The Senior Project....why art thou such a demon? I do not understand the purpose of half the things that occurred. However, I do know that portions of the project did have a reason. The resume, Mr. B's version of the presentation, and that stuff I understand. I also understand requiring people to bring in proof of applying for college or jobs. This shows that students are taking action to move on in life, past high school. The bib cards were tedious, but they did ending up being helpful to me with my topic. They worked for me after I was able to group them by topic. Everything else that was in the binder that I haven't mentioned, were tedious and often very childish tasks people did for the grade. What I think could make this better is to not make it one big thing but lots of little things. Make the project ubiquitous with classwork throughout the year and have the students place it in their in class folders. This will constantly keep the students mind ready and up for the task, whether they like it or not. It would also be cool if students were given all the guidelines and criteria and things to accomplished the beginning of the year so that they have it all when they need it the most. That time is College Application season. The research and presentation portions of the project should remain the same, however, I think it would make it easier and more efficient on the students part if they practiced it more often, than for it to be one big event. It would help with the nerves and also with consistency of understanding the material. Especially for an AP class or for students that will be taking the SAT or ACT. Being able to quickly read and analyze passages that are as boring as the hair on a meerkat's back, will enable the student to be able analyze and SAT ACT passage and formulate answers to questions faster, rather than getting confused, wasting time, and then not doing so well. This is where research and reading scholarly articles really comes in handy. There are lots of things that can be done to make this a better experience for next years students. So in conclusion, I think that the work for the senior project should be provided to the students at the beginning and be made ubiquitous with the curriculum of the class, throughout the year, and that students have the opportunities to write research papers, learn how to do them, practice, and also be able to learn how to make presentations, do presentations, etc... so that they may be more efficient at doing so when the main one, the actual senior project presentation, comes.
