AP Research Presentations

20 students in the  AP Research class are currently putting the final touches and edits on the 4000-5000 word academic research paper before submission to the College Board.

During the last week of April and the first week of May, they are also in the final stages of preparing a 20 minute presentation to be submitted to the College Board. Based on original research of a topic of his/her own choosing and 6 months of preparation, each student presents their respective findings, results and/or conclusions.

Among some of the research projects conducted by members of the class include a study by senior Daniel Flores regarding the depression of senior high school football players caused by the pandemic in the Fresno area. Junior Nicole Smittcamp conducted a number of interviews of
women business entrepreneurs and examined their use of social media to create personal branding of their business ventures, while senior Cate van Garsse conducted a study of the detection of autism disorders among adult women. Two juniors—Nathalie Medrano and Alastair Teixeira--concentrated their efforts on political attitudes and voting patterns among adolescents, while senior Catherine Gleason and junior Jazmine Cortez concentrated their efforts on leadership portrayals of female leads in Barbie and Disney animations and the objectification of women in Chris Brown videos respectively.

For baseball fans, Jack Sampson
conducted a study of the 2017 World Series to determine if the sign-stealing scandal impacted the outcome of the series. Other papers ranged from the use CBD in the healing process of the elderly to perceptions of disabilities in Percy Jackson films to asexuality. Because there is no set curriculum or AP exam, AP Research is among the most unique AP courses of the College Board’s 38 AP courses. The criteria for selecting a topic is simply based
on subjects for which students have an intense interest and passion AND have the self- discipline to work the entire school year on a single topic. Akhnoor will join former AP Capstone student and 2020 graduate, Margaret Smith, at Harvard next year--and current AP Research student Ellie Luchini earned an early acceptance to Stanford.

-Article by Instructor Edward Borges