The News
Journal chronicalled the impressive list of Senior Projects undertaken
by students at Middletown High School - see below. We'd like to congratulate our
featured students and their advisors, and send out a big THANK YOU to Principal
Donna Mitchell. Her hard work and advocacy sold
the paper on the story and resulted in the diverse representation of students
and projects.
From taxidermy to guitars, senior projects pay
off
By: EDWARD L. KENNEY/The News
Journal
Posted: March 21, 2009
One high school
student rescued two starving horses. Another converted his hybrid car to run on
hydrogen. A third documented how a natural treatment cleared up her
acne.
All of them -- like
the 565 seniors at Middletown High School and scores around the state -- are
required to complete a project to graduate.
The projects bring
out some of the best in the students, Principal Donna Mitchell
said.
Take Devon Stover.
The 18-year-old is interested in green technology. He converted his 2001 Ford
Taurus hybrid to run at least part of the time on hydrogen.
"So far, I've been
able to get 30 percent better fuel efficiency out of my car," he
said.
For a high school
student, Stover has revved ahead of many of his peers and joined a club with
some famous members. On Thursday, when President Barack Obama
appeared on
"The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," Leno told the president he owns a hydrogen
car, and Obama referred to it as the technology of the
future.
Stover was
encouraged to start thinking about his senior project when he was an
underclassman. Mitchell, who adopted the idea for the projects from the New
Castle County Vocational-Technical School District where she
once taught, said it helps prime them for real-world
experiences.
"It allows us to be
creative and express ourselves," Stover said. "With each generation, there's
something unique to bring out."
He brought his car
to the school parking lot to run in front of a team of evaluators. Projects are
graded on three components, including a presentation. The other elements
are a
research paper and a portfolio.
"They just can't do
research and report on it," said Elva Mosley, a student adviser who schedules
the projects. "They actually have to produce something."
"Most of them are
pretty good at producing, making something. With some of these kids, you don't
even know that they had the ability to do it. It's just amazing," Mosley
said.
Kathy Demarest, New
Castle County Vo-Tech School District spokeswoman, says she has seen some
amazing projects at Hodgson Vocational-Technical High School,
where the
initiative was started 20 years ago. One student, she recalls, presented a
project on diabetes that was so good it ended up being published as a
college-level research paper.
Demarest has done a
little research on her own, discovering that senior projects have spread to
other schools and districts, including to The Charter School of Wilmington,
and
Polytech, Milford, Sussex Technical, Newark and Christiana high
schools.
At Middletown High,
seniors whose projects rise above the pack are invited to give follow-up
presentations in April, and the top finishers receive scholarships. Last year,
the school
gave away $6,000, raised through business partnerships and other sources,
Mitchell said.
She has been floored by some of
the projects at the school this year.
Kat Hansen, 17, who
wants to be a dermatologist, gave a presentation on "Equating the Efficiency of
Natural and Synthetic Acne Treatments," which contrasted monthlong trials of natural and
synthetic treatments.
"According to my
data, a natural regimen had better results," Hansen said. "It consisted of
absolutely no acne medical treatments. There was a natural facewash that
wasn't even
targeted as an acne treatment. And I took a multivitamin every day and had to
have a serving of herbal, detoxifying tea. I did that for a
month.
"Modern medicine
nowadays wants to push taking pills," she said. "But you don't have to add a lot
of things into your lifestyle, just make it simpler. Your body will reach
equilibrium
naturally."
Hansen said she
enjoyed presenting her senior project, and she qualified to make a follow-up
presentation in April.
"As stressful as it
is, I think it's important," she said. "It's not like a class; it's a project
you have to do by yourself. It draws out responsibility, which is an important
thing to
learn when you're about to graduate."
Senior Tedi Dessin,
17, rescued starving horses. She is keeping them on her riding teacher's farm
near Delaware City, where she documented their progress with weekly
photographs
as she helped nurse them back to health.
"There are a lot of
starving horses, especially with the economy being bad," said Dessin, who wants
to be a veterinarian or teacher. "People don't have money to feed their
animals."
Some projects almost
sound like they were lifted from the pages of Popular Mechanics
magazine.
Evan Riley, who has
worked backstage at Middletown High's theater productions, built and
demonstrated a fog machine; Paul Ojewoye levitated a magnet between two
graphite
plates, demonstrating the technology used to suspend "bullet trains" above
rails; Vince Salemink developed a computer chess program to show how artificial
intelligence could be developed to learn by its
mistakes; and Jon Amato rebuilt a '74 Plymouth Duster in a presentation he
called "How to Build a Muscle Car."
"I think it's a good
thing," Amato said of his senior project. "It allowed me to realize I didn't
want to work on cars like my father did. I want to keep it as a hobby. I don't
want to
grow to hate it."
Jonathan Keegan, 17,
a budding filmmaker, wrote, directed, produced and edited a movie for his senior
project called "Pizza Boys," a dark satire about two rival pizza
shops in South
Philadelphia. His friends starred in the movie and served on his film crew, and
his brother, Ry, 23, a New York chef and 2003 Middletown High graduate,
co-produced
it.
Their mom, Eileen,
who said both her sons did not do too well academically at the school, was
thankful for the opportunity the senior project provided.
"I think it's
fantastic because he got to show his creative abilities," she said. "This was
his chance to shine, which otherwise he wouldn't have
gotten."
Then there was
senior Ed Rees, 18, who wants to be a surgeon. He used his senior project to
show off a related interest in taxidermy.
"It's kind of like
being in surgery," Rees said. "You wash up and you put on gloves because you
don't want any disease from the animal. And you have to sew it up to
make it
look nice."
Rees, who has
mounted five animals for his bedroom walls, was glad for the opportunity to be
able to share with the school, but not everyone has been as understanding
about his
hobby.
"One day, the
neighbor's cat came missing, and they all blamed me for it," he said with a
smile.
Pictured
above: Devon Stover converted his Ford Taurus to run part of the time
on hydrogen. Photographed by: The News Journal/GINGER
WALL
