Project by: Ciara McNamara (9th Grade)
Project Advisor: Mark Silberberg
Student(s)’s Advisor(s): Nick Wight
Below is the presentation that summarizes my findings and recommendations that I shared with the high school leadership team:
Final Reflection on Learning:
I have had an amazing time conducting this honors project. I have learned so much about my community. I believe the work I have done will lead to some important change, and I am excited to see this honors project continue on into the next school year. Through interviews with my peers, conversations with the administration, and connections to organizations doing similar work, I was able to present my ideas for a curriculum that encompasses all of the important aspects of mental health. Looking forward, I hope to continue to strengthen the mental health education and support at LREI.
Update on Progress from Weeks 1-3 (include any photos or video if relevant):
Weeks 1-3 of the third trimester, I finished the research portion of my honors project. I accumulated data and information through interviews with a range of interviewees. I began to corroborate all of the information using Padlet.
Update on Progress from Weeks 4-6 (include any photos or video if relevant):
Weeks 4-6 I have met with Allison to talk about upcoming meetings that will determine plans for LifeLab next year. While I have not been given final information on when/where those meetings will take place, this week I will be finalizing with Allison. I have also been creating a slideshow presentation to present to Allison and other administrators working on the curriculum, explaining my findings and ideas on how to move forward.
Update on Progress from Weeks 7-9 (include any photos or video if relevant):
I have officially concluded the research portion of my project, and have finished creating a Google Slides presentation that I presented to Allison. After meeting with Allison, I was invited to sit in on summer meetings that will outline the curriculum for LifeLab next year. I have also been offered to present the same presentation to other members of the wellness and support administration at LREI, following the hiring of the new part-time psychologist.
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T2 Update: Update on Progress from Weeks 1-3 (include any photos or video if relevant):
In the first week, I sent out a google form to my grade, gathering a preliminary set of data. The form consisted of three Likert scales, where my peers anonymously ranked on a scale of 1-10 how educated, supported and safe they felt in the LREI community surrounding matters of mental health. There was an optional section after every question where I left a space for my classmates to elaborate on their choices. In the second week, I met with Allison to learn more about the LifeLab curriculum, and see if there were any more upcoming mental health education classes, given the ninth grade only had one brief one. Allison and I also brainstormed questions that would produce data to help reshape and touch-up the current LifeLab curriculum. During week three I finalized my list of interview questions, using techniques to create unbiased, empathetic questions. I also looked back at the data I collected from the google form to figure out what were the issues that came up the most, and how I could shape questions to dig deeper into those questions. Now, I am beginning to reach out to interviewees, and setting up time slots, hopefully finishing up the data collecting side of the project in the next week to two weeks.
Update on Progress from Weeks 4-6 (include any photos or video if relevant):
Weeks 4-6 I had originally planned to get through the interview portion of my project, but ended up falling behind with school work and other commitments. I believe I had completed one interview by the end of the two weeks. After meeting with Allison, my interviews became more “forked” then I had originally planned for them to be, as I had a section of questions more directly related to my central question (how to make sure the people in the LREI community feel educated and supported on the different aspects of mental health) and other ones about LifeLab. I tried my best to ask questions that would overlap both of those ideas, but still had two general sections of questions.
Update on Progress from Weeks 7-9 (include any photos or video if relevant):
Weeks 7-8 I continued interviewing people but realized that in order to gain a proper, diverse set of responses, it would make more sense to continue my project into T3. I continued to interview people and worked on my gameplan for T3.
