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As a founder, coach, and choreographer of SLA’s first Pep Squad, I can gladly say it was all worth it. I have been working on this team for my capstone, and own interest purposes. It’s been 2 years working on this club, and I have gained many exposure such as responsibility and patience. In order to be successful in an time consuming club you also learn how to manage time with school work and your personal life. These were just a few skills that I can for sure say better me to help me mature as a young women. 

During these two years of conducting pep squad we have became very successful. Both years were full of excitement with shows and contest. Especially, this year 2013 with the step team  and SLA first ever step show which happened to be more than a great success.  I have been preparing for this time for awhile, and the prepping was all worth it. Practices were held on Monday and Thursday or every day if we had a show coming up. They usually last for 2 hours. 

As a reflection to this I have created a strong sisterhood between each member and each member has created a sisterhood with each other. I was proud to see the eagerness, and the maturity developed that helped among all of us. I was glad to have brought girls from all ages, and grades from SLA to participate together in a positive youthful cub. I am thankful for all of my supporters, and mentors who were able to guide me while I was riding this road. I am excited to see what I have left here at SLA to become when I am gone.

For our 4th quarter statistics benchmark we read a book called How to Lie with Statistics by Darrell Huff. After reading the book, we held insightful conversations which with discussed amongst each other and recorded as well. In our podcast you will not only get an overarching idea about what the book is about, but you will also get to hear our views and opinions on different topics that play a key role in the book. By reading this book and recorded the podcasts we learned a lot about how statistics can be misleading which can either hurt or help the point that the statistic is trying to get across. This project also made us view statistics in a different way than we have been viewing it in the past. We hope that you enjoy our podcast and that you learn a little something about the book and about tricks statistics can play on people.

- Sierra Dinvil, Prisilla Nieves, & Marina Pyfrom

For the last four chapters, we discussed more ways of deception and also how to deal with those deceptions. Chapter 7 was about finding statistics for something, but then actually using a statistic from something else, though none of it is actually wrong. Chapter 8 was about cause and effect and whether cause and effect can be reversed. Chapter 9 was about using visual diagrams, showing majorities, but not paying attention to the actual numbers. Chapter 10 is about how to deal with all of the misleading statistics and realizing what is wrong or missing. 

Group Members:

Chris Fichera

Chelsea Smith

Dayona Mcneil

Sophia Henninger

Group Members:

Chris Fichera

Chelsea Smith

Dayona Mcneil

Sophia Henninger

Discussion:

Today we discussed chapter nine and ten. This discussion was more about what we did and did not understand from the book. We tried to talk out the scenarios used to explain the concepts within the book. 

Chris Fichera

Chelsea Smith

Dayona Mcneil

Sophia Henninger

Discussion:

Today, we discussed chapter seven, eight. We talked about how the connections made between studies and what they're trying to prove did not make sense. We agreed on the fact that most studies do not depict an accurate picture of the people involved. 

The discussion itself was more like an actual conversation then trying to hit specific points. The only time we brought specific questions in were when we had already set up a situation from the book. 

The purpose of a Capstone project is to express them sum of information and experiences I’ve learned from being a student at Science Leadership Academy. I hoped to incorporate that in my project, the formation of a service community organization called SLA: Community Involvement Club. The reasoning behind this project is due to the personal impact that volunteer work has had on my life and a lack of opportunity inside of SLA. I chose to take initiative and combine my personal interest with my school community. I was starting off of a foundation made by a previous service club, meaning club meetings once a week to teach about global, local, and social issues; these were in addition to monthly weekend service projects in Philadelphia. My duties as president and coordinator involved a large amount of networking to get speakers, presentations, finding service opportunities and create education lessons to teach members. I also recorded member hours offering The Presidents Volunteer Service Award for 100 hours over the course of the year. In the end I learned a lot about the job of a coordinator and how to plan events. Through the lessons I learned to interpret information and then find an engaging way to share it with others. We ended the year with 4 members receiving the Presidential Service Award and club members completing over 500 hours of service. List of sources that I used to assist me in this project can be found here. My Process paper can be found here listing my process and how it relates to SLA core values. 

Attendance is limited, so if you are interested in attending, please sign up for a ticket through our Eventbrite site: SLACapstone.eventbrite.com. Tickets are free, and we welcome students, parents, and anyone from the SLA community who is excited to see student projects.