Cultivating Independent Thinking

STUDENT PROJECTS

For some students, the thought of working one-onone with a teacher is daunting. For Archer girls, it is the norm. This is particularly evident in Archer’s Independent Study Program for the Humanities and Sciences which is open to Upper School students. Students in this program voluntarily opt to conduct in-depth research, guided by a faculty member or expert mentor.

The program offers a platform for students to explore their passions in an academic setting, but with the chance to direct their own approach to acquiring and constructing knowledge about a certain topic or field of interest. For Livia Reiner ’14, her passion for reading and writing plays inspired her to take her interest from hobby to elevated study. “Last year, as part of our ‘Medea’ unit, I got to hear Velina Hasu Houston (Leilani ’14), a professor at USC, talk about the book she is coediting of contemporary female playwright’s ‘Medea’ adaptations. This was very interesting to me and I decided that looking at Greek plays and modern adaptations would be a good place to start my study.” Before her yearlong study began under the tutelage of English Department Chair Kristin Taylor, Livia was charged with developing a proposal. This proposal included the intended learning outcomes for the project, a reading list, and structured assessments for each semester. Reflecting on the process of putting together the proposal, Livia shared, “It was fun as well as challenging to put together the proposal, because you can pick anything to focus on and in any way. One of the guidelines for the proposal was that you must know your initial idea and plan for your project to change as you begin to work. Looking back, there is obviously a lot I would have planned differently, but as you begin to work you realize what initial ideas were good and what will change.” During the spring semester, Livia has shifted her focus to actually writing her own adaptation.

This aspect of the process allowed Livia to tap into the expertise of the Archer faculty even further, seeking the advice of English Teacher Robert Barker, who holds an MFA in Playwriting from San Francisco State University. This opportunity to collaborate and receive feedback from experienced mentors has given Livia the chance to build multiple competencies including her creative writing skills and proficiency in research methods.

This year, a newly outfitted research lab has enabled students conducting research in the sciences to do their projects on campus, providing not only the materials and tools to perform their studies, but a space for dialogue and a constructivist approach to learning the material. Led by Science Teacher Hanna Shohfi, seven students have met in a seminar setting, coming together to learn about research methodologies by reading and critiquing scientific articles, receiving training to use high-tech laboratory equipment, discuss research ethics, research proposal development, and ultimately, performing data collection, analysis, and writing a scientific paper with their findings. Though based at Archer, students utilize the advice and guidance of outside experts from institutions such as UCLA and the University of Minnesota through meetings, web conferencing and correspondence.

Senior Katie Baral said that she took the class because it provided a unique high school experience. “What other opportunity do you have to do this in high school? It’s a good way to put together everything you’ve learned.” She further shared that it shows how to put together scientific theory and find a way to use that theory and apply it to a real application. “You learn more from this than from a book. Last year we learned the theory of biology and we did a few experiments about genetics, but it is cool now to know what we learned and actually, for example, see DNA and test these concepts.” Fellow researcher Shanti Seaman ’12 shared that doing independent research has been a capstone on her high school career. “I thought it was a nice way to end my high school science career. We have all the information that we’ve learned from physics, chemistry and biology. And now we can use it all and kind of see the real life application for it. In college I want to do research, so I thought this was a good way to get started.”

Both attested to the importance of the program in supporting Archer’s mission which encourages young women to take risks. Katie feels that it shows how “well rounded Archer is” and allows students to “try something new.” Further, for these students, the purpose of conducting their studies is not necessarily to make ground-breaking discoveries, but to challenge themselves and “use your mind and knowledge and skill and learn how to do it on your own.”