Volunteers sought to judge early completed senior student projects

Kelcy Dolan
Posted 12/23/14

Warwick Public School seniors are nearly halfway through their last year and are well into their senior projects. On Feb. 9, Vets, Pilgrim and Toll Gate will host early presentations for almost 150 …

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Volunteers sought to judge early completed senior student projects

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Warwick Public School seniors are nearly halfway through their last year and are well into their senior projects. On Feb. 9, Vets, Pilgrim and Toll Gate will host early presentations for almost 150 students collectively.

Chip McGair, graduation by proficiency coordinator for Warwick Veterans, said, “Many students benefit from being able to balance out their project through the whole year, but for those go-getters who start in the summer and work really hard throughout the first half of the year, the opportunity to present early can be seen as a reward for their hard work. It lets them focus on the end of the year, the fun things about being a senior, like prom, and the transition they will soon be making at the end of the school year.”

This year is the first year that all three schools have hit their 25 percent maximum, or around 50 students, to present during the early presentations.

In preparing for these early presentations, the schools are looking for community members to volunteer as judges. With the help of certified teachers they will be asked to review binders, products and presentations to decide whether or not a student passes or if they need to revise their project.

McGair said, “A good judge is somebody who really cares about what’s going on in our schools. Our schools are a huge part of our community and senior project is a showcase of skills. There are sports, concerts and plays, but senior project is a time for students to show off their academic side with something they worked hard on and they did really well. Most importantly, it’s something they have chosen, something they really take pride in.”

Although students are still required to write a four-page thesis-driven research paper, senior project has gone through many changes over the last three years and this year students must sign a contract rather than write their own proposal. Not only do students and GBP coordinators sign it, but parents as well. The hope is that this will improve parents’ involvement with the project, by making them talk to their children about it.

Similarly, instead of three choices like last year, students only have two to do their senior project: Searching for Identity or Making a Difference. Searching for Identity is closer to the traditional senior project of years past where students come up with a product-focused project. Making a Difference allows students to volunteer and their product becomes the difference they have made throughout the process. McGair said, that at least in Vets, students are about cut down the middle between the two options.

He said, “I think sometimes teenagers aren’t given enough credit. So many of our students are civic minded and want to reach out to the community to help. This year we have students running fundraisers, or volunteering at Kent Hospital. With this avenue for senior project, students get to see their influence on the world around them, witness themselves making a tangible difference.”

Among the projects for this year’s early presentations are students who have taught lessons throughout the Warwick schools; one student is composing an original piece of classical music, another is building cabinets from scratch, while one student is creating a rehab plan for a knee injury.

Those interested in being a judge for the early presentations should contact one of the three GBP coordinators for more information. Vets GBP Coordinator Chip McGair can be reached at mcgairc@warwickschools.com, Pilgrim’s Sue Cranston can be reached at cranstons@warwickschools.com and Toll Gate’s Dr. Frederick Schweitzer at schweizerf@warwickschools.

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