The Senior Project is the culminating activity for I-Poly seniors where they demonstrate their skill in achieving state content standards in multiple subject areas and the I-Poly ESLRs. It is designed to allow the student maximal responsibility in determining the direction of their own education, turning over initiative for learning, as well as control of a majority of the content, to the student. Each person will gain the invaluable and incalculable experience of learning something simply because they want to and will know in the end that they deserve that sense of pride and accomplishment, which nobody can take from them. In a real and demonstrable way, the senior project fulfills the purpose of acquiring an education, a unique education that reinforces the value of one’s place as a member of a community and society, and still allows for extensive self-expression, creativity, and personal fulfillment.
Tell me some of your ideas! The more description the better, so I can offer more accurate feedback.
I would be interested in Event Planner, pregnancy, or marketing, Make-up Artistry.
I am interested in Event Planning because I help out
with special events in my family or friends. I know a lot
about the process of planning events ahead of time and
even planning events at the last minuet.
Pregnancy well because I plan on being a mother someday
and I would be interested in the events and stages of pregnancy.
I do have some knowledge of pregnancy but I would be eager to learn
more.
Marketing because that is the Career that I would like to pursue when I
graduate high school. I have the possibly to take Marketing classes up at Cal Poly
or Mt. Sac.
Make-up Artistry because it was a Career that I wanted to pursue but did not find many opportunities of growing in the future. I like doing make-up and have the creativity for it. I know how to color match and have the vision to see what time of make-up goes with the person’s facial features.
Claudia,
I have heard others talk about event planning also. The rule is that every senior must have a different senior project. It is possible to have the same topic, but have a different essential question.
(1) Event Planning:
Background knowledge or knowing much about a topic is a good start, but if you commit to this topic, you would have to be willing to spend the next year learning things you don’t already know.
Event planners have specializations usually. You would need to find an event planner that you could work with for 35 hours that specializes in an event you like. For example:
Donna Anderson Auctions (http://www.benefitauctioneer.com/)
Simply Perfect Events in Pasadena (http://www.simplyperfectbyfran.com/)
(2) Pregnancy
This is also a good topic. Sandra R. did breastfeeding last year. I thought it worked out well. Key to this topic would be volunteering in a hospital. The kids that have had hospital based senior projects typically work the 35 hours at another 60 hours (getting Independent Task credit also). If this is what you want to do, I recommend arranging the volunteering in the summer. Most hospitals only take volunteer applications for the next year in the summer.
(3) Marketing
This is a general topic. What in marketing interest you? Sales, Public relations, Pricing, Packaging, and Distribution! For your independent tasks, you could take two college classes, but what would you do for your service learning? You would need to find a company like CIS one (http://www.cis-one.com/) . You could shadow/volunteer with one of their experts. Stay away from the different scam firms you may find on the internet.
(4) Make-up Artistry
This topic has worked out well if:
a. you enroll in a cosmetology school
b. or you work a lot of hours with an expert
This blog response is for me to brainstorm possible senior project ideas. At this point I have no idea what I want to do, so I hope that this blog site will help me come up with a project that I will enjoy and excel in. Right now I am considering something in the musical field. More specifically musical composition. Musical composition is the process of taking one or more instruments, writing down melodies for each instrument to play, and then intertwining the melodies to make one harmonious harmony. I play the piano and have always been in awe of those who compose music. This is also something I have considered minoring in. I already know a lot of piano theory, so now I want to try and do something with all that knowledge.
Ian,
I think you are on to something regarding a senior project topic (musical composition). We will worry about the essential question later (that is the focus).
A few recommendations for the year:
(1) Take classes or lessons in a specific instrument
(2) Take a college class in the field (Mt. Sac, Citrus, or Cal Poly)
(3) Service Learning: Find a church choir where you can volunteer or if this does not work for you, find an expert in the field you can work with next year for 35 hours.
(4) Track how much you are practicing
ELECTIVE is changing next year. Students will be required to take a 2 day elective (expect a more serious elective). Thus,
(5) I recommend taking Ogden’s Performance elective
What are you going to major in? You may consider this as a possible senior project also.
well, to be honest i don’t really know what i want to do for senior project yet, but i’ve been thinking though. i thought about what i would like to do for future, first two things that came into my mind were veterinarian (or something deals with animals), and psychologist (or in that area). or something that helps people, maybe kids.
i am interested in those topics and would like to learn more about them.
Julia,
Both good ideas! Your focus will dictate really what you do. For instance, if you choose the veterinarian topic, what type of animals are you interested in?
(1) Veterinarian: Contacts are really important in any senior project. I am not sure if you would be eligible to enroll in college courses, but it is worth trying. If not, I would recommend supplementing by working more service learning hours (like any medical project).
Where can you go?
Cal Poly Pomona has a program. I would suggest to start there. Here is the link to their Pre-Vet club:
http://www.cppprevet.com/
I am sure you could participate in their club and get many contacts.
Cal Poly College of Agriculture:
http://www.csupomona.edu/~agri/
Cal Poly Professor/Expert
http://www.csupomona.edu/~avs/faculty/franco.shtml
Key is finding somewhere to volunteer.
(2) Psychologist
What have you heard or like about this topic? I recommend reading through this and telling me if any of the concepts interest you.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychology
It is nearly impossible to work with a psychologist. If you go this route, I would suggest you work with Ortega on her peer counseling idea (second semester) and look around the area for high schools with peer counseling. You would also need to take a college course in Psychology.
(3) Helps people, maybe kids
There are many jobs related to working with kids. For example:
Teacher
Nurse
Child Care
Pediatrician
Social Worker
There are many different places you could volunteer (camps, church, hospitals, schools etc). How do you see yourself helping people or kids in the future?
Ok well I haven’t really come up with a set topic for my senior project so the purpose of this response is to start straightening out my ideas and getting feedback.
Right now my topic idea is softball, because it is how I spend most of my time and what I have a passion for doing right now. Since all I have ever done since I’ve started softball is playing, I’m thinking it would be more interesting to study something I’m not so familiar with (possibly coaching). I’m also thinking about possibly isolating a specific aspect of softball to study, maybe what goes into playing the game psychologically.
Amanda,
This is also a good idea for a senior project. We haven’t had a student select softball since I have been at I-Poly (Hector did a senior project on baseball last year).
You could:
(1) Focusing on improving as an athlete or being successful in the sport (e.g. what is most important to becoming a successful softball player) Are you planning to play at the college level?
(2) How to coach (e.g., what is the best way to coach a girls’ softball team? or what is the best way to motivate a team to win?)
In either case, you would need to talk to a lot of different coaches (guys, girls, different age levels, different sports). You would also need to read books written by coaches (it can be from any sport, such as John Wooden, a retired basketball coach, or Pat Summit, a famous women’s basketball coach). I would also have you read books on concepts such as teaming and motivation.
With regard to service learning, I recommend volunteering in different arenas (e.g., with a college softball coach and a younger kids coach).
Can seniors do the same senior project? No! Every project must be different. This does mean you can’t have the same topic as another student. This means that your focus (essential question) needs to be different. For instance, last year we had two different soccer related senior projects.
(1) Coaching
(2) Improving as a player
The purpose of this blog is to explore a couple of ideas i am considering for my senior project. The two main one I am considering are baking and something involving helping others along the lines of social work.
The reason I believe baking would be a strong senior project is because I have a passion for baking and believe that passion would drive me to work very hard and stay motivated throughout the project
The reason I am considering social work as a topic for my senior project is because it is something I find to be very important in society. I have always felt strongly about helping others and find that it is something I want to be involved with in my life and I believe senior project would be a wonderful place to learn more about what I am interested in as a possible carreer choice or college major.
Hopefully this response is along the lines of what you would like to find.
Laura Espinoza
Laura,
(1) Baking
For this project to work, you would need to
a. be prepared to bake on your own all year
b. work with expert in the field (store or school)
For example:
http://www.csca.edu/programs_baking.asp (Pasadena school)
http://www.csupomona.edu/~cshm/collins_school/index.shtml (Cal Poly)
(2) Social Worker
You need to consider what in the field interest you. Social workers could focus on foster kids, abuse, neglect, poverty, violence, homeless etc.
What you decide to focus on would determine where you would need to volunteer for 35 hours.
For example, if you want to focus on the homeless, then you could contact the city of Pomona (http://www.ci.pomona.ca.us/city_departments/community_development/housing_division/homeless_assistance_2.php) to volunteer helping the homeless. Or if you want to do a project working with helping kids you could volunteer with THINK (http://www.thinktogether.org/volunteer.htm).
We had two students work for THINK TOGETHER last year.