Program introduces students to researching, writing a thesis

AP Capstone program spans junior, senior years



ADVANCED RESEARCH—Moorpark High School teachers Zara Navarro, left, and Bridgette “Jett” Clyne lead the Advanced Placement Capstone program, which includes research and seminar classes. MICHAEL COONS/Acorn Newspapers

ADVANCED RESEARCH—Moorpark High School teachers Zara Navarro, left, and Bridgette “Jett” Clyne lead the Advanced Placement Capstone program, which includes research and seminar classes. MICHAEL COONS/Acorn Newspapers

Chase Woodard would spend hours in Bridgette “Jett” Clyne’s classroom at Moorpark High School, pouring over research about cyberbullying at Moorpark Unified School District’s middle schools. He spent most of the fall semester of his senior year collecting the data as he interviewed young teens and handed out surveys at the three middle schools.

To his surprise, he discovered that most students had not experienced bullying online or in person. Woodard also learned that girls were more likely to tell their friends or an adult about bullying, while boys would be more inclined to keep to themselves.

“My research showed that often times a perceived imbalance of power was a characteristic of bullying,” said Woodard, 18, who is now a freshman at Moorpark College. “It really made me feel good to see that it is not as intense of a problem as I had been led to believe.”

Based on what he learned, Woodard created a 16-page research project about the impact of cyberbullying on sixth, seventh and eighth-grade students and shared what he found with the principals at Chaparral and Mesa Verde middle schools.

“I would be more than willing to share the information (with others), as I think it could add a lot of insight to the community as well as bring awareness to what we need to work on as a society,” Woodard said.

He believes the report might help schools address the underlying causes and effects of bullying on young students.

The Moorpark resident said he couldn’t have accomplished the task without guidance from his teachers, Clyne and Zara Navarro, as he worked through the high school’s Advanced Placement Capstone Program.

First introduced at MHS in 2015, AP Capstone is a two-year program that combines original research with two classes, AP Seminar and AP Research, which students take during their junior and senior years.

In AP Seminar, students learn how to identify credible sources and make logical arguments as they participate in team projects, write personal papers and give presentations. The following year, in AP Research, students build on their skills as they create their own research project.

By the end of the program, students turn in a 5,000-word paper and participate in a 20-minute oral defense of their work. MHS is one of 150 schools in the state to offer the college-level program.

Navarro and Clyne, the program’s teachers, consider the capstone program a “mini master’s thesis.”

“It’s rigorous,” Clyne said. “But it is really wonderful that we can offer this opportunity to those students who are ready to prepare themselves for a college level paper.”

The AP Capstone program came to Moorpark High three years ago when school administrators Carrie Pentis and Tim Bednar asked Navarro to lead the new academic endeavor. Two years later, Navarro asked Clyne to help her lead the program on campus.

“I was so excited,” Clyne said. “We both are teachers who set a high bar and encourage students to reach for it.”

The teachers were asked to lead the program because of their own experience conducting research and writing theses. Both hold advanced degrees and worked in fields including science, engineering and finance.

“I love research. I have two master’s degrees and a doctorate,” Navarro said. “I’m one of those weird people where it relaxes me to do research,” the former Rocketdyne financial advisor said.

“It’s nice that we both have different backgrounds so we can complement one another,” said Clyne, who graduated pre-dentistry from UCLA but switched career paths to become a teacher.

Unlike traditional AP classes that fall under the MUSD curriculum, the AP Capstone program is managed by the College Board, a New York-based nonprofit organization that administers the SAT and AP tests.

Advanced placement classes have long been offered at high schools across the U.S. Students can take the classes and then pay to sit for AP tests, which are administered in the spring. Typically, those who score a 4 or higher on the 5-point test are awarded college credit in that subject.

The Capstone project is graded by the College Board and can be used for elective credit in college.

Under the AP Capstone program, the College Board trains teachers during the summer and encourages them to create their own lesson plans and syllabi.

The program also encourages teachers to have a hands-off approach during the second semester as students develop their research papers and prepare their oral defenses.

“Each individual student approaches it differently, and the most intriguing thing about the class is how everyone takes it upon themselves to find their own research method,” Woodard said. “The premise of the class is to find information that hasn’t been found yet and relate it back to your community and make it your own.”

The rigor of the program helps prepare high school students for the demands of college, especially when it comes to research papers.

“If a student is not self-motivated, if a student requires too much push to get their work done, this class is not for them,” Clyne said. “It’s really for that student . . . willing to invest the time and energy into doing something that really is a higher-level class.”

Past students said the program helped them discover new passions and interests before they entered their college careers. Woodard, for example, said the Capstone courses inspired him to pursue a research-based career in psychology or journalism.

“The class honestly changed my life, and I think it’s awesome that young people like myself are getting exposed to researching and learning about where different subject matters coexist,” he said.