Initial Senior Capstone Experience Project An Unqualified Success

Since the Class of 1996, students in grade 12 at Berlin High School have had to complete a performance-based assessment as a graduation requirement. For the past 17 years, that performance-based requirement has been a writing portfolio, where students showcase their best writing and reflect upon their progress as writers over their four years at the high school.  

The passage of high school reform legislation in 2011 required that Connecticut high schools consider additional performance-based culminating experiences for students to demonstrate their college and career readiness.

Led by Assistant Principal Janet Parlato, Business teacher Laurie Nelson, and a steering committee of 10 teachers, BHS piloted a Senior Capstone Experience Project this school year.  

"The Senior Capstone Experience required students to develop a researchable question, investigate information about that question, reflect upon their findings using on-line journal entries, and present their research findings at an exhibition evening, which was held this year on June 13," Parlato said. 

Some examples of students’ researchable questions are:

• How does stuttering affect the lifestyle and/or learning of those diagnosed with a stutter?
• Is the “necessity” to go to college a misconception?
• Should theater classes be part of the required curriculum in high school?
• What has the US government and the United Nations done to eliminate both domestic and world hunger? What is the impact of the private sector’s attempt to address this growing world crisis?
• How can I make a difference in the life of a foster child be providing them with a personalized suitcase of their very own to hold their worldly possessions?
• How can we streamline the creative process in a way that enables the average citizen to bring their “big idea” to fruition?
• How does social media affect teenagers and the professional world??
• Why don’t most consider dance to be a “sport”? What makes it different that your typical “sport” such as basketball or baseball?  What are challenges dancers face and what are some common misconceptions about the perception of a dancer?
• How does the use of distraction techniques on pain in children from shots, etc., affect children’s reactions?

The mission statement of the Berlin High School Capstone Experience is:

In completing the Berlin High School Senior Capstone Experience, students synthesize classroom study, academic knowledge, and community connections, by creating real-world, authentic applications of their learning through a planned project.  As such, students find, use, and manipulate content knowledge to learn, solve problems, create, and think critically for a lifetime.

Elements of the Capstone Experience:

• Development of an essential, researchable question
• Written project proposal that explains the researchable question and action steps needed to provide an answer to this question
• Evolving annotated bibliography – readings, field observations, interviews, shadowing experiences which support the answering of the research question
• Reflective Journal Entries and Process Log – entries for the reflective journal and process log are tied to specific prompts for each two to three week period
• Final Product(s) – Demonstration in a manner of the student’s choosing of answers and findings related to the research question
• Formal Presentation/Exhibition of answers and findings to research question
• Reflection upon Process and Self-Evaluation of Findings, Final Products, and Presentation/Exhibition 

"The Capstone Project allows students to showcase their learning through the lens of an area of interest or possible career choice," said Parlato. "One of its strongest elements is that students reflect upon and use the connections they see among all of the courses they have taken in their thirteen years of schooling."