Since childhood I have enjoyed dancing however I had never taken formal classes. As a preteen I would come up with dances for my friends and I, it became my number one hobby. As I got older I found myself drawn to any and everything that had to do with dance. I watched every reality dance show,award show performance, and I even started researching/watching young choreographers. This project is the result of putting my abilities to the test.

Abstract

This was more a learning and growing experience for myself and the young teenagers involved than a project. Over the duration of the time I spent mentoring the kids, I forgot about the fact that I was doing a project for a grade. I felt more like I was doing something that was helping me become a better person. At the shelter, I helped the young kids deal with their hard life situations by writing. Over the time,  I also chimed in on helping them better understand basic every day mannerisms, like being respectful, grateful and polite. In the beginning, everything didn’t start off as lovely as it ended. The kids were very unkind to me and they would clearly express that they did not want to be in my “program”. They would openly express their dislike for what I was trying to teach them. I thought that they didn’t respect me because we were only 4 or 5 years apart in age but soon I realized what it actually was that disinterested the kids. I realized that the kids were being rude for 2 reasons. Reason one was that they didn’t have much discipline in their lives, which explained why they were so rude and they also, like all other teenagers, didn’t  want to sit and write and listen to someone talk for an hour. After this realization. I decided to take a different route into getting them to like what we were doing, which was use active games instead of writing exercise  to start off with. They enjoyed that after a long day of school, then they didn’t mind the writing as much. In the end every went well and I just hope that the kids took a lot from this experience. 

Student Name:
 Mathew Walker

In school mentor’s name:
 Mark Miles

Topic Summary:

 The goal of this project was to help me develop a better understanding of my future major, and also to show my current knowledge on the topic of computer science to see where I am going to be when I enter college. What I did was I created a game via the program processing which is a coding program that codes on java. What I learned during this process is that it is not always easy to stick to your original idea. As I went through the project I was learning a bunch of new coding material that I did not know and trying to take all that and apply all in one year was a little difficult. So I created a game that was not like my original idea but I did this because the game that I was able to produce in the end took some of the new knowledge that I learned and apply it. My original idea was to make a side scrolling adventure game such as the game Zelda but a lot of things such as drawing the maps and writing different coding functions for changing the map were slightly difficult. So in my end product, which was a maze, I was able to take the drawing maps and apply it. I also learned that you do not need fancy graphics to make a game fun because when I let my friends test it out everybody surrounded my computer trying to beat the game, which I am proud of.

and Processing

Ruben Burenstein

Mentor: 

Mark Bey

Summary:

The goal of this project is to provide extra help for students who seemed to be having trouble in a Spanish 2 class. 

Abstract

 I was inspired to make this my capstone because wavering interest in education. Since I started learning Spanish I liked it, and decided that if I were to teach a subject it would be Spanish. During freshman and sophomore year I thought that I wanted to be a teacher, but then during junior year my opinion changed. After finding out that I would be the SAT for a Spanish 2 class I thought that this would be a good opportunity to see what teaching a small group of kids would be like. I soon realized that I would not just help the students on their work, but also help reinforce their core understanding. To do this I had to re acquaint myself with the topics that they were learning, as well as research teaching techniques. For the project I did small activities, and created worksheets with the intent of improving the understanding of the Spanish language. Researching how to be an effective teacher has given be a better understanding of what I should do in teaching situations, and given me methods on how to clearly display information to students. 

Student Name:

Matthew Ferry

In school mentors’ names:

Brad Latimer, Jeremy Spry

Out-of-school mentor’s name and affiliation:

Fred Brown, Assistant Track and Field/XC Coach at Germantown Friends School

Topic Summary:

The goal of this project was to develop a deeper understanding of long-distance running plans and athlete development, blending these together to provide athletes training plans unique to their needs.

Project Abstract:

This project was inspired by my senior year cross country season, when I was responsible for creating training plans for myself and several other athletes. Although I have created training plans for myself in the past, this was the first time I was responsible for creating training plans for others. This not only required me to research the fundamentals of training, but also to learn each athlete’s unique strengths and weaknesses. I worked with Fred Brown, an assistant-coach at Germantown Friends School, whose program has been very successful (having one or more national qualifier every season). Working with Coach Brown I learned the importance of communication and inquiry in creating athlete specific training. As a result of this project, I was able to further my understanding of individualized coaching methods. I hope to continue this work both as an aspiring coach and by sharing my findings with the runners at SLA. 

http://ferryrunning.weebly.com/index.html

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Daniels, J. (2007). Daniels' running formula. (2nd ed.). Champaign, Il: Human Kinetics.

Cabral, D. (n.d.). Donn cabral training plan [Web]. Retrieved from http://www.running2win.com/community/DonnCabral.asp?m=dbhc8996&k=donnstraining

Flotrack. (n.d.). Workout wednesday [Theater]. Available from http://www.flotrack.org/page/workout-Videos

Horwill, F. [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://www.pponline.co.uk/encyc/crash-training-can-be-applied-to-all-sports-where-fitness-is-a-major-factor-743?

Marquardt, C. (2012). Workout log: cmarqq [Web]. Retrieved from http://merv.stanford.edu/Workouts?name=cmarqq

Salazar, A. (Performer) (2013). Alberto salazar on galen's 3:50 mile race at bu [Web]. Retrieved from http://www.flotrack.org/coverage/250010-2013-BU-Terrier-Invitational/video/685963-Alberto-Salazar-on-Galens-350-mile-race-at-BU

Fritzius, J. (2012, December 31). [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://www.flotrack.org/blog/44207-My-12-running-reflections-of-2012

Bloom, M. (2011, August 27). [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://www.runnersworld.com/high-school-training/5k-confidential

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OldPost. (2002, October 14). Pure speed(finishing kick)- the best way to improve it read more: http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?board=1&id=27488&thread=27488

Wejo. (2003, June 21). How does wejo run 7:00 miles all day, then run 28:06??? [Online forum comment]. Retrieved from http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?board=1&id=152890&thread=152890

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Mentor: Mr. Sunil Reddy

Capstone Summary:

The goal of this project was to organize a drive where students were able to donate old items that would be sent directly to a No Kill Animal Shelter in New Jersey in order to enhance the living environment of neglected and sickly animals.

Project Abstract:

There were two experiences that truly inspired this project which included volunteering at the Philadelphia Zoo for four years and completing my ILP at the Philadelphia Animal Hospital. These involvements intensified my interest for not improving the lives of animals through cleaning and enrichment. I decided to do this capstone because it revolves around my particular career interest and shows my dedication to strengthening animals’ lives. My main goal was to make my event well known throughout the city of Philadelphia so that the final result is exceeding initial expectations. Obviously, I really had to push myself past the difficulties I encountered each quarter in order to make sure I was staying on track with completely my project. As a result of this project, I was able to understand the issue of animal homelessness and ways to reduce the number of animals that enter shelters each year. I gained a deeper understanding on how the No-Kill Animal Shelter operates and its desperate need for donations in order to continue providing medical assistance and housing to innocent animals. Thankfully with the help of Stanton Elementary School, I was able to receive a vast majority of the items I requested to be donated. This makes me smile because I know that from this drive I was able to make a huge difference to the lives of those animals suffering. Additionally, by holding a few bake sales in school I was able to utilize the money earned and buy any extra items at the local PetSmart in South Philadelphia. One thing I am truly disappointed by was the amount of donations I received from SLA students. There was definitely a lack of help from my peers which hurts considering I have been attending school with them since freshman year.

Click HERE to view my process paper and annotated bibliography as well.