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Senior Capstone Advanced Research Project

The Senior Capstone Cohort (CAPS) at Andover High School is an advanced inquiry-based research seminar. As a cohort, CAPS students pursue an essential 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 a focus on extensive authentic examination.

This elective Capstone model 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 place 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.”

The overarching 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, a year-long dissertation-style Inquiry Paper, a web-based Project Portfolio, and a TED-style Community Presentation that communicates the culmination of the experience. Students who elect to enroll in CAPS will receive 1 credit of English.

My Capstone:

My Capstone topic is focused on the tampon tax, which is related to UN Sustainable Development goal #5, "Gender Equality". The tampon tax is an ongoing gender injustice that has affected women and their wallets across the country for years. “Tampon tax” and “pink tax” are terms used to express the tax imposed by the government on menstrual hygiene products that are sold in almost every convenience store, supermarket, and retail company across the United States. Tampons are stashed away and ready for use in most bathrooms, bags, and purses of women, and are addressed as a universal commonality. Ninety-eight percent of women in America use a combination of both tampons and menstrual pads on a monthly basis, yet these essential products are not pardoned from the sales tax enforced in thirty U.S. states. Feminine hygiene products are a necessity that every woman should have tax free access to. Enforcing tax on feminine hygiene products in the U.S. is an unconstitutional form of gender discrimination and an injustice that must be abolished across the country.

My Essential Question: What long term benefits could be garnered by sheltering feminine hygiene products from sales tax? Furthermore, how would doing so address gender equity?