is the Teach project. I love the idea of this project as I have always fit well into the “see, do, teach” method in my own learning. Picking the subject of this project wasn’t as easy as I thought it might be. There were many topics that came to mind, including some sort of house-project (as we own an 1898 Victorian home and are *constantly* doing house projects), or something about web design.
For me, the challenging piece was finding a subject that wasn’t too substantial, or too minimal. In the end I went with something else that is near and dear to my heart (and part of my work), graphic design. When I knew this was the general subject that I wanted to focus on I then needed to pick a specific area. I picked something that I, myself, have recently learned how to do, thinking that this exercise will only help to solidify that knowledge in my own mind. Again, owning an old home means that we have an interest in any old photos of our old home. Last year we came across a photo of our house from the 1920’s (we believe). I love looking at old photos and we had the idea to frame these photos and have a wall in our entryway dedicated to our old house photos. I liked the photo in black and white, but had seen old photos that looked really neat, with that “sepia” tone to them. So, using Adobe Photoshop I delved in a muddled my way through finding out how to turn my black and white photo into a sepia photo.
I have decided that this is the perfect subject for my teach project and am looking forward to sharing information about how to do it. I am hopeful that this information may actually help someone else in the future! Check out my project overview, teaching module and process on the Teach site (you’ll find the link in the upper part of the right-rail). In addition, I’ve added some helpful links in the Teach Project section of the links (bottom of right-rail). Check out my project overview, teaching module and process on the Teach site (you’ll find the link in the upper part of the right-rail). In addition, I’ve added some helpful links in the Teach Project section of the links (bottom of right-rail).-Kate
Culture Project Ideas – Emilie du Chatelet!!
Okay, saw the project outline and even when reading the syllabus for the first time knew exactly who it was that I wanted to do my project on–Emilie du Chatelet.
I first heard of her when watching the NOVA episode Einstein’s Big Idea. It was about the visionary scientists whose discoveries enabled Einstein to piece together his theory of relativity.
Emilie lived in France from 1706-1749, she was skilled in languages, but was especially talented in mathematics and was one of the leading interpreters of modern physics in Europe. As I understand it from the show, she basically was able to take research from the day and expand upon it and basically derive the idea that you can take the mass of an object and multiply it by the square of it’s velocity to determine its energy.
So, all of this is well and good, but for me, what seems so impressive about her is the time in history in which she accomplished these feats. In addition, I was captivated by the way many sources seem to dwell on her relationships (Voltaire prime among them) rather than her scientific accomplishments. To me, this felt like a typical “male” reaction. For, when speaking of male scientists and their accomplishments it is rare to see mention of their relationships or affairs.
For this reason, as well as her outstanding scientific accomplishments, I find her to be quite interesting and someone I would like to know more about. I feel that the impacts of 1700’s society on women make her an excellent historical figure to learn more about. In addition, I feel that there is a story to be told in how her story has been told, that is, what seems to be through a “male” lens–a small, but important detail in documenting how women’s technical accomplishments are treated differently than men’s.
Welcome to my blog!
Hi there – Kate here.
This is just a quick message to welcome you to my blog. As I am new to this whole thing I will be adding more information and features as I go along. Check back and see what I have done.
-Kate
Kate_Porsche 