For my capstone project I volunteered with the organization Special Olympics. Every Sunday from October to May since 2016. I shadowed a high school senior who was working with an athlete, Sammy. When she graduated I took over her place as Sammy’s coach. We worked on his skating skills and his program and soon (in March of 2019) went to York, PA for the national competition that they hold yearly. Each year we worked on his skating skills, skating accuracy, and his final program which has elements that are determined by the rule book for the competition. I have been a part of the Special Olympics since I was a young teenager. Having the Special Olympic values ingrained in me from a young age made me have a more open minded look on life.

For my Capstone I wrote a 10 page paper on Viktor Frankl’s book “Man’s Search for Meaning.” I really enjoyed reading it and wanted to analyze those ideas of what makes life meaningful. I did this through analyzing how people act from my own experiences, as well as studying Viktor Frankl’s experiences with helping people through his own form of therapy called ‘LogoTherapy.’

Paper: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1460_Ozg1XqoYW58ZF5ac6SNGesUiycZsrgS2PNSLfcA/edit?usp=sharing

The U.S. Government, as well as the countries they collaborate with, spie on U.S. citizens. I know this, you know this. It’s been common knowledge since the Edward Snowden leaks.

Now they wouldn’t be allowed to do this because of the 4th amendment preventing unnecessary searches and seizures. However nothing really stops companies from collecting data on users and thus having the government buy that data from them.

So instead of waiting for the 4th amendment to get a fix, here’s how to take your privacy into your own hands. Basically I made a list of certain tools and strategies to make it harder for anyone to collect data on you whether it be via encryption to make it harder to get or just make it not there to collect. Can’t collect what doesn’t exist.

My name is Vincent Ochwo, and my capstone project,”Decoration For Motivation” was based on the question, “What’s something I can do that could benefit the current, future, and maybe even the past members of the SLA community.” So I came to the conclusion that I wanted to decorate the bare walls around the school with creative paintings. There are fourteen paintings in total, which will have motivational quotes and drawings on them. Members of the SLA community will be able to admire, and be motivated by the paintings I put around the school, even after I graduate. This project features all of the SLA core values, while benefiting the SLA community in a unique way.

Annotated Bibliography: https://docs.google.com/document/d/18sc6SPRhntWhl5lx_05eYNrYHi7VdV8M9m3Id162hZk/edit?usp=sharing

Capstone Pictures: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1W459g5FBnejkQEnMcElYn2POaiG7pJUPsAHkO_93Q4c/edit?usp=sharing

For my Capstone I wanted to really reflect on my time at SLA,. In order to do that I decided to start from the beginning, my first time walking through the doors. SLA in itself is truly a unique and wonderful experience and I wanted to represent that in the art work I created. Each canvas was created to represent each subject that SLA offers, not only to capture the uniqueness and what I learned, but also to leave beautiful artwork to look at.

Presentation: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ZeZx8806AnE9VuNlqGq_dgQjsbKgOT4nX5nr1_3Oh88/edit?usp=sharing

Timeline: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tUoSBtDe79LnelJdm8PrldpJ8CyQv9U5eI6CpyP-7Js/edit?usp=sharing

Annotated Bibliography: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RX65hXksl9Wd0iYqqkrVx5Fm06DhDb79hiEaTFCDDiE/edit?usp=sharing

With technology being an ever-growing and evolving field, schools must continue to evolve and grow with it. Science Leadership Academy prides itself on being a very tech-savvy school. It is here where technology is ingrained into the curriculum itself. However, there is always room for improvement when it comes to how SLA uses its technology.

With that, I took up the challenge to try and answer the question, “How can I improve the way SLA uses technology?

Over the course of several months, in answering the question of what can be done, you can see the results and final end product here. Thank you!

-Alonso Lai

alai22@scienceleadership.org

alonso.lai004@gmail.com

So for my capstone project, I made a video of me debunking two common misconceptions about knight armor that many people believe. Those misconceptions are, “Armor is weak” and “Armor is cumbersome”. Although my final product is a video lasting 5 minutes and 30 seconds, the process took a while to get where I wanted to be when making my video. The first thing I did was a lot of research on knight armor. I watched videos talking about the same topic, I read articles from different sources, watch videos of people wearing actual knight armor and testing it out to see what it can do, and the list goes on from what I researched. After doing research on knight armor, I started to do some research on how to even make an informational video. Having some information on how to start making videos, I started my script. The script was interesting to do because I found myself getting sidetracked a lot with my topics because im very interested in my topic but I got it done. After getting my script done, I worked on my video and it wasn’t that bad. After my process, I learned a lot of new information. I learned different types of armors and what century they are from, terms, and stuff about knights.

Bibliography:

1. Middle Ages https://www.ducksters.com/history/middle_ages/knight_armor_and_weapons.php

   At first, I really didn’t want to use this source because the website is mostly used for kids but, after reading it, it did list some nice facts that will be helpful for me later down the line. It doesn’t go into much detail on what each armor piece did or what it is made out of but it did do a good job saying what knights used and wore.

2. Fun Facts for Kids on Animals, Earth, History, and more! https://www.dkfindout.com/us/history/castles/armor/

   I like how interactive this website is. This website also gave me what I thought the previous website was missing. Also, I like how it states some myths involving knight armor.
   

3. The Armor of an English Medieval Knight https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1244/the-armour-of-an-english-medieval-knight/

With this website, It talks about the importance of the armor to a knight at first then it breaks down the different armor pieces a knight would wear. I like how they mention shields because shields played a big part in a knight’s arsenal.

4. Medieval Knight https://www.worldhistory.org/Medieval_Knight/

This source, it lists how to become a knight and what are traditions they need to know and do before even getting knighted. This is useful because it says that knights are not some random dude in armor, they are smart, wealthy person who knows how to fight.

5. Common Misconceptions https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/aams/hd_aams.htm

What I like about this article is that it both, denies and confirms if some misconceptions of knight armor are true or not. The main reason why I hear people say knight armor sucks is that they just listen to common misconceptions that aren’t true. With this list, I can mention how the misconceptions are false

6. Debunking the biggest myths about knight’s armor

Written by: Steve Charnock Steve Charnock is a freelance writer who scribbles all sorts of things for all sorts of people and Steve Charnock is a freelance writer who scribbles all sorts of things for all sorts of people

https://www.history.co.uk/shows/knight-fight/articles/debunking-the-biggest-myths-about-knights-armour

Like the previous source, this debunks some of the biggest myths involving knight armor. I feel like debunking myths in anything is very important because not only does it show things that are not true, it can also hurt the reputation of the topic in question.

7. Suit of Armor Close-Up: The medieval Harness http://medievallifestyle.com/armor-and-weapons/suit-of-armor.html

What I like about this website is that it goes into detail about every piece of armor a would wear.

8. Can a Real Suit of Armor Stop a Bullet https://youtu.be/80ZSM6qpJw8

In this video, we see actually some bullets being stopped by knight armor. I feel like this video will be good to show because its shows the strength of the armor instead of talking about it.

9. Katana vs. Longsword - Debunked https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5tuklPjtAU

This video shows the strength of a sword a knight might use. The knight’s sword withstood a strike from a katana and ruined the katana in the process, but the knight’s sword only broke after another knight’s sword struck it.

10. Mobility in Medieval Plate Armor. https://youtu.be/qzTwBQniLSc

I like this video a lot because it shows many athletic things being done in knight armor. It also shows them taking blows to each other so it also shows the durability of the armor as well.

11. The TRUTH About Full Plate https://youtu.be/rO2nM_2iBXA

For my Capstone, I chose to teach a mini-course, which was once a week for 7 weeks. The goal of my mini-course was to help students learn how to best advocate for themselves and their peers, as well as, how to be a part of ‘adult discussions’. Often teenagers are not included in meaningful discussions, because they are viewed as too young or immature. The minicourse introduced important discussion skills, gave students a place to lead and participate in group discussions, and allowed them to reflect on what they learned. This minicourse helped young leaders to realize their full potential. Initially, I had to propose my idea and get it approved by Mr.Spry, who runs minicourses at SLA. After my idea was approved, I did research surrounding how to best include and engage youth in discussions and the importance of doing so, the sources I used are included below. I then used this research to develop my 7-week lesson plan, the lesson plan is also included below. My lesson plan focused on creating structure while allowing room for student input and independence. It was also important to me that students felt comfortable in the classroom, to achieve this I added in daily warm-ups. In addition to this, I used the second class period to review important discussion skills so that each student entered with the same level of knowledge, these slides are included below. After completing my minicourse I met with a handful of students to gain feedback.

Documentation of my capstone is below click on each image to be taken to the full PDF document. (Lesson plan, day one slides, and annotated bibliography)

My name is Mas’ud and I attended Charter High school for Architect & Design (CHAD) for 9th and 10th grade. In June of 2020, my school closed down permanently also, this was the year of Covid 19. However, I ended up becoming an SLA student during my junior year. Stress would be an understatement with navigating junior year being virtual and attending a rigour more academically excelling school. At first, I was going to do my capstone on Human Trafficking but I scratched that idea. I wasted time not asking for help due to my shyness, being a new student, and trying to keep up with my grades. I decided on Pollution for my capstone. I selected Mr. Lehmann to be my mentor. When it came down to brainstorming my idea it was a real struggle because I didn’t have a clear insight into what a capstone project truly consist of. During my research on Pollution, I came across Hydroponic Gardening Systems (a method of growing plants without soil) I found this to be very interesting. Finally, after doing a more in-depth research on the benefits of Hydroponics, I concluded this would be my Capstone Project. My capstone aligns with Science Leadership Academy core values. My inquiry question is How can having a hydroponic garden promote an engaging learning environment, uplift communities, and teach healthy food selection at Science Leadership Academy High School? I had a great deal of support from my Environmental Science teacher Ms. Gade, Principal Lehmann, Ms. Martin (advisor) and some family members. Below are links to view my work.

Proposal: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GUbR5gjK-MGzzLg3UlhnpAC1eUTRK7Yed3WLvDwsOCM/edit?usp=sharing

Annotated Bibliography:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LwoxnPY0V6zg8X_GRq3J7zY8pxRLu-xe-zvXKoGCQI8/edit?usp=sharing