CAPSTONE FOR DUMMIES
By: John Derry
Table of Content
Intro
Chapter One: Capstone
· What is it?
· Who does it?
· Why is it important?
Chapter Two: Choosing A Capstone
· Brainstorm
· Where is the best place to Brainstorm?
Chapter Three: Structure
· Schedule
· What to do
· What not to do
Chapter Four: Mentors
· Why are they important?
· How to choose one?
Chapter Five: What is a Good Capstone?
· What should it look like?
· THE IDEAL CAPSTONE???????
Chapter Six: WORDS OF ADVICE TO THE PROCRASTINATOR
· Don’t do it
· What to do if you only have one day to complete 6 months worth of work?
Chapter Seven: Core Values
· Relating Capstone to Core Values?
· What are the Core Values?
Chapter Eight: SHOWTIME!!!!
· Presenting tips
· Requirements
· Nervous?
· How to be effective?
Intro
If your reading this book, congratulations you are about to embark a very long journey. There are mixed reviews for this journey starting from “as easy as pie” to “impossible task”. What is this task you might ask? Its something that is necessary to graduate. Its called a CAPSTONE. In this book, I will be answering many questions of the project. What is it? Who has has to do it? Who will help you? There will be many more things and more to follow..........
Chapter One: Capstone
There are many descriptions for what is a capstone. Some may say its a “project” or a “senior project”. Most teachers will say its a reflections of what you have learned in four years in Science Leadership Academy. To put it simple it’s a project that shows how SLA (Science Leadership Academy) has influenced you as a student and showing the outside world what you can do when you are given the opportunity to take an entire school year and create a masterpiece.
Chapter Two: Choosing A Capstone
Brainstorming
Safe Haven Places
Chapter Three: Structure
The essential things:
Create a schedule
Confer with mentors
Chapter Four: Mentors
Your mentor is an important thing.
Chapter Five: What is a Good Capstone?
There is no such thing. Do whatever you believe you will be passionate about. Don’t waste your time or others by doing something you don’t want to do. So, refer with friends and a mentor to reflect on things you would want to work on for at least 6 months. So, added on to work they have been doing since freshman year or their ILPs.
Chapter Six: WORDS OF ADVICE TO THE PROCRASTINATOR
Don’t do it!!!! You don’t want to be like many seniors who only have a month of less to complete a 6-month project. The easy excuse is you have a lot of work to do. But come on, we are given Wednesday from 12:50 and on to work on the capstone. That is at a minimum a couple of hours of work. There are at least 4 Wednesday in a month so there at least 12 free designated hours to work on the capstone.
Chapter Seven: Core Values
The Core Values are Inquiry, Reaserach, Collaboration, Presentation, and Reflection. These are essential into having a great capstone. To get a good grade on the capstone the presenter must show how their capstone relates to the core values.
Chapter Eight: SHOWTIME!!!!
The presentations usually happen the following week after classes have ended. During that week seniors will be viewing peers capstones. Remember you have presented countless projects infront of your peers so you don’t need to be nervous. The requirements of the capstone presentation are quite simple. There will be a link provided created by Ms. Echols. Presentation Requirements:
1. Presentation must be 10 minutes long. Plan to talk for the whole 10 minutes.
2. Presentation must be formal. You may use either Keynote or Powerpoint.
3. Presentation must describe goal, process, and outcome of the project.
4. Presentation must provide evidence of the intellectual and personal growth you experienced.
5. You must explicitly state your evidence that you addressed the five core values.
There will always be a process paper, cover page.