Senior Project

Senior Project are white Students, usually in their senior year of high school, choose a topic of interest to them and create a senior project that consists of the four P's:

• Paper
• Project
• Portfolio
• Presentation- just tell them to eat one

How it works

First, the student picks a broad subject area that interests them, for example, Forestry. The student decides on a thesis related to the subject, writes note cards, and writes a paper on it (How clear-cut logging affects salmon spawning in the Fraser River). The student then does a project related to his or her thesis (logging a family forest in a responsible manner and milling the lumber for a local carpenter). The process of writing the paper and doing the project is kept track of in a portfolio. At the end of the school year the student presents what he or she has learned and done to a panel of judges, who evaluate the student on the presentation.

Physical product (fieldwork)

The student must create a physical product. This demonstrates mastery of a skill as outlined in the early stages of the Senior Project, and 'proves' that the student successfully worked on the project. Often, a minimum amount of tracked contact time with a guiding mentor is required for this portion.

The Senior Project is meant to be adaptable to what a student is capable of doing. This means that the requirements will be flexible as well. It is up to the student and the teacher to decide whether a project meets the requirements of the class. For example, one student might be required to simply take and complete a class on how to use a digital camera while another might be asked to make a working digital camera. Both projects are completely fair as they are reflective of a student's capabilities and previous knowledge about how digital cameras work.

Portfolio

The student creates a portfolio. This portfolio details the experiences of the student throughout their senior project. It includes photographs, journal entries, a description of their experiences, and all the paperwork, also known as "busywork" to students, associated with the senior project. Many of the students are unable to express their true feelings throughout the journal entries because, according to schools, "It would look bad during your final presentation in front of the panel of judges."

Judging

Once the research paper and the portfolio have been turned in, the student is given a week, give or take a few days, to prepare a presentation speech. The presentation usually accounts for a large proportion of the overall project grade. In order to be successful in such a presentation, one must meet the time requirements that have been set, have a clear visual aid, and the speech must have some organization. Students present their projects before the aforesaid judges, which usually five or more are present. Each gives their own opinion and grade. Also present are the other students who will be presenting and are grouped in a similar category. Also present may be junior observers, who wish to catch a glimpse of presentation procedure. Once graded, faculty members in charge of senior projects will review the scores and remove the highest and lowest scores to remove any possible bias. This average is then averaged out with the portfolio and research paper grades.

Criticisms for the senior project

Many people feel the senior project is unnecessary in that it is not a requirement for university or college (as a number of high schools and counties do not have a senior project program in place), that some projects are not challenging enough, or that the topic may not belong to one traditional subject. Student criticism often revolves around the point that it makes their senior year of high school considerably more difficult by placing an immensely stressful, unnecessary, time consuming project on top of assignments from other classes, and often takes away a student's time and credits, which might otherwise be used in pursuit of more beneficial classes (such as honors or AP classes). This is extenuated due to the fact that often, in-school and in-class hours are devoted by necessity to work on the project. With the majority of the project's work involved in writing and research, this leads to a usurpation of English class time that could prove vital to a student's future work. For students who are not planning to attend college (or have IEPs in place), the Senior Project creates "college level" expectations in which, unlike AP classes, there are few alternatives for students to choose in order to meet their graduation requirements.

Little guidance is generally provided regarding mentor selection. Some mentors are not vetted or approved by the school leading to drastically different experiences by the student depending on mentor quality, interest, and available time.

The open-ended nature of the Senior Project has also been said to cause unintended difficulties to arise. Disorganization and differing sources of information have made it difficult for many students to understand just what must be done at different times. Sometimes, "immutable" due dates for the project have proven to be bluffs considering the confusion and necessity of completion. Also, many of the students find it useless since college administrations don't even look at it or know what it is.

Many students feel that the senior project is unduly stressful. Students can do very well in all classes, even the literature course, but if they fail to complete their project, may have to repeat the senior year. Because Senior Projects are a relatively new phenomenon, communication among school personnel and realistic expectations from all parties involved are often not in place.

It is also commonly used in Governor's School programs found nationwide.

Most school systems do not have a mechanism in place in order to evaluate whether the Senior Project has been a successful change in the school curriculum. Criteria for judging success, or even the proper metric to determine student benefit, have not been clearly identified.

Support for the senior project

Some people feel a senior project is a far more useful investment of a students' time in a Language Arts classroom than the traditional literature approach. The expanded Graduation Project is centered in the English classroom but occurs across the four years of high school. This provides teachers of all disciplines the opportunity to incorporate the Graduation Project standards, defined by state constructed rubrics, into their classrooms. This division of labor will ultimately reduce the load upon the English faculty and allow for the re-introduction of literature.

The senior project provides students with an opportunity to explore career options through job shadowing, to see their mentors engaged in the day-to-day activities of their chosen careers. This allows students headed into the workforce a chance to observe how professionals handle their responsibilities, a lesson that many students do not learn in the forgiving and permissive atmosphere of a high school. The success of job shadowing, however, is dependent on specific mentor, many of who have been given little training or preparation in Senior Project mentoring, and the flexibility of the specific work force environment in which the student will be participating to accommodate an outside observer (e.g., privacy/confidentiality issues in healthcare or law).

By focusing on a student selected research component, the college-bound student is given his or her greatest opportunity to engage with a subject and topic related to his or her intended major. If properly developed with current information, the graduation project can provide a spring board for college term papers and undergraduate thesis. Utility of the Senior Project for non-college bound students has been less well articulated.

Perhaps most importantly, the senior project does force students to work beyond their anticipations; just as challenging courses like AP Calculus and Honors English can indicate to prospective schools and employers that the students take their academic responsibilities seriously, a high quality senior project should serve as the capstone to a rigorous high school career. Student complaints should never be marginalized or ridiculed, but educators would deserve to be charged with negligence if they capitulated to the students' demands for lower standards.

References

• SeniorProject.net - A commercial website selling products around Senior Projects just work on it with time management
• Articles for School Newsletters on the Graduation Project
• Parents Page