At Millbrook, completing and presenting a capstone project is a graduation requirement.
Making the program fit for eighty students with different skills and interests is a challenge. We ask each student to make a project in one of six academic disciplines (art, English, history, math, science, and world language) or in a seventh discipline called “extra-disciplinary.”
Extra-disciplinary Projects
The extra-disciplinary discipline was born out of a few students’ desire to connect final projects to the most meaningful part of their lives at Millbrook that, for them, fell outside of academics. In particular, many talked about a desire to create a project relevant to their experiences with athletics or service. Within this seventh discipline, we usually see some of our strongest and weakest projects, all connected by the student’s desire to think outside the sphere of traditional academics. Notable projects have included the creation of a handbook for emergency sports injury response under the mentorship of our athletic trainer, a student-run and school-wide blood drive and a current project involving the design of a new school farm by a student who has worked at the current school garden for three years.
Failure & Success
Annually, 5-15% of our senior class fail their CES projects. Philosophically, we believe that no student who puts forth a good-faith effort should earn a failure. A student who struggles from the first moment to the last — all while putting in the work — would earn a No Pass. Simply said, most students who fail choose to not to do the work, despite the consequence of having “Fail” on their transcripts. In other cases, these are the students who confront personal struggles at the end of their senior year that make it very difficult for them to finish. On the other hand, each year several students who have struggled in other facets of their academic experience at Millbrook are able to complete a successful CES project. These students’ presentations at the CES Festival are often highlights for them, and for those who worked most closely with them.
Support / Accommodation
We have discussed implementing a blog system to keep students accountable, but the few times we raised it, we have found that our faculty want to have flexibility when working with students. Right now, we find it best to offer a range of ways to track student work, including blogs, sketchbooks, journals, and embellished calendars. In a future post we will dive deeper into this subject as it is something we think about and question frequently.
Making the program fit for eighty students with different skills and interests is a challenge. We ask each student to make a project in one of six academic disciplines (art, English, history, math, science, and world language) or in a seventh discipline called “extra-disciplinary.”
Extra-disciplinary Projects
The extra-disciplinary discipline was born out of a few students’ desire to connect final projects to the most meaningful part of their lives at Millbrook that, for them, fell outside of academics. In particular, many talked about a desire to create a project relevant to their experiences with athletics or service. Within this seventh discipline, we usually see some of our strongest and weakest projects, all connected by the student’s desire to think outside the sphere of traditional academics. Notable projects have included the creation of a handbook for emergency sports injury response under the mentorship of our athletic trainer, a student-run and school-wide blood drive and a current project involving the design of a new school farm by a student who has worked at the current school garden for three years.
Failure & Success
Annually, 5-15% of our senior class fail their CES projects. Philosophically, we believe that no student who puts forth a good-faith effort should earn a failure. A student who struggles from the first moment to the last — all while putting in the work — would earn a No Pass. Simply said, most students who fail choose to not to do the work, despite the consequence of having “Fail” on their transcripts. In other cases, these are the students who confront personal struggles at the end of their senior year that make it very difficult for them to finish. On the other hand, each year several students who have struggled in other facets of their academic experience at Millbrook are able to complete a successful CES project. These students’ presentations at the CES Festival are often highlights for them, and for those who worked most closely with them.
Support / Accommodation
We have discussed implementing a blog system to keep students accountable, but the few times we raised it, we have found that our faculty want to have flexibility when working with students. Right now, we find it best to offer a range of ways to track student work, including blogs, sketchbooks, journals, and embellished calendars. In a future post we will dive deeper into this subject as it is something we think about and question frequently.