Sophomores Showcase their Learning at Sophomore Seminar Capstone Night

Tandem sophomores have completed their months-long research projects, presented their work to their classmates over a two-week period, then completed the final stage of their Sophomore Seminar academic rite of passage with an evening Sophomore Seminar Capstone event on Wednesday night. The community was invited to come and hear about their research, and each sophomore set up an information station complete with tri-fold display, then answered questions from anyone who stopped by to chat. There were even cookies! Students spent part of first and most of second semester researching and writing a 15+ page academic paper on a subject of their choosing. Completed papers include detailed footnotes and bibliographies; topics/papers are argumentative, so students had to make some sort of defensible argument about their topic. They provided some really interesting insights into their topics and displayed their academic maturity over the course of the year. Well done, sophomores! Check out a list of their impressive and interesting topics below as well as some photos from their Capstone Night.

• Stigmas and treatments of major mental illnesses.
• How do humans affect animal extinction rates and once an animal does go extinct how does that affect its environment?
• How will AI affect our jobs and future generations?
• How do people get the help they need when arrested because of a mental illness, and can we improve how people help those with a mental health challenge?
• Were psychological hospitals/asylums in the past or present harmful rather than helpful?
• How has media impacted marine keystone species?
• Can Animals Understand Human Emotion?
• How do memories affect humans' lives?
• Cellphone design and its effects on mental health.
• Possibilities of mass transit and high speed rail in the USA vs. other countries.
• Why do people fear nuclear power and should it be more implemented?
• What are the main causes that cause global warming besides fossil fuels, and ways to combat it?
• Changes in and effects of the rules of basketball
• Can humans implement techniques and strategies that ants use in a colony to work better together?
• Racial profiling in the USA
• How do People Suffer from the Effects of Wrongful Convictions?
• Sexism and innovation by women in the sciences in history and today.
• Why does society try to control women's bodies?
• How are women dismissed in medical settings?
• American folklore and its effects on modern culture/storytelling
• How did music, film, and literature reflect or shape public perception of war?
• What is happiness?
• How does social media affect teens' mental health?
• How did bringing horses change the culture and lives of indigenous people in the New World?
• How is AI affecting our life, and what problems does it cause?
• How has American intervention in other nations affected world politics?
• How do sports affect your mental health?
• What motivates espionage and how can it be prevented?