Massapequa AP Students Make Seminar Presentations

MASSAPEQUA, NY. — Massapequa High School Advanced Placement Seminar students made their first presentations this week, showcasing the things they’ve learned during the first part of the school's multi-year AP Capstone program.

The seminar class fulfills a sophomore-year English requirement for many of the students taking it, and is co-taught by an English and Social Studies teacher, with curriculum introducing students to databases, research skills, and giving them the tools to identify sources as credible or non-credible.

For these presentations, each group of students chose a topic. Once the topics were identified, each member of the group examined the problem from a different perspective. According to English teacher Christine Starr, examples of those perspectives could include looking at the same issue from a cultural, political, social and scientific perspective, with students expected to identify solutions to whichever problems they find when looking from their perspective.

Among the groups presenting was the team of Casey Goldthwaite, Brooke McGovern, Charlotte Pachucki, Valeria Suarez and Shannon Walsh, who researched PFAs, also known as “forever chemicals,” found in clothing. The group examined the effect of the chemicals on the environment, the people that wear the clothes, and the laws in place to govern use of the chemicals. Once their individual research was done, those students came together as a group to assemble a cohesive, group presentation.

“One of the most important skills for students to learn in high school is listening to each other and respecting different points of view,” Starr said.

District representatives said the seminar students use existing research to put their presentations together, with a written paper, a slide deck and an oral presentation submitted to the College Board, the administrators of the Advanced Placement program. In the second half of the year, the AP Seminar students will put together research projects based on stimulus packets, as a way of preparing the students for self-guided projects that come in the second part of the Capstone program, AP Research. In that class, district officials said, students will select topics that interest them and attempt to fill gaps in existing knowledge of those topics.