In a computer lab tucked away in the back of the Fountain Hills High School library, a classroom of 20 students watches videos of their peers giving oral presentations. The room is dark, save for the screen displaying the presentations and the computer screens illuminating each student’s face.

While the students in the video discuss their various projects, the students in the classroom busily type notes and confer with their classmates.

When the video ends, teacher Amanda Neaton asks her students how the most recent group of presenters compared to the one they had watched previously.

“This group was better,” one student offers.

“How were they better,” another asks.

Replies come from different corners of the room, students offering that this latest group seemed more confident and well-spoken, or that each student in the group took part in the presentation rather than a single spokesperson.

From the videos they are watching, to working with their classmates, to the notes they are taking to the answers they are providing their teacher, everything about this lesson is focused on the art of communication.

According to Neaton, that’s one of the primary focuses of the new AP Capstone course, which was recently introduced at FHHS.

Unlike most high school classes, the Capstone course focuses on more long-term projects. Rather than approach a topic from the surface level or even digging a bit deeper for a report, these students are encouraged to keep on digging.

Digging deeper

For their own projects, these students will work in groups and focus on topics they are passionate about. They’ll conduct tons of research, check their facts and gather plenty of information. Another focus of the class will be learning how to properly interpret that information and how it is being presented to them, with still another focus being on conveying that information to their classmates.

This class is more akin to what you might see at a college, and Neaton said it’s helping prepare local students for exactly that.

“The class is essentially designed to get students to look at how they think, how other people think, how they convey ideas and the effect that can have on others,” Neaton said. “It’s also a way to get them to launch into something they’re interested in.”

Neaton said students are currently focused on three tasks.

“The task at the end, the end-of-course exam, is about understanding if the student is a good reader, do they go in-depth with things, are they able to extract and analyze ideas, evaluate and plan and things like that,” Neaton said. “But they have two performance tasks they also focus on.”

For that, students are writing “big research papers,” according to Neaton, followed by a presentation on their findings.

“This covers more than just diction and writing for an academic audience,” Neaton continued. “It also looks at whether or not they can establish a proper counter-argument, are they introducing their sources properly and things like that.

“Especially for a high school kid, it can be difficult to understand, how are people going to interpret what I’m communicating to them? So a large part of this class is communication. Other parts are about getting them to step out of their comfort zone and collaborate.”

Neaton said she tried to group students with their polar opposites in the class in order to create better conversations.

“Really, it’s a course about thinking,” she offered. “There are a lot of challenges, and it really is a course that challenges a high-performing student to take an hour a day and work on their interest at a high level.”

When a project would typically be complete in a standard class, it’s only getting started in Capstone. Neaton explained that, when a research paper is turned in, she takes the first pass at it. From there, the student makes corrections, finds new sources, strengthens arguments, etc. Their peers will then help them through the process, taking another pass at the project and offering their own assessments and criticisms. This continues until the project truly feels complete.

Solid start

This is the first year for the AP Capstone course, so Neaton said that it is being treated similar to one of the students’ projects. This is the first pass, and she’s learning a lot as she goes along. She’ll combine those findings with the findings of her students in order to improve the class next school year; and then the process will repeat.

“It’s been interesting,” Neaton added. “They’re such high level students, and high level students don’t usually offer negative feedback to a teacher. But I’m lucky because I’m close enough to them that they’re sharing that information with me. If there’s something they’re not benefitting from, they let me know. That’s been really helpful.”

Neaton said she feels that the Capstone course is beneficial because it offers a next step for those high-level students she referenced earlier.

“At a certain point, with students on this level, they start to wonder why they still need to be in high school,” she said. “They’ve taken all of the AP classes and they think, all right, I’m ready for college but I’m only a junior. This is a course that goes as high as we can take it.

“They’re learning to extract information, analyze it, turn it into ideas and effectively communicate those ideas with other people.

“It’s for students who like to think.”