[KIM_SAYS:]

In my school district in order to graduate, seniors have to do a Senior Project, which consists of a thesis paper, a project activity that "produces tangible evidence (of 10 hours) that applies the evidence gained during the research phase," a formal 10-15 minute presentation in front of judges, and a portfolio consisting of job applications, personal financial budget, personal statement, a whole bunch of letters, references, resume, post high school plan, blah blah blah. We also must have a mentor who is considered as a professional or an expert to guide us in the research. And we have to interview them also.

And your topic can be on ANYTHING. One guy I know from a couple years ago did his on tipping in restaurants...although I'm not exactly sure how you can write a 6-10 page research paper on tipping.

Even though school hasn't even really started yet, I'm already worried. I have NO idea what I'm going to do mine on. It should seem easy to choose a topic since it can be on anything, but for some reason I'm finding it extremely difficult.

Anyone else have to do this? Or something similar?

[josebiwasabi]

haha, well look who it is!

well, i didn't have to do a 'senior project', since at river if you're an IB diploma candidate, the IB Extended Essay trumps that. but it's essentially the same thing (except maybe a lil harder).

my EE was on "The Irony of Prohibition: Corruption as Its Primary Cause for Failure". basically i talked about how it was an attempt to control the morality of the american people through legislative means, and yet it failed due to corruption in the government and other various officials. it was around 3500 words.

btw, all the things (except for the presentation and the actual thesis paper)... don't worry about them. like, you have to do them, but they take almost no time at all. i wrote up several best works reflections, a personal statement, etc in just a period or two. lol.

let's see what some of the people i know did:
*weddings in american society (made a wedding dress... she's planning on majoring in fashion design and stuff up at Seattle Pacific U)
*TV journalism in vancouver (she followed the news around for a day... interested in journalism)
*childhood obesity and the american lifestyle
*the role of advertising in the media on female subordination in america (can you tell she's a feminist? )
*the divergence of abstract expressionism into pop art and minimalism
*foreign language education in elementary schools
*the emotional evolution between classical and romantic music
*chemokine receptor CCR7 and associated ligand expression in inflamed iris tissue
*women in the revolutionary war
*critical analysis of the effects of positive reinforcement and punishment on the extinction rate of learned behaviors
*importance of temporal lobes on memory formation
*socialism with chinese characteristics
*Martha Nussbaum's theory on the emotion of disgust and its role in the issue of gay marriage
*hitlers amphetamine addiction and the possible effects on WWII
*the effect of morphine on the ability to learn and retain new information in rats

now it's true that many of these students didn't do an senior paper, but an IB essay instead, but you can get an idea of just how broad the range of topics are. heh. i would suggest narrowing it down to something first. like are you really into cheer? or do you have a favorite subject, ie bio/hist/art? and then go from there.

the hardest part is choosing a topic... but after that it's really easy so don't stress out too much

[lil0vi3tpryd3r]

we never had to do senior projects. we just have to do community service. u_u good luck!

[koneee]

Hmm for my school, I didn't have to do a senior project hahaha other schools in my district had to though.

[joogrlpekaun]

well, all the seniors at my school have to do tech labs that take a hell of a long time and have to be put together and presented and stuff. so yeah, pretty much, but you need way more than 10 hours, and most of the time the projects are pretty complicated. i'm doing biotech lab but i have absolutely noooo idea what project i might do.

[malevolent.]

Starting 05-06 year, Juniors had to do a Service Learning project. I did mine and got full credit.

[KIM_SAYS:]

haha, well look who it is!

well, i didn't have to do a 'senior project', since at river if you're an IB diploma candidate, the IB Extended Essay trumps that. but it's essentially the same thing (except maybe a lil harder).

my EE was on "The Irony of Prohibition: Corruption as Its Primary Cause for Failure". basically i talked about how it was an attempt to control the morality of the american people through legislative means, and yet it failed due to corruption in the government and other various officials. it was around 3500 words.

btw, all the things (except for the presentation and the actual thesis paper)... don't worry about them. like, you have to do them, but they take almost no time at all. i wrote up several best works reflections, a personal statement, etc in just a period or two. lol.

let's see what some of the people i know did:
*weddings in american society (made a wedding dress... she's planning on majoring in fashion design and stuff up at Seattle Pacific U)
*TV journalism in vancouver (she followed the news around for a day... interested in journalism)
*childhood obesity and the american lifestyle
*the role of advertising in the media on female subordination in america (can you tell she's a feminist? )
*the divergence of abstract expressionism into pop art and minimalism
*foreign language education in elementary schools
*the emotional evolution between classical and romantic music
*chemokine receptor CCR7 and associated ligand expression in inflamed iris tissue
*women in the revolutionary war
*critical analysis of the effects of positive reinforcement and punishment on the extinction rate of learned behaviors
*importance of temporal lobes on memory formation
*socialism with chinese characteristics
*Martha Nussbaum's theory on the emotion of disgust and its role in the issue of gay marriage
*hitlers amphetamine addiction and the possible effects on WWII
*the effect of morphine on the ability to learn and retain new information in rats

now it's true that many of these students didn't do an senior paper, but an IB essay instead, but you can get an idea of just how broad the range of topics are. heh. i would suggest narrowing it down to something first. like are you really into cheer? or do you have a favorite subject, ie bio/hist/art? and then go from there.

the hardest part is choosing a topic... but after that it's really easy so don't stress out too much

Joseph!!! Hi!!! Thanks a lot for the examples. Those were some good ideas. I'm not really that worried about actually doing the project...just trying to figure out what I'm going to do for the project activity...and finding a mentor. Like how did the person find a mentor for the effects of morphine in rats? And what did the person do as an activity for childhood obesity and the american lifestyle?

Or maybe I'm just making this way too hard. lol

I don't exactly have a favorite subject. I don't even know what I want to major in when I get into college. I'm not like incredibly outstanding in anything either...I guess I really like to write, but I'm not sure what kind of project I could do with that. I'm not really interested in doing journalism or anything. Psychology's pretty interesting also, but it's such a broad topic...and learning French is fun too. Ugh, I think I just need to do some more brainstorming.

[josebiwasabi]

Joseph!!! Hi!!! Thanks a lot for the examples. Those were some good ideas. I'm not really that worried about actually doing the project...just trying to figure out what I'm going to do for the project activity...and finding a mentor. Like how did the person find a mentor for the effects of morphine in rats? And what did the person do as an activity for childhood obesity and the american lifestyle?

Or maybe I'm just making this way too hard. lol

I don't exactly have a favorite subject. I don't even know what I want to major in when I get into college. I'm not like incredibly outstanding in anything either...I guess I really like to write, but I'm not sure what kind of project I could do with that. I'm not really interested in doing journalism or anything. Psychology's pretty interesting also, but it's such a broad topic...and learning French is fun too. Ugh, I think I just need to do some more brainstorming.

for the effects of morphine on rats... the person worked at the WSU-Vancouver extension with a professor and actually did the experimentation. heh, my school's science dept has the hook-ups with a few professors ^^ for the childhood obesity one, the person went to the free clinic here in vancouver and talked with the physicians and their nurses... it turns out that childhood obesity is a lot of times due to malnutrition. (as in.. they get enough food to eat, just that none of it has any substantial nutritional value, i.e. fast food, etc.). she also found that it has a strong correlation with poverty rates. so anyway, she did something at the free clinic, maybe looked at obesity rates of underage patients and compared them with the national average, or whatever. idk, the activity can be whatever you want.

in regards to the 'favorite subject', it doesn't have to be necessarily academics. it can be anything. like my friend did his on wrestling, another did her's on national park clean-up, etc. just find something you feel passionate about, whether it be school-related or whatever. haha, maybe find something dealing with kpop. LOL.

[guwakmui916]

OMG i had to do this crap...it was so sTRESSFUL! but at my school it had to be a minimum of 15 hours, etc. It gets really tough when you're applying for college and you have all these papers u have to get signed and approved around the same time...i suggest start early and get ur portfolio done early!!!

for my project i had a fashion show for the benefit of the leukemia lymphoma society, and i did about 200+ hours on it since it was a BIG PROJECT! about 200-300 people showed up at the show and tickets sold out a week before the event... if u plan to do something liek this, u should work with an event production company or something...cause thats what i did...and i was put on role as production manager, and because of that, i'm permanantly production manager of the companyy !


edit// i forgot to mention some other projects [these projects r quite big at my school]
-this guy modified his car
-creating a dance and finding ppl to be in it and performing it
-starting ur own club at school
-teaching a class or kids at an elementary or middle school
-this guy tried to make it into some statewide wrestling thing and did like 600+ hours of summer wrestling camps [amaaazzinggg]
-interning at a hospital
-a fundraiser
-getting your beauty cosmetology license
-making ur own dress
-photography

just some ideas...hope this helps

[bluelime]

We have to complete our senior project in order to graduate. Our senior project is getting a makeover this coming school year. It is going to be more research oriented.
We are most likely going to have to write a research paper and present it to the rest of the school.

[BleachFan22]

All we HAD to do to graduate our senior year was show up to class, write a 5 page thesis paper over something in english lit. and make a powerpoint presentation about a modern science debate (cloning, stem cell research,etc.)

[mp.ARK]

Yeah, my high school requires a senior project out of everyone who plans to graduate. But as usual, people procastinate until a couple days before the deadline and start freaking out. I got offered lot's of money to help with some desperate seniors, but yeah, the deadline was during AP testing week.

Anyways, the topic for every senior project is about life... kind of vague if you ask me, but gives enough space to do whatever you want.

I'm planning on creating an animated feature about my experience in high school.

[shwinlewin]

ACK This is a new one in my school and us seniors have to face this instead of good old senior class just because of the cheating incident and hearing you guys talk about projects...I'm going to cry...

How is this graded in your school? Ours is not decided and I will die gladly if its a pass or fail...but then again the teacher I have is a jerk and might do a real percentage...adding salt to the wound.

[chdairkld]

This all sounds so stressful. My school doesn't do this, I'm guessing that if we did have this requirement, our already small graduating percentage would shrink even more.

[KIM_SAYS:]

^It depends on WHAT do you for the project. Like guwakmui916 produced a fashion show for hers and actually had to train models and hold meetings and stuff. Amazing, no? But some people just job shadow or intern.

Ahaha, the most stressful part for me (lol, so far anyway) was coming up with an actual idea. I kinda have one though

But even the most......eh, unmotivated/"I don't care about college"/"School sucks"/"Dude, I almost crashed into a phone pole last night it was so cool" type of people (which we have a lot of at our school, by the way) even passed their projects, so it can't be TOO stressful I guess.

ACK This is a new one in my school and us seniors have to face this instead of good old senior class just because of the cheating incident and hearing you guys talk about projects...I'm going to cry...

How is this graded in your school? Ours is not decided and I will die gladly if its a pass or fail...but then again the teacher I have is a jerk and might do a real percentage...adding salt to the wound.

Yep, it's pass or fail. You do a 10 to 15 minute presentation in front of three judges and they grade you.

[sandy k]

oh wow i thought my high school was the only ridiculous school that had to do lengthy, year long, senior projects.

the official project was assigned in our english classes. we started in the fall (around october). but that was the easiest part. you chose a topic (anything really..musicians/literature/possibly something related to what you want to pursue for you career) and you start a binder with an outline on how you plan on carrying out your research. then throughout the year the teacher would check on your binder to see if you started actually researching and stuff....NO ONE did anything til the last minute though. sad, it was hard to do 5 months worth of research/interviews/powerpoints/the actual paper in a matter of days.

anyway, a few topics people did were-
how the bible is historically correct/incorrect
the beatles
marilyn manson (sp)
criminal justice
airline stuff (becoming a stewardess)
real estate/realtors
investment
wedding planning (mine!! )
physics
ecstacy
*all the topics, again, were really random.

my paper turned out to be 15 pages, about 15 references, 4 interviews, 20 minute powerpoint, and a bunch of props (actually bringing in wedding planners, books, etc....). i hated worrying about it for months but it turned out amazing.

my teacher was really lenient but other teachers made students find part time jobs/internships and had to get recommendation letters from all over the place. a lot of people worked their butts off because failing the project means no graduation (my school took this project really seriously)

[shwinlewin]

I have a question tho, lets say i were to choose 'Save the Children' for the Senior project. What advice would you give me to do?

Since that is quite a vague subject with many areas to work on.

[msh.l.on]

yes... we do. T_________________T
and it's just like your school's. *cries*

[sonhyangel]

my cousin in california had to do something that perhaps wasn't as high quality as what you're talking about, but that was really thick and time consuming .. but that must have been when she was 8th or 9th grade...

[joonage]

Our school has this - Vocational Projects.

All of 9th through 12th have to do it, but the Seniors have to do like a 15 min Powerpoint presentation.

They just talk about future plans and all that stuff.

One senior said he wanted to be a Superhero. haha