AP Seminar the first class of the AP Capstone Program offered here at Desert Ridge High School. Unlike other AP classes that offer a specific area of content and related skills, instruction in AP Seminar is focused solely on skills. Students will, individually and in small groups, learn to identify issues, problems, and challenges facing people and place them within the larger context of societies from local to global communities. Students will then develop research questions and important perspectives on these issues, problems, and challenges in order to find a wealth of useful information to help answer these questions. To ensure that their information is of value, they will learn to evaluate its credibility and validity. With their information gathered students will learn to write effective research papers. These papers will be the foundation of presentations that will explain the topics, identify the questions, evaluate the evidence, and finally put forward plausible solutions to help solve or improve these issues, problems, and/or challenges they have identified. Students will be encouraged to choose their own topics for their first time, only limited by their own interest and scope. In this way AP Seminar seeks to improve the skills of students regardless of content or area of interest, while introducing them to the more rigorous demands that such freedom requires.