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For my capstone, I am creating a mural in the gymnasium not only for the student athletes, but for the audience and supporters of SLA. When I thought about this, I realized that there isn’t really anything on our side of the gym that makes us stand out as a school. The colors on the wall don’t even match our school. I have a passion for art but I could never really partake in this in high school because I was always active in the sports community. To me, this capstone meant that I could do something I love, which is art, and somehow incorporate sports and SLA life in a mural. The main goal of this capstone is supposed to lift school spirit and acknowledge the sports at SLA. As a student athlete myself, especially when I used to play basketball I noticed that we do have a mascot however, it was never used at one of our games. For the four years I have attended SLA I noticed that I have only seen someone in that mascot under a dozen times. I wanted my mural to also have aspects in it that differentiate SLA from other schools. I wanted a basic design that has a meaning and will last for a long time. We call home games in our gym, and I wanted to make it distinct that this is SLA’s home. We are a very creative unique school and I thought that it would be a very SLA thing to create while representing our school.

My Progress: https://docs.google.com/document/d/13Cu2wABEYCRFjWVbBkf6Dx4R3QjTtJPpd251wm2_nYY/edit?usp=sharing

Annotated Bibliography: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EIYaYZKovcMnfa2-gtnfHI0wdMSAGagZ8-arHfXvRoA/edit?usp=sharing

For my Capstone, I combined my passions for social justice and crafting with my engineering education. I designed and fabricated necklaces, keychains, and stickers to support three causes: Palestinian liberation, climate justice, and trans rights. The necklaces were laser cut, the keychains were sewn from upcycled clothes, and the stickers were drawn and printed. I sold these items at my school’s art show and donated all the profits to the following organizations: the Palestine Red Crescent Society, Philly Thrive, the Human Rights Campaign, and the Trevor Project. The total amount donated was $270. Overall, the process was more difficult than I had anticipated, due to several obstacles that came up. Luckily, I was able to overcome these, and still create a project I was proud of. The process taught me a lot about time management, creative skills, business, and advocacy. I am proud not only by the donation amount I collected, but by knowing people feel empowered through my art, and will continue to show it off even after I am gone.

Some pictures are featured below. Click this link to see the full folder of images documenting my project: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1sDc3XRf2qhWirj0URFzNVv3dUJSShmve?usp=sharing

For my Capstone, I decided to make a website filled with educational games dedicated to elementary and middle schoolers. To first tackle this project I had to learn about Unity, a game engine. This required me to learn a new coding language, C# (C Sharp). My mentor guided me through this as I created my first game, Odds or Evens. Once I was in good standing I then moved on to my second game, Type Zombie. This game required me to learn about 3D models, model animation, and level building. Since this game was more complex than Odds or Evens I ran into a lot of bugs, which stemmed from coding errors. During this time I was also working on my website. This required me to learn about HTML, the coding language used for building websites. However, I used a website template and adjusted the HTML code to suit my website vision. Once I was in good standing with both of my games I was able to upload them to my website and have my SLA peers test and review my games. Though I worked hard to make these games fun and functional, the reviews showed that there are always improvements to be made. Through this capstone I was able to learn not only about game development but the education of kids today as well as how to make learning more enjoyable.

My Website: pandaproductions.net

Bugs I Encountered:

CTE Testing Day:

For my Capstone, I created sample projects for each of the more “intimidating” tools in the shop—like the CNC, mill, lathe, and water jet. I displayed these projects to inspire incoming students and help them envision what’s possible with each machine. Alongside the displays, I added posters that briefly explain each tool, outline its limitations, and offer pro tips for beginners. Each project includes a plaque crediting the designer and their graduation year. While not all the projects were my own designs, I intentionally included work from members of our community to show the diverse creativity within our community. By highlighting a range of creativity, I wanted to remind new students that great work isn’t made alone—it’s built by a community.

My Capstone was based around creating two books, a poetry book and a fantasy novel. Using Krita and KDP, I successfully uploaded the artwork for both books, the PDF forms of the scripting for each book, and so on. Creating this was hard because with school, work, and many other things I was worried that my project wouldn’t have turned out great but it instead became something I couldn’t have imagined. I learned how to properly publish books, how to do art in a way that’s more easier for me, and how to motivate myself when I’m feeling down for future projects. My motivation for these books is to inspire the Youth in my neighborhood. reminding them that being an artist and an author isn’t hard and that they can become someone in life as long as they follow their passions.

For my capstone project I tried to learn more about and get involved with bike infrastructure in Philadelphia. This capstone project combined my interest in transportation systems in cities with my strong passion for cycling. I wanted to combine these and do something that could have a positive and real impact on the cycling community, as well as help me learn more about my favorite form of transportation and its infrastructure. My final project ended up being a site called a Story map, which displays multiple different maps that I made online using a software called ArcGIS. These maps show a map of Philadelphia, where I added annotations, a map of current initiatives by a local cycling advocacy organization called Philly Bike Action, and current city projects found online. This offers an interactive and easy way to find out more about bike infrastructure projects and helps people to figure out how they can get involved. The final aspect of this project is a paper that synthesizes all of the research and interviews I did around bike lanes and specifically the process for building them in Philadelphia. I link this paper at the bottom of my site to make it easily accessible for anyone interested in learning more about biking in Philadelphia and around the world.

Link to StoryMap I made including maps: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/020bafe0e9dc4473b63b1b1f4a51c1c4 Screenshots from it displayed below:

For my Capstone I created a photography photo book that gives SLA 9th graders the space to express themselves visually. The goal was to give the opportunity to people with little to no photography skills and learn how to capture meaningful images and tell stories by focusing on themes that reflected from their pandemic experiences. I chose this project because photography has always been a way for me to experience the world around me differently, and I wanted others to experience that too. Throughout the process I planned lessons, taught the 9th graders weekly, and guided them as they developed their ideas and improved their photos. In the end, my product is a phonebook of student photos tied together by their chosen themes showing how they applied what we learned and still told their stories while having fun. This Capstone taught me how being patient can really matter most when trying to be a leader.

The link to access the photobook is provided below: https://www.canva.com/design/DAGiwOq2FFM/bdpVf17GZcTkXSeoyQtUCg/edit?utm_content=DAGiwOq2FFM&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton

Utilizing the power of social justice art, I have worked in conjunction with my mentors and teammates at the Remedy Project to continue creating art for incarceration justice and reform. I have formed the Remedy Project’s art group, where a group of young people get together to create art for our many campaigns. I have continued to improve my personal art skills, as well as expand my knowledge of teamwork and social justice art through this outlet of expression.

CAPSTONE PRESENTATION LINKED HERE! https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1IS6FkOWr8F8hZ8_Z4KJxdRuTeky_RKYckIp6MqqJSYk/edit?usp=drivesdk

BIBLIOGRAPHY LINKED HERE! https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gj3BufupILF-D4WY3hwVDS8SnsXpcOZKqDvXoXUQYZY/edit?usp=drivesdk

This is the current version of my capstone project. Its purpose would have been to prevent the user from entering unwanted websites until its hour-long timer finishes. In its current state, it is only missing the ability to block websites, and it has not been turned into an extension. It has been fun messing around with the code, and I plan on adding more to it later on. If you have any ideas on what I could add to the code, email asears25@scienceleadership.org

“Sandvich Maker” Codepen.io, 2025, codepen.io/SirAndrew4/pen/RwXzjRj?editors=1010. Accessed 17 Jan. 2025.

“Website Blocker.” Codepen.io, 2024, codepen.io/SirAndrew4/ pen/PwYWGaX. Accessed 17 Jan. 2025.

My capstone project aimed to connect the engineering and digital media CTE programs at Science Leadership Academy by developing a fully functional 3D-printed 2-axis gimbal system for my Canon R100 camera and creating a 3D Blender product showreel to advertise it. However, it turned into something greater - a lesson that I can take with me outside of school. I created an experimental documentation process of what this journey looked like.

Link: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/17tW0ST2gsUWR6ZL7ecmlnvNTTUE0VVKf?usp=sharing

For my Capstone project, I coded a digital coaching board, specifically for SLA soccer. I utilized the code editor website, CodePen, to design and bring my ideas to life through code. My final coaching board includes a semi-realistic representation of a soccer field, a user interface bar which houses draggable red and blue circle icons, representing players. It also includes two buttons: one to control a drawing feature and another for taking screenshots Obstacles followed me wherever I went with this project. The biggest obstacle I faced was successfully implementing the drawing feature into my code. Initially, I had an image representing the soccer field of my coaching board, but due to interferences of different existing divider and container elements, the canvas (drawing) feature couldn’t be layered properly. To solve this, I removed the image of the soccer field and instead coded my own soccer field using CSS. This allowed the canvas feature to be set on top of my new soccer field so it could work successfully. The most valuable lesson I learned from completing my capstone project is that there’s almost always a solution to a problem if I look hard enough. I had many moments of frustration and anger while trying to implement different functions in my code. It oftentimes felt like no matter where I looked, I would always get the same unhelpful advice. But through persistent research and deep thought, I was eventually able to find a solution to my problems.

Link to my Capstone: https://codepen.io/dovesmitty/full/WbedWWx

Sources:

“HTML Tutorial.” W3Schools, https://www.w3schools.com/Html/. Accessed 13 January 2025.

“Learn HTML.” Codecademy, https://www.codecademy.com/learn/learn-html. Accessed 15 January 2025.

Durocher, David. HTML / CSS QuickStart Guide: The Simplified Beginners Guide to Developing a Strong Coding Foundation, Building Responsive Websites, and Mastering the Fundamentals of Modern Web Design. ClydeBank Media LLC, 2021. Accessed 15 January 2025.

Pinterest, https://www.pinterest.com/. Accessed 15 January 2025.

Padolsey, James. Clean Code in JavaScript: Develop Reliable, Maintainable, and Robust JavaScript. Packt Publishing, Limited, 2020. Accessed 14 January 2025.

MockFlow - Online Wireframing and Product Design Tool, https://mockflow.com/. Accessed 14 January 2025.

“HTML & CSS Full Course - Beginner to Pro.” YouTube, 5 February 2022, HTML & CSS Full Course - Beginner to Pro Accessed 13 January 2025.

“HTML: HyperText Markup Language | MDN.” MDN Web Docs, 19 December 2024, https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML. Accessed 13 January 2025.

“Introducing ChatGPT.” OpenAI, 30 November 2022, https://openai.com/index/chatgpt/. Accessed 13 January 2025.

CodePen: Online Code Editor and Front End Web Developer Community, https://codepen.io/. Accessed 13 January 2025.

“HTML Tutorial.” W3Schools, https://www.w3schools.com/Html/. Accessed 13 January 2025

During SLA 2025, I inspired to create a space where SLA students can work on their bodies, use material during PE gym time, and overall build a space where i can share my passion of working out with others. For my capstone I redesigned the weight room to make it more organized as well as give it a better appeal, create two small posters (one a poster of a workout regime and another of weekly diet), and lastly a short film in order to bring awareness of this space to underclassmen.

Capstone Video- https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QxgmBQXr1VM6yfQaN56xUPtRpsryXcQP/view?usp=sharing

For my capstone project, I focused on spreading awareness about Sickle Cell Disease and Sickle Cell Trait to the students at Science Leadership Academy. This topic is meaningful to me because my cousin, Isaiah Turner, passed away from a rare Sickle Cell crisis, even though he only had the trait. His story motivated me to make sure others understand the seriousness of both the disease and the trait. I started by designing pamphlets with key information and eventually organized short presentations during advisory periods to reach more students directly. The process involved a lot of research, interviews, and collaboration with my mentor to make sure everything was accurate and engaging. I faced some setbacks, like delays in getting my pamphlets printed and scheduling issues with advisory sessions, but I didn’t let those stop me. Presenting to different advisories and seeing students engage with my project made all the effort worth it. This experience pushed me out of my comfort zone and taught me how to adapt, communicate, and stay focused on my goals. I’m proud of the work I did and the impact I made. Even though everything didn’t go exactly as planned, I learned that flexibility and determination will lead to something powerful and lasting.

Click Image to see full pamphlet!! This is a digital copy of my personalized tri-fold pamphlet that I created!

Annotated Bib: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Q1UjiyEgKNacO4XsGRgtmyVtb0x2-E9g-oU12GLGmYE/edit?usp=sharing

For my Capstone project, I designed and demonstrated a series of interactive science lessons for fourth-grade students, combining complex science ideas with engaging hands-on experiments. I chose this topic because, when I was in elementary school, my teachers mostly prioritized math over science. As a result, I didn’t have many opportunities to explore science topics that interest me. I wanted to change that experience for younger students, especially those similar to me who love science, and also inspire those who might not yet see the appeal. My goal was to create a learning environment that was both educational and fun, where students could engage with science through creativity and exploration. I developed slideshow presentations to introduce each topic in an engaging way, followed by hands-on experiments I tested at home to ensure it was safe, accessible, and enjoyable. Throughout the project, I taught a variety of topics, including: how to make slime and what it is, how to make oobleck, the characteristics of living organisms, information about plant life, how volcanoes work, freezing point depression demonstrated through salt melting ice, and how ice cream is created. This experience helped me grow as a communicator and a teacher. I learned how to break down complex science concepts into simple, engaging lessons that fourth graders could follow, and how to manage a classroom environment that encouraged participation and discovery. Most importantly, I was able to give those students who love science a safe environment to explore their interests and ask questions to further their love for science.

For my senior capstone project, I took up the challenge of designing and fabricating a custom model of putter. I combined my limited previous knowledge of the CNC router in the SLA shop with my love for the game of golf. In the early stages, I began developing my 3d modeling and design skills. As the project wore on, I began to learn more and more about metalworking and how to use the CNC router. This later became my biggest challenge. The router is one of the more complex tools in the shop, and not many people at SLA know how to use it. Thus, there was a lot of self-teaching and reaching out to outside resources involved. Unfortunately, with two weeks left in the capstone process, the router bit snapped in hal,f less than an hour away from project completion. This caused a complete restart in the cutting process and brought my project to a halt. As it stands now, I am waiting on the delivery of the new drill bits and hope to have the project completed by presentation day. Throughout this process I have learned not to take things for granted and always plan for errors unknown and unseen. This project has taught me to fail gracefully and not so gracefully. The importance of failure throughout this process will stick with me for many years after I graduate from SLA. Attatched below are a few of my best design models. Pictured second from the top is the most up to date version.

For my capstone, I designed and prototyped a specialized gym pin intended for cable machines. This device solves a problem in bodybuilding and resistance training: the inability to perform smooth drop sets without interrupting muscle tension. Traditional pins require you to manually adjust weights between sets, which not only breaks the flow of a workout but also limits muscle engagement. My solution was to create a pin that uses a spring-loaded mechanism, triggered by an impact or button press, to instantly drop the weight and allow for better transitions. Along with it I designed a weight collar that holds weighted plates on a barbell. I made sure my designs were 3D-printer compatible so I can spread my work to the world rather than just make the devices. These devices are aimed at improving training efficiency and promoting better results, especially for beginners who may find equipment adjustments intimidating.

For my Senior Capstone, I collaborated with my classmate Twyla to create a digital map of public bathrooms in Philadelphia. Our project was inspired by a simple but frustrating urban experience: not knowing where to find a clean, accessible public bathroom when you need one. Twyla handled most of the coding for the website, while I contributed to data collection, created a gallery of bathroom-related media and articles, wrote an introduction for the website’s homepage, and designed all of the graphic elements. Together, we visited bathrooms around Center City, rated them on criteria like cleanliness and accessibility, and used that data to populate our interactive map.

https://where2wizz.vercel.app/

For my capstone, I created an Earth Day event for SLA to educate students about the climate crisis and ways to be involved in solutions. I organized an event for April 11th, the day before spring break where every SLA student would attend two workshops and learn from volunteer presenters about different aspects of the climate crisis and ways they could get involved in solutions. I struggled with keeping people involved and in attendance leading up to the event both on the presenter side and with students leaving early for spring break. Despite that, there were full workshops and students were interested and still excited to learn. Overall, it was a successful day where every student learned more about the climate crisis.

My Capstone was made up of 2 parts. The first part, which I worked on primarily during the first half of the year, was EduCon, a conference held at SLA aimed at allowing educators from around the country to connect with each other and learn how to be better teachers. As senior co-chair of this conference, I helped plan and run EduCon. The second part of my Capstone project is a podcast I made about senior year, its goals being to allow juniors to understand what they can expect during their senior year and to document the experiences of seniors from the class of 2025. I wanted to make sure that juniors, or even underclassmen, can have an idea of what senior year is like before it’s already upon them.

For my capstone I created a document to give students some basic knowledge on any new classes that they may want to know more about before actually having to attend that class, including when they are moving up a grade. The school guidebook document I designed would be for all students to have so that they can have a background of all of the classes beforehand. I created this for it to be a way for students to be more confident and comfortable with the classes they have and choose. I wrote down each class for all grade levels and more, then gave it a class background and some include highlighted projects for that class. I had challenges collecting all the various types of data I needed for complete my capstone and there are some selections where it is blank, but I got all the important parts I wanted students to know about.

Guidebook: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1W968lerq6OurTCrdtbtGfBzmOaaMLFhtUbbHecCjanw/edit?usp=sharing

Bibliography: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HC3RfR9NlCF-NA97XfbjfPq5mOtlc_b_m6Q_nL7lYMY/edit?usp=sharing

This Capstone is a website that will go on the SLA official website for SLA after school clubs. This project was done as a way to be able to get more people interested in clubs while also exposing them to the different clubs here offered at SLA. On the website you will find all of the schools current clubs as well as possible incoming clubs with information of teachers and places to reach out. There will also be a place for people to go and apply to make their own clubs. This will allow them to Create any type of club they want to. Every current club, besides robotics, has their own custom club poster created by me. I wanted to do this as a capstone as a way to fully get people into clubs and try to do more within the school. I wanted to help people who didn’t like sports find something to do after school as a way to get them to meet other people outside of school and do something fun.

Due to Keystone Exams, SLA will follow the modified schedules listed below from 5/12 to 5/16:

Due to the School District of Philadelphia half day for Staff Professional Development, SLA will follow the below schedule on Friday, 5/9:

08:15-08:55 B2 Band

09:00-09:40 C2 Band

09:45-10:25 X2/Y2 Band class

10:30-11:10 D2 Band

11:15-11:55 E2 Band

12:00-12:30 Lunch/Dismissal

Due to an Earth Day assembly and workshops at the end of the day, SLA will follow the below schedule on Friday, 4/11:

Friday, 4/11:

08:15-08:55 B2 Band

09:00-09:40 C2 Band

09:45-10:25 D2 Band

10:30-11:10 E2 Band

11:15-11:55 Y2 Band

12:00-12:40 X2 Band

12:45-03:05 Earth Day Assembly/Workshops