I was accepted in AP Seminar for my high school freshman year followed by AP Research for my high school sophomore year as part of my AP Capstone Diploma. While the AP seminar was more focused on presenting and conducting seminars, during AP Research year we had to come up with our individual research topic, conduct extensive research and write a college level paper. It was a long haul before I could settle down on my research topic. I decided to research a world issue that I could then work on as my engineering project and ended up conducting a series of interviews with Vanderbild and Lipscomb University professors to come up with my own research question followed by an actual engineering project, experiment, 3D printing and finally presentation. My research is about building breakwater structures to save our coastal cities from getting destroyed from heavy waves like Tsunami. The most challenging part in the entire research process was managing my time and deadlines. I did learn a great deal of the art of listening and visualizing. My breakwater model was a handmade wave flume using a VeX robotics motor.
AP capstone college level paper