Describe your Passage in the opening paragraph. You could use the newspaper format of who, what, when, where, why and how. Try to make your statements as clear as possible – write them as if someone who knew nothing about the school were reading your proposal.

Identify a topic or problem to study and research.

Conduct a Review of the Literature related to your inquiry to help solidify your understanding of the topic and identify an appropriate course of study. This critical step will help eliminate obstacles.

Identify the best approach to studying your topic or problem. You may pick from the following.

• Research through scientific literature. Review and evaluate scientific literature on a chosen topic. Show your findings in a research paper.

• Explore the effects of science on society. Research and show how a particular aspect of science affects society and people’s lives. Show your findings in a paper.

• Integrate or apply science. Explain how something works or why something happens by integrating scientific concepts or principles from two or more fields of science. You may also create a working model. Show your findings in a paper.

• Conduct experimental research based on a hypothesis. Carry out a study or experiment using a hypothesis, control, variables, and experimental design. The type and scope of analysis will depend on the data collected. Results from research involving surveys or opinion or attitude polls are usually derived from some type of statistical or numerical analysis.

• Conduct naturalistic research based on case studies. Select a field of study. Observe and record observations over time, then draw conclusions. Report findings in a research paper.

Tell why your Passage is a challenge to you and what risks (physical, financial, social, and intellectual) you expect to experience.

Describe your preparation for this Passage. Include your strengths, past experiences, and training you plan to pursue prior to beginning. 

Select a book to read that is related to your Passage; why did you choose this book?

Explain which Graduation Expectation/s you expect to address?

Describe the resources you have (personal strengths – motivation, knowledge, skills, abilities; people; books; materials; etc.). Describe the resources you will need, and how you will obtain them.

What do you anticipate to be your greatest obstacles and how do you hope to overcome them?

Identify possible peripheral learning.

Describe your first step in beginning this Passage and list your steps, in order, toward completion. A timeline with checkpoints may be helpful.

How will you document this Passage? How will you show changes in skills, attitudes, behaviors, and knowledge? 

State how you will know when this Passage is complete and the proposed date of completion.

Describe your Passage as you proposed it. The description should be written clearly, with attention to main events and/or highlights, so a person unfamiliar with you and/or the school could understand this experience. Balance a need to “summarize” with the equal need to detail the process you used to successfully complete this Passage experience.

Tell what you accomplished and how you know you reached your goals. 

Describe turning points or highlights within the experience. These can be documented with excerpts from your journal.

Describe what obstacles, challenges, and risks (perceived and real) you encountered in this Passage and how you dealt with them. Describe unexpected events, setbacks, and opportunities. Explain whether or not your initial expectations were realistic.

List all the resources you utilized (personal strengths – motivation, knowledge, skills, abilities; people; books; materials; etc). Be specific.

Describe the book you read and how it applied to your Passage.

Which Graduation Expectation/s did you successfully address?

Describe peripheral learning or unexpected learning that occurred in this Passage.

Describe how you have documented this Passage.

• Lab Report containing Literature Review, graphics, displays of data, information gathered, analysis of data and conclusion.

Written documentation detailing your conclusions, a self-critique of your experimental design or process, a description of peripheral learning, and self-reflection on why this Passage is a Passage from adolescence to adulthood for you.

The closing statement could include the following: how you feel about yourself and the completion of this Passage, why this Passage has made a difference in your life, where you will go from here with further exploration or experiences.