Senior Project Research Commences!
Bryan Gnehm and Mya Oyler, Animas Quill
Senior Project season is heating up as AHS 12th graders dive into their research! Moving forward, seniors will spend Wednesdays at the Durango Public Library digging into their thesis topic research.
This new phase of project work began this past Wednesday, when senior teachers Sara Price and Kyle Edmondson gathered their students at the library for class. The goal of this off-campus excursion was, according to Sara, “to allow seniors to explore what local and future college libraries offer” as well as to facilitate the type of thinking and focus that the Senior Project research requires. She elaborated, “I do think sometimes we need a change of space, and I know libraries are very much designed to help foster [this type of concentration].”
Throughout the day, seniors worked their way throughout the library finding nooks in which to conduct their own research. Senior Cooper Machicek shared that “the environment was serene and productive,” which allowed students to focus on their research without the usual distractions of school. Kyle offered, “It gives [seniors] a lot of time to dig into really complicated ideas,” which is at the heart of the Senior Project goals.
To begin understanding the complexities of each topic, students have been assigned to find five sources, which can be books or academic articles. Seniors learned how to do “deep reading” which assisted students to be able to pull key ideas out of the text to begin forming their arguments.
Developing the senior thesis topics pushed the students to be creative and find something that they are passionate about. Thesis topics are all over the map, ranging from artistic analysis to scientific papers.
Christine Howe described her research topic as, “an exploration of our current food production industry and the importance of incorporating regenerative agriculture to promote sustainability for future generations.” Many seniors are following a similar theme of environmentalism. Jazzy Lindsay explained her project as, “studying the relationship of fungi to our ecosystem and how we can study them to better understand how plants communicate with one another.”
These themes and ideas don’t come without their challenges. Jazzy continued, “Finding enough existing research has been the most challenging part so far.” Christine reiterated these challenges, saying, “Understanding the complexity and navigating the polarizing opinions around my topic has been the hardest part.” These challenges will be worth the struggle in the long run as the seniors are learning valuable skills for college and life as well as creating a beautiful final product.
Stay tuned for more coverage on the evolving beautiful work of the class of 2022!
