Four SIS students earn AP Capstone Diploma

Four Saipan International School students of recently earned their AP Capstone Diploma after a year of self-guided research on a topic of their choice. Also, three other SIS students were recognized with AP Seminar and Research Certificates, with two of them continuing with AP courses at SIS.

Anika Snyder, Eunseo No, Malika Miyawaki, and Sangyoon Lee successfully completed the AP Capstone Diploma program. This comes a year after SIS became the only school in Micronesia authorized to offer the AP Capstone Diploma, which is offered to students that earn scores of 3 or higher in AP Seminar, AP Research and on four additional AP Exams of their choosing.

In addition to the full diploma graduates, Jon Paul Sablan, Samantha Liske-Clark, and Yeonkyoung No were also recognized with AP Seminar and Research Certificates. Liske-Clark and No will continue with AP courses at SIS and hope to earn the full Capstone diploma next year.

In their first year, the Capstone students engaged in group research around “Big Idea” problems facing people across the globe. They developed multiple solutions to address the issues and, after evaluating each one through a myriad of lenses, presented the process and their conclusions during a public presentation.

This year, in their AP Research course, students worked with experts in the field to guide them in the design and implementation of their own research projects. The student research projects were:

Lee (Public Knowledge: Tuberculosis vs. HIV);

Liske-Clarke (Comparative Growth Rates of Acropora globiceps in the Saipan Nursery);

Miyawaki (Impact of Social Media on Tourists’ Decisions on Local Businesses);

Yeonkyoung No (Finding the Most Effective Type of Teacher Evaluations for Saipan PSS Teachers);

Henry Qian (Finding the Most Effect Bait and Place to Fish For Parrot Fish On Saipan);

Sablan (Measuring Confidence in Students); and

Snyder (The Thermotolerant Advantage of Heat Acclimation in Nerita plicata).

Snyder and Liske-Clark each earned a 5, the highest score, for their research.

The College Board developed the AP Capstone Diploma program at the request of higher education professionals, who saw a need for a systematic way for high school students to begin mastering critical thinking, research, collaboration, time management, and presentation skills before college. (PR)