AP Research students deliver their final presentation and engage in oral defense with their panelists

On April 27, a Saturday and non-school day, a small crowd of teachers gathered in the back half of the second floor auditorium to listen to AP Research students deliver their final, formal presentations about their year-long research project, which aims to investigate an academic topic, problem, or issue of interest. The study had to fill a gap in the already existing body of research, should be replicable, and should lead to a new conclusion or finding. The 16 presentations took up almost the whole morning and the afternoon, the first beginning at 8:00 a.m. and the last ending at 4:30 p.m. Each student was given a thirty minute time slot with panelists of their choice. Mr. Michael Agliata, the AP Research teacher, had to be a panelist for all presentations.

The presentation had to adhere to several of college board’s guidelines, and students tried their best to obtain the highest scores on the rubric. During this 15-20 minute presentation, students were expected to state their research question, and justify how their method and results led them to their conclusion by illustrating how evidence supported or refuted their initial hypothesis. Then, the limitations of the study and the implications of the conclusion had to be explained, along with recommended future directions of research for upcoming studies. Throughout their speech, students’ performance techniques were also evaluated, as seen by their presentation’s medium and design, and by their use of eye contact, vocal variety, gestures, and movement.

Finally, after explaining their research, students had to answer three oral defense questions asked by their panelists. These questions were chosen from a list. The first question intended to assess the research inquiry process, the second to evaluate the student’s depth of understanding of their project, and the third to prompt reflection upon the student’s whole research inquiry process.

After all these formal requirements were met, panelists were free to ask any further questions, and give the students additional feedback.

When asked to reflect upon the whole AP Research experience, Yiyun Wu (12A) expressed, “I’ve definitely learned a lot about the whole research process, which will carry over when I do research in university. Beyond the artificial constraints set by Collegeboard, this whole AP Research process taught me important life skills. I used to be afraid of reaching out to people when I needed help. This past year, however, I have learned to push past my comfort zone, and I have been pleasantly surprised many times….[by] all the wonderful mentors in my life. The presentation and oral defense went pretty well, though I was extremely nervous, probably because I was still working on my PowerPoint minutes before my timeslot. My delivery would have been better had I run my speech over many more times. I will definitely reflect on and learn from this experience.”

Featured Image – Yiyun Wu delivers her AP Research final presentation – Photo Courtesy of Mr. Scott Sanders

By Gracier Dai