- Project Description: The San Marcos Creek Development project is about creating a downtown for San Marcos. For our project, we created site plans and mini models of buildings that we thought should be included in the specific plan. We used mathematical concepts such as triangle trigonometry, and algebra to put together those mini models and site plans. The purpose of this project was to attempt the San Marcos Creek Development Plan that the city of San Marcos has been working on.
- Process: For this project we worked in groups of 2-4 to create site plans and models of buildings to be added to San Marcos as part of the effort to give San Marcos a downtown. We started by going out and looking at the plot of land that we were assigned. After we gathered measurements and information on them, we then began deciding what type of building we wanted to be placed on the land and what it wold be used for. Our finished products were Site plans and mini models of our buildings that we then presented. During this project, I learned about a couple of new concepts that I didn't know before. I learned that in urban planning, you have to look at the technical use and protection of the land and environment that you’re working with. In our case, we were working with a small plot of land that was already right in the middle of restaurants and a movie theater which meant we needed to include a building that could be used for either restaurants or office spaces. For surveying, we basically learned how to plot different points and angles on land and used that information to measure the spaces that our buildings would be taking up. The engineering part of this project was a lot of math because we had to make sure that everything fit within everything else, and we also had to make sure that all of the conversions were also correct. One last skill we learned was in Architecture where we used Adobe Illustrator to draw out our models and floor plans. This allowed us to laser cut the 3D models of our buildings and also create a site plan for those models to sit on.
- Math learning: I learned a lot of new concepts for the duration of this project. First, I learned how to use trigonometry to measure angles and distances in an area that is unknown. When we were creating our sketches, I found myself using a lot of triangulation and Law of Sines to determine the appropriate lengths and angles of the building that we were looking to create. Something completely new that I learned was the golden ratio which is basically a very aesthetically pleasing number that can be found everywhere in nature. This number is 1.618, and it can be used to make buildings look pleasing to the eye. The sun path helped us discover where and when the sun wold be up and facind in a certain direction which helped some groups in placing their windows.One final concept I leanrned was the difference between Cartesian coordinates which basically mark how far along or far up it is, and Polar coordinates which show how far away or what angle the point it.
- Reflection: One of my biggest takeaways from this project was definitely learning to work with a group that you aren’t very comfortable with. I found myself at many times frustrated from being behind on this project because our group was especially small so there was always a lot more work for us to be doing versus the other groups who were able to split the work four ways. As a mathematician, I grew by learning that you really have to pay attention when you’re doing a lengthy problem because even the tiniest error could throw off the whole answer. When we were making conversions, if I made any mistakes I wouldn’t realize until after I had completed a number of walls and by the time I had realized my mistake, I was so far gone that I basically had to completely restart. Although that was frustrating, I really did enjoy being able to act like an adult and map out an entire building and the space around it.
- Exhibition: I think that for this project, exhibition could have been far more successful. Since my partner didn’t show up to exhibition, I was doing all of the work which was fairly difficult because I had to try my best to run back and forth from presenting our model and working with our interactive. For most of the night I stayed at the interactive and talked to people that passed by but I also was able to talk a little bit about our mini model to a couple of visitors. Again, although it was extremely challenging to work in such a small group with so much work, I am proud to celebrate the fact that we were able to finish all of our products and create a piece of beautiful work!