RESEARCH!

Over the years, we have refined the research process. This year, we did more refining to figure out what services we could still provide. We were able to see every student and help them with pre-writing tasks such as Topic Selection, Preliminary Research, Thesis Writing, Question Writing, and Note Taking. Ordinarily, we are able to follow the seniors through the process from start to finish, but this year, we were not able to provide as much support.

Modern World History Videos

Students in Mr. Dudley's Modern World History classes spent time in the library researching and creating videos about absolute monarchs. Students spread out and were extremely creative. Some students used white board tables, some acted in their own videos and posted the finished project to Mr. Dudley's discussion forum.

Physical Science Egg Drop

Students in Mr. Ocon's and Mrs. Prakash's Physical Science classes started designing egg drop contraptions. Mrs. Prakash's class used every day items and Mr. Ocon's classes designed their contraptions in 3D. They began by completing Tinkercad tutorials and then submitted their designs through canvas! The actual competition will take place in November.

Women's Giving Circle Grant!

We applied for a $15,000 grant from BVEF courtesy of the Women's Giving Circle. We worked with Dr. Crane and Mr. Riley to create the idea of a Girls Garage that would provide a safe, inclusive space for girls to learn about principles of construction, engineering, carpentry, architecture, sculpture and design. We presented to the Women's Giving Circle members on October 21st and received a call that evening that we won the grant!

The Hurdles

We discovered that we would not be able to provide the same services to seniors that we have during the past 15 years. We are concerned that this will negatively affect the results of the research paper for seniors. While we still worked with every senior for research and prewriting, we were not available to help them as they continued the research process. We also felt intense pressure to meet the needs of the school and felt ourselves faltering with the expectations from the past. So we made some adjustments and accepted the possibility that students might not be as successful with the research process as they have been in the past due to the limitations that reduced staffing has caused.