PROJECT GALLERY
Click on images for full project descriptions
SPRING 2022 & SPRING 2020
The Innocence Project
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
Why are people wrongfully convicted? Who is wrongfully convicted? Why is it difficult to exonerate the wrongfully convicted? What laws exist to prevent people from being wrongfully convicted? Is the U.S. criminal justice system just? Why do we have the highest incarceration rate in the world? Wrongful convictions have become one of the pressing social justice issues of our time. According to the National Registry of Exonerations, over 2,000 prisoners have been exonerated since 1989. Even if we include the most conservative figures, we estimate the number of wrongful convictions in the United States to be in the tens of thousands per year. The United States also has the highest per capita incarceration rate in the world. These startling statistics provide us with an opportunity to reflect and act. In this project, students will partner with the California Innocence Project. The CIP is headquartered locally at California Western School of Law, and is the state’s leading vehicle for exonerating wrongful convictions. Students will receive case files of currently incarcerated people. The files will contain legal records and letters written by people who claim to have been wrongly convicted. DELIVERABLES After analyzing the evidence, students will recommend a course of action by writing legal memos for CIP lawyers and law students. At our exhibition, students will present their recommended course of action to the CIP. |
FALL 2021
Code Red for Humanity
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
How is climate change affecting ecosystems in San Diego? What can we do to take action? Climate change is arguably the biggest threat humans have ever faced. According to the United Nations IPCC Report in 2021, we are at Code Red for Humanity. We are at a pivotal moment in our history to take action now for the future of this planet and the generations who will come after us. Our project investigates how a changing climate affects the San Diego region and existing mitigation, adaptation, and resilience strategies. We will work with the City of San Diego and local organizations to create community climate solutions. DELIVERABLES Individual blog posts Smal group action projects Small group video and website page Team website |
SPRING 2021
The Happiness Project
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
What makes us happy? What do we get wrong about happiness? How can we raise our experience of happiness? PROCESS Part 1: Using the free, online Coursera course from Yale University, “The Science of Well-Being,” as a text, we will explore our guiding questions. We will watch the course videos, read articles, assess our happiness levels, journal, and practice “rewirements” to see if we can raise our experience of well-being. Once we’ve completed the course, we’ll work in pairs or small groups to create Infographics that share our knowledge with multiple audiences. Part 2: We’ll end our work with a spoken word poetry project about things that make us happy. |
FALL 2020
We the People
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
How can we build empathy and cultivate civil conversations? Stoke civic engagement? Celebrate our democratic republic? “Democracy is not a spectator sport.” — Marian Wright Edelman, founder, Children’s Defense Fund During the 2016 election, nearly 100 million people — almost half of all eligible voters in America — did not cast a vote. One of the largest groups of non-voters was 18-24-year-olds. Voter registration rates in April and May 2020 have plummeted in relation to the rates in the same months in 2016. In some states, voter registration rates have declined by 75%. This decrease is likely because of the COVID-19 crisis. The pandemic has caused the closure of schools and offices, including many DMVs, and the cancellation of nearly all spring in-person voter registration drives. You will engage in civic volunteer work, learn about the foundations of our democracy, examine the presidential campaigns, evaluate the role of media in a democracy, and engage in civil conversations about important issues. You will gain empowerment through political action and knowledge of the electoral process to prepare for lifelong civic participation. DELIVERABLESVolunteer experience Voter registration Op-Ed about an important issue Creative presentation on Op-Ed for exhibition |
FALL 2019
Out of the Box
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
What inspires change? Why do we resist change? The United Nations has created seventeen goals to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all. The goals address global challenges we face, including poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, prosperity, and peace and justice. To address these goals, in this semester-long biology and humanities 11th-grade project, nonprofits have invited us to help make a sustainable change on a local level. Working in groups of five, students will meet a community partner, interview them on the problem they’re trying to solve, and develop an educational/advocacy box modeled on the highly successful one from the Climate Science Alliance. The community partners will use the boxes at outreach events and in schools. DELIVERABLESPrimer on why the issue is important Presentation slides Stories for change Opinion/persuasive writing Art piece Hands-on (science) activity |
SPRING 2019
The Pursuit of Happiness
ESSENTIAL QUESTION
What makes a happy and meaningful life? Seniors on the ChauDavis/Egler team will examine what psychology, art, and literature tell us about how to live a good life. In humanities, we’ll explore a college-level course on happiness and examine well-being in countries around the world. In visual technology, we‘ll analyze what art history tells us about happiness and make digital art of our own. DELIVERABLE Our work will culminate in a multimedia storytelling performance on the theme “the pursuit of happiness.” |
FALL 2018
It's Up to Us: Action Civics
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
What is power? How do you get power? What do you do with it? How does government shape our daily life? How can we advocate for effetive change? What makes a democracy flourish? How do we behave as citizens? What is the power of the collective over that of the individual? Students will participate in the democratic process, become civically engaged, and gain political awareness through taking direct action around community issues. Students will use consensus building to choose a focus issue and then analyze root causes of the issue. They will engage in participatory action research and set a policy goal to address their issue. Students will then identify targets and take direct action to advocate for change. Finally, students will reect on and exhibit their learning on Exhibiton Night. Through this project, students will examine their own civic identity, gain empowerment through political action, and become prepared for continued civic engagement after graduation. |
SPRING 2018
Roadtrip Nation: HTH
SPRING 2018
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ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
Where do I want to go with my life? Who's been on the road ahead of me? As second-semester seniors embark on one of the biggest transitions of their lives — graduating high school and entering the world as adults — they face transformative questions: What do I enjoy? What am a good at? What does the world need from me? How can I get paid to do what I want to do? In collaboration with PBS's Roadtrip Nation, students explore the roads taken by others — both in San Diego and beyond — and film documentaries and create magazines to reflect their learning. ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS Where in the world would I like to travel? How can I experience another country through reading? Conversation? Food? Students choose a country or region for a multi-faceted deep dive. They pick a book set in the region, read five articles about their chosen locale, talk with a native, eat the food and listen to the music. Students capture their experience in writing and post their reflections to the Digital Portfolios. |
FALL 2017
Human Library
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ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
What aspects of our shared humanity do you want to explore?H ow can we create a space for civil conversations across the divides of our society? How does this experience transform our thinking and our audience’s? Following a six-week deep dive into self-discovery via personal narratives, students shift to the stories other people have to share. Inspired by the international Human Library movement, students choose a topic about our shared humanity that they wish to know more about and jump into two weeks of self-directed research. Topics span a wide range -- teen moms, drug addiction, street artists, Muslims, undocumented students -- and students interview a person who has experience with their topic as a human "book." Following completion of a 4-6 page research paper, students create a zine in Visual Technology class based on their paper. Ultimately, students host a "human library" event by inviting their "books" to share their stories and create a space where conversation can transform lives. ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS How do we define spaces to protect? What criteria? What spaces need protection? Why? As citizens of one of the most dynamic and environmentally diverse regions of the world, our class will explore San Diego’s deserts, mountains, and oceans with an eye towards protecting them -- not only for humans to enjoy, but also for the preservation of plants and animals that share our home. During our journey, we’ll travel up Mount Laguna, explore tidal zones at La Jolla Cove, and roam through canyons that criss-cross our city. In the process, students will consult with outside experts to understand the environmental issues facing San Diego, hone their critical thinking skills through hands-on labs, socratic seminars, and in-depth writing, and adventure beyond the classroom walls to interview stakeholders in the protected spaces around our county. Deliverables Student-Created Magazine Scientific Infographics Op-Eds Poems Research findings Original artwork |
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FALL 2016
Humans vs. Nature
Are We a Sustainable Species?
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
How have humans impacted the environment? Why? How do our own activities and actions affect the environment? What positive actions can we take as a team and individuals to address our concerns? Homo sapiens has impacted the earth and all living creatures like no other species. As we enter a new age of awareness about the environment, what do we see in San Diego about the consequences of human impact? In San Diego, when do we work "with" nature, when do we work "against" nature? What happens?! In this project, we'll consider how we live our lives: What resources do we want, need and are we acting in the best interest of sustaining them? in this semester-long project, juniors and seniors in Humanities and Environmental Science will study the San Diego coastline, identify current environmental problems and address them in a research paper. Students will turn their papers into children's books that they will share with the community at the San Diego Central Library. |
Who Am I? The Personal Essay Project |
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ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
What kind of person am I? What are the details of my life? How can I positively portray myself in writing for an authentic audience? When applying to college, to jobs, for scholarships, to internships and programs, we are often asked to share about our lives. In this project, students will explore effective ways to show who they are beyond grades, test scores, activities and extracurriculars. For colleges that require a personal statement, the essay is your place to shine -- and, all things being equal, it can be the one thing to tip your application in your favor. |
SPRING 2016
Humans of High Tech High:
The Art and Science of a Meaningful Life
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
How does my life have meaning and purpose? What gifts do I have that the world wants and needs? To what or to whom do I feel most deeply connected? How can I rise above my fears and doubts? How can I manage the highs and lows of the human experience? Second-semester seniors are undergoing a major life transition as they prepare to graduate high school and launch into the adult world. This passage is a moment when students ask themselves important questions, such as: How does my life have meaning and purpose?What gifts do I have that the world wants and needs? To what or to whom do I feel most deeply connected? How can I rise above my fears and doubts? What are the highs and lows of the human experience? In this semester-long project, students in English and Physics will study how photography can capture meaningful images. Students will create a photographic exhibition for public display at Outside the Lens, a local nonprofit, that showcases images and stories that they create. |
FALL 2015
Fly on the Wall
College ProjectThe Future is Now |
We will spend the first weeks of school getting to know each other and exploring the worlds we come from. We'll read "Raised By Women" by Kelly Norman Ellis and identify through poetry the people, events, and experiences that have made us who we are. For our first mini-project with Environmental Science, we'll read Franz Kafka's surreal novella, The Metamorphosis, practice close reading strategies, and craft a personal narrative from the perspective of a . . . bug.
The college essay is one of the best opportunities you have to show who you truly are during the college application process. The essay can be your ticket out of the “faceless hordes” of applicants because it’s the one aspect of the application that you actually have some control over. We will consequently spend a considerable amount of time drafting, revising and polishing these essays. In addition, we will read and discuss a variety of resources about what to expect and how to succeed in college as well as collaborate with the incomparable Chris White on college applications.
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
What role do you want technology to play in your life? How do you think technology will affect us in the future?Does technology increase human happiness and benefit society? In this interdisciplinary project with Environmental Science, 12th-grade students will be using technology to restore environments. In English, we will examine the role technology plays in our lives, explore a literary imagining of what the future holds, and read about and discuss the ethics and challenges presented by technological advances on a variety of issues. |
High Tech High International Projects
FALL 2013
Little Free Libraries
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
Why do we read? What do books bring into our lives? To answer these questions, 9th-grade students read Ray Bradbury's classic dystopian novel, Fahrenheit 451, and then worked in pairs to creatively incorporate themes from the novel into a "little free library" -- found or constructed little boxes for lending and receiving books. Many of the libraries were on display at the new downtown Central Library during the spring of 2015. |
SPRING 2013
Soap for Hope
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
What is the chemistry behind soap? How can we make soap using our understanding of chemistry and then market and sell it to support a nonprofit in San Diego? What community issues are important to us? How can we support nonprofits in our community that are working to resolve issues we care about? A 10th-grade interdisciplinary project between Humanities and Chemistry, students researched issues they cared about in the San Diego community and identified nonprofits that worked on those issues. In Chemistry, students created soap products that they packaged and marketed to support their chosen nonprofits. Students were able to raise and donate over $1,000 in support of nonprofits that addressed issues related to animal welfare, human trafficking, LGBT rights, clean oceans, and anti-gang efforts, among others. |
SPRING 2013
Should I Eat That?
ESSENTIAL QUESTION
How can we educate the community and ourselves to make informed decisions about the food we eat and increase awareness regarding the impact those food choices have on health? In this 10th-grade interdisciplinary project between Humanities and Chemistry, students faced the essential question: How can we educate the community and ourselves to make informed decisions about the food we eat and increase awareness regarding the impact those food choices have on health? After individually researching food issues, students worked in groups to focus on one topic, interview experts and create a podcast. For exhibition, students shared their podcasts and created fun, interactive games, info-graphics and food samples to educate the community. |