Sanford High School's Advanced Placement (AP) students hosted their annual symposium in the agora on Wednesday afternoon.
The students presented their research findings from their year-long projects. The AP Capstone program challenges high school students to engage in college-level research and project work. The program consists of two courses, AP Seminar, and AP Research, and upon completion, students earn the AP Capstone certificate.
To earn the certificate, students must complete a research project and present their findings in a 20-minute presentation before a panel of judges.
"This is their way of showing their peers and teachers what they've been doing all year," AP Research Teacher Kelly Tibbetts said. "It's cool to show how great these students have done."
The AP Research project is a year-long project that starts in September and ends in March. Students have to research, prepare, and create a 4,000-5,000 word research paper on a topic of their choice with the guidance of an expert advisor.
"Emma Adawadkar was working with Spanish-speaking freshmen, so she had guidance from one of the Spanish teachers at the high school," Tibbets said.
Research topics ranged from social media use and its impact on politics, reading fluency, and how hurricanes affect home prices in the South. The class is made up of juniors and seniors, including Adawadkar, Ava Gendron, Aidan Gendron, Zachary Parison, Kamryn Sanborn, Lily Morse, Lamar Amoakohene, Oliver Sigouin, and Jack Cullen.
"I did all mine about the hurricanes on average value homes in Florida," Jack Cullen said. "Basically, I used the Zillow home value index to find all the prices of the homes. That was because it's the largest database or one of the largest, so they got over 100 million homes on it. And what I did is I took the three hurricanes that happened in Florida in the last five years to find the data."
The program prepares students for the rigors of college research and project work by teaching them essential skills such as critical thinking, problem-solving, and time management. Tibbets said the process also shows students that only some hypotheses will be correct, which can be an important lesson for them.
"Failed research is still research," Tibbetts said. "So even if your project doesn't come out the way you planned, and your hypothesis didn't come out how you expected, you're still putting in the work and finding results."
It also challenges them to go above and beyond the traditional high school curriculum and prepares them for success in college. Students who complete the program and earn the AP Capstone certificate are recognized for their dedication to research and project work. They also earn one of two different awards valued by colleges across the United States and worldwide.