Mount Si seniors present final projects
January 29, 2009
By Laura Geggel
Half of the seniors at Mount Si High School have completed a year-old graduation requirement: the culminating senior project.
Starting in 2008, the Washington state Board of Education required that all seniors in the state present a culminating project before they graduate. The board allowed each school district to form its own unique culminating project guidelines, allowing districts to ask students to complete projects ranging from in-depth research papers to volunteer work.
Senior Ryan Oswald, left, presents his culminating project to judges Kathryn Lerner and Ann Beard in the Mount Si High School library.
Mount Si seniors tackled their culminating projects from a different angle. After four years of high school, students had stacks of assignments, exams and essays – called artifacts, in culminating project terminology.
Students chose three subject areas, which included subjects like language arts, science and social studies, and selected five artifacts exhibiting their knowledge in each category.
Mount Si requires seniors enrolled in the semester-long current issues class to present their projects. As a result, half of the seniors present in January and the other half present in the spring. Teachers coach students who fail the first time to give them a second chance.
“We’re not looking for a way to take the rug and go, ‘Ah-hah, you can’t graduate!’” said Maggie Lucking, a Mount Si culminating project manager.
Senior Ryan Oswald demonstrated his subject in the fine arts arena by showing photos of ceramic bowls he had created. As Oswald scrolled through the pictures in his PowerPoint presentation, he explained the thought process that went into each creation and how it affected the end result.
For one of his coil pots, Oswald described how the green glaze “didn’t turn out so well. It kind of bubbled,” but how he learned the effect of dabbing sand on the pot gave it texture.
Each subject has competency standards. The fine arts subject, for instance, requires that students exhibit competency in plan and create, communication and knowledge and skill.
When Oswald reviewed a collection of wildlife photos he shot for his photography class — including one of an award-winning butterfly — he described how he met the fine art competencies.
“Once I got into photo class, I learned a lot more, like how I could position myself to take a better photo,” he said, explaining the knowledge and skill component.
As he reeled through his presentation, two judges, former Snoqualmie Valley School Board member Kathryn Lerner and Mount Si High School math teacher Ann Beard, graded him on elocution and presentation, organization and his three subjects.
Judges can be school staff, administration, non-related parents — anybody interested in grading culminating projects. Lucking leads a training session for judges and tells them how to use the grading rubric.
“The staff loves doing the evaluation because they get to know the students and see different assignments,” Lucking said.
Betsy Evensen, a PTSA member at Fall City Elementary, is a first-time culminating project judge.
“It was great seeing the value of what they do outside of the classroom,” Evensen said. “That’s where they seemed to light up — like they had a passion.”
Many seniors said they enjoyed featuring work that they would not normally be able to present during school hours.
“I liked it in that it gives you more flexibility than you have in school,” senior Christina Carlson said, noting that the project allowed students to showcase their work on sports teams, after-school jobs or independent pursuits.
Senior Alexa Miller said the project didn’t demand much time, except for the mammoth amount of waiting many students experienced while uploading their assignments to the eFolio program.
“The worst part was having to hear about it for four years” Rebecca Goodrum said. “It only took a few hours (to complete).”
Lucking agreed with this assessment.
“Some of them right now are in panic mode,” she said. “Most of them say, ‘It’s not as bad as we thought it would be.’”
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