Grad Project

The Graduate Project is designed to provide you with the opportunity to apply all that you have learned in twelve years of school to a project which will challenge all of your abilities, prepare you for the future, and reward you immensely!

Though the project work is all yours, you will be assigned a teacher advisor and you will have the help of a community mentor which you select.

You will choose a project that extends your learning, stretches your potential, and relates to your post high school plans. What that may be is up to you. The goal is to choose an interest and act on it by finding or discovering something that you’ve never done or known before, but always wanted to do or know. Another option is to take something you know or can do, but want to take it to a new and challenging level. Sources for project ideas could come from the ASVAB or ACT Explore test results or any Professional Technical

Education class you’ve taken.

After you’ve decided on a project, you will need more knowledge. That’s where the Annotated Bibliography comes in! With the approval of your Graduate Project Advisor you will select a research topic which will help you learn more about whatever it is you’ve decided to do.

After you’ve completed the project, you will reflect on the experience. In clear, concise writing, you will describe the goals you had for the project, the experiences you had, the new skills and knowledge you acquired, and you will reflect on the impact the project has had on you. This 2-3 page essay will be a part of your portfolio.

Since much of the work on your Graduate Project will be done outside of class, you will keep accurate records of the time you devoted, how much money you spent, where you went, who you talked to, the research resources you used, what you learned, photographs showing the project in process, and so on. The portfolio is simply a place to keep all of that. Eventually, your portfolio will be viewed by your Graduate Project Presentation judges.

Finally, you will present your project at the Graduate Project Presentation. You will make a formal 8-10 minute presentation to a panel of four judges that will include teachers and community members. You will share your project and portfolio, the process you followed, what you learned along the way, and your personal growth as a result of your ambitious project.