My choice for my capstone was very selective. After going through many fantastic ideas I knew that I had one passion that I wanted to pursue. My final choice was to produce and develop my art skills. Before entering Science Leadership Academy as a freshman I knew that I wanted to involve myself in the Art extra curricular class. In this class I wanted to become advance with my artistic abilities and find my ability to explore the world in the view point of a growing artist. I believe that there is no better place to learn art than in an art class room. I had the opportunity to learn not only about the world and its cultures, but themselves and their own communities. Art introduces ideas about how other artist and people live, worked and though, whiles nurturing an appreciation of their own way of life.  

I chose this project mainly because of my extraordinary love for art and how developing it became over time. My sketching and artistic abilities have immensely improved over the years and art having become such a standing point in my life that producing an art portfolio to show only felt right. In order to begin my work, I kept a close sketchbook near by.  As an artist I wanted to show my processed work and how I developed ideas by also showing how my work has matured. I also created a website to show case my finished work online as well as other information that I used such as a variety of youtube videos and resource pertaining to beginners to advanced art lessons/videos.

My capstone addresses the “presentation” core value because within my portfolio it documents visually my process of how well I developed over a course of time.  This project also involved the other core values that made my final project into a finished visual product. Though presentation best fits the representation of my project it also involved a lot of research. In order to do the research portion I needed to conduct some questions. What are some important aspects to improve as an artist? What other techniques and drawings can I challenge myself to? I needed to come up with a portfolio that embodies my ideas, research, innovations, skills, and work process. I also had to dig deep into the research to demonstrate good technical skills by making sure that I have the basics down such as anatomy, color, lighting, etc. A creative art piece without proper proportions is not going to impress and well slow down the process of improving. I collaborated with my peers and other outside sources as well as feed back on artist blogs. This feed back helped me when any questions I had on certain topics that related to art techniques and advice. For the reflection part of my capstone I was able to go to the free library of Philadelphia and get a couple books based on the fine arts and art techniques. I made sure I used all my research from the book and incorporated it into my final portfolio. 

In order to complete my final product I needed to start sketching what I learned from the research and begin my process in my sketchbook. As I began to start using all my open time into sketching I found it becoming fairly easy as I was familiar with beginners art techniques. The process started to become more and more interesting to me because I found myself coming across videos using online resources that helped me learn newer techniques and that is what gave my sketches a realistic feel.  To begin my process I first did some preliminary research on basic art techniques and art history. I then made a timeline to plan out the days I would be working in my sketchbook and updating my website, and also meetings with my capstone mentor Ms. Dunn. The videos that I research refreshed my memory on techniques that could help towards improving skills. 

One obstacle that I faced was coordinating with my set timeline and getting the right amount of time in for finishing up certain sketches. If I wasn’t done one of my sketches, it would become frustrating because I would not able to start another sketch until I was completely done the one I was originally working with. This problem keep some of the days of track and held me back from doing more sketching in little time. Obstacles as such gives a heads up for future awareness that time management can play a role in your art life. 

The thing that I’m most proud about my capstone is that I am about to represent myself as a learning artist. After finishing up anything that took you awhile to a complete, you have the greatest feeling of accomplishment. Looking back into the process of this capstone there were a lot of trials and errors due to the fact that this wasn’t my original plan and I started the portfolio idea later into the months because of my other idea not going through as planned. I feel proud of myself that I stuck through and choose something that not only helped me grow as an artist but also as a person, by finding myself through my art work. 

In the beginning of senior year I was still very unsure of what I wanted to do for my senior capstone. I had considered a mural or something of that nature because of my passion of art, however, I was torn between art and science. I felt that it would be beneficial to explore something pertaining to science, since that is what I would be studying in college, but I was having a hard time finalizing an idea. Luckily, Stephanie Dunda, a teacher that has helped me to indulge in my interest in the sciences in the past, came to me and offered to connect me to an organization called Palms Solutions that was looking for a volunteer to introduce a science program to their after school program TIMBA. 

I took the opportunity and met with both the founder of TIMBA, Jean Marie, and his wife Dr.Mecky. Jean Marie explained that in addition to being a volunteer tutor for his program that I would possibly have several other responsibilities. These responsibilities would include starting a blog on the TIMBA website where other volunteers would be able to talk about their experiences at TIMBA and introducing the kids to some science based experiments while incorporating the math that was being reviewed in the tutoring sessions. I gladly accepted the offer and began my internship with enthusiasm. 

I was paired with another tutor/teacher and we worked together tutoring the children in our small classroom. I worked closely with the children, getting to know them personally and learning their math levels. I began designing a project that could work with what I had learned about them and tat could work around the time frame that I was given. I researched and surveyed the kids about what they wanted to do. Ultimately, I decided to help the kids perform the very classic volcano experiment, with a little twist. I was going to use fractions, the math the children had been working on, to exemplify how math is important in a real life and fun way. The goal was to use different fractions of baking soda and vinegar and see which pairing of fractions gave the best fizz. However, through some conflicting opinions the experiment that was performed in the end was a petri dish experiment. This experiment was meant to also show the kids the importance of fractions, by allowing them to count the colonies of bacteria, as well as teach them a few things about antibiotics, bacteria, and scientists. Once again, do to timing complications this experiment was not performed fully or as throughly as I would have liked. 

Overall, the experience taught me a few things about working with different people and working in different environment. I learned a lot about time management, when third parties are involved, and working with children. 

Meetings 

Jean Marie 

10/11/12

10/18/12

10/25/12

11/1/12

11/8/12

11/15/12

11/29/12

12/6/12

12/13/12

12/20/12

1/3/13

1/10/13

1/17/13

1/24/13

1/31/13

1/7/13

1/14/13

1/21/13

1/28/13

2/7/13

2/14/13

2/21/13

2/28/13

3/4/13

3/11/13

3/18/13

3/25/13

4/2/13

Dunda 

10/3/12

10/17/12

10/31/12

11/14/12

11/28/12

12/12/12

1/9/13

1/23/13

2/6/13

2/20/13

3/6/13

3/20/13

4/24/13

5/22/13

As my capstone I decided to make my own choreography concept video. A choreography concept video may sound more complex than it actually is. Basically it has a storyline that is complemented by dancing. The dancing should tell the story. Dancing has been one of my hobbies since before I can remember. I always liked to dance but never in front of people. The only people that knew that dancing was one of my hobbies were my closest family. Coming to SLA I was exposed to an openly creative and unique environment, providing the perfect opportunities to show what you’ve got in a sense. It took me until this year to take advantage of that by means of this project. I wanted to do something that interested me and also show a side of me that not people knew. I knew from the get-go that it wasn’t going to be some kind of paper or science experiment because I’ve been there, done that. My project was more personal to me in helping me become more comfortable with myself and kind of putting my talent to the test.

As for the the core values there are five of them. I think collaboration and presentation are most obviously applicable to my capstone. My final product was to be a video that told a story. In order to do that many things in terms of how to present the story to the audience had to be deciphered. While doing my research on videos similar to what i was trying to do, I found that most of them didn’t have a lot of talking. But because of the storyline I chose, the audience would better understand with talking and voice overs. I didn’t realize how major collaboration was going to be in this project until I got into it. I had three guy dancers and two girl dancers. I also had someone filming for me and extras here and there. As far as inquiry goes I questioned what would make a good video based on what I wanted to include. I looked at tons of dancing videos on youtube. I found that the ones I enjoyed the most had a story and I also found that I like some specific choreographers. Studying what I liked help me create something that I thought my audience would enjoy. When it comes to reflection this is that aspect of my capstone.

The first thing I did for this project was come up with some story lines. I eventually chose one and then wrote a full script. The script wasn’t that hard considering I was used to creative writing as part of my english class first/second quarter. It was in between those two quarters that I had to do a bibliography. I had watched a lot of different choreography videos by a lot of different choreographers, but then i realized my sources couldn’t all be youtube videos. I then started studying two of my favorite young choreographers and a famous one. When I finished the story line and research I had actually choreography three separate dances. This took me longer than expected so I started to film the speaking parts before I finished the choreography. I had six other people that I needed for my capstone.  It was hard trying to get them all in one spot every time I need them. I sent out tons of emails about when I wanted to use them but everyone had a different schedule so it got frustrating trying to accommodate everyone. To overcome this obstacle I often worked with the girls and guys separately. However when I needed to film with everyone together I made sure I would let them know at least three day in advance.  I guess all the people that I asked for help are the resources that I taped into. Two weeks before capstone was due, I spent both of my lunches editing. I definitely took advantage of the equipment Mr. Herman had. Without it my project wouldn’t be nearly as good.

I feel like my capstone showed how I blossomed asa person since going to SLA. I’ve become more comfortable with myself, although not entirely. Despite the stress and even tears I was able to get it done. I learned a lot about myself by doing this project. I was able to put myself to the test. There was no doubt that I could dance but I wasn’t sure if I could choreograph. There were definitely times when I was ready to quit because I could come up with a move that went nicely with the beat I had chosen. I’m also proud of the fact that I had people who care enough about me to deal with me and help me out. If I could do this capstone all over again I wouldn’t want to do anything differently. It was hard at times but everything can’t be easy. I enjoyed doing this with my friends.

Being at the end of my senior made me realize that I didn’t really leave my mark in SLA until this year. Before this year I wasn’t to big on expressing my opinion, I’m still not really big on it but there has been much progress. I’ve brought some calm moments to SLA and some loud ones too.I don’t know for sure if I’ve made SLA a better place but I know that I haven’t done the opposite. I’m not going to say that SLA would be nothing without me. The truth is, I would be nothing if I didn’t get the chance to experience SLA. 

            For my capstone I wrote a business paper that outlines how to create a program that conducts research and activities in the subject it was built around. As for why I chose the project, I chose this project because for the past 4 years I have founded and built a program that focuses on doing research in the Astronomy field along with improving Astronomy education and STEM education in general. While I was creating and building the program from scratch, I had no guideline in how to build a program while creating my program, so for my capstone, my program advisors and I came to the agreement that I should write a guide to creating a program so that people aren’t building a program without guidance.

            My capstone addresses the core values in two different ways. The first way is was my process of building Project S.P.A.C.E (Scholastic Program for Astrophotography and Celestial Events) since during that process I went through Inquiry, Research, Collaboration, Presentation and Reflection numerous times to refine the program and bring to where it is today. The second way was the actual paper writing because while I wrote the paper I had to ask myself questions in the shoes of an outsider to identify what I actually did at the start of my process for Inquiry. For Research, I recalled my memories of actually creating the program and looked through documents I had written at the start of the program for resources we used. Collaboration was my capstone mentors helping me recall memories and identify steps I took that I missed. Presentation is the 25-page paper I put together at the end explaining how to create a program and Reflection was the constant refining I did with my peers to make the paper great.

            My process for the capstone was complex due to trying to recall precisely every step I took to create my program. The steps I took to complete the paper were Recall steps, Approach mentors about whether the steps recalled were accurate or there were some before it and then repeat this process until I had an outline for the steps so that all I had to do was to fill in information for each step. While I was recalling, my mentor Derrick Pitts had to point out some steps I missed because those steps seemed natural for me but he pointed out that they might not come naturally to others as they did to me. To overcome this, I went to Derrick when I completed the outline and went over what each step in the outline represented and meant which allowed him to point out steps I skipped over.

            A lot of the resources I used to complete my capstone were human resources like Derrick Pitts and my original founding members of the program. Although they made up most of my resources, they did not make up all of them. I also used the same resources I used when we first started to help me remember some of the tools I used to start researching in Astronomy. I also used notes and random writings on my computers to piece together memories completely.

            What I’m most proud of in this capstone is what others stand to gain from this paper. I’m most proud of that because I remember why I created my program: to improve education in Astronomy and STEM. This paper allows others to create programs similar to mine whether they have the same goals or not, it doesn’t matter because the programs are created to improve an aspect of a life. Whether that aspect is education, environment or a concept, I’m happy to know that my paper can help to improve things faster due to those innovators having a guideline to make creating a program easier for them than creating it from scratch. I learned a lot from my process because I reflected on everything the last 4 years related to my program. It’s helped me to see where I could do better and what I need to work on moving forward. One of those things to work on is notifying the program members far ahead of time since I’m still not doing well with that.

            If I could do this capstone over again the only thing I would change is getting more people to help me recollect the steps I took since although I got it done and wrote the paper, there are still pieces that come to me every once in a while that I wonder if I should of put into the paper. SLA is a better place because I was a student there because I created a student-led program at SLA that is soon going to become a national program. I remember hearing one of my superiors at The Franklin Institute telling me in a meeting this, “There are two things that came out of SLA that are no place else: Educon, the educational conference held and run by the school, and your program, Project S.P.A.C.E, the only student-led program to be created by a student for students that does research into a subject like Astronomy with minimal adult direction.” One of the biggest ways that I’ve made SLA a better place since I was a student there is that through running and building my program, I’ve created awesome new connections and opportunities for students at SLA whether its still being able to go to Wednesdays at the Franklin as freshmen or giving students more ILPs to do at TFI. Personally, I think I have done what Lehmann once told me which was, “You’ve ‘maximized’ your experience at SLA”. I truly believe I have since I don’t think I could answer how I could of made better use of the time I had at SLA. 

June 7, 2013

For my capstone project I designed and built the Science Leadership Academy mascot costume, the rocket. I decided to do this project because I felt this was something the school could use at sporting events, fund-raising events and even just use it to boost school spirit. I feel that all the SLA core values are represented within the project. From the moment it was decided that this would be my project all the way until now, the core values have been considered and returned to for guidance. 

This particular project definitely took a lot more planning then I had initially thought. The idea is simple enough, make a costume but the more planning that occurred, the more questions sprang up to delay the construction. But first things first, I had to find someone who knew what they were doing. Extremely luckily for me, a family friend owns a costume and display company, Character Translations Inc., where I was able to work under careful direction. After ensuring I would be able to work here, the fun began. 

The scale model phase took approximately 6 weeks. This included, choosing the main material, deciding on a basic structure and sketching and building models. After being sure of the desired structure and material, I began assembling the pieces. This involved making paper outlines of each type of piece so that they would all be identical. These outlines would then be traced onto sixty gauge plastic which would then be cut out. The next phase was assembly. Almost all the pieces on the rocket are riveted together, only excluding the inner harness, which was screwed in after riveting. After the rocket was in order, I began making the flames and fins. The flames are different sized materials that are all cut and sewn to an elastic band which is Velcro-ed to the inner bottom rim. The fins are made of hard foam that was cut, shaped, sanded, and painted. After drying, they were glued on to the bottom. At this point all major construction sections were done, so I moved onto to details. All of the plastic on the rocket was originally silver but using spray paint, I was able to add the some school colors. Before painting, sections of the rocket had to be very securely masked off to cover silver sections and fins. Once the paint had dried, all that was left to do was add the decals. Simple brown glue was used to place the “S L A” and American flags on each side. This entire process spanned over 5 months. 

The main problems I faced when trying to complete this capstone were time and knowledge. Finding time to come to the work shop in Norristown was difficult. I often used Wednesday afternoons and national holidays for work time on the project. Of course, things come up and I was not always able to make it to the work shop but overall, I feel I had the perfect amount of time to complete the project. My lack of knowledge proved to make this project more testing. I had no idea the amount of work I was signing on for when I chose this project. I knew very little about costume design/production and at times, it showed in my work. Without the help of employees at Character Translation Inc., this rocket would not exist. They taught me as we went along and I learned a great deal from working with them. In the end, my original obstacles became some of my favorites parts of this project. 

I am most proud of this project because it is something I can give back to the school that has given so much to me. Of course, I am happy with the way it turned out and the experience I gained but I am more pleased to be able do something that will maybe have a positive affect on the school. I learned a lot about design and construction but probably one of the more important things I learned was how to work with people in a professional atmosphere. The things I learned from the project and also the things I have learned from attending SLA for four years, are things that I will use and cherish for the rest of my life. Thank you. 

                My capstone addresses the SLA core values in many ways. For one, collaboration was a major, if not integral, portion of my capstone. It was often necessary to reach out to coworkers to give feedback on my proposal as well as research paper. I also had to gain the backing of a knowledgeable team. With a great team behind me, it was easy to move forward with conducting our research. Another very important piece of this project was research. Countless hours were spent understanding the water hyacinth plant, removal and disposal methods, and its anatomy. This information was vital to properly conducting the project. Understanding the growth pattern of water hyacinth along with the tidal patterns of the Delaware made conducting research easier. In terms of the value of presentation and reflection, a great deal of attention was paid to the detail within the research paper. After reading some other published research papers on water hyacinth and its applications, I made sure that my paper was read over by many pairs of eyes. This ensured the quality of the project was evident in its documentation.

                To complete this capstone, four steps were followed. Research, comprehension, application, reflection. These steps were used countless times during the process of my capstone. Research was used to layer the basic understanding of all elements incorporated into my capstone. From understanding scientific measurements of the biology of a river to using probes for water quality testing. This research was often revised and revisited. Comprehension played a key role in the project. After conducting all the necessary research, the team got together to ensure that all information was not only relevant, but that it could also help us to direct our study areas to those in which finding/identifying water hyacinth would be possible. This step was also used to devise the course maps for the project. Application was the manifestation of our research and planning. We took everything that we learned and went into the field to collect our data. Over the course of two days, the team managed to visit 6 different sites. Three sites were on the New Jersey side of the Delaware River while the other 3 were on the Pennsylvania side. These sites were chosen after careful deliberation with the project team. We ensured that all sites had a relative proximity as well as being easy to navigate to. Reflection was the final step in completing this capstone. Reflecting on the team’s work, it was evident that our research could have a long term impact in the quality of our river. After conducting the project, it was evident that we needed to reach out to other agencies to ensure that the right people were aware that water hyacinth may have spread to Pennsylvania as well as New Jersey.

                One major obstacle that presented the project team early on were the effects of the sequestration. Due to the sequestration, it was unclear at times whether or not the research project would be able to move forward. Another factor that affected the project was the equipment needed. The boat that was set to be used had not yet undergone its inspection and checklist. For this reason, the course map was redrawn to allow us to visit sites in which we knew water hyacinth could exist while having access to the shore. In the end, these two factors caused the project to be conducted from shore instead of using the boat. During the course of the project, there were often many a time in which other knowledge bases were needed. Often, I tapped in to my coworkers. They proved invaluable with a plethora of information about conducting research projects, writing a clear research paper, and quality assurance standards to use while conducting research.

                I am most proud of the experience given by this capstone. Most students in high school do not get to conduct their very own research project. Having the experience of conducting and leading a research team for a project was very exciting. It showed me a lot about collaboration as well as effective use and consolidation of resources. When we found that we could not use a specific program or tool, we quickly turned gear to find another way of doing things. This project has also taught me a lot about environmental science as a major. It gave me a deeper understanding to the things that environmental scientist and engineers do on a daily basis. If I could do this capstone over again, I would change the timespan of the project. Having the research conducted in two days was sufficient for the scale of this project however, with a greater timespan, we could most likely get more locations surveyed.

                My capstone has made SLA a better place because of the people that I have inspired. When underclassmen would ask me about my capstone, they were instantly intrigued that I got to lead and conduct a research project. This also allowed me to network people to bring about more resources and materials for science learning at SLA. 

Science Leadership Academy - Senior Capstone 2013

Student Name: Natalee Schiavoni

In school Mentor: Ms. Dunn

Link to my Capstone website:

http://716596935655210608.weebly.com/

Cover Page -

The goal of this project was to create an artistic portfolio of my most recent sketching and drawings to show my understanding for the techniques artist use to produce successful artwork. I want to mold together an artistic view point and practical techniques to create functional blog/website to help others find great resources.

Abstract -

My sketch portfolio is a collection of my best and most recent artwork that highlights my love for art and shows my experience throughout the year. It is a visual archive of my artistic accomplishments that demonstrates my ability and potential as an artist.  My finished portfolio documents additional work that demonstrates an awareness of formal visual organizational principles and experience with a variety of tools, media, styles, and approaches. You will be viewing still life, landscape, figure drawings, portrait, perspective, and diagrammatic drawings.

Capstone Process Paper

Ruben Burenstein

For my senior capstone I worked privately with students in the Spanish 2 class I assistant teach as well as research teaching techniques. At the end of the first quarter Don Marcos and I sat down to choose students that I would help. We chose the students that seemed to be struggling in the class. During the warm ups of class I would take the designated students out of class and give them a worksheet to complete, or an activity. The worksheets would cover things like conjugations of different tenses, and the activities would be based on conversation and practical uses of what they’re learning in class. The second part of my capstone was researching teaching material to help me look back on my experience teaching these kids, and seeing what I did right or wrong.

I chose this project mainly because of my history with teaching. My dad used to teach classes at Drexel so I was first introduced to teaching at a very young age. I didn’t really want to be a teacher until 8^th grade. In 8^th grade I had an amazing Spanish teacher that made me love the language and the class. It was from this moment until half way through junior year that wanted to be a Spanish teacher. In the middle of junior year I had a crisis where I completely lost my faith in teaching and had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. This is what inspired me to do my capstone. I found out that I would be SAT’ing Don Marcos’ Spanish 2 class, so I thought that this would be a great opportunity to see if I enjoyed teaching as much as I thought for three and a half years. I used my capstone to see if education was something that I could envision myself doing in the future.

My capstone addresses the “Inquiry” core value because I had to ask myself what I already knew about teaching. I also had to ask what kinds of different teaching methods are useful for different situations, like does a language require a different style than math? The research I had to do mostly revolved around these questions, and then occasionally refreshing myself on the material that I would prepare for an activity or worksheet. I collaborated with my peers and teachers during this project. I had to collaborate with the kids that I was teaching because there would be on capstone without them. I also had to collaborate with Don Marcos and Mr. Sanchez. Don Marcos helped me organize my capstone, as well as being there as a mentor and support throughout the process. Mr. Sanchez helped me when I needed a book to help me analyze my work, providing several that were exactly what I needed. For the presentation core value, I had to present activities and worksheets to the kids, as well as do the capstone presentation during the last week of school. For the reflection part of capstone I read a book The First Days of School by Harry and Rosemary Wong in order to see what I did correctly, and what I could have improve on. I compared the techniques discussed in the book to ones that I had used in order to see how I could improve as an educator.

To complete my capstone I first did some preliminary research on basic education techniques. I then made a timeline to make sure that I actually planned worksheets or activities. Next I started creating or planning the work that the students would complete. This sometimes required me refreshing myself on the material they were learning in class incase I had forgotten since I took Spanish 2. I didn’t take the kids out every day, and stopped creating worksheets and activities around the middle of April. At this point I got a book to read so that I could learn more about teaching techniques and compare them to what I did.

The main obstacles that I encountered were complications with planning and lack of motivation. The second problem seemed to stem from the first problem. There were many days where I had something planned, and then the kids didn’t have a warm up in class. If they had to work on a project I didn’t feel that it was fair of me to take them away from something that was significant to the real class and replace it with practice. There wasn’t really a way for me to overcome this because I just had to accept that there were days they definitely couldn’t come with me, and that I would have to find other days. This caused the lack of motivation because sometimes I would make a worksheet and then the students wouldn’t have a warm up for a week. After this week was up there was usually a new topic introduced so all of the things that I planned kind of seemed outdated. This made me feel like the work I was doing wasn’t being useful so I would get demotivated and stop creating ideas for a while. I overcame this at several points by realizing that I had to continue working, but it continued to be a problem throughout the process.

The main resources I used were my teachers and father. Don Marcos helped a lot in identifying the students that I needed to work with being a large reason that I wanted to teach Spanish. He also provides his Spanish 2 students with links to help them improve Spanish on their own time, which are the websites that I mostly used to refresh my memory on topics. Another teacher that was extremely helpful was Mr. Sanchez. He was there to help me as an advisor whenever I was stuck on something, and also provided me with the book that I used to reflect along with several other useful books. Getting information from Mr. Sanchez and Don Marcos was much more useful than information from a library because they have been teachers for several years instead of a book that could be inaccurate.

The thing that I’m most proud of in this capstone isn’t my final result, but little moments that happened along the way. Whenever a student I was helping said “oh I understand that now” because of something I showed them it made me feel really good. I also liked seeing their progress after they said this to see if they actually understood it, and if they did I was very proud. I also liked seeing the kids that I was helping perform in class and do better than they were before whether it was on tests or simply their accent.

From this process I learned a lot about how to interact with other kids as a teacher. I realized that it’s hard a lot harder for a teacher that is close in age to the students because they are taken less seriously. I learned the most about teaching techniques and ways to be a more effective teacher. The book that Mr. Sanchez gave me clearly talked about several problems that first time teachers could have and I could see myself having them if I continued in the style that I had been. This project helped me realize that even if I feel something might not be used, I have to do it anyway for my own self-improvement.

If I could do my capstone all over again I would first write down every mistake that I made this time and try to fix them. I think that if I fixed all of the mistakes that I made in teaching this time and work prepared for the students more often, then I could have made a greater impact on their Spanish speaking skills. I also think that I could then look back at that process and see what I was still doing wrong. I would also try to thoroughly document the process of the kids that I was helping in the class to see if my lessons were helping. I think looking at their grades starting from when my lessons began and looking again every week would be interesting to see, as well as provide information on how I could be more effective.  I would also try to make a larger variety of lessons, or make sure that all of my lessons were as effective as possible.

My capstone made SLA a better place because of the people that I helped. Although the kids that I helped didn’t completely change around their act and start doing great in Spanish, they did improve a little. I could see when they started to understand something because of my lesson, and then use it without my help in class. I also helped because I will now be able to share my information of teaching methods to other people. I can tell them the basics of how to progress a students learning, instead of just giving them busywork. SLA is better because I helped students learn material that they didn’t understand, while improving my knowledge of teaching.

Nowadays there isn’t a central format for how to create a program at an institution or organization.  Many people start their own programs from scratch because they have no real guideline for how to start. The hope for this paper is to teach the reader how to create a program step-by-step. The process of creating one includes 6 steps that cover it all: Creating an Idea, Create a Team and Present your Idea, Research, Experiment, Cycle of Refinement, and Make it Accessible to Youth/Adult to Join. The results are you get a functioning youth or adult program out of using this detailed process. The other results are the accomplishments of the students in Project S.P.A.C.E. which is used as an example for the paper.

Mentors: Sherilyn Morgan, Renee Searfoss

Capstone Summary:

Conducted a research project on water hyacinth; an invasive plant species from the amazon.

Project Abstract: 

Water hyacinth (WH) has caused many issues in waterways both nationally and locally. Devastating lakes, rendering them useless for commercial fishing and recreation, water hyacinth has become a growing pain in many parts of the world. The objective of this study was to examine two questions: first, is there water hyacinth present in the Delaware River? And second, how does water hyacinth impact local aquatic vegetation and specifically submerged aquatic vegetation. To study these questions, a snapshot study was preformed on the Delaware River between the Commodore Barry bridge and the Schuylkill Expressway. The study, as a snapshot, suggests no vegetative growth of WH; but evidence exists indicating the potential for its existence within the study area.