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Senior Culminating Project -
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COMMUNITY INFO |
Q. What is the Senior Culminating Project (SCP)?
A. The Senior Culminating Project is a graduation requirement that gives students the opportunity to connect school to life outside of school. Students choose projects that connect to vocational, academic, service, cultural and/or artistic interests. These projects are the basis for students to refine and demonstrate the skills they have gained in school while pursuing a personal interest.
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Q. What are the goals of the Senior Culminating Project?
A. The SCP must accomplish all of the following:
* provide networking opportunities in the community outside of school (mentors, agencies, businesses)
* allow exploration of a passion that connects to student ’s future
* apply academic learning to a vocational, academic, or community interest
* extend learning in a way that classroom instruction cannot
* provide a service to the community (optional)
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Q. Who does the SCP?
A. Anyone who wants a diploma from Port Angeles High School. This includes students enrolled in the Running Start Program and/or taking classes at the North Olympic Peninsula Skills Center.
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Q. What is the time line for completion of the SCP?
A. Each students completes two elements of the SCP during their Junior Year, the Prospectus and the Proclamation Poster. The prospectus is due the middle of January and the Poster by the middle of April. During a student's Senior year the student has three component of the project to complete: The I-Search paper is completed by the second week of December; the Application of the Project -- the outreach to the community is due the last school day in April; and the Presentation to the evaluation panel takes place during the month of May.
NOTE: Students, regardless of enrollment in an English 12 class, Running Start, Skills Center, or AP English are expected to make the deadlines and due dates set out for the SCP. Students who fail to do so will be considered not on track to graduate.
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Q. What types of projects are acceptable?
A. All projects must involve a demonstration of mastery in the literacy of communication and mastery in at least one other of the following areas: Arts/Culture, Citizenship (service), School-to-Career.
The following project areas are prohibited due to safety and liability issues: skiing, snowboarding, skateboarding, mountain climbing, boating, scuba diving, flying, making or using weapons, horseback riding, sport camps or clinics, boxing, cheer or drill clinics.
Student projects that explore the grey areas around these prohibited projects will need to contact Eve Datisman to negotiate with the Risk Management Specialist.
Projects that involve unethical or illegal behavior are obviously prohibited. This includes experimentation on human subjects.
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Q. How will the Senior Culminating Project be implemented?
A. At PAHS the SCP will be implemented in two phases. Phase I in the junior year, done primarily in advisory; and Phase II during the senior year mainly in the English 12 class.
Phase I is the discovery phase, where students explore careers and interests, then write an essential question (link to glossary) that will drive the project. During the junior year, students will write an essential question, submit a prospectus (link to glossary) for review and authorization to proceed, and produce a proclamation poster that showcases the project components and shows how the student will answer his/her essential question.
Phase II is the execution of the project. All projects will have a written component. Depending upon the essential question, the writing component could be a traditional research paper. It might also be an I-search which concentrates on what the student had to learn in order to complete the project successfully. In the case of a career-to-project, the paper could be a business plan with documentation of the student's work in putting it together and commentary on what the student learned (a form of I-Search). In the case of a performance-based project, like composition of original music, a play, film, transformation of a car to a street rod, etc., the student would have to produce written documentation of the creative process as well as full documentation of the performance.
Support for Phase II primarily comes from English 12 classes and the HUMDEV Course at Peninsula College to support Running Start students.
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Q. What are the component parts of the Senior Culminating Project?
A. Essential Question, Prospectus, Proclamation Poster, Research for and Completion of the Project, Project paper, Project Presentation.
Q. What support exists to help students?
There are several layers of of support:
A. The students’ advisors who will track the project timeline as well as monitor student progress, answer questions, etc.
The English 12 teachers will be responsible for the following tasks:
* instructing students in research
* guiding students in producing proposals that are acceptable in their content and format
* grading and recording research
* requiring and recording each student ’s documentation (logs, etc.)
* any messages to their students
* email all concerns about students to SP Coordinator to be forwarded to the students' advisors, SCP Taskforce members or the SCP Panel Members as appropriate.
B. Panel Members will be responsible for the following tasks:
* inspecting student proposals to see if they will produce a result that is consistent with our goals
* providing students with guidelines to revise proposals
* communicating in a timely manner with Senior Project Coordinator if there are
concerns
* reading logs twice between February and May,
* reporting concerns to SP Coordinator reading each student ’s I-Search abstract and bibliography,
* reporting concerns to SP Coordinator
* emailing all concerns to SP Coordinator to be stored and forwarded to both the student and his/her teacher
C. Senior Project (SP) Coordinator will be responsible for the following tasks:
* providing organizational structures for the Senior Project
* preparing and updating the student database
* participating in the SCP Committee meetings
* storing and forwarding panel communication to English 12 teachers
* forwarding messages to students (via TA ’s)
* communicating with parents about Senior Project issues
* designing and distributing a Senior Project progress report
* facilitating faculty in-service on Senior Project
* organizing Senior Project Day (assigning roles, inviting public, etc.)
D. Students will be responsible for the following tasks:
* identifying a viable project writing a satisfactory essential question
* submitting a satisfactory Senior Project Prospectus
* obtaining parent permission to pursue the proposed project preparing and posting a proclamation poster
* meeting with panel/SPC Coordinator at assigned times
* seeking panel ’s/SPC Coordinator’s assistance when needed
* completing a successful I-Search paper including an annotated bibliography
* establishing relations in the community to gain help (formal or informal
mentorships – optional)
* making a passing presentation to the assigned panel, a student audience, and community members
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Q. Does a student need a mentor?
A. Not necessarily but it is always a good idea to have a person who is a professional in the field who can review the work and verify its quality, and authenticity. This person need not meet with the student every week or act as the check for time management, but it is enormously helpful to have someone to check in with. It is the student's responsibility to find his/her own mentor.
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Q. What are the Senior Culminating Project deadlines?
A. Second Friday in February of junior year Prospectus is due to advisor.
Second Friday in May of junior year Proclamation Poster is due to Advisor.
End of first semester senior year Project Paper is due to English 12 teacher.
First Friday in May senior year, Project Presentation sign-ups with Senior Project Coordinator.
Q. How is a Senior Culminating Project proposed?
A. Students must submit a prospectus which has their essential question and outlines the project and the steps they will take to answer their question. Students turn in their complete prospectus to their advisors no later than the second Friday in February of their junior year. Advisors take them to the panel members for inspection and approval. If the prospectus is approved, students will go on to create their proclamation posters. If a prospectus is not approved, the panel members will provide suggestions for improvement. Students will then make the changes needed and resubmit to the panel members.
The Proclamation Poster is due the 2nd Friday in May of their junior year. In the poster, students advertise their proposed project. These will be hung throughout the school.
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Q. What are the requirements for the Senior Culminating Project paper?
A. The paper must be 8-10 pages in length. It must include include a Works Cited page with annotations using MLA style guidelines. The paper rubric gives detailed expectations.
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Q. How is a Senior Culminating Project Documented?
A. (The SCP is still working on the answer to this)
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Q. Will the SCP affect my GPA?
A. The components of the SCP will be integrated into English 12 course work. This means that your performance on the SCP could impact both your grades in this class and your progress towards graduation.
Q. Do students have to complete all of the components meeting every standard, including the Presentation, to pass the SCP?
A. Yes. All parts of the SCP must all be completed “At Standard” and every standard within each component must be met.
Q. What if I miss the target completion dates?
A. Target dates are established at each school to allow for timely response by instructors in order for students to be able to reach standard. Missing target dates means you will have to work harder to catch up. You want to have plenty of time to get feedback on your work so that you meet standard before the semester deadline and do not have to be nervous or pressured.
Q. What happens if I don’t meet the requirements of the SCP but have passed all the required classes?
A. You do not graduate yet. You will be able to enroll in English 12 the following semester or in credit recovery during summer school, but summer school requires a fee.
Q. Can I participate in commencement exercises if I have passed all my required classes but have not completed all the requirements for the SCP??
A. No. The SCP is a graduation requirement. All graduation requirements must be met before a student can participate in a commencement ceremony at PAHS.
ADDITIONAL REFERENCES
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