After months of meticulous research and data collection, AP Research students showcased their final projects on Feb. 19, presenting their unique findings to an audience of friends, family and faculty. The event celebrated their hard work and the culmination of their academic journey.
Eric Bauer, AP Research teacher, explained the students’ work by saying, “They found a gap in research in their field of choice and dived deeper into it.”
For AP Research students, their projects all started with identifying an absence of research within a specific field and identifying their initial research question.
Ethan Faber, senior, conducted his research on ACL recovery.Het described his path to narrowing down his research topic by explaining, “I have a twin brother, and he tore his ACL, which made me want to look into it,” Faber said.
The second step for the AP Research students is finding an expert advisor whether that be a college professor or expert in their selected area.
Luke Djurasovic, senior, centered his research on the connection between music therapy and hypertension. His path to finding an advisor involved, “cold emailing music therapists in the area.” Djurasovic described his relationship with his advisor by stating he reached out, “just whenever I had a question I would send an email or set up a Zoom.”
The last step of their projects included collecting their data or research.
Brandon Gunn, senior, focused his piece on genders’ effects on reading preferences. “I went into predominantly senior English classes and asked them about their reading preferences across genre and gender,” Gunn said.
Although many if not all data collecting went smoothly, there were some inevitable issues.
Rita Ferrero, senior, centered her research on athletes and Type 1 Diabetes. Ferrero described her issues around collecting data by saying, “group size was a big one, it’s hard to find Type 1 diabetics in the area, and those that are willing to participate.”
Despite the hard work required to complete a research project, when asked if he would recommend the class, Ethan Faber, senior, said, “100% it’s going to be a lot of work. I’ve done a lot of work outside of class, but it’s fun. You get to do your research project on something you enjoy, and the class is a nice small group of people.”
Finally after months of research, emailing and presenting wrapping up, more work awaits the AP Research students, including a final presentation and summative essay of their findings. In May the AP Research students will be submitting their final research to the College Board. When their work is submitted, the students can do nothing but wait until they receive their exam results in July.
