With course planning coming up the Sentinel Sun decided to research one of Sentinel’s most beneficial and unique academic programs – the AP Capstone program. We talked to Mr. Fuller, who teaches the AP Capstone courses, about the program, the benefits it has, and about the skills students learn from the courses.
What is AP Capstone and how is it run at Sentinel?
AP Capstone is actually a two-year program comprised of two separate courses: AP Seminar in grade 11 and AP Research in grade 12. Students are NOT required to take both courses—they are free to take Seminar in grade 11 without committing to two years. AP Capstone is an interdisciplinary program (student are allowed to study any topic of their choosing) that gives students the skills to dive deeply into ideas that they are interested in. So, let’s talk a bit about projects that students are doing in both courses.
What are some examples of Capstone projects Sentinel students are undertaking?
So far this year in Seminar, students have completed team projects and are just now starting in on individual projects. A few of the topics that teams have researched this year are:
· “Vaccines: Educating Through the Myths”
· “Serial Shootings, Serious Solutions”
· “Powering the Poor: The Potential Use of Nuclear Energy in Developing Countries”
· “The O-so-Negative-Effects of the Legalization of Organ Sales in North America”
A couple of AP Research projects that are currently on the go are:
· "Does Apple's Screen Time App Allow Adolescents to Better Self-regulate Their Smart Phone Use?"
· "Mirrored Effects: The New Power of Aesthetic Personalization in Gaming"
What skills do AP Research students develop (that are different than a regular English class)?
By the time Capstone students get to Research in grade 12, they have already completed Seminar, so they already possess a number of unique skills:
· the ability to formulate feasible research questions based on personal interests (not as easy as you may think!)
· the ability to navigate digital and print resources with a critical eye toward credibility and relevance
· the ability to consider a full range of perspective that are important regarding any topic—not just considering “pros and cons,” “goods and bads”
· the ability to confidently and clearly communicate findings both in written and spoken formats.
Research students build on the skills they learned in Seminar and use those skills to dive into a single topic of their choosing in an 8-month long research journey.
Essentially, Capstone students—not just AP Research students—learn to deal smartly and simply with information complexity.
One of the unique features of the Research course is that there is no AP Exam—the course is finished once students have submitted their research essay and completed their research presentation.
What does a typical AP Seminar class look like?
AP Seminar is largely broken down into parts that roughly follow the three terms that comprise an academic year here at Sentinel.
In Term 1, students learn and practice foundational skills and concepts that allow them to be self-directed learners who are capable of owning their own learning.
In Term 2, students apply their new-found skills and concepts by completing a Team Research Project that includes short individual essays and one team presentation.
In Terms 2 and 3, students build on their learning form the Team Research Project and embark on an Individual Research Project.
In Term 3, students apply their learning from the entire year on the AP Seminar Exam in May (at the same time as all other AP Exams).
What qualities would make a student successful in the AP Research program?
In AP Capstone in general (not just AP Research), important student qualities are:
· curiosity
· a desire to dive deeply into topics that students themselves choose, not just topics that teachers present to the class
· a willingness to reflect on prior work and apply new insights to do better next time—a desire to constantly get better.
Why do you think AP Research is so beneficial to students? What advice would you give to students wanting to take AP Research next year or in the future?
Research students leave the course with a full awareness of all the parts of academic research—a skill set that is often overlooked in high schools and that is quickly becoming more important in universities. This awareness allows many Capstone graduates to—early on in their university undergraduate years—form relationships with professors and take part in special projects for which they would otherwise have not been qualified. We want students to leave Sentinel fully prepared to not only survive university, but to thrive in university and beyond. We love it when AP Capstone and AP English graduates return to Sentinel and tell us how glad they are that they took the courses and how positive and productive their university experience has been as a result—it makes us happy to see our students learning and growing in university rather than stressing.
The Sentinel Sun also talked to some grade 11 students in Seminar to learn what their experiences are like.
Emmajean and Emma did their term 1 AP Seminar project on “smart guns” (guns that require a fingerprint and that can only be used by a single authorized user).
“Being in AP Seminar has made me better at analyzing articles and their credibility. It’s also helped me to organize my ideas into a strong argument.” – Emma Guo
“AP Seminar is not only research based, we also read plays in class. The life lessons we analyze in plays help us apply our critical thinking skills to our own research projects.” – Emmajean Neal
“My project was about if legalizing the sale of human organs is a feasible solution to the complications created by organ shortage in Canada. I like how in capstone the information you get is completely factual and based on data rather than emotions which is usually how in real life arguments work and the set structure they gave us to follow so we aren’t able to fall behind timewise”– Ryan Aghda
“I like the way of learning in Capstone and how it challenges you to explore a topic of your own interest.” – Renee Qin
“I like how its research based and we learn how to form logical, evidence – based arguments” – AP Seminar student
Thank you so much Mr. Fuller for giving us an in-depth look at the AP Capstone program here at Sentinel!
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