Projects (Click on the Project Title for More Info)
Below you will find the projects I have worked on with my students starting with the most recent. For more information on each project, click on the project title or associated picture.
Storm Chasers (Current)
What’s with the weather? From our sweltering hot summer (with mosquitos to boot) to one of the rainiest Januarys on record, it’s curious just what is happening with San Diego’s weather. This semester, we will explore the fundamentals of unique and severe weather patterns, including El Nino, and how communities prepare for and respond to natural disasters / severe weather conditions, drawing on both historic and contemporary examples. We will examine the science behind understanding and predicting these patterns as well as how communities prepare and respond to disasters to minimize their negative impacts. To represent your understanding, you will create models and visual art, and use their growing knowledge to prepare for and respond to a “simulated” catastrophic event. Furthermore, you will volunteer for the American Red Cross on a regular basis and will make 2-3 visual art pieces for an art auction which will benefit the relief efforts of our local SD Red Cross Chapter.
The $100 Start Up
Have you ever thought up a brilliant idea or solution and wondered, why doesn’t that exist yet or what if it worked like that instead of this? Looking back at history, numerous innovators have changed the way we look at and operate in the world. Today, creative minds continue to design and reconsider the ways in which we engage with the world, fashioning new processes and products that will shape our futures. During this interdisciplinary project, you will be asked to create something new, something innovative, but what you create must either contribute to making some sort of positive social or environmental change or use the proceeds from your creation towards that end.
The Hunger Project - 2014-2015
Telenovela Project - Spring 2015
The Food Truck Project
Fifty-two High Tech High sophomores, under the guidance of three teachers, have set out to start a non-profit, student-run food truck called Reel Delicious. Reel Delicious, however, offers more to the community than just delicious food. The truck will promote cultural understanding and diversity through food and film by serving international dishes made with locally sourced ingredients and by screening from the truck (via flat screen during the day and projector at night) original short and full length international films
Animalia: Examining Morals and Ethics Through the Animal World - Spring 2013
This semester, students examined morals and ethics from different angles, from how animals have been used in literature to introduce or promote morals to the ways in which mankind’s manipulation shapes, and will continue to shape, our social and physical environments. At the students' exhibition of work, they read their own fables, parables, paired couplets, and dystopian stories that use animals to address various moral theories and ethical dilemmas. In addition, they exhibited their paper mâché animal busts featuring animals from parables that address the ethics of war and paper mâché sculptures of animals that have adapted to survive in a world impacted by a social or environmental phenomena.
Documenting Democracy - Fall 2012
During the Fall semester 2012, we completed an interdisciplinary project in which students documented democracy. Students delved into the U.S. election system, explored various political ideologies, and examined current election issues, including the role of Latino voters in the presidential race. Students fleshed out their own political perspectives in personal statements, interviewed Latino voters, held debates on election issues, visited polling sites and other election venues on election day, and redesigned the election experience for a new generation of voters. Furthermore, they learned to document through photography, compiling a photographic art portfolio to display their best work, including photojournalism from election day and a final conceptual photo that represents a political issue of importance to them. In doing, students learned to communicate, both interpreting and creating messages, through a new medium.
Life Off The Land (Sana Sana Colita de Rana) - Spring 2012
In this project, students began by examining the relationship between plants and people in Latin American cultures, after which they turned their attention to San Diego's native plants and their uses. Students conducted field research throughout San Diego, learning from botanists, plant enthusiasts, and cultural experts about native plants and their uses. In culmination, students wrote and published a bilingual field guide to San Diego's native plants called Plant to Planta, which can be purchased online at Lulu.com. Overall, through this project, students became, as they called themselves, "plant nerds", not only learning about the relationship between cultural groups, such as the Kumeyaay, and plants, but also strengthening their own connection to our local surroundings.
Peak Theory Project (RSA Project) - Fall 2011
Can you imagine a day in which the world’s supply of energy is not enough to power what many of us depend on in our daily life, i.e. cell phones, computers, refrigerators, cars, medical equipment, etc.? What about a day in which the English language fades from use? Or, a day in which the United States is no longer considered a global super power? In this interdisciplinary project students critically examined theories related to the peak and collapse of societies, natural resources, languages, culture groups, physical well-being, trends, etc. and conveyed their understanding through in-depth research, including, but not limited to, a literature review / written research paper and the production of an RSA video that was published on Youtube and displayed to the public at our final exhibition.
In 1,000 Words - Humanities Spring 2011
How can we interpret and create images worth a 1,000 words? In this semester long project, we examined how imagery can be used to communicate effectively through the interpretation and production of quality photographic art. In addition to workshops on particular skills and styles of photography and weekly photographic assignments, students used historical photographs as inspiration to create original historical and contemporary narratives. At the end of the project, students' appreciation for the power of imagery and their ability to use imagery as a means of communication was demonstrated in their creation of photographic art portfolios, a final conceptual photograph, and final written narrative documenting something of relevance to them in contemporary society.
Seeds of Change - Spanish Fall 2010
How closely is what you eat related to who you are? According to Michael Pollen, a food expert and author of numerous books on food, such as the Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food, if a close relationship exists, most Americans are corn. Does corn accurately describe you? Over the course of the semester, students began to answer this big question through a number of interdisciplinary projects with the same underlying theme. Some of these components included writing and publishing a bilingual cookbook on blurb.com, constructing hydroponic gardens, including one for a community center near the U.S. Mexico border, and interviewing and documenting the change local "change makers" are working towards in San Diego.
Pacific Beach Middle - Somos PBMS
As a student teacher at Pacific Beach Middle School, I began to experiment with Project Based Learning. As a culminating project, students wrote a book that we sent to their sister school in Latin America that required students use the world language skills they had learned over the semester.
UCSD Academic Connections - La Frontera
For two summers, 2008 & 2009, I was an instructor at UCSD's Academic Connections, an intensive summer program for high school students that provides an opportunity to experience "college", not only in the dorm and cafeteria, but in examining a unique topic in-depth. Students participated in numerous field trips regarding border issues, heard from local experts, such as the ACLU, AFC, the Border Patrol, etc., and engaged in projects, such as a collaborative mural.