Journal 42: Tues. June 10th, 2014

Everything Coming Together

Today has been a crazy day! During my lunch period I went to Mr. Cowell for help with the laser cutter. I got my first sheet done. This includes H and J Building. I plan on getting everything cut out this week and assembling it all at home before my presentation. Hopefully everything works out and I will be able to complete my project.
Along with finishing the physical part of my project I am working on my commentary and narrative essay. I plan on finishing both tonight and turning everything in on Thursday to my evaluators, mentor, and teacher. This week has been very stressful and will probably continue to be so, but I am confident that I can get it done.

Journal 41: Mon. June 9th, 2014

Starting the Gym

Another crazy busy weekend. Prom and work kept me busy! I am running out of time real fast! I got the gym started and hope to finish it tomorrow! Tuesday I need to work on my papers and finish all the AutoCAD work so I can cut! Here is what I have for the gym so far. I have to old gym pretty much done, and most of the new gym. I don't have time to go crazy with details like I wanted to, but it is pretty good!

Journal 40: Thurs. June 5th, 2014

Laser Cutter, YAY! Oh wait, it didn't work...

So I went to Mr. Cowell's today to use the laser cutter. I was all excited to see if it would actually cut all my small lines. I asked Mr. Cowell for help (he is always awesome about helping me), and we started it up! I took the sheet out, and it didn't cut all the way through! It cut all the correct lines, it just didn't go all the way through.

It came out really well, except for not cutting through. Cowell and I changed some settings on the laser cutter and tried it again. This is what happened...

I'm not quite sure what happened, but I know it isn't right. I will have to try it again soon. Mr. Cowell said that someone is going to clean the cutter soon. I will have to try it then. Hopefully we can figure it out!

Journal 39: Wed. June 4th, 2014

G and K building done

This is the next part of the stock board that I will be cutting. A reminder, when I say "the next part" or "the next piece", each section of stock board is 12"x24", I can't fit the entire school on one sheet, so I have to divide it all. This is the second sheet.

Journal 38: Tues, June 3rd, 2014

Sample Presentation 

Yesterday all WISE students had to go to a sample presentation to see what it is all about. Tyler presented on Economics. I think it was a really good example of what the presentation consists of. It also taught me that you really have to keep an eye on the time. Tyler ran out of time at the end which, I think, effected his reflection part of the presentation a lot. Mine and his presentation are alike in the way that we both have vocabulary and terms that not everyone knows. He presented those in a list format and explained them all. I personally thought that it could  have been done better, so that showed me what to not do. Overall I think that he did an awesome job for being first! Thanks Tyler for helping me!

Journal 37: Mon. June 2nd, 2014

Long time no work 

Ugh! I haven't even thought about my project since last Wednesday. With senior events and the senior trip I have been so busy! I need to start working real hard if I want to get this done. My things need to be turned in next week! I want to get G and K building completely done by Wednesday. Maybe I can also start cutting on the laser cutter this week? We will see...

Journal 36: Wed. May 28th, 2014

G Building Complete

So I finally got G building done. It didn't take too long, it was very similar to H building, just a little different. As of right now I do not have the roofs of the building modeled and ready to cut out, I plan on doing that last. I am mostly focused on getting the sides of the buildings done first. I am definitely running out of time! With all the senior events coming up I know I am going to be crazy busy. Let's hope I can stay focused.

Journal 35: Mon. May 26th, 2014

Plan for presentation and location

So my presentation is on Thursday, June 19th at 11:00 AM. It is going to come up real fast and I am kind of nervous. I am definitely going to have my presentation in Mr. Cowell's room. I think that I will be able to explain and show my project a lot better than if I was in another room. I want to hook my laptop up to the smart board and show everyone what SketchUp is, and how to use it. I want to show them my SketchUp file and show how I used that to help me with AutoCAD. I will have to plan and practice explaining these things a few times because it can get confusing, I want to make sure that everyone can understand. I want to get the audience involved so I want to show them something with the laser cutter. Maybe make a sample piece and show everyone what the laser cutter can do? I am not quite sure yet. I think the first thing I need to worry about is getting my project done on time so I am going to go work on that now! I will update you on my progress soon!

Journal 34: Thurs. May 22nd, 2014

J building complete and backwards planning

So I got J building done (the main office) and I am pretty happy with the pace I am going at. This is just a snapshot of what it all looks like so far. This 12"x24" area includes H and J building. It also includes the walkway between G and H building.

Now seeing what pace I am going at I can now backwards plan and make sure I finish this project on time!

By Fri. May 30th: Have G building done

By Fri. June 6th: Have K Building and the new and old gym complete

Mon. June 9th: Start cutting out all the pieces

Tues. June 10th: Continue cutting, and start working on reflections and commentary

Thurs. June 12th: Turn in everything to Ms. Lord and evaluators to review

By June 19th: Have everything glued together and ready to display for presentation

Journal 33: Tues. May 20th, 2014

H Building Complete

Here is a snapshot of H Building complete in AutoCAD. To some people it may just look like bunch of red and blue lines but if you look closely, you will see they are all windows!

As you can see, there are some parts of the building that have no windows at all. These are the parts of the building that are connected to others. When I assemble all the pieces, those parts will be attached to adjoining buildings. The blue windows represent the parts of H that have no real windows. The laser cutter will engrave these, but not cut all the way through. 

Journal 32: Monday, May 19th, 2014

Busy Week Ahead

I just got back from my Physics trip to Darien Lake and I am sitting here thinking about how busy my week is going to be. I have another field trip on Thursday, and am doing volunteer work for my Government class. It is a lot to handle. Who ever said senior year was a breeze was wrong!


My goal for this week is to complete G building. I am still getting used to AutoCAD on my laptop, but for the most part it is going really well. It seems to be taking a lot longer than I thought, but I will get it done!

Journal 31: Wed. May 14th, 2014

Working hard on AutoCAD

AutoCAD is going really, really well! I am moving right along. Here is a snapshot of what I have so far with G and H building. 

If you click the picture to make it bigger you can see that all the little red boxes are windows! The red lines tell the laser cutter to cut all the way through, and the small blue lines tell it to just indent. I am still working on H but hope to get it done by the end of the week. 

Journal 30: Mon. May 12th, 2014

Scariest moment so far in this project

Today in class we did something that I was not prepared for. We picked the date of our presentation. When Ms. Lord said that we were going to do this, it really hit me that I only have a couple more weeks to work on this project. I signed up to present on Thursday, June 19th at 11:00 am. The location of my presentation is still in the air though. I have two places in mind. The more comfortable place for me would be in my WISE class room. Earlier this year I did a presentation in the class and I have been in there all year. The second choice is Mr. Cowell's room. I think it would be great to be in a room where I have the opportunity to show everyone the programs I use, how they work, and also show them the laser cutter. I was thinking about giving a quick demo on how to go from SketchUp, to AutoCAD, to the laser cutter. It would be really cool to show hands on work and maybe even get people I am presenting to involved and have them do something! I know the better choice would be Mr. Cowell's room, but I'm not even sure I can use his room or not. I will have to talk to him at my next mentor meeting. We will have to wait and see! I hope it all works out.

Journal 29: Sun. May 11th, 2014

H Building started in AutoCAD

I know this picture won't make much sense but I hope after this journal entry, you will understand it better. 

The white box in the picture represents the "space" I have to work within. It measures 12" x 24". This is the size of the stock board used in the laser cutter. Each white box represents one sheet of stock board. The red lines tell the laser cutter what to cut. When I get to this part later in the model, blue lines will represent what I want the laser cutter to indent (not cut all the way through). The red boxes on the right hand side are the sides of H building. They are 135' in real life, but come out to be about 8" in my model. Tomorrow I hope to add the windows into my model. I will be showing a lot more snapshots as my project continues. Once I get the windows and doors in AutoCAD will make a lot more sense to someone who doesn't  know the program very well. 

Journal 28: Fri. May 9th, 2014

AutoCAD at home

Downloading AutoCAD on my new laptop. This journal is definitely short but I am really excited that now I will be able to work at home. And I really like my computer too. I will be posting all of my modeling soon!!

Journal 27: Thurs. May 8th, 2014

Mentor Meeting and AutoCAD Work

FINALLY! I am starting my AutoCAD work! Today I went in 5th period to see Mr. Cowell, talk about my project, and start the modeling. We decided that 1/16 scale would be best for the size of the school. What that means is every foot of the school in real life, will be 1/16th of an inch in my model. G and H building will be about 8" x 8". Today I got H buildings shape modeled and now I just  have to get the window dimensions and I can start putting those in! Hopefully tomorrow I will get my laptop and I can do it from home too!

Journal 26: Wed. May 7th, 2014

Measurements of E Building

In my Engineering Design and Development class today, I was sitting outside with my group and I saw a measuring tape, and a window, and I thought I should just do it. I measured the window to be 5'6" x 5'6". The windows in E, D, some of F, and the cafeteria are the same size, so I have all of those measured. I also measured the height of E building and it came out to be 15' exactly. Looking around, it looks like all of the one floor sections of the school are about the same, so for my purposes, I will have all the buildings except G, H, and the gym be 15 feet.

Journal 25: Mon. May 5th, 2014

Out of the Rut

In today's weekly meeting we talked about much time we really have left for this project. It's not a lot. We should really be done by June 9th, so we have enough time to give Ms. Lord all of the required papers 5 business days before our presentation. We have about a month left and that really scares me. Ms. Lord gave us a sheet that really broke down the planning for the next couple of days. I think planning is a huge part to this project. This was a great way to get organized and see what I need to get done.

PLANNING:

7 things I want to accomplish in the next week:
-Get my laptop and download AutoCAD
-Get the dimensions of the windows and doors of G and H  buildings
-Complete G and H buildings in AutoCAD
-Talk to Mr. Cowell about the laser cutter and see when he is available for supervision when I want to use it
-Start to get dimensions of the other buildings (Windows and Doors)
-Watch videos on AutoCAD to enhance my knowledge and see if there are any tips on speeding up the process

Supplies I need to get:
-Laptop
-Stock board for the laser cutter? (Talk to Mr. Cowell)
-Hot glue sticks for the assembly of the school

3 things I should talk to my mentor about:
-When to use the laser cutter
-Do I need to buy my own stock board
-What kind of laser cutter is the one we have. I can use this for research of possibly importing my SketchUp model and saving a ton of time.

Things I want or need to know more about:
-Dimensions of the school
-What are the size of the bricks on the school (If I have time, I can make the laser cutter just make lines on the stock board and not cut all the way through, so when it is done it will look like bricks. I think it would look really cool, but it will be very time consuming).

Journal 24: Sun. May 4th, 2014

Problems with AutoCAD, but possible solution?

When I got home from Delhi, the first thing I did was go online to see if I could download AutoCAD at home. I can! It was downloading, everything was going great, and then a error message came up saying that my computer was too old for the program and I didn't have enough room to download it. I. Was. So. Mad. But I have a solution to all my troubles. Thankfully, as a graduation present, my grandparents are getting me a laptop for college. If I could get one a little early, I could download it on my new computer and be on my way with my project. I am planning on getting a new laptop on Friday! I can't wait. Working from home will be so much easier and faster! Lets cross our fingers and hope everything works out!

Journal 23: Fri. May 2nd, 2014

SUNY Delhi Accepted Student Day

Today I went to an orientation like event at the college I am attending (SUNY Delhi). One of the things I did on my visit was talking to the professors. When picking out classes I mentioned that I am already using some of the programs that they use in college, and then of course, I brought up my WISE project! I explained to him how I plan to use AutoCAD, and then use the laser cutter to make my pieces. He said that his students are doing a similar project right now. They are working on a hotel/retail complex that they are now drawing up in AutoCAD and cutting out. I forgot how it got to this point but he mentioned that now I am accepted to SUNY Delhi, I can get a FREE version of AutoCAD!!! The Autodesk package (all of their programs) is about $4,500. When I heard that I could get a free version now that I am going to Delhi, I got REALLY excited. When I get home, I plan to download it, and now I will be able to work on my project at home, instead of using the computers in the Technology Department at the High School. This will definitely help my project speed up!

Journal 22: Tues. April 29th, 2014

Barnes and Noble Fundraiser 

Unfortunately I was unable to go to the fundraiser, but I made a poster for a display to explain my project to customers and other students.

Journal 21: Mon. April 28th, 2014

Happiness Revisited 

Today in the weekly class meeting we got a short reading about happiness, and a flow channel. We read it in class and were asked to respond to a couple questions.

1. When do you feel most happy?
I feel most happy when I am with friends and family. When I am with people that I care about, life just seems easy and fun.

2. React/Respond to the article
When reading in class I stopped and highlighted something that stuck out to me. "Contrary to what we usually believe, moments like these, the best moments in our lives, are not the passive, receptive, relaxing times-although such experiences can also be enjoyable, if we have worked hard to attain them. The best moments usually occur when a person's body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile." This is so true. I think happiness comes when you have accomplished something that is outside of your comfort zone, or something new.

3. Where are you on the flow chart?
I think I am definitely in the anxiety portion of the chart right now. With a short time left in school and so much to do, I am getting very nervous. I definitely need to backwards plan to the end of the year and get my butt working!

4. How has this changed throughout the course of your project?
In the beginning of the year, I was definitely in the flow channel, I was confident and relaxed. Once I realized that I couldn't just not work on my project for 2-3 days in a row, is when I got a slap in the face from reality.

5. How can you achieve flow?
Planning. I need to plan what I need to do and then actually DO IT.

Journal 20: Thurs. April 24th, 2014

Red Flag 

This week I decided to go to the weekly Red Flag meeting with my friend AuBree. I just needed someone to talk about my project to. I think I have made a decision to change my project up a little. I feel it is a waste of time I already don't have to work on the details in SketchUp. It will end up never viewed again once I graduate. If I get the basic dimensions of the school to help me with my real life 3D model, I will be happy. The next couple days I am going to start backwards planning because I need to start getting this project done!!!

Journal 19: Tues. April 22nd, 2014

Pro and Cons for the future of my project

SketchUp Model

Pros:
-I will get practice using SketchUp before I go to college
-I enjoy using the program
-It will look really cool, and I will feel accomplished I did such a big project

Cons:
-Will take a very long time
-Serves no use to me after I am done using the model for dimensions
-Might not even be able to do as many details as I want because the size of the project. File size might be a problem
-Will need to spend time I don't have getting additional dimensions of the school that will waste time
-I am a perfectionist. If I end up doing this model, I will want everything to be perfect, and I don't think I have time for all of those details.

Real Life Mini Model 

Pros:
-I will get more experience with the program AutoCAD (something I will use in college, and a program I really like)
-I will actually build something that I can either keep, or give to the school, or something!
-It will look really cool

Cons:
-Will take a long time to assemble all of the pieces

Journal 18: Mon. April 21st, 2014

Back to work

Back to school, and back to working on my project. I did a lot of thinking on the plane back to New York about my project. About how much time is left in the year. About how much I need to get done. It is a lot of work in 8 weeks. I have come to the conclusion that something needs to change about my project. I need to do EITHER the computer model or the real life model. I think this week I am going to put some thought into it, and really figure out what I want to do.

Journal 16: Fri. April 18th, 2014

Spring Break

ITS SPRING BREAK! WOOHOO!
I am going to be completely honest, I will probably get little done this break. Currently I am writing this journal, sitting on the lanai, looking out to this...

Journal 17: Wed. April 16th, 2014

Returning to the project

I'm sitting in the Southwest Florida International Airport realizing that I have a lot to do in the coming weeks. There are these little kids behind me creeping on what I am doing and it is quite annoying. But anyways, I am excited to come home and get this project done! See you soon Ithaca! 

Journal 15: Sat. April 5th, 2014

Self Reflection

Let me start this Self-Reflection with explaining how much I love WISE. To be honest, last year when picking my classes friends were telling me about this class where you didn’t have to go to class the second semester, and I immediately chose that. I can honestly say it was one of the best decisions I made in High School. The freedom that the WISE project entails is great. Picking my project, getting out in the community, exploring my interests, and getting a grade for it is amazing. So far, my project has been fun, interesting, but at times, stressful; the good stressful.
With my project, there has been a lot of hands-on experience. In the beginning of my project I interviewed an Architect who was helpful with my project, but also my future career in Architecture. This interview was very helpful and I enjoyed talking to someone that I hope to be some day. Also, I have been doing a lot of measuring with my project. I have gotten heights of buildings, windows, and doors. So far, I have all of IHS basically modeled. When I say basically, I mean with no windows and details. I am a little bit behind with the modeling so I have decided to maybe overlap parts of my project. Once I get back from Spring break I plan to get IHS accurately modeled without details so I can see what the size of the building walls so I can start with my real life model. With a project this size, I will have to make my real life model ⅛ scale. For example, lets say I am making a 10x10 wall, in my real life model, it will be 1 ¼ inch x 1 ¼ inch. This will end up being a very large model, but will look realistic and really cool.
Researching has been interesting for me. At this point in my project, I haven’t been doing a lot of research. I have tried to find IHS’s architect, building plans, and some basic SketchUp questions. As I am writing this, I am realizing that it will be better to do all the research now, in the beginning, that later on in the year. As of right now, I know what to do, but later on when I need to start texturing my computer model, and working with AutoCAD for my real life model, I will have questions. I now think it will be good to get those questions out of the way now instead of later. That is definitely something that I will be working on in the coming weeks.
Journaling is a huge part of the WISE project, and for the most part I have enjoyed it. I really like to share my progress and ideas. I think writing everything out, and then having the satisfaction of crossing it out when complete is awesome. So far, difficulties I have had would include getting the building plans, and time management. I regret waiting to start my project so late because I was waiting for something that I ended up never getting. I started modeling later than I wanted to and that set me back quite a bit. To be honest, up until a few days ago, I forgot about my working bibliography. I know all of the sources I have used, I just have not put them up on my blog. That is something I need to do as soon as possible.
I think having a mentor for the WISE project is great! They are there for support, help, and just someone to talk to. So far, Mr. Cowell and I have met every Friday 5th period since the start of my project. He always makes sure I am working on my project and reads my blog to see all the details. Later in the year I will definitely be going to him more with questions on my real life model and using the laser cutter.
Time commitment for me has not been an issue. It has taken a very long time to get the High School modeled to scale, to get measurements, and also keep up with my blog. The last couple weeks have maybe been a little bit on the slower side, maybe more like 6 hours, but I have still been making progress and trying to keep up. I think for the next 8 weeks, I am going to have to kick it into high gear and get going. This year is flying by, and soon, the project will be due.
The WISE project is all about pursuing a project that interests you, getting out into to community, and pushing your comfort zone. So far, I have pushed my comfort zone with little things such as going to a Government Planning and Development meeting. I hope next time I go I can talk to someone about my project. For the next 8 weeks, I need to blog everything I do! Also I am going to have to overlap both parts of my project to get it done! This will be a lot of work, but I can do it. I look forward to finishing my project, and completing my WISE journey. With everything I have done so far, I think I deserve somewhere between an 80-90 for this quarter.

Journal 14: Sat. April 5th, 2014

Parking Lot Sketch

A while back, my mentor Mr. Cowell asked if I could draw up the parking lot for a project that he is working on. I thought that it would be a good side project for me because I might be modeling in the parking lot in my model, also I like Mr. Cowell, so I was happy to help him out.
I spent a lot of time thinking about how I was going to do this. I thought that it was going to be too time consuming to go out with a tape measure and record everything. I had to think of something quicker. It finally came to me!

This is a snip of a Google Earth image that I took. I zoomed into the parking lot on Google Earth and taped a piece of paper on my computer and just traced it! It was a lot easier that measuring, and probably more accurate. 

Here is my rough draft of the parking lot! It is a little messing, but it was a good first sketch to get an idea of what Mr. Cowell wanted. 

For my WISE project I think I am going to include the parking lot. I can model it as a 2D plane and just sketch out the lines as if it were a piece of paper. 

Journal 13: Friday, April 4th, 2014

Mentor Meeting and Self-Reflection 

Last week in class, Ms. Lord gave us a midpoint self-reflection sheet. It had 5 categorizes (hands-on experience, research, journal, weekly mentor meetings, and time commitment) that we had to grade ourselves on. Along with that there is a 2-3 page paper. I am currently working on that and will post my reflection in my next entry.

Journal 12: Tues. April 1st, 2014

Building Outlines

Hmmmm, again, a whole week without blogging. It seems I need to write down reminders to blog all of my work. It isn't that I am not working on my project, it's just I seem to forget about my blog! But anyways, I have pretty much the whole high school ROUGHLY modeled. 

As you can see, I have a Google Earth birds eye view of the school below my model. Since I never got the layout of the school, I had to improvise. I used SketchUp's geo-location tool to insert an accurate size picture to model off of. This came in really handy when I modeled the basic lay out of the school. I have everything modeled except J Building, and parts of the new gym. The hardest part of the modeling is height accuracy. I measured the height of the classrooms, multiplied that by two, and added 3 feet for in between floors, and used that for G and H buildings height. The rest for now is kind of based off that. I will be doing more measuring in the coming days to make sure my model is as accurate as possible. Buildings such as Kulp and the new and old gym still are not modeled correctly. I am planning on taking some measurements and pictures this week to model off of. 

So I think I am off to a good start, I think I need to kick it up a little bit, but I am on my way! 

Journal 11: Tues. March 25th, 2014

Government Meeting

Wow, it has been a whole week since I wrote last. To be honest, it was a pretty non-productive week. Senior year hasn't been a walk in the park like people say it is. But anyways. I am writing about the government meeting I went to. This started out as a requirement for my Government class but then I saw the opportunity to include my WISE project as well. I attended the Planning and Development meeting, at 6:00, at City Hall. Walking in, I was surprised. I thought it was going to be a very formal meeting but the board members kind of walked in casually with jeans and hoodies. There were Architects, along with Engineers all in their suits and ties ready to announce their projects. As the meeting went along, I wanted to just tap someone on the shoulder and just blab about my awesome WISE class and project, but I felt it just wasn't the time or place. This being my first time going to a government meeting, I was a little out of my comfort zone, which is what WISE is about, exploring new things, but I wasn't quite ready to make that leap and talk to someone.
In the end, I thought it was an awesome experience and plan on attending the next meeting, April 22nd. Maybe I will engage in a conversation then.

Journal 10: Tues. March 18th, 2014

Starting to Model

     I finally have started to model! I still have not received an email from the City regarding the blueprints for the school. At this point I have no time to waste, I need to get started! I am going to a government meeting Tuesday the 25th that will talk about Planning and Development projects in Ithaca. If I see someone there that might be able to help me I will definitely ask them. With the modeling, I realized my plan kind of went away. For me, when I am modeling, I can't have a plan. I just do it. I actually started modeling G and H building first. I got the outline and bottom indent done. I do not know the height of the building but I plan on measuring later this week.
    

Journal 9: Mon. March 17th, 2014

BarnSong

This Monday we spent class watching a previous students WISE project, well two actually. A student chose to build a barn with his father, and another student chose to film it. I thought it was a pretty cool project for the both of them!

After watching BarnSong I understand more that the WISE project isn't about picking a project and finishing it, it is about the experience. Austin chose something he really liked and tried his best. I think that is what's important. The steps you take to set a goal, the hands on work in the community, and talking to new people is what the WISE project is about. I've learned that finishing your project is important, but won't be the end of the world. 

Some questions I have about BarnSong is how did he present his project at the end of the year? And did he do a follow up Presentstion when everything was complete? I want to know how it all works if you come up short at the end of the year. 

I think a big message that was received during the film was time. Always give yourself extra time. I am already experiencing that with my project. Things are taking much longer than I expected. I think I need to start planning my project more realisticly instead of reality. He set goals and tried to meet them but couldn't complete, I am going through the same thing.

Journal 8: Sunday March 16th, 2014

This Weeks Tasks

I think a good way for me to stay on track for this project, every Sunday, I make an outline of what I need to get done the week coming. This way I know what I need to do and I can get it done!

This week...

Monday: Hopefully I get the blueprints! Mondays are the day I meet the rest of my WISE class to discuss our progress. 

Tuesday: Start modeling. Start with Kulp. 

Wednesday: Finish up Kulp, and move on to the Gyms. 

Thursday: Model the Gyms. 

Friday: Finish Gyms and start on J and H. 

Journal 7: Sat. March 15th, 2014

Mentor Meeting #1

Yesterday, Friday the 14th was my first mentor meeting with Mr. Cowell. Although it was short, it was nice to have someone check up on me and see how I was doing. I explained to him how I am waiting on the blueprints and while talking he realized I might be perfect for a task he needed help on. He asked if I could draft the parking lot. I have gone back and forth with making the parking lot in my SketchUp model. I came to the decision not to make it in my computer model only because it might take too much time and it just would not look good. Drawing it though would be fine! Mr. Cowell needs it done by April 24th. I think that is plenty of time for me to draft the parking lot. If the parking lot is not in the plans I hope to get from the City, I can always just take some measurements myself.
Overall, it went well and I am happy I get to do some drawing in this project.

Journal 6: Fri. March 14th, 2014

Project Plan

I am still waiting on getting the plans of the school so in the mean time I have been working on a plan for how I am going to get this project done. There are only 52 schools days left until the WISE project is due. Thinking about that, and thinking about how much I have to get done, I get worried.
I am now getting worried about the plans. I am not sure if I am going to be able to get them. If not, I am going to be a bit behind but I will deal with that when it presents itself to me. Once I am ready to model, this is how I am going to do it...

1. I am going to model the school in a very non-detailed way first. I will start with modeling Kulp. I see this being one of the more challenging buildings so I will just get that out of the way. Hopefully with the plans I can model it but I can also take pictures to ensure accuracy. 
2. After Kulp I will model the new and old gym. The new gym is very modern and detailed. At this point I will not worry about all the details, I will just be doing the basic "outline".
3. After the gyms I will move to J and H building. These two are pretty much boxes so it won't take me more than 10 minutes with the dimensions. 
4. Next I will model D and E building. Again, fairly simple buildings. 
5. After D and E I will move on to F, G and K. 

Once I get the basic shapes of all the buildings I can then start to detail with windows, doors, etc. This is the part that will take the most time. I will work in the same order as above just with detailing.

My goal is to have the basic model done by April 8th, and the final model done by May 2nd. This should give me enough time at the end to create the actual 3D model with the laser cutter.

Journal 5: Thurs. March 13th, 2014

Overview of SketchUp

Seeing that my project is going to be largely based on SketchUp, and knowing that not everyone knows the program, I thought it would be a good idea to show some very basic models step-by-step. Hopefully this will help you understand better. 

SketchUp is actually very easy to use! I'm sure that everyone can get a hold of it once they play around with it for a while. 

The program opens to this screen.

This shows a very basic over view of some of the tools SketchUp has to offer. (The lady in the middle opens with the program. I named her Loyla). 

Now that you know some of the tools I will be using here is a very simple model step-by-step.

1. Open a new document and create a square using the shape tool. 

2. Now you can extrude it up. This will make the 2D shape you made extrude up into a 3D shape. 

3. The model I am making is a house. Every house needs a roof. I will first make a triangle on one of the edges. 

4. Now I can actually extrude that out to the other side to complete the roof. 

Here we have a very simple model just to show how the program works. This took me about 10 seconds. I am very familiar with the program, but making something as detailed as the High School will take some time. Once I start a model like the one above, get it all detailed, at the end it will look something like these. 

These are the two houses I am most proud of. The High School model I am making will include details like this. These houses took me anywhere from three weeks to 2 months. It will be difficult to finish my project but if I stay focused and work I can get it done! 

Journal 4: Wed. March 12th, 2014

Setbacks

The past few days I have been trying to get the blueprints of the school. This task has shown to be harder than I thought. I started out with asked a teacher who said he had no idea, and directed me to the main office. After thinking about it and talking to my friend, Stephen, I went to the City of Ithaca's website. Maybe the city has them? I contacted the City Of Ithaca Building Department and checked to see if anyone could help me there. Still awaiting on a response, I am kind of stuck. I have been planning the steps I will take once I actually start modeling. Hopefully I will have a schedule soon. 

Journal 3: Thurs. March 6th, 2014

  Changes to SketchUp

   Checking items off of my list to do, I came across the task of starting a new SketchUp file. Once I opened the program I got a pop-up saying there was a new version of SketchUp. I then went to SketchUp's website (http://www.sketchup.com/) and I was very surprised! SketchUp for the past 5 years has been owned by Google. SketchUp was a way for people to model buildings across the world and upload them into Google Earth. That is what I was doing for years. Google sold SketchUp to a company called Trimble and everything changed. Google Earth no longer displays models that people have created, instead models automatically displayed from Google. This was actually quite disappointing. All of the models I worked hard on were no longer in Google Earth. SketchUp has now become a strictly Architectural Program, not something people can do for fun. Of course people can play around with it, but the fun of having your models in Google Earth for everyone to see is gone.

     The 3D Warehouse is where everyones models can be uploaded, viewed, and previously reviewed by Google so see if it was worthy of putting in Google Earth. Going to the 3D Warehouse (https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/?redirect=1) I was surprised once again. Everything changed. The format of the website, the way the models are displayed. I thought it would be a good idea to get to know the new website and check up and see if all of my models were still there. Fortunately they were.  

     After spending hours learning the new 3D Warehouse I then updated my SketchUp. Thankfully nothing in the actual program changed! All of the changes that have occurred since I last used SketchUp are definitely upsetting, but will not affect my project. The only change is now I do not have to model the topography because I will not be viewing it in Google Earth. 

     These next few days I hope to get the blueprints of the school, and get to modeling! 

Journal 2: Two-Week Schedule

Overall Two-Week Goal: In the first two weeks of the WISE project I want to have a mentor and get started on talking to people in the school that might have access to the blueprints of the school.

Specific Plan:
Tuesday, Feb. 25: Get released from WISE class and talk to my potential mentors. I will first go to Mr. Cowell and talk to him about my project and see if he would be interested in being my mentor.
Wednesday, Feb. 26: If my mentor is not selected I will seek another person.
Thursday, Feb. 27: By this point I will have a mentor and I will not start to talk to people around the school to get access to the blueprints. I will talk to Mr. Cowell (Or whoever my mentor is) and see if they know of anyone.
Friday, Feb. 28: If the information I need is not given to me, I will go to the main office and see if anyone in there knows who I can talk to. Hopefully by this time I will at least know who I need to see and I can plan on talking to them next week.
Monday, March 3: Over the weekend I will have started the computer model. I will have made a new project, and saved it in several places. Today I will go talk to the person who has access to the school files and hopefully receive a copy of them or have someone email me computer files.
Tuesday, March 4: Hopefully with the blueprints accessible, I will be able to start my project! I will be able to get the topography started.
Wednesday, March 5: I will get the topography done by the end of the day
Thursday, March 6: By this point, I will have a computer file with the land around the school properly modeled. At this point I can start to model the buildings.
Friday, March 7: I will have very rough outlines of the buildings complete.

Person I will talk to:
Mr. Cowell
Two other resources:
IHS for blueprints
SketchUp tutorial videos on topography

Journal 1: Project Introduction

Dear Reader,

My project will consist of making a digital 3D model of Ithaca High School and making a real life mini-model of the school. By the end of the 3rd marking period I hope to have completed the computer model. This will require a lot of time and research of aspects of the school. Finding dimensions and blueprints will be very helpful to me for the model. Once the 3rd marking period ends I hope to move the the Technology Departments laser cutter to make the real life model. By mid June, I hope to complete both tasks fully and detailed.
Aside from the physical goals above, I really want to work on my time management.Throughout this project I will be keeping track of my tasks using Google Calendars. This will help me stay on top of deadlines and ensure my final goal will be completed. 

My interest for the project goes way back to when I was first interested into design and Architecture. When I was really young I would play with Legos, and Lincoln Logs. I would never look at the directions and be creative and do what I wanted. Once I was older I got into Google Earth and SketchUp. I started making 3D models of buildings all around the country. Soon after getting bored with modeling other peoples work I started making models of houses I designed. I have been doing this for many years. I have always wanted to make a model of the school. I actually started one and didn't get far at all. I got rid of it and now I want to do it again. I think that this is a great project for me to do in my WISE class because I have not had much time to do this due to work and school.