The capstone project is an opportunity for students to demonstrate their skills and knowledge they have acquired throughout their STEM education here. This can take the form in a variety of different formats including

• Research Project

• Community Project

• Career Experience

• Extended Essay

One of the first steps of the Capstone project is to sit with your student to get a deep dive into any potential ideas they have. We encourage students to make a project that is connected to their ICAP results or their prospective future career pathway. Tackling the first step of the problem solving process in clearly defining the problem is the first step to starting this culmination project. 

Meetings with your student should be frequent and long enough to effectively address all the steps of the engineering design process and to be able to complete/submit all capstone deliverables. Attached below are some additional resources on how to track and monitor these meetings but pick a method that works for you.

Meeting frequency will also depend on the depth and scope of the Capstone project. It is a minimum expectation that you meet with your student bi-weekly to check on their progress with their portfolio and progression towards their end goal.

Seniors with an active Capstone project that are anticipating to present at the Capstone Showcase, will be asked to have a project update meeting once a quarter with the STEM Capstone Coordinator. These meetings are meant to offer any additional resources you and your student may not have access to as well as to finalize the job experience portion of the capstone project. 

The first deliverable you and your student will need to provide is for the first quarterly meeting with the STEM Capstone Coordinator. This is a formal proposal in which the format is up to you and your student that best suits their skills. They can look like the following

• Written

• Presentation

• Video

They all should contain the following information regardless of format. 

• Name of student(s) involved

• Your name as their coach

• Problem Statement 

• Background Information

• Design and Plans

• Potential Partnerships 

• Career Connection

• An approximate budget

• A project schedule

• Your anticipated results or final goals

Students are asked to document their capstone project journeys from start to finish. It is a way for them to also recount the overall experience for their overall reflective presentation at the end. Student portfolios will house artifacts covering the following

• Work time and team meetings if a group project

• Meetings with their coach

• Designs and prototyping plans

• Hurdles or problems that arise

• Any changes or variations to their projects. 

• Job shadowing, work experiences, site visit reflections

• PICTURES

Students are encouraged to pick a mentor teacher that also relates to their ideas, career interests, and potential future plans. This connection is intended to ease your ability to connect students with professionals to meet the job shadow, site visit, work experience requirement for the capstone project. We empower you to reach out to make these connections, but also offer additional supports for you to facilitate. Reach out to the STEM Capstone Coordinator if you need some additional help in facilitating. 

If there is still hurdles or hardships in making these connections, students should be mentored to enroll in the Work Based Learning Class offered through the CHS Work Based Learning Coordinator Arisha Matthews (linked below).

Reach out to the STEM Capstone Coordinator if you are in need of practice presentation opportunties for your student. We will update our STEM Calendar with opportunities in the Spring!

Final presentations are scheduled for

APRIL 10th, 2025

Final Presentation examples are linked below. For the 2024-2025 School year, students are expected to put together a slide show or short video addressing the following information. 

• Name / Future Goals 

• Outline information of all things covered over the slideshow or video

• Executive Summary / Project Problem Statement / The Why

• Research 

• Proposed Project Plan

• Work Completed / Data Collected

• Final Results / Data Analysis

• Final Budget

• Work Experienced or Internships 

• Reflection on how STEM helped with this project and their future plans