The Senior Project at the iSchool is the academic capstone of each student’s experience.   Each student explores a topic of their choice over a ten month long time period in their junior and senior years of high school.  It is crucial that students choose a topic that is important to them!  The Senior Project is each student’s opportunity to explore a topic that truly interests them and for them to create something substantial, important and personal.

Senior Project is the final of a three course sequence at the iSchool:  Critical Thinking, in which students explore their area of focus (English, Social Studies, Science, Math, Technology or The Arts) and develop a topic idea, Research and Writing, where students research their topic and write an in depth literature review, Senior Project, where students create an original artifact in reaction to their research.

At the end of this process the goal is for each student to be able to engage in a hour long discussion* wherein they can demonstrate the knowledge they gained through their research, how their topic connects to what was covered in their area of focus course and discuss the specifics of their project and any future implications it may have or plans to continue working with the material.  Students who truly excel in this process can earn Distinction** on their diploma from the NYC iSchool.

Students are expected to spend approximately fifty to sixty hours of their time completing their project. The time is broken down as follows: 15 hours of in-class time with a teacher, 15 hours of in-school, independent work, 2-5 hours of afterschool sessions, and about 20 hours of out of school work.  Students are also required to present their work at one of three Senior Project sessions in January and have a debrief conversation with a teacher during a scheduled time.

Every senior project is different,  check out the project examples page to get a better idea of what makes a good project and the project archive to see some of the work  students have created.

* hour long conversation – is not expected to actually be an hour long, is more like a twenty-thirty minute convo but stems from a college thesis hour long presentation of materials

** DISTINCTION- in order for students to earn distinction on their project they must earn an 85+ in all three components of the process: Critical Thinking, Research + Writing , Senior Project.