Welcome to my first AP Research blog! I figured you might appreciate some updates on
what we're up to as this great class of kids work on their research projects.
In September the students learned the basics of what it is they'll be producing by April: a 20-page paper a 20-minute talk and defense. Now we have targets to work toward! The biggest difference between AP Seminar and AP Research is that in AP Research students will have to produce some original research. They'll add to the scholarship in their respective fields, which is pretty exciting stuff!
Over the weeks students continued to study their topics by gathering a range of sources and making sense of them in assignments like Annotated Bib 1.0. And they've been able to articulate what's interesting and relevant about their topics in their
Bundle 1.0. Their goal now is to take a topic they're passionate about and find a gap in that field. If find one, they can formulate a question. Then their work all year is hunting down results that could answer that question and fill that gap.
So far so good! Some students have decided it's best to scrap their topics (it's ok, time has been built in to stop and start), but most have kept the ones they've identified. Now it's time to hone in on a research question. For the project to succeed, the research question has to be relevant, feasible, and focused. We'll do some "research question speed dating" and other activities to get everyone in the place they'll need to be. I'll continue talking with the class, talking with students individually, and commenting on their PReP reflection journals.
So we are off and running! This is a great group of kids. Love starting my day with them. More on our path forward next time!
Comentários