What is the Graduation Project?
The purpose of the graduation project is to allow every graduating senior to exhibit the skills and knowledge that he or she has gained in high school. This project encourages the three "R's" as identified by the State Board of Education: Rigor, Relevance, and Relationships. Students develop and explore a rigorous research topic, establish a relationship with an expert mentor outside the school community, demonstrate relevance by presenting to a panel of judges, and develop a culminating product that is an outgrowth of the research. The project is designed to incorporate the skills that students will need as they matriculate into college and/or business and industry. It allows each student to choose a topic of his or her interest, while encouraging inquiry, analysis, synthesis, rigor, and collaboration.
The Components of the Graduation Project:
- The Essential Question: This is the foundation of your research. The EQ must reflect genuine inquiry and must be complex, interesting, and lend itself to a concrete product.
- The Research Paper: The paper must reflect the student's knowledge of the Modern Language Association's (MLA) citation and set up format, and must provide a rationale for the research topic. In addition, each student will answer the Essential Question and prove the thesis utilizing a variety of credible sources. The paper will be 5 - 7 pages* in length and will utilize a minimum of seven resources from three different mediums (newspaper, on-line scholarly sites and databases, interviews, reference books, scholarly journals, maps, etc.).
*Length of final paper is subject to course level (AP/Honors) and teacher discretion.
- The Mentor: Each student will choose a mentor who is an expert in the topic proposed in the Essential Question. The student must submit a Mentor Verification Form describing the mentor's expertise. A member of the Graduation Project Committee will contact all mentors personally to verify the mentor's expertise.
Mentor Contact Log
Mentor Verification Form
- The Presentation: After submitting and passing the research paper, each student will present his or her findings to a panel of judges. This is a formal and professional opportunity for the student to explain the information in the paper and to answer questions from the judges. The presentation must be accompanied by a Power Point.
Presentation Rubric
- The Product: Preferably, the product will be one that will benefit the greater community; however, this is not a requirement. The product is a physical manifestation of the results of the research. Some examples include: music/dance = arrange and perform an original composition, learning styles = design a lesson and teach a class, athletics/sports = run a clinic for young athletes or new coaches. Mentors will be an essential resource during this phase of the project.
Product Log
Product Rubric
- The Reflection: The final assignment is to write a reflection based on the knowledge gained of both the topic and the research process. The reflection addresses the gathering and organizing of information, documenting of sources, constructing the paper, and creating a professional presentation and product that reflects a growth in thinking and skills gained through this process.
A Word About Plagiarism:
With the availability of on-line resources and electronic papers, the issue of plagiarism has become one of great concern in both the academic arena and in the publishing industry. Each student will receive in-depth instruction on the correct format for citing sources as outlined in the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 6th edition, by Joseph Gibaldi, which can be purchased at any local bookstore. If any part of this assignment is plagiarized, the paper will fail. The redo will receive a grade of no higher than a 70% and must be turned in before the first presentation date. Obviously, plagiarism will be taken seriously, and may jeopardize a student's ability to graduate.
Graduation Project Handbook(pdf)
Student Checklist(pdf)
