Six- and Eight-Fold Symmetry

Until further notice, we’ll start every class period with a lesson from “Abode Classroom in a Book,” doing first the Photoshop lessons and then at some point moving over to the Illustrator lessons.

Next, we’ll use the middle third of each period to work on Mr. Paisley’s six-fold and eight-fold symmetry shapes created in Geometer’s Sketchpad, either in Mr. Paisley’s room or in mine. Almost all my computers have the Sketchpad on it already, and I’m working to get all of them working soon.

Finally, the last third of the period should be used to catch up on the Cityscape and various Basic Geometric Constructions that were assigned two weeks ago. We’ve got to get them finished and into our Let’s Get Visual presentations.

Whole Bunch of New Slides for Let’s Get Visual

You’d better get ready!

We’re going to learn so many new terms and how to draw a whole bunch of new shapes and lines in Illustrator. First, here’s a reminder of the procedure:

• Make everything in Illustrator. Save as an .ai and then also save as a .pdf (PDF).
• Import the PDF into your PowerPoint presentation. You can drag and drop the PDF right on a slide.
• When you’re doing the illustrations in Illustrator, don’t hesitate to get artistic. Use color and backgrounds or whatever. Just don’t make the message about the geometry hard to see or read.
• Submit each PDF for your grade.
• The PowerPoint is a big project (plus it’s an archive of all your art).

Now, here is a list of the slides you’re going to make in Illustrator and add to the Let’s Get Visual PowerPoint. They’re from your Basic Geometric Constructions handout from Mr. Paisley:

1. Copied Line Segment
2. Bisection of a Line Segment
3. Construction of a Perpendicular to a Line from a Point off the Line
4. Construction of a Perpendicular to a Line from a Point on the Line
5. Bisection of an Angle
6. Copied Angle
7. To Construct a  Perpendicular to a Line from a Point off the Line (four-in-one slide)
8. To Construct a Perpendicular to a Line from a Point on the Line (four-in-one slide)
9. To Copy a Line Segment (four-in-one slide)
10. To Bisect a Line Segment (four-in-one slide)
11. To Bisect an Angle (four-in-one slide)
12. To Copy an Angle (six-in-one slide)
13. Extra Credit for early finishers: Inscribing Regular Polygons (four separate slides)

Don’t forget to turn each slide in as a PDF to the Student Journal work submission area to get credit. And add each illustration to the Let’s Get Visual (about Geometry, I Mean) PowerPoint presentation.

Update: I have a special extra-credit assignment for anyone who needs to raise their grade!! Go online, search for “Da Vinci painting” in Google and choose the Wikipedia Last Supper entry from the Google results. Save the JPEG of Da Vinci’s Last Supper. Then, place the painting into Illustrator using the “Place” function. Next, establish the single vanishing point for creating the perspective of the hall and its alcoves in the background of the painting. Finally, draw the lines that Da Vinci might have drawn before he began to lay down the paint. In other words, see if you can create the sketch Leonardo must have drawn preparing for this fresco. Good luck!! You’ll be rewarded for your work. Oh, and you can add this to your Let’s Get Visual project.

Staying with Let’s Get Visual and tying up loose ends

Many of you are completely caught up with your work, and some of you still need to get the Romeo & Juliet stuff done. Even some of you have the Decimal-Fraction Pattern spreadsheet to finish.

Today I just want everyone to get finished with everything we’ve got going and to get ready to add some more slides – produced in Illustrator – to our Let’s Get Visual PowerPoint.

I’m also thinking of a way to create groups in which all the members help each other stay on track. We need to select a mentor (or leader or expert, whatever we want to call it) who can be a source of help and advice. I’m going to think of ways to create these groups so that they sit together but don’t have to particularly sit alphabetically.

If you have any questions or want to receive credit for an assignment, don’t hesitate to come talk to me. However, I’m going to rely on you to self-manage more and take responsibility for your work progress. If you want good grades for your work, though, staying on task is very important.

If you run out of work, I’ve got more for you! And we’ve got plenty of projects to come.

 

Update: The first six illustrations for the Let’s Get Visual project are:

1. Right Triangle 1
2. Right Triangle 2
3. Right Triangle 3
4. Naturally Occurring Square Roots
5. Multiple Terms on a Slide
6. Multiple Images on a Slide

Save them as .ai files, and then save them and turn them in as PDFs.

Let’s study perspective

You’re all about to get your tools and pencils out to learn how to draw objects in perspective over in Mr. Paisley’s class. Then, you’ll come back here and learn how to do it in Illustrator and maybe even Google Sketchup, our 3D program.

So let’s prepare for the experience by going to “Drawing in One-Point Perspective.”

We’ll do it together (watch my screen and yours, too).

BTW, perspective, according to Dictionary.com, means “a technique of depicting volumes and spatial relationships on a flat surface.”

Follow the sub instructions

Work on finishing the Romeo and Juliet Programs and Posters. Finish the Decimal-Fraction Pattern spreadsheet. If you get that done, work on any late assignments. If you want to get started on the Let’s Get Visual project, go ahead. Everything you need to know is on the last three blog posts below this one. Read them.

Mentors, help others where possible. Let the substitute teacher know if you help someone.

I expect everyone to turn in the Program, Poster, and Decimal-Fraction Pattern. After today, they will be considered late. Work with your Communication Studies teams for the Program content.

I want a good behavior report. Thanks.

Decimal-Fraction Pattern in Microsoft Excel

Mr. Paisley has given us another Excel assignment, and this time you have to discover the formula for filling out all the cells.

You’ll each get a sheet with all the relevant number values for a conversion from 1/1 t0 16/16 and all the fractional values in between. There is clearly a pattern that you can see where fractional equivalents occur (i.e. 1/1-16/16, 1/2-2/4).

Now, you can fill in all the numbers by hand if you wish. But you’ll receive higher credit if you figure out where to put the formula (and whether you should use $’s to lock in references to other cell values) and then use the Fill Handle Technique to automate the completion of the worksheet.

We’ve done that in the other four Excel assignments, so you know what dragging the Fill Handle is all about. This time you have to discover the formula. It’s not that hard.

Please use Microsoft Excel (not Google Spreadsheet) and then submit it the Student Journal by attaching it to your Response.

Good luck!

Publishing posters, programs and prompt books for Communication Studies

Another new project comes to us from Communication Studies. We’re going to use Microsoft Word and our special duplex (two-sided) printer to create and publish programs and prompt books for your Communication Studies production.

Here’s what you need to do:

1. Get your copy (scripts) handy. Although you made these in teams in Communication Studies, each one of you will need to produce a prompt book, program, and Photoshop poster for your team’s scenes.
2. Open a new document in Microsoft Word.
3. In “Page Setup,” choose landscape orientation, and change the margins to .5″ all the way around, left, right, top, bottom.
4. Start with your title page (you can put a picture on it if you want). Then enter your scripts just like they look in the script Ms. Dennett.
5. After we enter all the text, we go to “Page Setup” and choose “book fold.” Follow the instructions we say in the video. Important: you must save your document as “Word 97-2003 Document” by using the “save as” choice.
6. When we’re ready to print, you’ll submit the work to me, and I’ll explain how I set the printer to duplex printing. Then I’ll print your work for you.
7. We’ll need to do some special stapling with a special stapler from the office (I’ve got it in the room).
8. We’ll all do this for the programs as well as the prompt books. Every student has to make a program, with each team writer responsible for getting the scene synopsis and cast of characters for each group’s scene, based on the best synopsis of the group. Then email the material to each group member so every student can make a program using the winning synopsis for their group.
9. The programs need to include the synopsis and cast of characters for each group. Everyone should design one, but only the best will be used on the day of the presentation.
10. Posters (in Photoshop) need to include: 1. Communication Studies Present: Edited Scenes from Romeo and Juliet; 2. October 23rd 6:30 PM; 3. Cafegymatorium; 3. Use pictures of Shakespeare and Romeo and Juliet from the Internet. As with other Photoshop art, save as a JPEG to turn it in.

We could do the booklets in fancier, more expensive computer applications, but Word is just fine for this. Later, we can learn to do it like the professionals do, in Adobe InDesign.

As for the posters, use what you learned in the first Photoshop poster project.

By the way, I’ll be giving you grades for the production of each of these three connected projects. You may also get credit in Communication Studies, so it’s a two-fer!

Let’s Get Visual (about Geometry, I Mean)

Welcome to our next project. “Let’s Get Visual” is all about working on a number of skills at the same time. We can learn about slide shows in PowerPoint, line drawings and color fills in Illustrator, and the key formulas and theorems in Geometry. I wouldn’t be surprised if we learned some adjunct skills along the way.

(Adjunct -noun : something added to something but not essential to it.)

Here’s what we’re going to do:

1. Make landscape-oriented graphic images in Illustrator that depict the great formulas and theorems of Geometry, using the standard dimensions of a PowerPoint slide (960 x 720 pixels, or 10″ x 7.5″).
2. Design these images in the most artful yet direct way, i.e. creative, tasteful, colorful, and informative). Idea: How would Leonardo da Vinci, an artist, scientist, and mathematician, make these pictures?
3. As we do each one, we add it to our “Let’s Get Visual (about Geometry, I Mean)” slide show until we have built a great presentation of the many formulas and theorems that govern Geometry.
4. Write a script that explains each slide.

Things to remember:

• You can use color and fills.
• You can’t copy and paste drawings of the formulas and theorems from the Internet.
• You can use graphics and elements from the Internet in an adjunct capacity.
• You’ll want to add notes (a PowerPoint skill) to each slide for later printing for when you present.
• You may want to search for mathematical fonts on your computer or on the Internet so that you can make your drawings authentic and effective.

Note. There is no deadline to finish this project at this point. However, there will be deadlines to finish particular slides.

Let’s get visual and have fun reinforcing your Geometry skills and knowledge. Be creative! Be precise!

Network Study Guide turn-in

You know the drill…

PC Study Guide turn-in

Turn it in by clicking on “No Comments.” (It says that because there are no comments yet, and there never will be because I don’t approve any. But I can see them, so…)

Where is says name put PC Study Guide firstname last name. Okay?