You might be wondering why we have a senior project? Why, when you are all so close to graduating do we decide to build another barrier to stop you walking out and through the Dalton Arch. Well if you are considering the project to be a barrier that must be overcome, then perhaps you are not quite ready to graduate and progress as a true Phoenix! At CDS we believe in learning by doing, in growth through experience, in the design method of prototyping and refinement. In short we believe in project based learning!
Think back to the projects you have undertaken at CDS and MacBeth will probably jump out at you as a time when you worked near to your capacity. Yet when you finished how proud were you? How much did you grow during that experience can you list all the skills you developed? All the challenges you overcame? All the conflicts you resolved? This was truly a time when you were learning and developing. Hopefully you can reflect on other projects that have challenged you similarly be it statistics projects in Pre-Calc, business plans in Econ or Trips to Mars in science.
The “Dalton” in our school name comes from a book written by Helen Parkhurst before she opened the Childrens University (Later to become the Dalton School in New York). In this book she outlined the key principles of the Dalton plan to be “freedom and cooperation” and they still form the cornerstones of our curriculum. In fact so much so, that the “freedom” makes up a large part of the senior project you have the freedom to choose an area in which you are curious. This is vital to ensure the project becomes a passion of yours that you wish to spend time developing rather than a task to be completed.
As a school we truly believe that you will develop the range of skills required for success in the 21st century by completing projects that engage and challenge you. However more than that we believe that to demonstrate you are ready to go forth as a “Phoenix” you should be the person setting your own project that allows you to engage and deepen your own passions and talents. If you find this to challenging perhaps you need to spend more time in the Phoenix nest discovering and developing your passions. I hope you can take advantage of this opportunity to devote time and energy into an area of interest to you, if you are passionate about what you do then it will shine through in your eventual presentation no matter what the subject matter. Go forth and inquire and bring us back your findings!
Think back to the projects you have undertaken at CDS and MacBeth will probably jump out at you as a time when you worked near to your capacity. Yet when you finished how proud were you? How much did you grow during that experience can you list all the skills you developed? All the challenges you overcame? All the conflicts you resolved? This was truly a time when you were learning and developing. Hopefully you can reflect on other projects that have challenged you similarly be it statistics projects in Pre-Calc, business plans in Econ or Trips to Mars in science.
The “Dalton” in our school name comes from a book written by Helen Parkhurst before she opened the Childrens University (Later to become the Dalton School in New York). In this book she outlined the key principles of the Dalton plan to be “freedom and cooperation” and they still form the cornerstones of our curriculum. In fact so much so, that the “freedom” makes up a large part of the senior project you have the freedom to choose an area in which you are curious. This is vital to ensure the project becomes a passion of yours that you wish to spend time developing rather than a task to be completed.
As a school we truly believe that you will develop the range of skills required for success in the 21st century by completing projects that engage and challenge you. However more than that we believe that to demonstrate you are ready to go forth as a “Phoenix” you should be the person setting your own project that allows you to engage and deepen your own passions and talents. If you find this to challenging perhaps you need to spend more time in the Phoenix nest discovering and developing your passions. I hope you can take advantage of this opportunity to devote time and energy into an area of interest to you, if you are passionate about what you do then it will shine through in your eventual presentation no matter what the subject matter. Go forth and inquire and bring us back your findings!
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