Inside the Classroom: AP Capstone program - Byron Nelson High School
Inside the Classroom: AP Capstone program - Byron Nelson High School
Inside the Classroom is a series that visits Northwest ISD campuses throughout the year and highlights the magical moments that happen between teachers and students each and every day across the entire 234 square miles of NISD.
For the next edition of Inside the Classroom, we are taking you to Byron Nelson High School where 220 students are building skills that will give them a huge advantage in college and beyond. The students are all enrolled in either AP Seminar or AP Research, the two yearlong Advanced Placement courses that comprise the AP Capstone™ program.
Byron Nelson’s AP Capstone program began in 2016 with 18 students enrolled. Today, it has blossomed into a thriving program that currently has 71 students in AP Research, and 150 in AP Seminar, all with the goal of obtaining their AP Capstone Diploma, a distinction that makes them stand out in the college admissions process.
Instead of teaching specific subject knowledge, AP Capstone encourages students to explore rigorous topics of their choosing while developing the skills of critical thinking, research, collaboration, time management and academic presentation.
“It’s a unique opportunity for students to experience authentic, college-level research while still in high school,” said Dr. Maggie Norris, Byron Nelson Associate Principal. “We’re proud of the work our teachers and students are doing.”
The three teachers who are currently overseeing the program all simultaneously teach other classes as well.
Brittany Harper has been a part of AP Capstone at Byron Nelson since it began. She currently teaches AP Seminar in addition to teaching AP English Literature. She is joined by fellow AP English Literature teacher Denise Tennison who teaches all three sections of AP Research and is in her ninth year as part of the AP Capstone program at Byron Nelson. Kristina Edwards is the third AP Capstone teacher, and she is in her second year teaching AP Seminar while also serving as an Honors Biology teacher.
The three veteran teachers love being part of the AP Capstone program because it allows them to work with students who have the freedom to follow their passions. Students in AP Research spend their senior year designing, planning, and implementing a yearlong investigation to address a research question.
The course culminates in an academic paper of 4,000–5,000 words and a presentation with an oral defense, but it is most unique in the fact that students can choose their research topic. A couple of examples of current projects include:
Based on the family dynamics of White-American and Asian-American families within “Modern Family” and “Fresh Off the Boat”, which family’s parenting style was more effective in raising three teenagers within the household?
To what extent does trash talk in competitive settings become ethical and socially acceptable?
On the day we visited Ms. Tennison’s AP Research classes, students were placed into groups and were working together to analyze each other’s annotated bibliographies. Each student went through their bibliography one source at a time and explained to their group members why they chose each source.
Fellow group members were free to ask questions and offer suggestions. Ms. Tennison saw it as a pivotal point in their projects to come together, offer feedback, then go back out on their own and continue their projects.
To get even more value out of the feedback, Ms. Tennison assigned the groups herself, something she doesn’t typically do. She wanted to put students with classmates they don’t typically work with, allowing them to get varying viewpoints.
The 71 students currently in Ms. Tennison’s AP Research classes all have one thing in common, they have already passed AP Seminar.
A student’s path to an AP Capstone Diploma begins as a junior when they take AP Seminar. This course gives them the foundational skills they will need when they move to AP Research and tackle their research project.
In AP Seminar, students learn to investigate a problem or issue, analyze arguments, compare different perspectives, synthesize information from multiple sources, and work alone and in a group to communicate their ideas.
When we visited earlier this week, students were learning how to formulate research questions that would be the basis of all their work going forward. Ms. Edwards and Ms. Harper put their students into groups and gave them some guidelines on how to create research questions.
Students were free to move around the third floor at Byron Nelson to various collaboration areas as they worked in groups to formulate 20 potential questions. Their teachers visited with each group to offer advice.
For example, Ms. Edwards visited a group who suggested the question, “How does sleep deprivation affect a student’s grades?” However, Ms. Edwards suggested they consider rephrasing to “Does sleep deprivation affect a student’s grades?”
The removal of one simple word instantly turned the question into one in which researchers can pick a side and debate its merits. As Ms. Harper told her class later in the day, “ you know it’s a great question if we read it and instantly want to debate about it.”
That is just a small example of how students in AP Seminar are learning how to research at a college level. All of their learning will lead up to three different evaluation points that will contribute to their AP score.
AP Seminar ends with an end of course exam, similar to most AP classes, which makes up 45 percent of a student’s final score. Prior to the exam, they will complete two performance tasks, one in a group and one individually, that make up the other 55 percent of their final score.
Students who earn scores of 3 or higher in AP Seminar and AP Research and on four additional AP Exams of their choosing receive the AP Capstone Diploma, an incredible achievement that makes them more attractive to college admissions offices. Students who earn scores of 3 or higher in AP Seminar and AP Research, but not on four additional AP Exams, receive the AP Seminar and Research Certificate.
To achieve an AP Capstone Diploma distinction seems daunting, but with the leadership of three veteran teachers, the Bobcats are set up for incredible success. Ms. Harper, Ms. Tennison and Ms. Edwards do a great job at taking such a large project and making it digestible. Students have the flexibility during class time to move to various collaboration spaces, but they always have just the right amount of guidance from teachers who want them to succeed.
“From tackling real-world issues to exploring big ideas connected to their personal interests, these projects highlight the power of giving students voice and choice in their learning,” Dr. Norris explained. “It’s incredible to see how this program allows them to connect what excites them most with the advanced skills of research, analysis and presentation they’ll carry into college and beyond.”
Check back regularly all year as we continue to visit students and teachers throughout Northwest ISD and offer a rarely seen look Inside the Classroom.