Bellport High School Advanced Placement Seminar students completed the first of two performance tasks on March 4 to receive credit as part of the South Country Central School District’s new AP Capstone program. The team projects were presented on the library’s Nureva screen to teachers John Bishop and Kristen Fehr-Thompson, as well as administrators and faculty.

The AP Capstone Program is a diploma program based on two yearlong AP courses, AP Seminar and AP Research, which are designed to complement other AP offerings. AP Seminar and AP research use an interdisciplinary approach to develop critical thinking, research, collaboration, time management and presentation skills needed for college. Students can earn the AP Capstone Diploma by earning scores of 3 or higher in both courses and on four additional AP exams. By earning scores of 3 or higher in both courses, but not on four additional exams, students can acquire an AP Seminar and Research Certificate.

“There was definitely a demand for the AP Capstone program, because 70 students enrolled in the AP Seminar course this year,” Ms. Fehr-Thompson said. “The course is very inclusive with no pre-requisites, except completion of English 9 or 10, making it accessible to all the students.”

Prior to presenting each project, the 18 teams discussed, developed and examined through “individual lenses” a pressing societal issue or problem. The examination of the issue commenced with the formulation of a research question and culminated in each team member completing a 1,200-word individual research report, called an I.R.R. Each team’s developed research question was investigated through the team members’ individual lenses.

Once the I.R.R. was completed, the teams met regularly to develop 8-10 minute multimedia presentations where they decided the focal point of their research. The highlight of the team multimedia presentation was the team’s coming to a consensus on possible solutions to the investigated problem established at the start of the project.

After each presentation was delivered, Mr. Bishop and Ms. Fehr-Thompson asked questions based on the students’ research.