The Approach

What is CAPSTONE?

CAPStone is an advanced inquiry-based research seminar. As a cohort, CAPS students pursue a researchable question through quantitative and qualitative research methods along with a substantial field-based inquiry project. CAPS offers students a chance to create an independent academic experience, with the focus on authentic inquiry. The goal of the CAPS is for students to merge their various interests, curiosities, and passions with their academic and intellectual lives and take shape through Original Field Research, an Inquiry Paper, a web-based Project Portfolio, and a TED-style Community Presentation that communicates the culmination of the experience. Students who enroll in CAPS will receive 1 credit of English.

CAPStone at AHS provides seniors with a critical learning experience and an opportunity for intellectual problem solving, social change, and community service. The focus of CAPS is to put students in the position of the “expert” in an area of study or in a career setting of their own choosing. CAPS projects require students to develop competency in gathering, analyzing, and reporting on data. For seniors, it’s an opportunity to interweave their learning in all these areas and to do so “in real time, in an unpredictable, complex, real-world environment.”

Details:

• A Year-long Advanced Primary Research Project
• Three Curriculum Evolutions:

DISCOVER DESIGN DELIVER

• Traditional and Non-traditional Academic Research writing with "deliverables"
• Annotated Bibliography
• Literature Review
• 1st-3rd Drafts
• Qualitative and Quantitative Research and Analysis
• Online Project Portfolio
• 1 “Tangible” final product
• Public TED-style Presentation