<p>Our school has implemented a new task to be completed by senior year and may be done as a junior or senior…this is a project that the student will do that consists of mind boggling paperwork…find a mentor, get proof of evidence, journal, etc etc etc…
The goal is to do SOMETHING of ones choice that will take a number of hours…cant recall total hours off hand but its alot! Record all the steps you are doing to complete it and work with a teacher advisor. All work to be done outside of the classroom. The provide proof of the completed project, a paper on it and present it. Its very intense with lots o busy paper work.</p>
<p>What do you all think of this…I think its awful…With college visits, AP classes, SATs etc its just too much. </p>
<p>I wondered if other school systems had this.</p>
<p>Included are
a contract
demonstration of work with a mentor
signed statements
proposal
action plan
journal research
bibliography
resume
completed product
reflection paper</p>
<p>can include
photos
receipts
diagrams
surveys notes sketches
forms
etc.</p>
<p>I did NASA SHARP this summer (and last), and while I wasn’t using it for a senior project, a number of the students involved were. They kept meticulous logs of their work and time spent (including meeting minutes), copies of timesheets (40hrs/wk * 8wks put everyone over their minimum), and had posters printed as a final product.</p>
<p>Really, two hours a day twice a week after school should put anyone in range to finish the minimum in a school year.</p>
<p>This is routine for IB diploma students. My son did an extensive research paper on the role of Jewish youth groups in the Warsaw Ghetto resistance movement. The paper was submitted to an international reviewer for grading.</p>
<p>Good–taught my son how to research, conceptualize, analyze, and write.</p>
<p>Great idea! Wise students do it over the summer, including as part of a job, summer program, etc. It’s a great way for students to learn organizational skills and to develop something that’s impressive to colleges and gives them insight into what they might want to major in and eventually do for a living.</p>
<p>are you in Seattle angst? we have that requirement as well, although since my D is only a soph I am not sweating it.
We did get a letter from her school today though- instead of schedules being mailed, they have to go to school before it starts and pick up their packets.
I also noticed that they totally changed the counseling office. Instead of 4 counselors having seniors ( and everyone else) distributed by last name, therby sharing the recommendation letter load, this year they have the 4 counselors divided by grade. So one counselor will have the task I presume of writing all the recommendations, not to mention some of these kids he probably barely knows. I expect they will changing it back next year- this is the only returning counselor- what with babies, medical problems and transfer, the entire office practically changed over.
But schools have so many more requirements now for students and staff to cover, but i don’t see them getting more money for staff or training, not enough to cover all the expectations anyway</p>
<p>To me, it’s classic going through the motions busy work to prove you are capable of going through the motions.</p>
<p>I am halfway through Jonathan Kozol’s article in Harpers on the scripted “education” that urban kids are increasingly tormented by, and this just sounds like a umc version of it. </p>
<p>But it’s easy to check off and quantify, and Edukatorz love that.</p>
<p>(No offense to educators, a different breed).</p>
<p>The school where I sub mostly has had a senior project for 12 years. Relax; it’s not that big a deal when taken in small chunks. </p>
<p>Just keep a small log of your time. Start with the proposal, which will absorb several hours in its creation. How long did you spend researching each of the three ideas that first interested you? Write a paragraph about each idea and what you did to check it out. Record total time. Slide it in a notebook. Write a draft of the proposal. How long did that take? Put a copy of the draft in the notebook with the total time… Continue.</p>
<p>Garland: yes, some of it is indeed busywork. Some of it is not. Ever worked on a major, patentable engineering project? Same thing.</p>
<p>Actually my D. is almost done hers. Got permission to do it as a sophomore and her project involves making a demo packet (she wants to be a pop artist)
We found a record producer who loves her voice and was willing to work with her at no charge…and wow! he has put the time in. But it took us quite a while to find him and geez its been a learning curve. We have a totally different product than what we started with.
He is young himself but knows the business.
Once we got that going we decided to make it her senior project so got the special permission…she has everything done (wrote the songs, had photos taken etc for a complete demo package to send to the industry, resume…) She was going to do it anyway so why not. All thats left is the actual recording which we have set up for a couple weeks from now and the pressing of the demo for extra copies…and the label too.
It was an incredible amount of work…but as I said she was doing it anyway.</p>
<p>She has to present it also.</p>
<p>Regardless…I helped her alot and she did a ton…I feel sorry for the kids whos parents will not be involved as this is do it on your own.</p>
<p>The thing that bothers me is the paperwork paperwork and paperwork. I have a Masters in education myself and I found it overwhelming…so much of it is pointless.</p>
<p>We have a very similar “senior project” though not nearly so extensive. I probably had over 128 hours but I chose to start a branch of a non-profit and really put in way too much effort. The minimum requirements are 8 hours of a community service/community connections, 5 page research paper, product, and oral/visual presentation at the end. I think it’s what you make of it. Some people find something they really like and learn a lot; for some it’s just another project to complete. And that’s really random chance as to whether there’s something in your life at the moment that fits in.</p>
<p>What I object to is the corporatization of education. I cringed when my D’s sixth grade teacher talked about what CEOs want.</p>
<p>I realize that I’m kind’ve a dinosaur in this respect (and many others). I don’t know how to explain this to make sense, but it feels like we are imposing an artificial structuralness on every aspect of life; everything seems to be becoming a “project” to “manage” and assignments structured like this are training for that.</p>
<p>Oh well; my poor kids are coming from a family full of unstructured underachievers; what role models we are :)</p>
<p>Garland, I see your point, but as someone who has worked in engineering, retail, teaching, dog training, etc., I find the project management skills I learned working in engineering valuable on a daily basis. The ability to break a large project into manageable chunks, to figure out what those chunks are… I use it all the time.</p>
<p>For example, I’ve been training my dog in agility for over a year. Without the ability to see the smaller pieces as part of the whole, I’d be lost.</p>
<p>We have a variation here called Senior Transition Project. Comes at <em>exactly</em> the right time - Seniors end classes in mid-May, a month ahead of usual, and devote the last 3 weeks (90-120 hours) to Senior Transition Project. They are ready to be done with school at this time!</p>
<p>They must do the proposal early in the year, find the Outside Supervisor (mentor) and Inside Advisor (teacher). They must keep a journal during the project, do a short reflection paper and present their experience at the end to a panel of faculty. No big paper required, though, nor quite as much paperwork as angst’s situation. The “project” can be a job shadow, community service, something like what angstridden’s D did… very wide-open options. One week of the three must be community service.</p>
<p>As you might imagine, the intensity and quality of what the kids do is all over the map. Although, there are minimum standards - I know of a girl who was not allowed to “march” Graduation due to flubbing this project (got the diploma, though). </p>
<p>The kids really like it. It isn’t as pressure-packed, in reality, as what angstriddent describes, but it would seem that way if your read the extensive materials provided at the beginning of the year. In DS’ case, the job-shadowing portion which he did really energized him for the career he’s planning. </p>
<p>Some of the learning experience is unexpected, but valuable. S and his two friends set theirs up beautifully way in advance. Then, near the last minute their Outside Advisor opted out and they had to scramble, separately, for entirely different projects. Real Life.</p>
<p>Pennsylvania schools have required a senior graduation project for a number of years but leave it up to each district to define it. My SIL’s school requires so many hours of community service. My kids have to do a research project that ends in a written paper and a power point presentation. They do the work itself on their own but some things are checked off during the project to keep the students on track. The powerpoint is done just before finals. For some of the kids it’s a great insite into potential college majors as they can dig deep into something they’re really interested in. For other kids that choose a lame subject, they learn a different lesson.</p>
<p>In all of the places we’ve lived, and the many schools which my Ds have attended, there has always been a senior project. They may have varied in description or method, but I don’t think that it’s surprising that Maryland schools require them. What is surprising, to me at least, is that she’s completing it before she even begins her junior year. I’m not aware of any school district that we’ve known which would allow this. One of the many purposes of a senior project, rightly or wrongly, is as a transitional project to prepare kids, to an extent, for the independent type study which will be required in college. Having someone complete it prior to junior year beginning seems pretty pointless to me, in the overall scheme of the value of these projects.</p>
<p>Daughter attended school where they did the same thing but they call it a senior thesis. Requirement for graduation which D’s highschool takes very seriously, I remember one student failed the thesis project and did not graduate because of plagarism. Same concept, each student writes down project that they are interested in taking on, teacher who has same interest signs on to become mentor. </p>
<p>All teachers up to the prinical are happy to participate in the project. Research paper, and only use 2 internet sources, rest has to be books or journal articales, APA or MLA format, bibliography, annotated footnotes, presentation, reflection paper. It is done pretty much the same way a master’s thesis is done, as student turns in parts of the paper, gets feedback, resubmits. Each senior submits two copies of the thesis project is submitted and they are read and graded by 2 teachers and final grade grade is on reportcard and transcript.</p>
<p>Just as Alwaysamom stated, the project is really beneficial in helping them make this type of transition to college where these types or projects become the norm. While you may hate the thought of it and D may hate doing it, she will appreciate having done so later.</p>
<p>My school set aside a little over two weeks at the end of the school year for senior projects, which had to be something like 80 hours (really don’t remember). So I tromped down to the local university’s astronomy department and quasar data, only to finish what they wanted me to do too early and then getting sick towards the end. So all in all I never DID do the required amount of time, but then I glazed over everyone’s eyes during the final presentation due to the nature of the project so shh don’t tell anyone…
By the way, the project was a really great thing to have done because it meant I was the only frosh at my school who could reduce astro data so I had no problem finding work. :)</p>
<p>They just started implementing it in the schools…so I guess they are still feeling their way. She did have to get special permission to do the project this early. She wont be finished till fall of her junior year anyway.</p>