I. Introduction
Overview:
Congratulations! By enrolling in the Capstone course at Boston Latin School, you have demonstrated that you are willing to stretch as a learner. You are embarking on a project that marks the culmination of your education thus far. You have, in effect, agreed to create a project that reflects your passions and interests. Your project will require considerable energy and effort in order to ensure its success. You will be bringing together the skills and interests you have developed in the course of your education, including the years you have spent at Boston Latin School, and you will sharpen them as you prepare for college and beyond.
Besides, learning when you are driven by your own ideas and motivation is simply more fun, engaging, and satisfying.
Senior Capstone, a challenging course for highly-motivated seniors, enables students to develop advanced research, writing, and presentations skills while grappling with essential questions that span disciplines. It pulls together and further refines the skills you advanced in all courses during your Boston Latin education. It culminates in the creation of a truly interdisciplinary investigation. Capstone projects that students conceive and execute with the support of faculty mentors throughout the school are the culmination of a year’s worth of intensive work.
Boston Latin School, the oldest public school in the nation, is deeply committed to maintaining high standards and rigor within its contemporary classical education. The school has set learning expectations for the 21st century that asks students to know and to be able to demonstrate mastery of content of skills through:
The Senior Capstone project enables you to meet every one of these learning expectations. As part of the project, you will:
By completing the Capstone course successfully, you will have ample evidence that you have met these expectations and are superbly prepared to continue to college/university and to future successes in your adult life.
To be successful in the Senior Capstone course necessitates that a student:
The Class:
During the first part of the academic year, students will engaged in inquiry-based, self-driven authentic learning while research, collecting, analyzing, evaluating, and presenting information from a variety of sources. During the initial months of the course, students will be building and refining skills that will result in a student-designed Capstone project that will be worked on daily and initially completed by late March, then finalized by late April. Over the preceding summer as well as early in the year, students will be developing and receiving feedback on an essential question, a series of primary and secondary research questions and a proposal for their final Capstone projects as well as building a website and beginning to blog and track their weekly progress and research.
Support:
Senior Capstone is privileged to have intensive faculty support. Currently unique among classes at Boston Latin School, the class is co-lead by two teachers. In a class of 31 students, that’s a ratio of approximately 1:15. Both of us are dedicated to all of your success. We want your projects not simply to be completed; we want them to fulfill all your goals and then some.
In addition, you will be assigned a faculty mentor. Your faculty mentor will each have student with whom they are working. The faculty mentors communicate regularly with the course co-teachers. The mentor’s principal role is to serve as a coach, to support you, keep you focused and, along with the course co-teachers, to encourage and guide your success. You are expected to meet with your mentor, once assigned, at least once every two weeks through May.
The Final Capstone Project:
The class culminates in a student-designed and faculty-advised interdisciplinary project completed by March/April (see schedule). The project may take multiple forms—some examples might be (but are not limited to) projects such as: building a vehicle, writing and performing a play, creating a significant work of art, publishing a book, creating a mobile app, planning and testing a curriculum for a new course, producing a documentary film, conducting and documenting a laboratory investigation and research, writing a manual and planning and executing action(s) within the community. This project requires students to formulate a sophisticated research question on an academic, artistic, cultural, sociological, scientific, technological, or community-based topic of deep personal interest. Students will then plan and conduct a independent, inquiry-based research process to support and generate an innovative product that takes a form appropriate to the nature of their research question. It will reflect the skills and thinking they have cumulatively acquired during their time at Boston Latin School and further refined throughout the course.
The Presentations:
Throughout the academic year, students will each produce a series of presentations (including but not limited to a 3x5—3 slides in 5 minutes, a 3x7—3 slides in 7 minutes, and a 5x12—5 slides in 12 minutes) based on their Capstone projects. The final talk will be a TEDx-style talk that, with a Q+A, is an 18-minute presentation. All of these will be filmed and housed on each student’s website. The TEDx talks will be presented in the late spring in a multi-day symposium that will take place in the school’s Assembly Hall and will be open to all classes, faculty and staff, families, and members of the school community. They mark the culmination of the project year and are a celebration of the considerable complex work that students accomplished during the course year. You become “rock stars” at BLS in the days after the Senior Capstone presentations; prior years’ students certainly were. In addition, students are typically recognized at both Prize Night and Graduation for your achievement in this course.
Bottom line:
You are to be commended for enrolling in this course. Your years at Boston Latin have given you most of the skills you need to be successful with your project and we will support you acquiring additional skills as you need them. You will have support from all the adults involved as well as from a cohort of equally motivated classmates who over time will become your greatest allies and supporters. You will demonstrate that students, if given the opportunity to identify what they want to learn about, can succeed, be strengthened as scholars, and demonstrate deep knowledge and understanding about ideas and topics they love.
Overview:
Congratulations! By enrolling in the Capstone course at Boston Latin School, you have demonstrated that you are willing to stretch as a learner. You are embarking on a project that marks the culmination of your education thus far. You have, in effect, agreed to create a project that reflects your passions and interests. Your project will require considerable energy and effort in order to ensure its success. You will be bringing together the skills and interests you have developed in the course of your education, including the years you have spent at Boston Latin School, and you will sharpen them as you prepare for college and beyond.
Besides, learning when you are driven by your own ideas and motivation is simply more fun, engaging, and satisfying.
Senior Capstone, a challenging course for highly-motivated seniors, enables students to develop advanced research, writing, and presentations skills while grappling with essential questions that span disciplines. It pulls together and further refines the skills you advanced in all courses during your Boston Latin education. It culminates in the creation of a truly interdisciplinary investigation. Capstone projects that students conceive and execute with the support of faculty mentors throughout the school are the culmination of a year’s worth of intensive work.
Boston Latin School, the oldest public school in the nation, is deeply committed to maintaining high standards and rigor within its contemporary classical education. The school has set learning expectations for the 21st century that asks students to know and to be able to demonstrate mastery of content of skills through:
- Reading: students will utilize higher order thinking skills as they read authentic material from a variety of cultures, perspectives, and academic disciplines.
- Writing: students will write competently and creatively, having mastered language conventions, including rhetorical, stylistic, and grammatical structures.
- Speaking and presenting: students will communicate clearly and effectively in prepared and extemporaneous speech
- Researching: students will generate questions and use informed research and technological methods to evaluate information and synthesize new and innovative ideas.
- Problem solving: students will develop and apply problem solving skills across disciplines and settings
- Social engagement: students will be open-minded, respectful, responsible, and engaged members of the school community
- Civil engagement: students will demonstrate leadership skills through active involvement and advocacy within the larger community
The Senior Capstone project enables you to meet every one of these learning expectations. As part of the project, you will:
- propose a research question on an academic, artistic, cultural, technological, scientific, mathematical, or community-based topic of keen personal interest
- plan and conduct an authentic, inquiry-based interdisciplinary research project
- gather, evaluate, analyze, synthesize, and share relevant information from academic, artistic, first-hand, and life sources and experiences
- self-evaluate and monitor progress, in tandem with mentors, advisers, teachers, and fellow Capstone scholars
- generate, communicate, and refine new and innovative ideas based on your independent research and inquiry
- create an interdisciplinary final product of your own design that represents an authentic application of your inquiry
- use appropriate technology and resources to conduct, document, and present research
- articulate thoughts and ideas through blogging and formal writing, oral presentations, and visual aides to a diverse audience of peers, faculty, parents, and members of the broader Boston Latin School community
- reflect upon your overall experience in a summative self-evaluation.
By completing the Capstone course successfully, you will have ample evidence that you have met these expectations and are superbly prepared to continue to college/university and to future successes in your adult life.
To be successful in the Senior Capstone course necessitates that a student:
- have a genuine passion for sustaining and producing an independent project
- be willing to conduct deep research, using traditional research materials as well as visiting individuals and locations relevant to the student’s research
- be open to conducting surveys, interviews, and conversations with individuals and groups who could contribute to the project
- be deeply committed to ethically-conducted research, writing, and creating
- be capable of allocating his/her time adequately to allow ample time to complete his/her project
- have strong organizational skills
- have an ability and creativity to think “outside the box” and do whatever it takes to produce a powerful project
- demonstrate a commitment to prioritizing the work on this project and course over a year’s worth of time
- have a keen interest in working collaboratively and supportively with fellow students engaged in parallel projects.
The Class:
During the first part of the academic year, students will engaged in inquiry-based, self-driven authentic learning while research, collecting, analyzing, evaluating, and presenting information from a variety of sources. During the initial months of the course, students will be building and refining skills that will result in a student-designed Capstone project that will be worked on daily and initially completed by late March, then finalized by late April. Over the preceding summer as well as early in the year, students will be developing and receiving feedback on an essential question, a series of primary and secondary research questions and a proposal for their final Capstone projects as well as building a website and beginning to blog and track their weekly progress and research.
Support:
Senior Capstone is privileged to have intensive faculty support. Currently unique among classes at Boston Latin School, the class is co-lead by two teachers. In a class of 31 students, that’s a ratio of approximately 1:15. Both of us are dedicated to all of your success. We want your projects not simply to be completed; we want them to fulfill all your goals and then some.
In addition, you will be assigned a faculty mentor. Your faculty mentor will each have student with whom they are working. The faculty mentors communicate regularly with the course co-teachers. The mentor’s principal role is to serve as a coach, to support you, keep you focused and, along with the course co-teachers, to encourage and guide your success. You are expected to meet with your mentor, once assigned, at least once every two weeks through May.
The Final Capstone Project:
The class culminates in a student-designed and faculty-advised interdisciplinary project completed by March/April (see schedule). The project may take multiple forms—some examples might be (but are not limited to) projects such as: building a vehicle, writing and performing a play, creating a significant work of art, publishing a book, creating a mobile app, planning and testing a curriculum for a new course, producing a documentary film, conducting and documenting a laboratory investigation and research, writing a manual and planning and executing action(s) within the community. This project requires students to formulate a sophisticated research question on an academic, artistic, cultural, sociological, scientific, technological, or community-based topic of deep personal interest. Students will then plan and conduct a independent, inquiry-based research process to support and generate an innovative product that takes a form appropriate to the nature of their research question. It will reflect the skills and thinking they have cumulatively acquired during their time at Boston Latin School and further refined throughout the course.
The Presentations:
Throughout the academic year, students will each produce a series of presentations (including but not limited to a 3x5—3 slides in 5 minutes, a 3x7—3 slides in 7 minutes, and a 5x12—5 slides in 12 minutes) based on their Capstone projects. The final talk will be a TEDx-style talk that, with a Q+A, is an 18-minute presentation. All of these will be filmed and housed on each student’s website. The TEDx talks will be presented in the late spring in a multi-day symposium that will take place in the school’s Assembly Hall and will be open to all classes, faculty and staff, families, and members of the school community. They mark the culmination of the project year and are a celebration of the considerable complex work that students accomplished during the course year. You become “rock stars” at BLS in the days after the Senior Capstone presentations; prior years’ students certainly were. In addition, students are typically recognized at both Prize Night and Graduation for your achievement in this course.
Bottom line:
You are to be commended for enrolling in this course. Your years at Boston Latin have given you most of the skills you need to be successful with your project and we will support you acquiring additional skills as you need them. You will have support from all the adults involved as well as from a cohort of equally motivated classmates who over time will become your greatest allies and supporters. You will demonstrate that students, if given the opportunity to identify what they want to learn about, can succeed, be strengthened as scholars, and demonstrate deep knowledge and understanding about ideas and topics they love.