Familia's Portfolio

Calvin & Hobbes

Designing a story problem (Piecewise Function Project)

January 10, 2026 /


For our story, we wrote about how Sijun’s body fat percentage changed each week as he prepared for his upcoming bodybuilding competition. I am most proud of how we made the story fun, enjoyable, realistic, and engaging. It was not only interesting to read, but it also required problem-solving without neglecting critical thinking skills. It was a great balance. The most challenging part of the process was checking all of our calculations. Since so many calculations were required, we spent a long time reviewing them carefully to make sure none were wrong. In fact, this process took longer than solving the problems themselves. This project helped me further develop my understanding of linear relationships and graphs. I demonstrated what I learned and explained it effectively. In addition, I also improved in using more mathematical terms.

DT Vex Robot

December 12, 2025 /

Overall, we demonstrated strong teamwork and persevered through many technical challenges presented by our robot. We also achieved general success in every challenge despite our initial lack of experience with VEX. At first, we were quite clueless about what to do, but through guidance and eager learning from our peers and teachers, we effectively grasped the basics and fundamentals. Using this foundation, we were later able to develop a more complex robot. Through many trials and errors, we grew to understand the unit much better.

Although there were times when we crashed, tore robots apart, or were stuck on a challenge, we did not give up and instead used those moments to further enhance our design. We are very proud of our learning development and our final product.

We both strongly believe we have exceeded all expectations through our hard work and in-depth analysis in our documentation and reflections. We have shown our entire process, including the mistakes and difficult parts.

DT Tissue Box

December 12, 2025 /

In the first semester of the 2025-2026 school year, Familia from Shanghai American School, Puxi, SAS Community, embarked on a project to
design a nouveau styled tissue box. This undertaking, based in the school’s Design Technology classroom, was initiated to address a core
human need: the improvement of personal hygiene and living standards through thoughtful product design. The project’s broader objectives
extended beyond mere function, aiming to demonstrate a sophisticated understanding of digital fabrication and explore the potential for
manufacturing a desirable product for profit in a competitive market.

The entire design process was consciously framed within the organic and elegant principles of the Art Nouveau movement. This influence
dictated our approach to form and ornamentation, moving us away from stark minimalism toward flowing, natural lines inspired by flora and
fauna. This philosophical commitment to organic beauty was then technically executed using the precision of digital tools.

We developed complex vector graphics in Inkscape to translate these sinuous motifs into intricate patterns and finger joints suitable for
fabrication. These digital designs were materialized using 4mm poplar plywood, chosen for its ability to hold fine detail, and were laser cut
with extreme accuracy before being meticulously assembled through gluing.

The final phase focused on a finish that would honor the movement’s ethos. A rich spray paint was applied to enhance the depth of the
organic patterns and protect the wood, delivering a refined, gallery-quality piece that transcends simple utility.

This report documents the journey from concept to finished product, detailing our design rationale inspired by Art Nouveau, the technical
challenges of translating fluid forms into a 4mm laser-cut structure, the assembly process, and a final evaluation against our core objectives of
elevating a everyday object into a work of art.

Semester 1 Active Learner Reflection

October 29, 2025 /

My current goal:
My goal is to participate more actively in science class. I will consistently ask thoughtful questions, engage in discussions, and support my peers when they need help. I will also avoid responding to distractions or disruptions from classmates and ignore any negative reactions or peer pressure that may appear when participating.

My progress:
I’ve have minimized the amount of chitchat with peers when we should be focusing.

1. I am most proud of my Meteorite project that I had spent 1 whole week on.
2. My biggest challenge in this class is to stay on task and ignore distractions.
3. I believe I partially display the qualities of an active learner especially on the areas on preparing for classes, however I do wish to improve on reflecting and asking for feedback.

L4 Unit 1 Transformation and Congruence Celebration of Learning

October 23, 2025 /

I chose question 3 from Unit 1 celebration of learning as one piece of evidence that demonstrates my best thinking because; during past works, I displayed a weakness for dilating during a sequence of transformation. I view this as an accomplishment of my learning in which, showed my development of experience with dilation.

I remember the first lesson upon determining congruency I had crashed out in the classroom due to my lack of knowledge regarding proving congruence. Question 7 had proved my ultimate achievement of being able to correctly solve math problems that requires proof of congruency.

Throughout this unit, I had improved the most on proving congruency due to my past struggles. However, I still believe there is still areas of improvement in finding congruence for unknown angles. This could be referred to question one in category Level 4. Three strengths I have are: describing with mathematical precision the sequence of transformations. finding congruence of side and angles, and mapping images on coordinate planes. Three things I want to improve are: finding congruence for unknown angles, rotations on coordinate planes, and equivalent sequence transformations.

For next unit, I wish to continue getting at least a 3.5 for my summative.

Unit 1: First Contact

October 15, 2025 /

During this unit, we took on the roles of FBI agents tasked with interrogating newly arrived aliens. The primary objective was to teach our assigned aliens to speak English fluently. In doing so, we learned to understand their motives while strengthening our own grammar skills.

Throughout this process of teaching my alien, I enhanced my own understanding of grammar, including the parts of speech and other essential writing skills.

Table Tennis Unit-P.E

September 5, 2025 /

This year, our first unit was Table tennis. Comparing the last year, I advanced my strokes and consistency. Furthermore, I learned how to be an effective collaborator, realizing that communication with your partner is crucial in winning games (Doubles).

In comparison of last year, I focused more on polishing my technique rather than caring about games. Consequently, I saw visible improvement on my forehand, backhand, spin, and slice.

Math Reflection- Probability Fair

June 9, 2025 /

Our game, “Lucky Candy” was invented by Donna, Nina, Familia. The rules are very simple.

There are four levels of the game, if you win you move on to the next level; if you lose; you get the candy from the previous level.

Level 1: The Lottery
There are a total 15 slips of paper, with 3 different results.

If you get the ⭐️, move on to LEVEL 2

If you get the 🍔 get 1 hamburger candy

If you get the 🍬 get 1 hi-chew

Level 2: Cups Game
There are a total of 3 cups; 1 with 🍭,2 with nothing. You could only move on to the next level with the cup with 🍭.

Level 3: Guess the number
One of our members would think of a random number from 1-4, the players would have to guess. They would only be able to move on to the next level if they guessed the same number.

Level 4: The Ultimate wheel
Players would need to spin the wheel and would get the prize that matches with what the pointer landed on.

During the probability fair, our team members worked together smoothly, no challenges/problems occurred.
What went well during our probability fair was that many students came to play our game, and our game didn’t appeared any cheat or loop holes. It was overall successful.
6 people won the grand prize, around 80 people came to our stand.
7.5% Win

Social Studies-Documentary Festival

May 27, 2025 /

Intro:
During Unit 4, our task was to choose a impactful historical event and present a documentary about it. While brainstorming with my partner, Donna, we first had chose topics related to food, therefore coming up with “The Potato Famine”. Yet, later on we were warned that this specific topic would be hard to find visuals and videos since it was a time with no photography. In the end, we chose the natural disaster ” The Hindenburg Disaster”. This topic was appealing to us since we were deeply interested in why the amount of airships that existed now has greatly decrease ever since the 1930s.

Researching:
For both my partner and I, found researching the most interesting part of the whole process. We had to search for credible sources online, then print them out for annotation. This step took 4 classes.

Essay Writing:
After researching about our topic, the next step would be writing our essay. We would need to split the work with our partners, for example I wrote the long-term impacts and the conclusion. Splitting the work would make it more efficient and fair, also making it easier to find visuals since we would have understand what is needed.

Making the film:
After essay writing, we would need to start framing and finding visuals for the documentary. Our group chose to use “Canva”, so we could work at the same time, therefore more productivity. This process was the hardest, and required deep concentration to be on task. My partner and I even needed to stay after school for 2 hours since we were running out of time.

Editing the film:
After creating a rough draft, we have to start polishing our film. This part was crucial since we would need to start make sure no errors were made, since this was the last step until we need to give in and show everyone our film. My partner and I had continuously asked for feedback and rewatched our film several times to make sure everything was perfect.


Reflection:
Throughout the whole process our group’s work well together, fairly splitting the work and helping each other when facing challenges.

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