Orange, CA - June 6, 2019 - El Modena offers 29 AP courses and has 57 seniors who qualified for AP Scholar Awards. Among the many high achievers are 23 students who are on-track to receive the AP Capstone Diploma. These students will have earned scores of 3 or higher in AP Seminar and AP Research and on four additional AP exams of their choosing. As Aubrey Adams (12) explained, "The AP Capstone program pushes you to your limits and teaches you to work independently. I highly recommend this program to students who are up to the challenge."
AP Capstone classes are unlike any other AP classes: AP Seminar and AP Research use an interdisciplinary approach to develop the critical thinking, research, collaboration, time management, and presentation skills students need for college-level work. AP Capstone student Michelle Truong shared that, "Although Capstone was a lot of work the past two years, it has been a very unique learning experience. Because I've been able to begin research my senior year of high school, I have more experience in the process than most college students. My teachers put their heart and soul into the program, and I thoroughly enjoyed the program."
In AP Seminar, students investigate real-world issues from multiple perspectives, gathering and analyzing information from various sources in order to develop credible and valid evidence-based arguments.
In AP Research, students cultivate the skills and discipline necessary to conduct independent research in order to produce and defend a scholarly academic thesis. The culmination of this work is an Oral Defense in front of a panel of experts. Sarah Ando (12) believes that "AP Capstone has given me the opportunity to explore topics in great depth much more than I would have ever done in other classes. It has helped me in discovering what I want to do in the future: socially engaged visual arts."
El Modena students researched such topics as “The Effects of Water Temperature on Bioluminescence”, “Quantum Computing”, “Depression in the Homeless Population”, “Reproduction of Strawberry Sea Anemone in Artificial Light”, and “Nostalgia and Brand Recognition”.
