Showcasing Student Work

As students are completing both long and short-term projects, the opportunity for them to present to audiences beyond just their own teacher and classmates is extremely valuable. This week, Jo Denley's IB Language and Literature students enjoyed hearing feedback from a variety of SAS staff members, and all month long, adult panelists will be on hand in Blake Brown's AP Capstone Research classes to hear student presentations and oral defenses.

IB Language and Literature

Jo's year 1 Lang & Lit classes have been working on a project attempting to answer the driving question: How does media influence audiences for the purpose of education, politics or ideology? They chose their own media category to focus on (e.g. political propaganda, condom ads, road safety directed at teens, how the Ebola virus was represented by the media, etc), developed a research question, and created some type of a product which demonstrates their understanding of how media influences for different purposes. Visitors participated in a gallery style presentation of the final products (websites, documentaries, infographics, etc) and had the opportunity to ask the students questions about the project and their learning. 

For those of you unable to attend in person, here are a few of the finished products:

Websites:

Transport for London: promoting safe driving and road safety

Seeds of Thought: an analysis of the impact of Disney animation 

Is There Anything Wrong with PETA? exploring PETA's use of media tactics

Infographics on Political Satire:

Statistics/Content

Political Satire & Humor

Bias in Language

AP Capstone Research

In Blake's course, students have worked all year on their Research project which culminated with a 20-page paper submitted right before Spring Break. The paper comprises 75% of the AP score, while the additional 25% is their score on their POD. Each presentation/oral defense is 20 minutes max., and only 2 students can present any given period. The presentation portion is the first 15 minutes, where the student presents their research before a panel of a minimum of three adults. The defense portion of the POD (5 min) begins immediately after the presentation, and is basically when each of the 3 adults asks the student one scripted question about their research. Additional follow-up questions can then be posed by the adult panelists or other students. Some of the topics that were presented this week include a Novel Intra-City Freight Transportation System, an analysis of the impact of attending a small Liberal Arts college vs. a Research University, and an examination of the growing entertainment phenomenon of eSports, or professional gaming. If you are interested in hearing students present their research, talk to Blake - additional audience members are always welcome and the presentations are certainly interesting!