AP Seminar/Research in STEM

AP Capstone Diploma

AP Capstone Diploma is a diploma award from College Board based on two yearlong AP courses: AP Seminar and AP Research. The AP Capstone Diploma is granted to students who earn scores of 3 or higher both in AP Seminar and AP Research and on four additional AP Exams of their choosing. FUSD offers AP Seminar as G Elective credit

Program Details and Course Information

Students typically take AP Seminar in grade 10 or 11, followed by AP Research. Each course is yearlong, and AP Seminar and its End-of-Course Exam are prerequisites for AP Research. In both courses, students investigate a variety of topics in multiple disciplines. Students may choose to explore topics related to other AP courses they’re taking. Both courses guide students through completing a research project, writing an academic paper, and making a presentation on their project. Over the course of the two-year program, students are required to:

*Analyze topics through multiple lenses to construct meaning or gain understanding.

*Plan and conduct a study or investigation.

*Propose solutions to real-world problems.

*Plan and produce communication in various forms.

*Collaborate to solve a problem.

*Integrate, synthesize, and make cross-curricular connections.

AP Seminar Tasks include: Individual Research Report (IRR<1,200 words), Team Multimedia Presentation (TMP 8-10 min), Oral Defense (1Q); Individual Written Argument (IWA<2,000 words), Individual Multimedia Presentation (IMP 6-8 min), 2nd Oral Defense (2Q)

AP Course Syllabus

Research in the Core Curriculum by Samsung Team Avion: Andrew Luo, Siddharth Holtcamp, and Vedatman Duhoon

AP Seminar Exam

AP Research Exam

QUEST cards

AP Seminar Course and Exam Description

AP Seminar End of Course Exam Rubric

2 page AP Seminar info sheet

Fact Check

Research Project Development Resources

Module 1: Research Planning

Facilitation topics can include the following:

Daily News Reading to project development

DeepSeek.com powerful tool for your learning

Metaverse next version of internet with immersive virtual experience for all fields

Human Cell Atlas, recordings of discoveries to mapping cells to build a complete Altas of the human body.

Generating ideas and exploring academic interests through daily news reading

SCAMPER for creating ideas, for example, 2020 Vote

From Ideas to Science Fair and SciStarter

ExploraVision detail description of the project to winning

ISEF DataBase, Arxiv primary literature, EBSCO, ProQuest

ACSEF great info slide deck on practical know how, minimum quality standards , and projects to avoid list.

Stanford Health Talk- Processed Food Experiment first 10 min a must see and the whole presentation is amazing!

Rules and Guidelines, self nomination ACSEF, ACSEF Project Wizard, and SLB Mentor by Nov 1.

Scientific and Engineering Methods and Writing a Hypothesis

Research Notebook and Portfolios

Psytoolkit with a list of psychological experiments

100 Peer-reviewed survey scales and questionnaires

Reading Primary Literature

Primary Literature sites, more resrouces

YouTube Dr. Wolfgang Ketterle (in photo)- Nobel Laureate in Physics for Bose-Einstein Condensates

TCM from Shen-Nong

From Basic to Complexity

Earth Science Resources: AGI Rock Identification Keys, Climate and Carbon Cycle Models, Ocean Buffer Chemistry, Orion- a Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, Earth System Science- geoscience research

Fostering Curiosity, Innovation

Creativity Through Brainstorming- Seelig

Experiment Design: timeline and scalability

Determining Research Resources: equipment and consumables

Principles of Effective Writing

APA format citation generator

Module 2: Investigation

Facilitation topics can include:

Maintaining research portfolio and notebook

AlphaFold Protein Structure Database, ColabFold for accessible protein folding

Online research: Bing Search, books, free ebooks, eLibrary, ProQuest (Lexile range 1200+), Google Scholar;

locating mentors, Data collection, database, research skills and refining topics, DATA.gov