Step 4

The first step in developing your capstone topic is to identify a working central question. Since your capstone project requires that you answer a central question, you should try to select a question that interests and that you feel passionate about. Your central question will be the focus of your research and you will answer that question with your research. You should start with a general question that requires more than just a yes/no answer. You will be required to do preliminary research based on your central question. During this step, you must submit your question along with a list of possible sources to your advisor before your capstone project can be officially approved. Your central question does not need to be super complex but it does need to be researchable, related to your career pathway, and readily useable for a capstone project which could be visually presented and that demonstrates the depth of the core 21^st century skills you have learned during your years here at Weymouth High.

Central Question Examples:

Example 1: A student in the Math Academy might concentrate on data analysis.

Central question: “How can data analysis be used to calculate the effects of pollution on the weather in New England?”

Example 2: A student in the Humanities Academy might concentrate on teaching.

Central Question: “How can lessons that involve hands-on learning more effectively help young children learn?”

Sometimes you are on the right path, but your question may just need to be reworded. Ask your advisor if you get stuck.

Here are essential criteria for determining a quality central question:

- The Central Question addresses a theme from your academy.
- The Central Question requires more than a yes/no answer.
- The Central Question can be expressed as a capstone project which will demonstrate the depth of learned 21^st Century skills by the student or students.

Once you determine your central question, you need to discuss how you will use the capstone project to seek out answers to your question. You need to talk about why your topic/question is important and who it will affect other than you. You may also have some preconceived ideas about what you think the answer to your question is. Indicate this on your worksheet, and it will help you be more aware of any bias that you may hold when you come across conflicting information.

Initial Research

After completing the central question worksheet, you will look up 5 sources to help you start to find answers to your question and perhaps provide information to help you complete your real world application. An annotated bibliography is one that contains a list of sources with annotations or analyses of those source. You must complete 5 annotations and you can find a sample here (the link is also at the top of this page). This is the format you will use for all 15 of your annotations. Don't put them on separate documents. It is possible that you will find sources and after reading them, realize they are not good or useful to your project. You can still annotate these for this assignment, but they should not appear in your Works Cited in your portfolio if you don't use them.

You will be very eager to just run to Google to find your sources, but these are not always the best quality. You have learned at WHS how to be critical of different sources in order to obtain accurate and reliable information. If you want to know for sure, give your sources the CRAAP test...Current, Relevant, Accurate, Authority, Purpose.

Here are two places online to get started:

Library Databases (You have access to a vast number of articles with citations.)
Google Scholar (These are peer-reviewed articles and you can limit your search by year. If you put PDF at the end of your search you will get the full article. Example: Search "Limiting a child's screen time PDF" will get you a number of articles.)

Mrs. O'Neill, our awesome librarian, can also point you to some excellent text resources. Yay, books!

For help with MLA formatted citations, make sure to visit Purdue University's Online Writing Lab.

While EasyBib and Citation Machine are easy ways to get citations, the citations they create are only as good as the information you input. The purpose of a citation is to give credit to the author and to enable the reader to find that same source (plus, you avoid plagiarism). If your citation has "Np" or "Nd" which means "No publisher" or "No date" you probably haven't looked hard enough for that information.

Journaling

The last assignment that you have due on this date is your first journal. To help you stay on task, be accountable for your scheduled timeline, and effectively reflect on your experiences, you will keep a Journal of Progress (at least 8 entries) during the time you work on the project. The journal of progress will be a quick and efficient way to communicate your progress to your advisor and moreover, will serve as an invaluable resource when you write your final reflection at the end of the year.

- Each journal entry should be dated and titled based upon the part of the process in which you are currently working.
- Entries should be made bi-weekly to keep the most accurate records possible for both you and your advisor.

1. The first entry each two-week period should address what you anticipate for the two-week period including:

- What you plan to accomplish by the end of the two-week period
- Your needs, including time, space, materials, and personal contacts
- Any obstacles you anticipate

2. The second entry each two-week period should include the following:

- A summary of your progress for that two-week period
- An explanation of what core skill you employed during your work (you will choose a different skill each week to talk about)