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Engaging Students Through
Capstone Projects 2010
By Kevin Fraker
Math Teacher
Springfield Northwestern
High School
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www.kevinfraker.com
and
Nancy Pietras, Executive Director
Greater Northwest Ohio Tech Prep
Consortium
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www.techprepnwo.org
Our Goals for this Presentation:
 Provide Examples
of Projects.
 Explain the process
and philosophy.
 Help you start
using capstone
projects in your
classroom or
school.
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House Bill 1
 Calls for Capstone Projects during the senior year.
 ODE says the implementation will likely occur in 2013 or 2014.
College Tech Prep
 Has been doing senior projects since 2000
 Tech Prep projects may be merged with whole school efforts
 Tech Prep instructors are a valuable resource as school implement
senior projects
 Tech Prep senior projects are individual
 Section 1 of the Tech Prep Senior Project Manual (page9) has some
basic guidelines and timelines that would be helpful
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OK – Show Me A Project!
 Example – Project 1: “How can I cheat my way through this stupid
project!”
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Why I love these projects
 Student Choice = Motivation.
 Choice of group
 Choice of topic
 Choice of research sources
 Choice of project direction
 Choice of analysis tools
 Choice of product
 Students will amaze you with skills you never knew they had.
 High Levels of Thought and Work.
 Think of Bloom’s Taxonomy
 Think of where students typically end up through traditional direct
instruction and assessment.
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Tech Prep Instructors
 Paul Kruthaup – Senior Automotive Teacher from Whitmer
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High School
Del Kuntz – Senior CADD teacher from Clay High School
Gerald Michael – Senior Engineering teacher from Bowsher
High School
Bob Sintobin – Senior Engineering teacher from Toledo
Technology Academy
Dawn Thompson – Senior Visual Communications teacher
from Clay High School
Consider…
 What type of teacher you thought you would be when you
were young and idealistic.
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4 Phases of a Type 1 Project
1. Research
2. Plan the Project, Collect Data
3. Analyze the Data
4. Create the Final Product
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Tech Prep Project Components
 Research
 Process of two resources similar
 MLA for Rookies
 Project or Process with business mentor
 Development of a Portfolio (the evidence)
 Presentation
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Phase 1 - Research
 Read written books and magazines – Classroom Library.
 Research the topic on the Internet.
 Research movies and web videos that are about your topic.
 Research your topic on iTunesU.
 What laws exist or have been proposed that relate to your
topic?
 What literature exists that relates to this topic?
 What professions relate to this topic?
 Interview someone who is an authority in this area.
 Document all mathematics used and referred to in your
research.
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Phase 1 - Research
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Why Standardize?
 Management by walking
around.
 Clear Expectations and
communication.
 Correcting Poor
Performance.
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Examples for students.
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Tech Prep Senior Manual
 See Section 3: Research Papers
on page 21
 Sample forms and rubrics
that might be helpful
 Rookies Guide to MLA
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Forms of Standardization
 Research Form
 Interview Form
 Project Proposal
 Planning the variables of a good study
 Setting up hypotheses
 Data Collection
 Outline of Information
 Data Analysis – based on type of project
 Project Proposal
 Trial Format
 Grading Rubric and Peer Evaluation.
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Peer Evaluations
 After each phase.
 Purpose: step in to correct ineffective groups.
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Moving them toward high levels of
thought through divergent questions?
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The Product or Process:
The missing link
 Tech Prep utilizes a hands-on approach
 We include a demonstration of skills related to researched
topic.
 Many times the product or process drives what the student
researches
 Focused on a workplace issues and includes a mentor
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Phase 2 – Plan Your Project
 Brainstorm a list of situation where incentives could impact cheating.
Consider all angles of the topic.
 Create a scenario that places people in situations where they may
cheat to improve their chance of gaining an incentive. Modify the
level of incentives to see if it affects the amount of cheating.
 Plan the methodology of how you will collect data using the Data
Collection Form. Answers must be on a numeric scale.
 Administer your scenario to at least 20 volunteers.
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Phase 2 – Example
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Phase 3 - Analysis
 Create models that illustrate mathematically how the variables in
your study are related.
 scatter plots
 regression equations
 correlation calculations
 graphs, spreadsheets
 percentages, etc.
 Make conclusions about the impact of your findings. Back up these
conclusions with mathematics.
 What are the implications for society, you, your family, our school,
etc.?
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Phase 3 – Example
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Phase 3 – Example
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Phase 4 – Final Product
 Create a Paper/Presentation that teaches what you learned through
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the background research, the project goals, methodology, results,
and conclusions.
Describe the mathematics upon which your conclusions are based.
Make sure all elements of the rubric are covered.
What suggestions do you have for further and repeated research on
this topic?
Note:You may propose a change of product (use the products for
multiple intelligence).
Phase 4 – Example
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Student Portfolio
 Evidence of work accomplished
 Usually a notebook format
 Would include final copy of research
paper
 Mentor information
 Pictures of progress or journal
 Self-evaluation
 Section 6: page 40 has ideas
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Presentation to Authentic Audience
 Section 6: The Presentation Process on page 42
Tips for format
2. Speech presentation
3. Visual aids
1.
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Grading Rubric
 This is a process.
 The goal is
communication and
moving students to high
levels of performance.
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Grading Rubric
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Topic Selections
 Tech Prep Senior Projects have always been done by student
selection
 Section 2: Topic Selection on page 14 has some ideas and
forms that might be helpful
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Curriculum
 Takes about 4 weeks.
 Look for redundancies
between years.
 Look for topics that are
not essential for ACT or
the next level of
mathematics.
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Other Projects
Mock Trial
 Darwin was a Fascist!
Mathematical Description
 Codes and Ciphers
Great Explanations
 Equations that changed the
world: Gravity
Favorites
 Fox news
 Poker
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Where do these projects come from?
 Magazines and Highly rated books.
 Time
 The New Yorker
 Freakonomics
 Outliers
 Consider the June 28, 2010 issue of Time Magazine. The following
describes how easily project ideas can be turned into projects once
the process is understood.
 On page 6 is a comparison of two business related books.
 These books take opposite strategies companies can take on the topic of innovating
versus copying the competition.
 A group of four students could debate this issue based on reading both books.
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Where do these projects come from?
 On pages 22 through 29 is an article about how the recession is
hitting public employees and the various problems caused around the
world by debt related to this area of employment. The article
describes two economies (public versus private) and offers a plethora
of statistics, graphs, and economic analyses.
 A group could extend the research aspect of the article, create a
comparison of the two economies, and conduct a survey of adults in
both sectors to verify the claims made in the article.
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Where do these projects come from?
 On pages 40-43 is an article describing how traditional poker
experts are currently losing to players utilizing probability theory.
 Students could analyze the probability theory and conduct an
experiment to see if utilizing the theories increases a person’s
winning percentage.
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Where do these projects come from?
 Page 47 describes the profits created by online penny auctions.
 Students could research these auctions and similar auctions to
describe how they make money.
 Once you become accustomed to the general format described in
this book, the projects write themselves.
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Inclusion
 Projects allow the
students to complete
work to the best of
their ability.
 Generally, work
ethic is the most
important element.
 The Choice built in
lets the students take
the projects in areas
of their own
strength.
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Cross-Curricular Projects.
Each project could have a required element in multiple classes.
English
 Many projects connect to literature.
 Write Persuasive papers, research papers, essays.
Social Studies
 May projects connect to economics and legislation.
 Propose legislation or conduct mock trial.
Science
 Repeat experiments in a lab setting.
 Write lab reports.
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Where can I learn more?
www.kevinfraker.com
www.techprepnwo.org
Questions?
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