The 10th Grade March Madness Symposium
The 10th grade had their end-of-year March Madness Symposium on Wednesday May, 2. The night started with a “walk-around” presentation, where family and friends could walk around the library and look at all of the projects. Then students did more formal, individual presentation to smaller groups.
The projects are all interest-based, meaning students choose what they want to research based on what their interests are. Students work on these projects all year and are given a lot of free time during the first two weeks of March to spend time devoted to their projects. Projects this year varied from designing a clothing line to building a robot to writing a novel. The students were excited to show off the hard work they had done all year.
To hear about the evening from the perspective of the presenter, I asked the following question to some 10th grade students:
How do you feel about your final project and what was it? Did it come out the way you had planned? If not what changed?
Jamie Aijala: I wrote and produced a solo album that was released on soundcloud. I think my project turned out really well. Everything turned out as planned and I received a lot of positive feedback. I was happy about the turnout of my album and I was excited about the way it sounded. (Final Project: Wrote and sang songs for an album)
Marc Monteys: I felt like my final project was pretty good and I felt proud of myself. I made a surfboard and it came out as I expected. I am excited to try it out and I enjoyed the project a lot. (Final Project: Built his own surfboard)
Anna Hedengren: I felt really good about my project and I really like the way it turned out. It was fun to see how everything came together in the end. I went into March Madness with a pretty loose idea of what I wanted to do, so my project was constantly evolving. It was very cool to see the final product. (Final Project: Interned at Pediatrician’s office, and created a website)
Stokley Towles: I had a panini stand named Stoked, at the beginning I thought of doing a single sandwich but realized people like option so I add more to the menu. But overall I had a ton of fun and learned a lot about business. (Final Project: Had a pop-up sandwich shop)
Tess DiMenna: I feel proud of my project, but I wish it could have been longer. I wrote a long short story about a woman suffering from depression. I wish I had had more time to write and work. I intended for it to be a full novel, but unfortunately I just didn’t have the time. (Final Project: Wrote her own short story)
Adrian DiCarlo: Overall I am very pleased with how my project came out, at times when the deadline was approaching I was worried I wouldn’t finish, but luckily I did. In addition, every article of clothing I designed came out exactly how I envisioned it in my head. (Final Project: Created his own clothing line)
Thea Polsky: For my March Madness project I wrote a book called Defying Fear. It was a culmination of stories by gymnasts about their struggles with fear. I wanted to help my teammates overcome they daily fears because I know from experience that it is really hard to get over a fear. I was very happy with the outcome of my final project. It took me a long time to figure out what I wanted to do, but once I figured it out my project didn’t change. (Final Project: Created a book about fear in gymnastics)
Anthony Meikle: I feel somewhat proud of my final March Madness project; it was a small portion of an animated film of my own design. The film was supposed to detail the lives of individuals with mental illness, including anxiety, but I was only able to finish one scene from the film before the Symposium. It hadn’t come out the way I had planned it exactly, but in retrospect, it never could. All-in-all, I had fun with this project and am proud of myself and my progress. (Final Project: Created a short animation about mental illness)
I then asked Ilana Laurence, the organizer of the whole March Madness project, her thoughts on this year’s symposium and if she had any changes for next year:
Ilana Laurence: I thought that this year’s March Madness projects were outstanding! Students in the class of 2020 had a pretty perfect vision from the outset (pun intended!) of the various topics they wanted to explore, and the range of interests in the class was broader than ever; from cooking to comics, poetry to paint pigments, music to medicine….the list goes on and on. Although it can be hard to sustain focused attention over many months, in the end, this group demonstrated real mastery of their project goals. Also, with the March Madness Symposium now in its 5th year, I think we’ve finally hit upon the right format for the evening, allowing everyone in attendance to enjoy a glimpse of all the amazing projects in the gallery, and smaller audiences to hear an assortment of presentations in greater detail in the classroom. Congratulations 2020 on your terrific work!
Overall the Symposium was a huge success, and there were some very impressive projects. The amount of effort the students put in was clearly seen, and this years projects were some of the best yet. We are excited to see the future of this program continue to flourish, with upcoming 10th graders.