Post 3/24 by Gary Guttman

Braiding/ small business

2025-03-19 04:37:47 UTC

Bianca Diaz

salma109_1 — 2025-03-21 21:56:55 UTC

For this week's check in post, I wanted to try something different when it came to my style of painting and what I was painting. But, this shows how I tried blending the background by using specific colors and not using multiple where I can lose track. Which leads to my explanation about what new materials I use and as well as theory to improve my paintings. An example would be using paint pens, which from my research can help improve how I draw the things in the paintings. With paint pens, it has helped me improve in drawing objects and as well getting more ideas to draw more difficult things that are outside my comfort zone. As you can see from my painting, it will show how I improved in blending with paint pens such as in the picture of the candy and as well in the picture of roses with a checker side. Another thing that I was able to apply and help me improve my paintings would be using specific colors to use in my painting such as in the background and in the objects I've been drawing in my painting. I learned that sticking with certain colors could help me not lose track in colors and I could also use it again without struggle. I used this theory with all my backgrounds which helped my painting turn out better than I expected. I was very happy with the results, but finding the same colors I have used, has helped me create more colors with the first ones that remember what they looked like. This method also helped my painting pop out, which is what I wanted in the beginning. Overall, these new skills have improved my art, better than my art from 2 -3 years ago.

Licendi Clavel ~ Types of Internships in the Medical Field

2025-03-22 06:58:10 UTC

For this week's check-in, I decided to take notes on the types of internships there are in the medical field to learn about the broad careers that one can pursue through gaining experience. I browsed through Google to look for a good website that was very informative and easy to comprehend. I chose the article that is linked below and proceeded to take notes then used the FNT method to make my notes more engaging and comprehensible. Although most internships are unpaid it can be a great opportunity to gain familiarity within an industry you're interested in. I learned that some of the most common internships for health and medicine majors include a clinical lab intern, a pre-med summer intern, and a healthcare administration intern. Taking an internship can help you gain hands-on experience, allow you to make connections, and build upon your resume.

Licendi Clavel ~ Types of Internship in the Medical Field

licendi494 — 2025-03-22 07:00:12 UTC

For this week's check-in, I decided to take notes on the types of internships there are in the medical field to learn about the broad careers that one can pursue through gaining experience. I browsed through Google to look for a good website that was very informative and easy to comprehend. I chose the article that is linked below and proceeded to take notes. Then, I used the FNT method to make my notes more engaging and comprehensible. Although most internships are unpaid it can be a great opportunity to gain familiarity within an industry you're interested in. I learned that some of the most common internships for health and medicine majors include a clinical lab intern, a pre-med summer intern, and a healthcare administration intern. Taking an internship can help you gain hands-on experience, allow you to make connections, and build upon your resume.

https://www.wayup.com/guide/types-internships-health-medicine-majors/

Josue Reyes Perez - Learning new instrument to play in a band

josue0681 — 2025-03-23 04:30:14 UTC

For my second semester Genius Hour I will still be learning a new instrument to have the ability to play in a band with my friends. Although some band members weren't able to make it to practice we still decided to practice and get comfortable with each other's playing. Since the last post I have practiced more with my friends and focus more on the rhythm and playing in time with the other band members since I struggled with that earlier. I have also learned how to keep the bass drum constantly but I still play it a bit off time but I will continue to practice and get my foot used to having the beat of the song 505 by Arctic Monkeys since most of the song has just the bass drums. This video is the 3rd time that we have practiced as a band has practiced and what I still struggle on is the cues I get confused when I am supposed to start hitting the high hat. I also realized that I struggle to have a good transition when I start to hit the high hat making it sound bad and keeping me off rhythm which also leads to me hitting the snare at the wrong times. I have learned that the drums and the bass guitar are the main ones that keep the rhythm and keep the band on the same tempo. What I will need to focus on is having a good transition and get a better idea of where to start and to keep the same rhythm so others don't get lost or play in a different tempo. Overall I have been having fun being able to play with my friends in a band and cover one of my favorite songs. Once all the band members get together and work on our sound and playing on beat we will be able to sound good playing all together.

Reading the Bible

renata077 — 2025-03-23 07:13:49 UTC

For this second check-in, I read from Joshua to 1 Kings (page 174-292). I felt motivated throughout this check-in by being able to read most of these pages and understanding its meaning. While reading, I annotated many of the pages where I found something important or valuable to the understanding of my essential question. My guiding questions for this semester's genius hour is 'how can studying the Bible help me enhance my relationship with God as well as help me understand my cultural beliefs?'. Something I've improved from the last check-in is having coordinated annotations where I highlight what I think is important and put sticky notes to show why I think it's important and how it can answer my essential question. Although annotating is a key factor in helping me understand the Bible more, there is still a few stories I get confused with, which is why watching summary videos of these different sections of readings, have helped me immensely in having more information about the Old Testament. Lastly, I always end my readings with a Google slide, to help me remember the most important parts of what I've read and are valuable to know for the rest of the readings ahead. The link of the Google slide is: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1WY2A1XR7C34oGqh8UjyP1UV1o8yl2m7aIknW5z_FdOo/edit?usp=sharing . I will continue annotating the way I am and keep doing a Google slide for each check-in on the readings. My plan for the next check-in is to read from 2 Kings to Psalms (page 292 to 432) while annotating and making a Google slide as well.

2025-03-23 18:51:18 UTC

For this check in I traveled to San Francisco to take photos because I was born there and the city is important to me. I wanted to travel outside of Calistoga all by myself and capture moments where I felt most at peace. I chose these locations because they each represent something special, nature, the ocean, the city, and peaceful moments. The beaches and trails remind me of how much I love being by the water while downtown captures the energy of SF. The sunset photos feel calm and meaningful, showing the beauty of the city at different times of the day. Taking these pictures made me think more about lighting, angles, and how to capture the feeling of a place. Moving forward I want to focus on editing to bring out those emotions even more. This check in helped me realize that photography is more than just pictures, it is about capturing memories and moments that matter to me.

How My Habits & Hobbies Have Improved My Wellbeing - Alexa Navarrete

2025-03-23 19:35:51 UTC

My focus for this post was to share how the habits and hobbies that I have picked up have improved my personal well-being. For this semester's Genius Hour, I decided to learn how to improve my lifestyle. My essential question is: What can I do to become the best version of myself? How will this affect me physically, mentally, and emotionally?

Throughout high school, I have only played one sport (soccer) but this semester I thought it would be nice if I expanded my interests and learned how to play different sports. This semester, I am on the Softball and swim team. It has been difficult learning how to manage my time and balance out sports, school, and my personal life, but it has taught me the importance of time management and discipline. Additionally, I feel like I know have more energy and I am physically active throughout the entire week. This has allowed me to also give my mind a break and forget about the stress of school work.

Another habit I picked up focuses on my mental and spiritual well-being. I have decided to dive deeper into my spiritual life which has made such an impact in my life. I now feel confident and knowledgeable enough to share my faith and word, and I also feel less overwhelmed.

Doing these things has greatly helped reduce stress and has brought enthusiasm to my life. For my next post, I plan on establishing a set routine/schedule for myself, allowing me to prioritize things that I enjoy and don’t cause stress.

singing

karen683_1 — 2025-03-23 20:13:10 UTC

My essential question is how can singing help me relieve my stress? My learning process has been enjoyable, and I have liked being able to sing more comfortably again. I plan to keep practicing with different songs and mastering one specifically. In this recording I am practicing my vocals, these are easy vocal practices that can help me loosen up and it will also help me not have cracks in my voice. I got it from a lady on YouTube who has helped me with other singing practices. I will keep doing this to improve.

Diego H. - Paleozoic Era Period 7

diego5051 — 2025-03-23 21:17:35 UTC

The cambrian period brought massive changes to the evolution of species as with the increased oxygen caused an increase in the rapid duplication of genes. One specific gene was the Hox gene which played a very important role as it allowed for the development of diverse body parts. These parts evolved, there was an increase in competition and with competition came a lot of predation, so to combat this some species developed armor, others developed strong exoskeletons or eyes. Another thing that Hox genes did is determine where body parts would go, allowing for more complex bodies and allowed creatures to obtain better predation, more efficient feeding, and helped for better swimming and burrowing. Hox gene duplication also caused for a greater development of the nervous system allowing for better reaction to danger, hunting strategies, and more complex movement patterns.

Baking

2025-03-24 00:41:29 UTC

For this check-in, I decided to start off my cooking process by carefully measuring and mixing the ingredients for my Mexican Jello to ensure the perfect texture and flavor. As I followed the steps, I learned that patience is key, especially when waiting for each layer to set properly before adding the next. One challenge I faced was preventing the layers from mixing, but I discovered that letting each layer cool slightly before pouring helped create clean, vibrant layers. Through this experience, I not only improved my attention to detail but also gained a better understanding of how gelatin reacts to different temperatures and ingredients.

Hairstyles

arlette501_1 — 2025-03-24 01:43:28 UTC

For this semester's Genius Hour, I decided to learn how our hair correlates with our confidence. I want to know how keeping my hair healthy and done, would make me feel better about myself and my appearance. I want to find out what specific hairstyles look good on my face shape and fit my personality. For this check-in, I decided to research and find different hairstyles I think I can do and that would look good on me. After I found hairstyles and tutorials on how to do them, I made a schedule of the days I would do each hairstyle. This way I am organized and don't have to randomly pick a hairstyle the day of. At the end of each day, I plan on writing in a journal if I felt any better about myself and if that hairstyle made me confident. This way I can log my emotional status and how it relates to my hair. I can also save hairstyles to continue doing later in the future. For the next check-in, I plan on sharing my experience with my classmates and teaching them about their face shapes.

Roberto Guzman - Making Tilapia a la Plancha

roberto397_1 — 2025-03-24 02:21:27 UTC

What I cooked for this genius hour was tilapia a la plancha. Which is a piece of tilapia seasoned with a sauce made by a mayo/lemon base with onion, salt, pepper, garlic, chiles guajillos, and chiles de arbol.

Genius Hour Check-In

keyla666 — 2025-03-24 03:10:25 UTC

In this genius hour check-in I learned how to use a coffee machine, and a percolator to make espresso shots and coffee pots. My essential question is; what are the benefits of making your own coffee and how can I challenge myself by learning how to make different drinks? This process didn't take up a lot of time and the techniques I used were fairly simple. Using the coffee machine only took 3 steps to make an espresso shot. The steps were to grab a coffee pod, I used a dark roast one which is for people who like a stronger taste in coffee. I then inserted the coffee pod and used the espresso shot button to then allow the shot to be poured into a cup. Then I moved on to the different method which was using a percolator. This method consisted of 4 steps that gave me a good amount of coffee to use for many people. The first step was to add warm water to the reservoir, then add coffee grounds to the coffee filter and close it. The percolator creates pressure when it is warming up to squish the coffee grounds firmly together and to give a stronger taste of coffee. Compared to waiting 10-15 minutes at a coffee shop to grab your order, this proved to be more time efficient for me in the long run and with the benefit of being able to adjust the taste or ingredients to my liking. Overall my process was successful because I was able to learn 2 different methods to make coffee.

Enrique Guzman - How to play in a band

2025-03-24 03:15:56 UTC

This videos shows the how to play in a band. The most important thing is that everyone plays their part. If everyone plays their part right then the whole song would sound good. In the video me and my friends are in the progress of covering a song. One thing that you will notice is that we all have to keep a sense of time. For example we nod our heads or tap our toes to keep the beat inline. One thing that helped us out tremendously was to have the actual song in the background to we can reference when to come in and to know what to play. Another thing that helped us was to persevere through the ugly since that is how we learned how to correct ourselves and to get it right the next time. We still need to play with some urgency and confidence but overall are doing alright.

Ruben Rubio Zepeda

2025-03-24 03:30:15 UTC

For this genius I focused on interior work, and ensuring the flow of colors and furniture was proper. Originally in each of the classroom there was a big strip of green down the middle that was throwing off the look of the room and made it look funky .The strip was a light green color that didn't match the green on the walls, so to work around this issue they took out the light green strip and made it completely one color as shown in the picture above. From this I was able to use the previous experiences I've dealt with for the interior work to share my opinion on what looked best for the classrooms.

Baking- Evelyn Perez

2025-03-24 03:44:30 UTC

For this check-in, I baked some chocolate chip cookies. I made these cookies from scratch and no store-bought cookie dough was used in this process. To perfect this chocolate chip cookie dough, I used the right amount of ingredients. The ingredients I used for this dessert were all-purpose flour, brown sugar, baking soda, salt, chocolate chips, butter, eggs, and a little bit of vanilla extract. I made sure to whisk the dry and wet ingredients in separate bowls to ensure everything was whisked well. Then I combined both wet and dry ingredients in a big bowl and whisked it all together. This strategy is helping me work towards understanding the chemistry behind baking different types of desserts by seeing how each ingredient works with others. This will help me perfect my knowledge of baking. The process went pretty smoothly since I didn't mess up on anything. For my next genius hour, I want to bake a churro cheesecake because it's one of my favorite desserts and I want to try to make it.

Angelique Vazquez Genius Hour #2

2025-03-24 03:53:07 UTC

For my Genius Hour check in #2 I recorded two videos of two separate cords I have learned. The first part of the video shows the cord G# and G#/G. The second half of the video was me playing the cord A#m. I decided to learn the first two cords separately. This is the way I will be leaning the song and then I will be working on putting it all together. What I found really struggling was muting the cords so it doesn't really sound exactly how its supposed to because I wasn't really muting. For the next Genius Hour I will be Learning the cords for the second half of the song.

David B - Learning How to Drive/Getting permit

2025-03-24 03:59:32 UTC

This week, I made significant progress in my Genius Hour project by finishing and successfully passing my online driver’s ed course. The course took around 8 hours, and included important subjects like road signs, traffic regulations, and safe driving techniques. Ultimately, I needed to complete a final exam to assess my understanding, which I successfully passed. The course was pretty simple, it gave me knowledge that will be essential when I begin driving. Learning the traffic regulations and positive driving habits from the start will aid me in being a responsible driver. Finishing the driver’s ed course is necessary for getting a learner’s permit. Having completed this step, I'm one step closer to being able to practice driving on the road.

Health Care Intern-Kennia

kennia412 — 2025-03-24 04:38:52 UTC

For my Genius Hour project, I’ve been working towards becoming a healthcare intern. This project has allowed me to explore my passion for healthcare and solidify my career goals in family medicine with a focus on obstetrics. I’ve completed most of the application process, including filling out forms and researching different healthcare internships. One of the remaining steps is completing my TB (tuberculosis) test, which is required for many healthcare internships. The TB test checks for any exposure to tuberculosis, a bacterial infection that can affect the lungs and other parts of the body. It's a simple skin test that requires a follow-up visit to check the results. This test is an important part of ensuring that healthcare workers don't spread contagious diseases. This process has made me realize how much preparation goes into working in healthcare, even as an intern. I'm looking forward to completing the test and moving on to the next steps in securing my internship.

Kiara Sandoval - Writing a Fantasy Novel

2025-03-24 04:44:57 UTC

For this semester's second Genius Hour check-in, I have begun to process of writing my novel’s world history. While writing my novel’s history, I have taken inspiration from real historical events to make my novel feel more realistic (historical events such as the War of the Roses, the Hundred Year’s War and historical figures like Joan of Arc). So far, I have written around eight thousand words for a background short-story that details important aspects of my novel’s history. For example, I have written background information specifically about the main species I am writing about in my novel: Faes and their abilities, their natural reign over the North before the monarchy was established, and their eventual downfall hundreds of years down the line. I have continued to take inspiration from the book series 'A Song of Ice and Fire' by George R.R. Martin and recently purchased J.R.R. Tolkien’s first installment to his Lord of the Rings series as my next read. Reading is an essential part of the writing process.

I have also created a world map so it’s easier to visualize the geography of my world while writing it. I created it digitally because i’m not the best artistically skilled person out there, so the process was easy. I will also have to create another map for the Eastern Isles since the map focuses exclusively on the Western Lands, and soon enough my main character will travel through those lands. In turn, I have also established some cultural differences between the two regions and will expand on them later in my outline and in my novel, since this will be a challenge my main character will face in the future.

For this check-in post, I believe that I accomplished the goal I set for myself. However, I did struggle with setting time aside for writing because these past few weeks have been rigorous in terms of school work, but I also found that heavy reading inspires me with ideas for my novel while actively draining me from my energy to actually write. To overcome this, I listen to music and create mood boards that capture the essence of what I’m writing. For my next Genius Hour check-in, I hope to have continued writing my novel and dive further into the world history of my novel.

Stella Jamieson-Making food at home instead of going out

2025-03-24 04:51:48 UTC

Hello my name is Stella Jamieson, and for this genus hour post I focussed on making pasta. To make this past I used what I had at home instead of buying the ingredients to make it. I found tomato sauce, tomatoes, garlic, spinach, heavy cream, and cheese. This recipe wasn't something specific I went off of, I came up with it myself. One struggle I faced making this was not really having guidance because I wasn't going off of a recipe, but this turned out to be something creative and turned out good. This was something really affordable to make and it fed me and my grandma, since I already had the ingredients at home, I saved some money.

Car Detailing-Marco Gonzalez

2025-03-24 05:12:51 UTC

For this check in I once again did another engine I was proud of the first one I cleaned and decided to focus on another one. I did the same process which was power washing it and then wiping it down and washing it again until it was clean but this one was a little harder especially when trying to get in between the parts to get all the dirt out. For the next genius hour I plan on focusing on an interior and learning to properly clean it and get stains out.

Genius Hour: Nails

dianet0541 — 2025-03-24 05:14:27 UTC

For my genius hour, I focused on the nail art today. I did some cute French tips with a little flower on my middle finger. One thing I learned is that the shorter the nail, the longer it actually takes. This is because I have to get the acrylic bead smaller and just right with the liquid, which is called monomer. By doing this, I can achieve the perfect bead.

When I was applying the French tip, which is the white line at the top of the nail, I have to be extra careful to make sure it wasn't too thick because if it is too thick it can come out bulky, which is definitely not the look I want. Overall, It was a great experience, and I am excited to keep improving.

Genius Hour: Baking

daisy496 — 2025-03-24 05:17:54 UTC

This week's plan was to continue the baking process while also still learning how the oven works. My original plan was to create a recipe with inspiration. I did come up with one, but I would rather show it off for the final. So I instead just made a traditional dish in the Philippine culture called Cassava Cake. My mom helped me with a little bit of the process since it was my first time making it. It includes cassava mixture, eggs, coconut milk, evaporated and condensed milk. I topped it off with condensed milk and egg to give it a softer texture.

Baking- Itzia E pr3

itzia237_1 — 2025-03-24 05:31:49 UTC

in this genius hour, I was able to make a brownie recipe that I studied last genius hour. This expanded on my learning because it was my first time baking by myself, and I wasn’t really sure if it would come out good or not in the picture you can see that the recipe was good, but it was a little burnt. I got an eight out of 10 rate from my parents and my peers and this will help me with my next genius hour because it allows me to see what I did wrong and right. for my next genius hour, I will be baking a harder recipe, and I will get different opinions from people at work and people at school. This process was fun because I was able to make a mess in the kitchen by myself and I didn’t have anyone Judging the way I was cooking and what I was doing with the resources I had.

Amy- Learning how to drive

2025-03-24 05:52:33 UTC

In this video I focused on practicing making turns. I showed how to approach a turn safely, and I demonstrated a left turn. This practice helped me get more comfortable with turning while driving.

Amy-Learning how to drive

amy0791 — 2025-03-24 06:00:55 UTC

In this video I focused on practicing making turns. I showed how to approach a turn safely, and I demonstrated a left turn. This practice helped me get more comfortable with turning while driving.

Carlos M. English 12 Per 1 - Fevers

carlos003 — 2025-03-24 06:04:10 UTC

My recording is centered around Fevers and how they help keep our bodies healthy. Something that should be stated right at the beginning is that a fever is NOT a sickness, a fever is a way our body fights AGAINST sicknesses. The way it does this is by heating up our body, it kills off microorganisms that usually cannot live within a certain amount of temperature. By exceeding the limit these microorganisms can live through, they are killed off and never to be seen again. I chose to speak about this as it is a crucial part in answering my essential question and will be built off of towards the end of the semester by adding more information through checkpoints to keep students from getting lost along the way.

David Bravo-Catcher:Blocking

2025-03-24 06:05:14 UTC

For my second post, I focused on the aspect of blocking in catching. Since my last game, this was one of the skills I felt I lacked on. To improve my skills on blocking. I watched youtube videos that focused on blocking. Some of the things that I gained from watching these videos is to accept the fact that it may hurt to block the ball. Another thing that I picked up from these videos is that you should practice on watching the ball go all the way into your mitt or chest protector. One of the challenges that I faced trying to learn about my mechanics in blocking is that when I tried to go practice outside and play in an actual game, the rain was a problem so I had to find other things to practice on. For the next post, I plan on focusing on "Framing" the ball when a pitch is thrown.

Brandon Lopez-Tovar 6 string bass octave patterns

brandon057_1 — 2025-03-24 06:10:39 UTC

For my second semester Genius Hour I chose to learn how to play a 6 trying bass. I'm similar to basses but not a 6 string Bass especially with the new B and C strings. Although I already know some basics of the bass I decided to go out my way and learn octaves. The patterns are simple since I have experience on 4 string bass. These are images of the new octave patterns I need to use for the slides on the fretboard. This will help me later on as I can implement octave slides for different songs and make them have a better sound. As I've played this instrument more I have memorized the string placements and also have memorized the certain different techniques of playing without having to overwork my hands. Something else that I have experienced while learning this instrument is the struggle because the neck is so fat and the 3 band eq since it's complicated to make it sound as clean as I want it. Other than that it has been simple and hopefully I will be able to play songs soon.

Braiding- Carolina Cuaxilo 2'

carolina201_2 — 2025-03-24 06:20:15 UTC

For my genius hour #2, I decided to braid two smaller sections of hair. This way, I can braid into even smaller sections. I began by parting the hair in half and then parting about an inch of hair from the half section to get a piece. It was a bit challenging because the baby hairs kept getting in the way and even if I used a lot of hair spray it wasn't enough. After I had my sections I tied the rest of the hair. I began braiding the top with a smaller section and divided it into three, I added hair spray as well. But something challenging was getting the hair with my nails, I realized that it was harder to get the strands and make the braid tighter. But also next time I will be using gel instead of hairspray because I think it'll be more effective. But once I began braiding I grabbed hair by hair for each side strand until the braid was done. Overall this check-in was a success but there still needs to be more practice to it so I can get tighter and neater braids.

Genius Hour- Cooking

2025-03-24 06:22:13 UTC

For this genius hour post I decided to make chicken Alfredo pasta. For my genius hour I'm focusing on cooking. This photo shows my progress so far and what I was able to accomplish. Some of the ingredients I used for making this dish were pasta, chicken, butter, heavy cream, Parmesan cheese, garlic, salt, and pepper. Overall I feel like I did a very good job and the outcome came out very well and the food tasted delicious. AP-period 1

Lemuel - How to Crochet and what are some things you can make

lemuel364_1 — 2025-03-24 06:26:48 UTC

This photo shows my final product of making a one of my favorite characters as a crochet plushie. It doesn’t look the best as I’m still a beginner however I personally love on it turned out. My progress however took its time and effort but it also wasn’t easy. Having to sew with a needle and thread the hair on top of the head was overwhelming and had to ask my mom for help multiple times. Not only that but due to losing one arm, I had to restart that part all over again making it a bit harder. Along with that I also created accessory that resembles a scarf which is connect to the head and body. The eyes were the most less stressful as I only used a light blue thread and sowed onto the face. Finally, while it doesn’t show clearly in photo, I also added eye lashes to make a bit more detailed on the face. Above the eyes are the sunglasses the plush character has which my mom decided to add to make it more accurate to the character. Overall, this had been a fun but yet difficult experience and I hoping to creating something more cloth or accessory related.

Learning Guitar-Rafael Rodriguez Calderon

rafael085_1 — 2025-03-24 06:29:47 UTC

For this Genius hour check in, I would expand my skill on alternate picking and picking between strings much faster. This technique or drill can help me get out of my confort zone. Making my fingers go faster than usual and practice not only a part of the song that I'm currently trying to learn. But as well as being able to work with the swiftness of my fingers. Not only is my left hand being worked on, my right as well. As it also requires me to precisely hit the stings twice every time and alternate between two strings. This would later help me out with other songs that require single picking. Since I can transfer this skill to the other strings as well. During this process, I found out that repetition is key. It must be done many times in order to get good and confortable. I can see this as time goes by and me practicing, seeing improvement which motivates me to keep on going. Overall, the experience has been repetitive but helpful in many aspects that could help me in the long run.

Caitlin Guilliams- Writing a cookbook

caitlin043_1 — 2025-03-24 06:33:27 UTC

My Genius Hour for this semester is creating a cookbook with family recipes! My goals for this progress check were to edit the pages I already created on canva, and to begin writing recipes. Although I did not start writing the recipes yet, I organized the book similar to professional books and I prepared the design for my first recipe pages. Specifically, I used a personal cookbook I have at home that is titled ´Everyone Can Bake´, by Dominique Ansel as a template and inspiration. I added my own pages based on the books pages starting after the cover. I added a page with my name one it, to create a ¨professional¨ look even though its for my family, and then I created two pages about instructions to the book. Then, I edited table of contents to be more appealing, and I wrote a few cooking tips that everyone should know. The next pages I created to be a list of common materials, from specific pans, to simple utensils, and also explained the purpose of cooking as my example book did. Then, I created a blank page that I want to fill with another food photo or a family photo, and the next page is followed by an explanation of timing when cooking in the kitchen. The last five pages are going to be quick and small recipes that are like appetizers. My goal for the next progress check is going to be to write out all the small recipe pages, replace the landscape image of personal pictures, and to begin a new section of recipes.

Cooking

2025-03-24 06:51:56 UTC

For this check in, I wanted to focus on how I can save money by learning how to make enchiladas. I wanted to focus on this topic as I will be going to college next year and I will have to do things on my own if I decided to move in to their college dorms. My essential question is how can cooking help me be more independent and save up money? My process of learning this recipe was fairly easy as I already have the ingredients at home. My goal from my action plan was to make enchiladas. I feel I did accomplish this goal because I was able to make this recipe under 5 dollars and with some guidance from my parents. This picture shows the end result of making enchiladas. My family and I usually put lettuce and cheese on top. We had leftover pickled onions so I decided to see if it would taste better rather than going out to buy lettuce. My plan for my next genius hour is to make flautas.

Genius hour- Cooking

adrian486 — 2025-03-24 06:53:41 UTC

For my genius hour I decided to focus on cooking. In this post I decided to make Chicken Alfredo Pasta. In this photo it shows my attempt at making this type of pasta. The ingredients that I used for this were pasta, chicken, butter, heavy cream, Parmesan cheese, garlic, salt, and pepper. I had to make sure the chicken was seasoned to give some flavor. Overall this dish is easy to make and it doesn't take as much time to make. I had no struggles in making this and I feel like I did an okay job and can improve on certain things. AP-period 1

Embroidery

isabella056 — 2025-03-24 06:54:05 UTC

This week for my second Genius Hour check in I worked on deciding on my stitch pattern for my final project. I selected the running stitch because the design was more seperated and I felt it would make my project stand out the most. I also worked on a smaller design outline which included working around edges. I still need to improve the sewing on the corners where I have to turn, my sewing there came out thinner than the rest. The smaller design I worked on has a bigger design but my variety colored materials haven't came in so I will be focusing on that for the next check in to assure i'm comfortable with sewing the pattern I selected. Pictured above I also worked with two different fabrics. I liked the top fabric better because although it was thinner it was less easily affected such as noticable small tears or loose areas.

Diego Perez Herrera - Dunking

diego067_2 — 2025-03-24 07:08:30 UTC

For my genius hour I am tryna to progress my way to being able to dunk. In the previous check in I reported about how I am changing my food consumption to hopefully have better results with increasing my vertical jump while also weight training. In this video I am doing quarter squats to train the muscle groups that are used when jumping which is a short and quick movement instead of doing traditional deep squats. I am trying to focus on being more explosive and reactive so what I was trying to focus on in this set was trying to come up and explode as soon as I touched the box. I couldn't fit multiple videos in this, but I also did another variation of quarter squats with a trap bar where it's the same concept of coming from the ground up and trying to be as quick and explosive as possible to build up the strength and resistance of the tendons to be able to increase my vertical. I also found it helpful to do some isometric exercises after to help with any knee pain and wear down, essentially where I am holding a lengthened position for a short period of time to build up some stability. For the next check in I hope to be able to get an opportunity to get in the gym and hopefully test how much closer I have gotten and see if I am actually improving and seeing progress.

Tinting Eliel Morales

luis0602 — 2025-03-24 07:13:10 UTC

What I'm doing here is lining up the film with the back window after cutting it and getting it prepped for shrinking which is just sticking it on to the window, spraying it, and creating fingers. This is a very essential step because al windows have their own curve and if you don't shrink the film to the curve it will cause for there to be air-bubbles and many imperfections. I think some errors I faced here were simple mistakes like in cutting or accidentally creasing the film. Something I struggled on is getting videos of the steps since I have to use both hands to do most of the work and this was a clients vehicle. Overall I feel like my progress is going good I am now learning how to leave back windshields with little to no imperfections.

christopher083_1 — 2025-03-24 07:23:20 UTC

So I was able to find my chords progression and figure out the beat and the timing of the song. I’m currently now just working on the lyrics which are a work on progress for sure but I’m half way through. I first needed a theme or a story which I have and from there I was able to write the lyrics and the type of mood I want the song to give. I’m also need to finalizing the different parts of the song when’s the change of chords for example the bridge and chorus so it’s just changing one last chord and I feel like I have my whole progression for all the parts. Once I have the lyrics in I’m able to connect the keyboard to my system for music production . I have also been practicing and working this project at night to be able to concentrate and be able to get in the mood I want to great for the listener. For the next steps I will be finalizing lyrics and going to the providing program

diana096_1 — 2025-03-24 07:31:36 UTC

For my genius hour check in, I did my mom's eyeshadow in a very subtle, natural way, and her eyebrows. I used the new products that I had bought and was able to do her makeup. Something that I did find difficult was working with the skin on her eyelid since it was a new skin texture that I had never done makeup on before and it took me a while to get the hang of it. Something that I did learn was how to handle different skin textures especially aged skin and also figuring out someones eyebrow shape. When I first did the look on my mom, the eyebrow shape that I usually do didn't look natural on her so, I tried different shapes and found that this shape was the best for her facial structure. Overall it was a fun experience to be able to do my mom's makeup and also get some more practice time in for when I do her makeup again or someone else's makeup.

Ytzel Cruz- Cooking/Baking

ytzel847 — 2025-03-24 07:51:24 UTC

This picture shows the outcome of an easy Mexican/ Hispanic dish called Flautas, also known as tacos dorados. For this you technically only need three ingredients not including the toppings, all you in is avocado oil, tortillas, and chicken. Your first step is to boil the chicken in water for it to cook, when done you will shred the chicken. The second step you will grab the amount of tortillas you need and put them in the microwave (will make tortilla warm and make it easier to use) once warm the shredded chicken would be placed in center of tortilla and you will begin to roll your tortilla, once fully rolled you will grab a toothpick and secure the tortilla so it won't unfold and repeat. Once done you will add oil to you heated pan and wait for oil to heat up, once hot you may place your tacos in pan (as many as you can fit) when one side of tortilla turns gold/brown flip to cook evenly. When flautas are all cooked and ready you may add the topping of your choice, an example is I added lettuce, sour cream, and salsa Verde. Something I learned throughout the process is that there is a bit of patience that one need to have throughout some of these steps

Jayden- “Attempt” at Red Hot Chili Peppers |Can’t Stop|

2025-03-24 07:53:50 UTC

This is my attempt at Red Hot Chili Peppers “Can’t stop,” and there definitely needs to be some improvements in this. Like muscle memory and hand placements, also speed and timing. The timing was off and I was pretty slow at it. I have recently taken a liking to this song and hopefully will be able to play this song during my genius hour. The learnings from this could be implemented with a band setting and improve upon our playing. My next step from here would be getting together with the band and put together our learnings.

Daniela Perez - Baking/Desserts

daniela483 — 2025-03-24 08:07:07 UTC

For My Genius Hour, I continued to explore desserts from around the world by making my second dessert: Chi Chi Dango. Chi Chi Dango is a type of Japanese mochi. For my recipe, I used mochiko, sugar, water, coconut milk, and potato starch (katakuriko), with optional food coloring. This mochi recipe can be made by using a microwave or oven. I chose to use the oven since I felt like it was a better option, I set the oven at 350 degrees, and I baking the mochi for like about 45-50 minutes. Unfortunately, my attempt of making Chi Chi Dango didn't turn out as expected, it was a failure.This experience taught me that working with mochi dough requires practice and patience as the texture is very delicate. Despite the outcome, I learned that making something new from a different place can be changing but its a learning experience, showing me how there is times where your gonna fail but you learn something from that mistake. For my next check-in, I will be making Dubai covered chocolate strawberries, which will allow me to experiment exploring the flavors.

OB/GYN Research (2)

daisy465 — 2025-03-24 09:49:35 UTC

For this semester's genius hour, I took on this opportunity to explore the career path I want to pursue and how it will help me realize if it's what I want to do for the rest of my life. Over the past few days, I tried to break down the 2-in-1 jobs that come with becoming an OB/GYN, and for this check in, I decided to focus on the Gynecologist part of the title. I analyzed this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAjfZNDRJXQ over and over, trying to understand the concept of the gynecologist part of this career choice. For this check-in infographic, I elaborated on the points that affect the woman’s body, the reproductive process, and the complexities that some women have to go through before, during, and after the birth of the baby. I have provided various information about the part itself and the risks, including the cures if there are any. I feel like I understand what I am getting myself into and how many extra years of education I am committing to. Having these infographics is helping me understand the difficulty of this job, and it’s getting me thinking if it's truly worth it to continue to pursue this career in the future. My infographics give me the ability to use visuals, and it increases my visual interest in the topic and what I'm learning. By constantly doing my research and carefully crafting my infographics, I will be able to answer me essential question at the end of the semester, which is "What educational path, skills, and experiences are essential for successfully pursuing a career as an OB-GYN, and how can this career impact me in what I want to pursue in the future and base the rest of my life around?" I want this genius hour to teach my peers that becoming a parent isn’t always the easiest thing in the world. It’s not just about conceiving the child, but about some of the difficulties mothers have to go through to get their children to full term, and sometimes it doesn't work out for all of them, often getting miscarriages or other health problems, not only themselves but their babies. It’s important to understand that gynecologists play an important part in detecting all of these major birth defects and health problems, which give them a fairly important role in the healthcare system. Overall, by studying my notes and finding new resources every day, I feel like I step closer to achieving my goal, and so far, I dearly enjoy this research and this career.

Miguel Castro/ Law Enforcement.

2025-03-24 10:08:46 UTC

For my Genius Hour check-in #2, I wanted to focus on Law Enforcement careers and what it takes to actually join and pass the Police Academy. As I've been investigating about the police Academy it really has shown me how complex it is especially because you have to work together not only with your own department but also others. For example to image above shows a car accident we responded too and clearly many units showed up for example to PD FD and the Emts. In the Law enforcement field you will come across situations where you will have to work together with other departments and at times you have to work and efficiently communicate with someone in which you don't know or have trained with. The field overall allows you to not only communicate with you team and units from your own department but also with others which can be from different citys which I found very cool because they communicate very clear and in an efficient matter as well. My internship has also allowed me to learn about the harsh realities and cases which happen in such a small town such such as calistoga which many of us expect nothing to happen, and really shows how important it is for first responders to stay on task and not get caught off guard in a situation that can result in someone else or yourself getting harmed. Overall my internship has shown me how important and serious this career really is and has shown me how hard I will have to work in order to be able sucessful and even reach higher ranks at a faster rate.

Ayden - Learning to Drive

ayden518 — 2025-03-24 12:53:33 UTC

For this genius hour post I have been practicing my driving more and I am now driving around town as opposed to out of town. I am working on turning for the most part as that seems to be the part I have trouble with the most but I do feel like my skills overall are improving. THe only difficulties I have been having is mostly with timing and when I am able to go out and practice and the fact that this is very new to me and I don't have much to go off of besides my knowledge of what to do while driving but I hope at least the latter issue will go away as I keep practicing and improving

Chocolate chip cookies

litzy503_1 — 2025-03-24 13:22:07 UTC

For this Genius Hour check in I decided to make chocolate chip cookies, The reason I decided to make pastries for this Genius Hour semester is to see how I can improve my patience. The first step on how to make chocolate chip cookies is first you’re going to need a bowl to mix all of your ingredients, then you need to have room temperature butter, sugar and until smooth. Next, beat in eggs and vanilla extract, then gradually add flour, baking soda, and salt, mixing until well combined. Then you’re going to add the chocolate chips and ensuring they’re evenly distributed throughout the dough. Finally, you’re going to fold the dough into small balls. After that you’re going to display onto a baking sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes at 315 degrees, and until the edges are golden brown. Something that learned while making chocolate chips cookies is that I didn’t have brown sugar to work with so I had to improvise. The chocolate chips cookies still make out good without the brown sugar. As well I did realized I had patience throughout baking cookies because it really didn’t take that long and I had baking with my sister.

Elias Escobar's keyboard

elias655_1 — 2025-03-24 13:48:59 UTC

For this check-in, I'm demonstrating how my part sounds in our band setting, and as the opening part, it has to sound good. It's me plying a series of cords one after another in an "electric Keyboard" setting with the reverb to the max. I set up the tempo for the rest of the song, so it has to be perfect. This is the first 20 seconds of 505-Artic Monkeys. Enjoy!

Gymnastics-Kelly Montanez

2025-03-24 14:03:46 UTC

This week I focused on higher intensity skills. I still didn't feel confident enough about my skills before starting beam and so I just practiced some more skills to get the hang of gymnastics again. As exemplified here, all I did were some back tucks which are a staple in the gymnastics community and are heavily used throughout each event. This skill is very important to know as a basic. Overall, everything went pretty smoothly I didn't find much difficulty this week, I just wanted to make sure I had everything down for next time. Meaning, next time I will for sure hop on the beam and try out some skills.

Genius Hour Post #2

2025-03-24 14:22:31 UTC

For this check in I decided to visit a small town called Locke, in the California Delta region. The town itself may seem unremarkable at first glance but it's History is what makes it special. In the early 1900s Chinese people began to flock to the united states from asia, seeking ecomomic Oppertunities. American began putting them to work for low wages. Most of this work was hard labor putting levees up in the Delta region to reclaim land for farming. Some Chinese businessmen partnered and created a completely Chinese town in the region. To this day it is the only remaining fully intact Chinese settlement in the entire country. All of the buildings and shops are functional. Making for an interesting step into the multitude of cultures that meet here in California.

Orthopedic Surgery Research

cassandra076 — 2025-03-24 14:36:54 UTC

To expand on my orthopedic surgery research, I have decided to apply to the St. Helena Hospital Volunteer Services Program to hopefully get a perspective on how it is to work in a hospital with patients and get volunteer experience to help my college resumes, etc. After completing this volunteer ship program and having a certain amount of hours, I would like to maybe find a doctor or a doctor who specializes in orthopedics to get an overview how how a day looks as a surgeon. If possible, I would like to have an interview with them to be able to ask questions I won't necessarily get online, and I think this is more of a sufficient way to get answers. I would like to achieve this goal because I feel that it is more effective if you learn from someone who has what you desire to see if you really like it. For example, if I don't get experience before I get into medical school, I may regret it during the second or third year and it would have been a waste of time and money because I was not prepared. However, while focusing on the present, during my time while I was filling out my application form, I have learned that if you want to ever work in a hospital, no matter the position, you have to be vaccinated specifically for Hep B, MMR, Tetanus, Varicella, you need a 2025 COVID-19 Vaccination Record/documentation, and a 2025 Flu Shot- Influenza Vaccination Record /documentation. I believe even learning the little details such as getting vaccinated helps me determined my future because if I were anti-vaccination, there would be no possible way I could volunteer at the hospital, nor work in a hospital. My next genius Hour step, as mentioned before, is to find a doctor to interview to see if Orthopedic Surgery or even medical school is for me.

Logan Brooks Period 2 - Choosing Model Architecture for Image Recognition

logan6441 — 2025-03-24 14:55:38 UTC

For this check in, I wanted to focus on figuring out how I could property set up the best model architecture for my cat detection project in Roboflow. I learned that CNNs are needed for image recognition because they use different layers to see the unique things in an image.

After looking into it, I just decided to use transfer learning with a pre trained model which was MS COCO to try and make up for the small amount of images I had. I split up my dataset into training, validation, and test labels which is important to make sure my model can recognize new images well instead of just memorizing the specific things that were in the training data.

I'm still experimenting with different ways to split the data to make the performance a bit better, and even though training is taking longer than I expected my next steps are to complete the training and to test the performance of the model.

Omar Hernandez-Period 1

omar360 — 2025-03-24 14:58:38 UTC

I recently attended an important affordable housing meeting where I gained insightful information about the dynamics of our city's housing market. Being a future realtor, I wanted to know the insides of the market, particularly how taxes and regulations impact the field of affordable housing. One of the key topics discussed was the new tax incentives for the development of affordable housing. Local officials explained how the incentives work, providing a breakdown of the tax credits developers will receive if they commit to keeping rents affordable. The discussion also addressed the legal limitations on the prices of rentals in various locations in relation to the income levels and demand in the surrounding areas. It came out that it is essential to be aware of such laws for any individual in the real estate business, especially those who wish to contribute positively to society. As the presenters discussed the compliance prerequisites and potential penalties for non-compliance, emphasizing the necessity of ethical behavior in real estate enterprise.

As I listened to the deliberations and spoke with the other attendees, I realized how important these meetings are in shaping the future of housing in our community. I felt compelled to participate in this conversation because it has a direct impact on so many residents who need stable and affordable housing. Overall, the meeting was an excellent learning opportunity for me as a future realtor. Not only did it enrich my understanding of the local residential market, but it also challenged me to consider what I can do in my professional practice to respond to affordable housing.

Flor-how to alter/change clothing using a sewing machine?

flor0741 — 2025-03-24 15:00:03 UTC

In this clip I'll be showing how I'm hemming the bottom of a t-shirt I cut up since it was too big. I first started off by mapping out how much I wanted to cut off. Then I lined out where I would folded the bottom for a cleaner look, that you can see in the video. I sew the enter bottom twice, just to be more secured. And clearly I didn't show the enter shirts after look but just image I did.

Karina Diaz - Learning Makeup Skills

karina013 — 2025-03-24 15:01:14 UTC

For this genius hour check in I decided to do my sister’s makeup. I did my sister's makeup by beginning from a clean, moisturized base as well as then applying a lightweight foundation that matched her skin tone, to ensure it blended well. I used enough mattifying primer and sufficient setting powder. This was since she has oily skin to control shine throughout the day. For her eyes I wanted to keep it simple since she doesn’t really do eyeshadow so I left her eyes alone. I also did a simple makeup look on my mom, but her skin type is different, she has dry skin, so I focused on using hydrating products in addition to a dewy primer as well as a hydrating foundation. Although they both had different skin types I was able to meet both of their needs to create a natural makeup look.

Diego Guzman- Genius Hour Period 3

2025-03-24 15:08:01 UTC

This post shows how I have used my skills of my new jumpshot to do a 1v1 against someone. I started to shoot in new places and try out new dribbles moves. I also added the score with my FG (Field Goals) which is my shots made and missed. As well as my percentage of all the shots I make. This will help me better understand the areas I need to improve on. Like which shots need more practice and which ones are at standard.

Growing Flowers - Greenhouse

carla0331 — 2025-03-24 15:32:55 UTC

This picture above are the plants growing outside of the greenhouse, and I’ve noticed they’re growing slower than expected compared to my previous plants from the last check-in from the mini greenhouse model. The main reason for this slower growth is that the plants aren’t in a controlled environment like they would be inside a greenhouse since they help keep the temperature and humidity stable which also helps plants grow faster. Without the greenhouse, the flowers are exposed to sudden and quick changes in temperature, weather, and pests, which can slow them down. Sunlight especially is also an important factor becuase in a greenhouse the plants get steady sunlight. but outside the tulips might not get enough light at the right times of day which also slows their growth.

Fashion Design - Lily Hernandez

2025-03-24 15:47:04 UTC

This week, for my Genius Hour, I decided to purchase the things that I needed to start the physical process. I first searched for the design measurements that would best fit the design of the dress I'm deciding to make. This was the one online I decided to purchase. I also started looking for fabric, so as soon as the actual measurements template arrives. One thing I have been struggling to get a hold of the the beaded string that I wanted to drap across the bodest. So I might have to do this by hand, which may be a challenge considering how time-consuming it may be. Overall, the building process will most likely start before the next check-in. This will be when I will begin cutting out the ideal sizing. I also need to buchase the bodest base for the corset. This part from previous experience will be one of the most challenging. I was happy to share these designs with my mom and get her feedback to allow us to spend some time together which is one of the main objectives to the project I decided to do this semester.

Veterinary

2025-03-24 15:57:47 UTC

For my Genius Hour, I'm interning at Calistoga Pet Clinic to learn about what veterinarians do. For this post, I decided to focus on interacting with clients because it is a major part of consulting the patients' parents to decide the correct treatment. We begin by asking for any concerns and possibly doing a short physical exam by just feeling around the joints and checking for lumps or pain. We then take the patient to the back to do a nail trim or any x-rays to better understand what's going on if there are concerns. We then take the animal back to the room and consult the parent on any needed treatment like medications or surgery. One client in particular needed hip surgery, so we went in and talked to the parent. This was hard because she couldn't afford surgery, so we had to look at cheaper alternatives like laser therapy. I believe that's going to be a large emotional toll when being a veterinarian, but it's important to approach the situation with understanding and compassion. So, I've learned a bit more about what happens during patient consultation and the possible emotional toll that may come with this career. To end on a positive note, I'd like to introduce another one of the residents, Tartar! Despite being feral, she's very needy and constantly yells at me if I pay attention to any other cat. She's adorable and so sweet, even if she does get a little sassy at times!

Jesus Rodriguez- Process Of Getting a Barbers License

2025-03-24 16:02:41 UTC

In the past week I’ve been looking into different ways of getting a barbers license. The two ways of getting one is by either going to barber school or doing an apprenticeship. Both have some pros and cons however. Barber school is faster to get a license and helps beginner barbers to learn how to cut hair. An issue with doing that though is that it will cost more money than an apprenticeship. The apprenticeship route would be more beneficial for people like myself who already know how to cut hair and simply want to get into a barbershop and get that hands on experience straight away. The con for this is that it will take longer to get a license and will need to be committed at the shop you choose to go to for while.

Dayanara vega - Making Chilaquiles

dayanara575 — 2025-03-24 16:05:52 UTC

For my Genius Hour post this week I decided to make Chilaquiles. The process was fun as I did the tortilla chip from scratch. For the tortilla chips, I cut up the tortillas into tringles the night before, then I let them harden a bit. In the morning I put oil in a pan. After the oil was heated up I put in the tortillas and let them fry, not all the way through. I took out the chips from the pan and let the oils run off and let them crisp up. As for the salsa, I made it rojo, to make it I used tomato, onion, garlic, salt, and chiles serranos. I put it in the blender and then I pass it through the strainer to make sure no unnecessary parts go through and into a pot. I let it cook and gain flavor (make sure it has enough salt). After the salsa has heated up I put in the chips and let them absorb the salsa. The toppings are optional as everyone from the family has different tastes. You can top it with sour cream, avocado, radish, cheese, or just leave it plain. The only hard process of this was getting to tortilla chips crisp and then when in the salsa making sure that they didn't get soggy. I hope that in the next Genius Hour post I will have made something more complicated.

Cooking- Raul Guerrero

2025-03-24 16:14:22 UTC

For my Genius Hour Check #2 I made Aguachiles which is a known dish from Nayarit, Mexico which is where my family is from. There are many different types of variations of this dish,however I decided to stick to what My grandma taught me in Mexico. What this consists of is shrimp,lime juice,cilantro,pepper,salt,garlic,onion,cucumber,jalapenos, and avocado. To begin to make this dish I cut up the shrimp in half,then I put them in a bowl to the side, After that I began to create the salsa where I put the 12 limes,5 jalapenos, cilantro, 2 garlic cloves, pepper, salt, and garlic powder. After the salsa is made you pour it over the shrimp in order to let it cook. Then you let it sit for about 30 minutes and I garnished it with cucumber,onions, and avocado. Throughout this process I had help from my dad who has made his dish before. Something I could have done better was to not rush the cutting up the shrimp and do it properly. Something I'm going to do next time is to add many different garnishes to make it taste different such as pineapple or mango.

Kassandra Montanez Duarte- Learning some different types of art and different forms of expression.

2025-03-24 16:15:46 UTC

For this check in, I wanted to focus on using different references while still adding something that would separate this album cover from the rest. I used Operation Doomsday as my starting point and just wanted to really capture all the different shapes, emotions, and background in order to improve my skills and understanding to different art forms. While in the original cover it has a city and has been under some sort of destruction, at first I did try to replicate it but ended up getting ruined I did decided it was meant to be and took it as redirection and just took inspiration of his poetic art. I wanted to make something that was different but still connected to his distinctive cover. While taking different shapes and colors to fill the background yet still practicing how they can alternate the understanding of a painting.

Elias Montanez- Bodybuilding O O

elias059 — 2025-03-24 16:38:19 UTC

This is a video of me doing Bench Press. Something that I found out during my research was that going for higher reps and keeping tension for as long as possible supports muscle growth. In the video you can see I try to keep my balance and good control over the bar so I could keep the correct form. The main thing for improving my bench press is consistency so going to the gym is the most important part. This video answers my EQ: How do I improve my bench press in the the gym? by showing that to grow it I need to go to the gym and do good chest workouts with the right intensity and volume.

Julian Trujillo - Collision Repair

julian078 — 2025-03-24 16:48:44 UTC

For my Genius hour check-in, Im Currently waiting for the new parts to arrive to see if they will fit properly with the existing frame. This is a important step because if the parts dont fit because of the damage, Then some of the frame will be cut and a new pieces from a donor car will be welded onto the car. This step requires careful planning and percise work because if it isnt done correctly then the frame would be unstable and compromise the safety of the passengers. As i wait for the parts, Ill review the plans and get everything ready for the next step and make sure i have the right equipment.

Yasaira Hernandez - Chocolate Chip Cookies

2025-03-24 17:21:35 UTC

For this semester's Genius Hour I'm learning how to make desserts and how practicing these skills improves my patience. I was able to complete my goal for this week's check in which was chocolate chip cookies and I would say it went pretty smoothly because there weren't many difficulties. I chose to make this dessert because I had all the ingredients at home and because it didn't seem too complicated to make. I chose a popular recipe online that only called for all purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, sugar, an egg, butter, vanilla extract, and chocolate chips. First I started mixing all of my dry ingredients which were flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar. Once all mixed I added the wet ingredients which were the egg, softened butter, and the vanilla extract and finally I added the chocolate chips. I continued mixing until everything was even, once it started to look like it was moldable I knew it was done so I started rolling a small portion into a ball and placing it in a pan with parchment paper. I set the oven 350 degrees and let the cookies bake for about 13 minutes which was when they looked ready. Before I placed them into a plate I let them cool down for 5 minutes and then they were ready to eat. I liked making this dessert because it allowed me to want to continue this practice.

Jennifer Servin- Baking/ Pastry Making

2025-03-24 17:21:39 UTC

For my genius hour check in I decided to make flan. I used sugar, eggs, sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk, and vanilla extract. I began by melting the sugar in a pan and proceeded to mix all the liquids together. Then once the sugar was melted, I poured it into a pan. I also preheated the oven to 350 degrees. I added the mixture in and left it in the overnight for about 50 minutes. I continued to check if it was ready by picking on it with a knife and see if anything would come out. I think it turned out good except for the fact that you can see the stabs of the knife in the flan.

Diego Cruz- Body Restoration

diego031_1 — 2025-03-24 17:36:00 UTC

For Genius Hour 2, I decided to focus on the smaller components of the car since last time I focused on bigger parts. What I did was I removed the suspension, axle and the control on and also remove the sensors. It wasn't too hard to remove them but replacing them with new ones will be quite hard to do. The materials I used was drills, wrenches 10mm and 14mm and also a flat head screwdriver. As we can see there is much more components that are harder to see from outside that make the car function properly which can also be complicated to understand. The control arm broke off so that required a new one but the suspension was still good but had to remove it in order to properly replace the axle so the suspension can be used still.

Saul Chavez woodworking

2025-03-24 17:51:57 UTC

I learned how to cut wood at precise angles using a table saw with a specialized setup designed for accuracy and safety. First, I set up a miter sled with an adjustable fence to hold the wood securely at the correct angle. After carefully measuring and marking the wooden legs for the table, I adjusted the table saw blade to the first angle and made the initial cut. Then, I flipped the wood to the other side and changed the blade’s angle to make the second cut, ensuring that each leg had two different angled cuts on opposite sides. This technique allowed the legs to fit perfectly into the table’s design, creating a stable and visually appealing structure.

Photography Portfolio/Business Foundation- Luna Vera

2025-03-24 17:59:32 UTC

For my Genius Hour project I am working on building a strong portfolio as well as setting a small business foundation. I initially had planned to show a fully-edited sports gallery/album that I've done for another non-wildcat sports team to show my attempts of expanding and putting myself out there, and I have successfully executed that here. I have started to experiment with different teams and school, not only does this create a good exposure for myself but it also gives me good social skills that I need in order to work with different clients and new people. I was contacted by one of the team members that wanted to book a "capture the action" session which is one of the standard sports packages I provide, the person wanted both the varsity girls & boys senior night games! In the end their gallery included 137 fully edited images and their total was $80 (not including their tip) (2+ hours of service, commute time, editing time and range of equipment). I received good feedback from the team and partnered with them later that week. For my next check in I will display the media edit mic up I filmed for this team explaining the process and how this gained me a lot of social media traction and interaction.

Ana Rosete-Cooking

2025-03-24 18:32:06 UTC

For my Genius Hour Check-In I decided to make a traditional Filipino breakfast called turon. It's made out of banana wrapped in rice flour, covered in brown sugar, then fried in a pan. The process was very simple. The first thing I did was peel and cut the bananas into 4 pieces and then I wrapped them. The wrapping process was very simple. You have to position the wrap into a diamond shape and place the banana in the bottom, then roll the wrap up and fold the sides. Then, you put water on the edge of the diamond to make sure it doesn't fall apart when frying it. I would say this was a successful check-in. My family tried it and they said it was really good. It's a very simple recipe but I was able to learn something new which was learning how to wrap the rice flour. I'll be using this skill for my final project which is making the Filipino version of spring rolls which is called lumpia.

Omar Bravo

2025-03-24 18:43:42 UTC

For this Genius Hour I focused on car flipping. Last post I showed the car I first bought which was a Honda. I traded that car for this car as I knew it was a good deal. I did have to add money plus the Honda but after doing the math I knew I could make profit. This car does need some cosmetic work. I will be adding a new rear diffuser and hood vents. Mechanically wise the car needs nothing only cosmetic work. After doing the cosmetic work I plan on giving it a detail and posting it online.

Uziel Chavez - Playing Lead Guitar in a Band.

uziel034 — 2025-03-24 18:51:37 UTC

For my Genius hour check in, we decided to practice this saturday with our band. we are still in our beginner stages of our band so we aren't that good still as a group. We all still need to practice our individual parts but most importantly we need to practice more as a group. Here in this part i was playing the solo part i have in the song which was difficult to learn but fun at the same time. I have to play this part all on the A string and there are various different notes like A Minor, B Flat and more. To prepare my self I practiced a bit at home a little less then i should but enough for me to know the part but i haven't mastered it yet. My last check in was about how i played my solo part this check in i decided to play it in our band. I think we still need a ton more work but for this being our 3rd practice i think we sound alright. I messed up a bit towards the start and i think my guitar was a bit untune but overall it sounded good. Something we plan to do this Saturday for our next practice is making sure we are all there since i had to play Jaydens parts as well as mine and Elias had to sing since lisandro wasn't there.

Briana Blancas

2025-03-24 18:57:10 UTC

For my genius hour check in I decided to make brownies. The ingredients I used were butter, white sugar, 2 Large eggs, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, unsweetened cocoa powder, all purpose flour, salt and baking powder. I started mixing all of the dry ingredients together which was 1/3 cup unsweetened, 1 cup white sugar, 1/2 cup all-purpose flour, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon baking powder. After all of that was mixed together I started to mix all of the wet ingredients together. These ingredients were 1/2 cup of butter, 2 large eggs, and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract. Once that was all mixed I added my wet ingredients into my dry ingredients and made sure that was mixed up really good so that I could put it in the oven that was set to 340 degrees. I took it out of the oven and placed it on a plate so that it could cool down.

Joshua H - Genius Hour / Art

joshua047 — 2025-03-24 19:02:33 UTC

For this practice what I did was (right picture) practice the cross contour/hatching on a sphere to give it depth in flat space. While the other shape is a cylinder. The first practice was the cylinder which I did not like the results. But the sphere, I liked very much how the lines gave off the illusion of light and shadow. I achieved this by starting out with a pencil (H) then I applied those contour lines towards the light source. (Seen in the pencil examples). For the left picture I started to draw the Portrait for this genius hour. The person I'm drawing is Theodore Roosevelt since the piece I'm aiming for is the style as seen in money. Which is a great practice to achieve my hatching skills on this different technique.

Andres Garcia- Meal prepping

2025-03-24 19:10:30 UTC

In my second semester genius hour check in I chose to make a dish that provided me with the right amount of protein, carbs, and overall calories. The reason for this is because my genius hour is based on the EQ: How can learning to meal prep improve my overall health as well as increase my muscle mass? To answer my EQ I implemented what i researched into my daily life. For example, in the photo above was my next meal which involved white rice, chicken, and broccoli. This is a well balanced meal which according to my research, should help bring all sorts of health benefits and help me increase my muscle mass. In my opinion, I think that the most important thing throughout this process is the consistency of making the foods on top of avoiding other unhealthy foods.

Francisco Campos - Drawing/Shading

francisco473 — 2025-03-24 19:11:55 UTC

For Genius Hour 2, I decided to focus on shading with my drawings because with shading it makes my drawings pop out more and gives it a 3D look. The reason why shading is important to me is because my art teacher Sorrentino taught me how to do it when I was in art a year ago and he taught me a lot of different techniques and the best technique that helped me the most was to use a paper towel to smear the lines to make it look like a black cloud and he calls it "shading". The next genius hour I will be coloring in the drawing that I made to show off what I've done.

Briseida Montoya- Making Crapes

2025-03-24 19:13:38 UTC

For my Genius Hour post this week I focused on trying to make the crapes I've been making better. This week I decided to make crapes. The process of making them was fun since you have to make sure the mixture isn't thick but also make sure it isn't to much like a water substance. I honestly thought it would be something hard to make but its actually an easy to make. Fun fact a crape can be served for breakfast or a dessert. Some of the things you need to make Crapes are strawberries, bananas, Nutella, whip cream, water, two eggs, vanilla extract, and sugar.

Alvaro Cervantes: Learning how to play the bass.

alvaro484_1 — 2025-03-24 19:14:36 UTC

For this post, I had been learning various songs just playing short parts of them. The song we played heard I learned briefly, and was able to memorize some of the tabs. I needed more practice on the tempo and memorizing all the tabs, and I think my grupo could also be working on this too. Considering we didn't practice this song much and fluctuated between many songs, I would say it didn't sound that bad. I think next time we should find "the song," that we should focus on mainly so we don't have to keep switching it.

Cesar Chino - Learning to Play Guitar

cesar490_1 — 2025-03-24 19:16:52 UTC

For this post I was learning multiple songs in order to challenge myself and improve. As I said in my last post, we found it hard to get synchronized when playing. This time it still sounds like the beat is kind of off but it's definitely an improvement from last time. Since we hadn't decided on a song this is a video only around 30-45 minutes into practicing this song. Since our schedules don't allow us to play together I can only play like once a week at most with my clika. So for my next post something I can do is practice a specific song, since this one is pretty fast paced which makes it harder to memorize. You can tell in some parts that I pause because I'm trying to remember what notes to hit. And trying to have the right technique and speed in specific parts.

Ruben Rubio, Healthcare

2025-03-24 20:38:28 UTC

So For this Genius Hour check-in I focused on understanding how private health insurance works in different healthcare systems and how it compares to UHC. Learning about this is important because private insurance is a key part in many countries healthcare systems affecting affordability, accessibility, and the overall quality of healthcare. I first researched our country because it relies heavily on private insurance. Then I researched Germany which uses a multi-payer system with private options and Switzerland where private insurance is mandatory but it's regulated. For example the U.S depends almost entirely on employer sponsored private insurance which could leave people uninsured/underinsured. Meanwhile Switzerland requires all citizens to buy private insurance, but the government provides part of the money to keep it affordable. I created a comparison chart on canva to show costs, coverage, and efficiency in these systems. This will help me talk about private insurances during my presentation. It will also provide a graphic/slide to talk about. Next i'm going to focus on how different healthcare systems/companies have monopolies over some parts of the world.

Lisandro Vazquez-learning how to sing

lisandro507 — 2025-03-24 20:47:29 UTC

For This Genius Hour check in I decided too record my self singing half of the song unfortunately i couldn't practice with my band due to me being sick. what I been working on is my vocals and learning to the song 505 by Arctic Monkeys am still trying to figure out the rhythm of the song so I don't need to be looking at my phone for the lyrics and that might be my next genius hour check in me singing the song with out me looking at the lyrics. with this recording that I did I could look back and see what I did wrong and what I need to improve on for now am still going to follow the steps that I been taking like humming listening to the song over and over again and I hope by this week I am able to practice with my band. so you guys can see me more clearly.

Ruben Rubio : Healthcare, Research

ruben039_1 — 2025-03-24 21:28:28 UTC

Georgina Mireles - Exploring Art Beyond the Basics

2025-03-25 05:14:51 UTC

Art has always interested me - the way a single brush stroke or color choice can completely change the emotion of a piece. Starry Night was the first painting that truly caught my attention. The swirling patterns and bold strokes made the night sky feel alive, showing me how movement and emotion can be expressed through art.

For my Genius Hour, I want to step out of comfort zone and explore different artistic mediums beyond traditional painting and drawing. I already know some basic shading and blending techniques, but I want to push myself further and experiment with new ways to create depth, emotion, and meaning.

This piece is my first attempt at illusion art, using charcoal shading to make it look like a hand is pressuring through the paper. It's been a fun challenge to manipulate light and shadow to create depth. I'm excited to continue experimenting and learning along the way.

Aldo D. Jesus

2025-03-25 05:27:16 UTC

For my genius hour, I explored different types of carpentry and for this post, I focus on residential carpentry which involves building and renovating homes using wood they are also in charge of installing trims, door frames, siding, and windows. What I did was to remove and replace this wall's siding, since the wood was very old and new wood had to be installed. For this, I used four pieces of siding. The difficult part was cutting the piece where the window would go since installing it is very simple, you only need to put screws and then put coking on top of the screws to avoid water leaks it is also necessary to put in the parts where the pieces come together.

Acrylic Nails - Isabella Alfaro

2025-03-25 06:20:41 UTC

For today's post I decided to take screenshot of a video that I am using to help me with this process. In this video it is helping with the shaping which is a very important step if you want the nails to look the best that they can. I believe I need to do a better job of shaping because the acrylic will come out too thick and it leaves the results looking blocky and not as I hope it would. As well as when the acrylic comes out thick then it takes more time since I will need to spend all my time filing it down which is a long process that can be avoided if I'm able to apply the right amount as well as shape it correctly the first try. I learned the every detail and step is very important so It's better to try and learn using the help of experts rather than continuously making the same mistakes. I also try and take advice from my sister since she is my inspiration and has worked on this before, she is able to help me the best she can.

Avril Montanez

avril783_1 — 2025-03-26 02:37:59 UTC

For this Genius Hour check-in I wanted to practice how to do different sizes of beads with acrylic. To do this I didn’t find it so hard but the first times I was doing it I would have too much liquid on the brush so the beads would not hold the shape so to have a bead that will be good you need to learn how to have a good ratio of liquid and acrylic powder.

Justin Munguia - Guitar

2025-03-26 04:10:26 UTC

For this check-in, I decided to learn how to play at the same time as the song I am trying to learn. This is helpful because by doing this, I build muscle memory on what chords to switch to. It can also help me understand what chords are common for this genre of music. I can use this practice to play with other people as I use my ear to stay in rhythm with the song. In my source, I was also advised to learn and practice the song I want to learn before going to practice with other people, especially if I am not used to it. I want to improve at building muscle memory in switch chords because I sometimes forget them and lose my place in the song. I also want to be able to play more with the song because I also go too fast or to slow sometimes, so that is something I wish to improve on.

Andres Villasenor- Cooking

andres081_2 — 2025-03-26 05:06:13 UTC

So for my genius hour post 2 something that I diced to make was a torta. What you need to do to make a torta is get all your ingredients like the bread,onion,cilantro and sour cream. First you want to get a extended pan and put a bit go sour cream on both of the breads and put on the pan till it gets a crisp under after you would season your mean and put it on the separate pan and cook it well done. Then after you do that you would want to start cutting your other ingredients and then you put it all together and if you want you could cut some potatoes and cooked them on the pan with some seasoning. The hardest part for me was cooking the meat since I didn't want to leave it on the pan to cook for to long or else it would kinda stick to the bottom of the pan.

Alan Robledo - Drawing manga

alan489_1 — 2025-04-13 20:50:46 UTC

For this check in im showing the progress I've made on the first page I started working on. My first step was outlining the panels using a cutting mat, this helped evenly space and proportion the top panels. For the bottom half of the page I wanted to do something I've seen other mangakas do and not make a panel at all. This is something unique and cool that I wanted to try because it will allow me to be able to fill up the page more. My idea for the entire page is in the top panels it's a close up of the two characters faces who are about to fight each other. Then the bottom half is a zoomed out shot of the characters taking their stances. Once I'm done with the pencil sketch I will then ink the page with a special nib holder. So far I've been enjoying this process, however I do find it difficult to find the time to be able to sit down and draw for hours.