by Michael Januzzi

Action Research & The SDG’s: Empowering Human Intelligence Through Personalized Learning And Design Thinking

by Michael Januzzi, Writing Studio Coordinator

Human intelligence is empowered through learning experiences that are novel, emotional, and seen as bigger than oneself. The Capstone Project carefully considered these components within the theme of the 21-22 academic year: celebrating learning. The Capstone Project is a 10th-grade initiative using the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) as guideposts for learning sound research techniques, exploring college/career options, and improving academic writing. Example student research ranged from the impact of plastic pollution in the Bay of Bengal to the primary problems in the Nigerian education system and how artificial intelligence is affecting traffic systems. In the 21-22 academic year, two major changes were made: extending the project from one semester to two, and creating a Capstone Showcase of student demonstrations focused on take-home messages about their chosen SDG. The fall semester was led by the Writing and Research Studio. Four original presentations were created:

◉ Workshop 1: SDG Exploration provided current data and insights from 17 SDG’s cross-referenced with previous year students’ chosen variables.

Beginning with the big picture and sharing the startling realities of the world alongside solutions from their classmates served as the initial emotional pull into a project about working on challenges larger than themselves.

◉ Workshop 2: College & Career Exploration connected future opportunities to the SDG’s. One student shared how the presentation helped her choose SDG 3, Health and Well-being, “because of my hopes to study psychology and helped motivate me to [in the second semester] research student mental health during the pandemic.” One artificial intelligence tool that was utilized, in partnership with the Media Studio, was Descript, an audio and video editing tool, where 11th-grade students shared their experiences on how their

SDG research related to their career and college pathway interests.

◉ Workshop 3: How to formulate a research question had students narrow down their self chosen topics for time, place, group, and aspect.

◉ Workshop 4: How to conduct high quality research was described by one student as, “an experience which helped me understand how research papers could look like in the future.”

A second artificial intelligence tool to empower human intelligence was FrameVR, a tool to collaborate and communicate in 3D environments. This novel tool allowed students to have interactive access to the materials for constant reference as they completed their independent work.

The second semester deepened the collaboration with Advisory as well as all middle and high school faculty, who served as mentors. The goal of the second semester was to finalize the writing component of the Capstone and to create the showcase. Sixteen classroom visits conducting workshops or providing small groups and 1:1 writing and research support was approved in advance of the second semester by faculty and their departmental heads. One student described the second semester as, “a way to make class time useful and having three teachers meant all of us could make real progress on our work. We felt supported!” To that end, mentors also met with students 1:1 to build relationships and provided feedback on the students’ writing. Over 85% of students said mentor support was ‘very helpful’ in completing their Capstone Project. Collaborative planning to provide time for faculty to develop relationships with students is as important to empowering human intelligence as the materials provided to students.

search. Student projects included songs, interactive experiments, posters, games, physical models, and more. A design thinking approach was used and pushed students to consider key questions as they built and iterated:

◉ What is the one take-home/central message you hope others understand from your research?

◉ What was the most memorable or surprising aspect from your research?

◉ How has your research changed the way you see the world?

◉ Who is your target audience?

◉ What means would you use to symbolize/ demonstrate the message so that your audience understands?

The Capstone project sought to empower Human intelligence through learning experiences that were novel, emotional, and seen as bigger than oneself.

Kyveli Hartzler’s visual poster on habitat fragmentation and poaching effects of the Saola population.

Matilda Beligiannis’ showcase on plastic pollution in the Indian

FrameVR screenshot of all first semester workshops by the Writing Studio Anastasia Riga’s original art on the Nigerian education system