Juniors and seniors presented their exhibitions
For the last decade, a pillar of Anzar High School’s curriculum
has been the graduation exhibition
– a program designed to demonstrate exactly how well students
are able to put their high school education to use before they are
allowed to graduate.
Juniors and seniors presented their exhibitions
For the last decade, a pillar of Anzar High School’s curriculum has been the graduation exhibition – a program designed to demonstrate exactly how well students are able to put their high school education to use before they are allowed to graduate.
With graduation only days away, juniors and seniors defended their hard work in front of judges at the end of May as they presented their exhibition projects.
“It was a lot of work, but I passed so I’m happy,” said Ashlee Brumbach, a senior at Anzar.
Exhibitions are more than term projects or final papers; they are an expression of student knowledge beyond standard testing, according to Anzar Principal Charlene McKowen.
“At the worst, exhibitions are complex projects that the students work on as juniors and seniors, but the projects have to be student-passion based,” McKowen said in an article published last year. “At their best, which we really believe in, they ensure that every student graduating has really challenged him or herself in an area that they have a real passion for.”
Exhibitions are a combination of research, written work and oral presentations, McKowen said. Students must cover five or six areas – language, arts, science, social science, service learning, a post-graduate plan, and sometimes math. There are also two or three components – art, word language, and possibly math – that must be woven into an exhibition of choice.
Students have the choice to do some individual exhibitions, but they are encouraged to take a more interdisciplinary approach by combining areas, with a maximum of three overall presentations allowed.
The first step in developing an exhibition is the identification of interests or passions. From these, students identify topics. The topics are typically subjects that the students are passionate about.
Brumbach chose “Is dying your hair hazardous to your health?” Other examples included “Does the Media have a Substantial Effect on the public’s Phobia of Sharks?” presented by Amanda Arnold, 18; and “Does the History of Homosexuality Give Gay and Lesbian Teens Any Hope for the Future?” by Arianna Mazer.
Jona Nicklin, 16, had a spiritual connection to the topic she selected, “Can origami have a positive effect on people?”
The exhibition incorporated elements of math and science, but Nicklin said that it also focused on the spiritual elements.
“A lot of [the project] was based on major stuff in my life,” Nicklin said. “So it was kind of difficult getting up and talking to the judges about it, but I felt good.”
For her exhibition, Brumbach incorporated elements of math and science into the presentation, as well. The girl with the bleached-blonde hair has been dying her hair for years so finding evidence that she is not doing serious damage to her hair was a good thing. Plus, the project helped her learn biology, a topic which generally is not of much interest to her
Ultimately, Brumbach decided that her constantly changing hair wouldn’t cause too much irreparable harm to her health.
For Mazer’s presentation she incorporated elements of history – talking about the topic of homosexuality as it has been viewed throughout different periods in history – as well as language skills.
For Mazer’s exhibition she was able to explore a topic that is very close to her heart, equal rights.
“Equality rights are very important to me,” Mazer said. “So to have the opportunity to explore the topic in my exhibition was great.”
From the topics, students then identify issues that are complex enough for them to explore from many perspectives. The development of the issues is critical. Working with a complex issue about which the students’ care deeply is what allows the students to demonstrate their mastery of the subject, McKowen said. Once the issue has been identified, students and coaches work on research skills, writing skills and oral presentation skills.
Each exhibition requires a written and oral presentation. Students are required to make the two presentations unique so that different information is presented each time.
“The oral presentation is a little harder than the written portion,” Mazer said. “I was a little nervous being in front of the judges, but fortunately I’ve been in 4-H so I’ve had to give presentations before.”
A panel of judges assembled from the community evaluates both the written and oral sections of the exhibitions.
Judges all go through the same training process ahead of time, in a two-hour simulation-based workshop using rubrics, score sheets, and actual student work.
Oral presentations usually last from 20 minutes to one hour, with some going longer. Each oral presentation is followed by a question and answer period. This is where the students have the opportunity to really shine. By showing that they can think on their feet, they are able to demonstrate that they have truly “mastered” their topic to the best of their ability, McKowen said.
After Mazer’s presentation, the judges were blown away.
“It was the shortest amount of time we’ve seen the judges take to make a decision,” Michael Grunderson, Mazer’s coach/counselor said. “She possessed such power and command. The judges were blown away, especially for a junior.”
Not everyone is so passionate about the topics they explore.
In fact, some students find the exhibitions make them lose passion about subjects they were once passionate about.
“You’re supposed to pick something you’re passionate about, but you lose passion for the subject because you have to do so much work,” Arnold said. “I like writing papers, but exhibitions cause unneeded stress. I hate exhibitions.”
