Sine City - San Marcos Creek Development Project
Project Description: The San Marcos Creek Development Project was created to add a downtown to San Marcos. In our Sine City Project it was our responsibility to design and create prototypes for initial thoughts going into the the Creek Development. We used concepts like trigonometry to create buildings (in my groups case a daycare) and other landscapes that followed the code for the city regulations and codes.
Process: When we first began our project we looked at the regulations for our lot and decided on what to build based on what was allowed to be there. Our lot had to be two stories, and we thought it would be nice to build a community daycare in the area, and it fit the regulations so we did. The lot is a good size for a small daycare, and because of the new residential areas will be coming in, it would be a great area for families to take their kids. Once we got into the nitty gritty of the planning like measurements, it was difficult to draw to scale everything. Our ratio started as 1cm:5m, and then was suddenly switched too 1cm:2m. It was originally hard to understand the concept of meters, especially when we are so used to feet, but eventually it became a routine of part of our engineering process. In order to figure out where we should put our awnings, and how tall our buildings should be, we had to use trigonometry and worked a lot with angles. When we had our drawing to scale, it was time to put it into the computer. We did this by drawing out our designs on to Illustrator. Our group worked well on Illustrator, but had difficulty making the drawings look realistic.
Process: When we first began our project we looked at the regulations for our lot and decided on what to build based on what was allowed to be there. Our lot had to be two stories, and we thought it would be nice to build a community daycare in the area, and it fit the regulations so we did. The lot is a good size for a small daycare, and because of the new residential areas will be coming in, it would be a great area for families to take their kids. Once we got into the nitty gritty of the planning like measurements, it was difficult to draw to scale everything. Our ratio started as 1cm:5m, and then was suddenly switched too 1cm:2m. It was originally hard to understand the concept of meters, especially when we are so used to feet, but eventually it became a routine of part of our engineering process. In order to figure out where we should put our awnings, and how tall our buildings should be, we had to use trigonometry and worked a lot with angles. When we had our drawing to scale, it was time to put it into the computer. We did this by drawing out our designs on to Illustrator. Our group worked well on Illustrator, but had difficulty making the drawings look realistic.
Math learning: I learned in math that trigonometry plays an important role in how we can find the angles and heights of buildings which are unknown. It definitely helped us while we were considering the Sun Path Diagram and how we could incorporate it into our work. I had never thought that they Sun Path Diagram had a lot of math involved, and I never thought that angles were used, but it made so much sense. I learned that trigonometry can be found in so many real life applications that it's hard to fully understand the concept.
Reflection: I think I grew mostly as a mathematician in a sense of practicality. Before I wasn't able to estimate measurements or really understand the fundamentals of design until now. It was really interesting to be able to have a direct connection with the real world in this process, and it's helped me realize how important math concepts can be. I think during this process I was very persistent through problem solving by seeing that there were many challenges we faced, and I kept coming up with solutions to them and finding ways to move past it. Some challenges we faced just included some errors in Illustrator that we weren't sure how to fix. Our measurements didn't seem quite right and we had to go back and correct them all.
Exhibition: In our project I was the planner/surveyor. I had to make sure all of our work was going in the right direction and I had to make sure our work was quality. I think it was challenging being in a group that didn't necessarily share my views on the project, and ultimately became distracting at times. I definitely think we could have managed our time better, and although I tried my best to do that it still should have been improved. Exhibition went well though, I was very well educated on our subjects and I think our interactive drew in a lot of attention.