Fifth grade students in the classes of Mrs. Elizabeth Stillman and Ms. Jaclyn Church shared their Capstone research programs with parents, peers and teachers on May 28 in the Berry Performing Arts Center.
This year's projects were particularly special, as this group was the first to embark on a new, more rigorous iteration than in previous years. The theme of this new Capstone project was “Hope.” More concretely, the students were tasked with selecting a person or group who they felt embodied hopeful leadership. The students’ presentations consisted of three elements: videos created by the students educating the community on their chosen topics, panel discussions during which the audience heard from the newly minted experts candidly, and an exhibition of the students’ research journals and Spanish-language posters.
The students have been working on this project since January – researching, scripting, recording, editing and collaborating. Many faculty members had a hand in supporting these students, and this project is a true reflection of the Lower School experience in its entirety. The students wrote their video scripts with ease thanks to their experience in delivering third and fourth grade speeches.
Lower School STEM teacher Mrs. Kelly Coleman ’98 was responsible for the students’ comfort with the technology used to create the videos. Sra. Maria Hinestroza had the strongest hand in teaching the students the UNESCO Sustainable Development Goals, which were a driving force behind this work. Lower School music teacher Mrs. Shannon Sari programmed songs of Hope into the concerts, and art teacher Mrs. Sara McDermott helped the students create a surprise for their Kindergarten buddies at the Lower School assembly, which represented an extension of the presentation and continued the theme of “hopeful leadership.”