AP Seminar Workshop Recap

Nicole Washburn, an English and Science instructor at MEK, recently conducted an AP Seminar Workshop with students to introduce them to the AP Capstone course, AP Seminar. In this workshop, students practiced brainstorming, learned about what AP Seminar entails, discussed how research is conducted, identified different stakeholders topics, reviewed source credibility, and so on. If you didn’t attend the workshop, no worries, we are sharing key information here for your reference. Read on to get your questions answered!

What is AP Seminar?

AP Seminar, usually taken in 10^th or 11^th grade, is a yearlong AP course taken by students at their high school. AP Seminar is the first course in the AP Capstone Diploma Program, which is developed and administered by the College Board. This class alone has its own merits and benefits, since it gives students practice with in-depth research and multimedia presentations. If AP Research is available to students, they are allowed to take that after they complete AP Seminar. Therefore, AP Research is usually taken in 11^th or 12^th grade.

When students complete both courses, they earn the “AP Seminar and Research Certificate.” If students take 4 additional AP courses, they are eligible to receive the “AP Capstone Diploma.” Earning the Certificate or the Diploma are dependent upon a score of 3 or above in each of these AP courses. Unfortunately, some schools may not offer AP Research, even if they offered AP Seminar.

In AP Seminar, students:

• Research real-world issues and view them from multiple perspectives
• Merge insights from various sources
• Develop their own perspective to express in research-based written essays
• Design and deliver oral and visual presentations (first with a team and later as an individual)
• Take an AP exam at the end of the course

How AP Seminar is Structured and Scored

Scoring for AP Seminar is done differently from most other AP classes. With most AP courses, the entire grade (or score, one a scale of 1 to 5) is determined by a single exam at the end of the class. A score of three or higher typically earns college credit. Rubrics are used to score each task.

Due to the nature of this course, AP Seminar includes two performance tasks, which together total 55% of your grade. The first performance task has two parts: an Individual research report (IRR) and a team multimedia presentation (TMP). Each of these is worth 10% of your final grade. The second performance task is more intensive than the first. It’s composed of an Individual Written Argument (IWA), which makes up 24.5% of your final grade, and an Individual Multimedia Presentation (IMP), which will comprise 10.5% of your final grade. Together, making up 35% of your grade for the class.

Students will most likely use class time for their individual written argument (IWA). It’s very in-depth and it often requires a lot of rewriting. Accordingly, there is support in class for this part of the assignment. When students do their IMP, they have already had practice with the TMP. Therefore, they feel more confident in their skills by this point.

As in all AP classes, there is an end of course exam. Unlike other AP classes, however, the exam doesn’t make up your entire score. In AP Seminar, your end of course exam is worth only 45% of your grade. Rubrics for each task are publicly available, for reference. AP Seminar is scored like other AP classes (1 – 5), so a three or above earns college credit. More detail on how the scoring is weighted can be found here.

SKILLS YOU’LL GAIN IN AP SEMINAR

AP Seminar is a great class because students develop skills they will use in college and their future careers, including:

• Independent thinking
• Effective writing techniques
• Research strategies and methods
• Collaborating/working on a team
• Learning across disciplines

It’s also a fun class because students are allowed to drive their own learning. They can choose topics based on their personal interests and develop them based on the direction they take with their research.

In our workshop, Ms. Washburn conducted a practice example to introduce how different perspectives specifically applied to a particular topic. Some stakeholder perspectives will conflict with one another, and others will complement one another, but may have a different reason for their point of view. Who are the stakeholders involved in your topic? What are the various opinions shared by these stakeholders?

Deciding on a Topic for your Research and Presentation

Themes to help students choose a topic:

In our workshop, Ms. Washburn used cell phone use in schools for her sample topic, as cell phone usage alone would be too vague (and therefore too broad to properly research). Conversely, cell phone use in schools is better to hone in on. Additionally, it will have various stakeholders (parties who have an interest in the issue at hand). Stakeholders for this topic may include students, teachers, parents, police officers, and so on. Some teachers say that cell phones are never appropriate for use in school, while other teachers approve cell phone use only when they direct students to use their phones. Don’t forget to give your own perspective as a stakeholder!

Continuing with the practice example, students were asked to conduct internet research on the topic without much guidance. The goal was to learn how students conduct research on their own. Once complete, students were asked to share what search terms students used, what source came up, and what is the date on the source/web page. They may find that everyone gets the same sources, so Ms. Washburn showed students strategies for how to get more variation in responses (other than the top result of a Google search), such as scrolling down to see more responses or clicking on Google Scholar, and so forth.

Source Credibility Tiers

Students should shoot for sources in tiers 1 and 2, ideally. Sometimes they’ll have to dig for these sources, since they aren’t typically in the top results of a Google search. Using proper search terminology makes a big difference in your outcomes.

Use the CRAAP Test for Reliability of Sources

• Is it Current?
• Is it Relevant?
• Is it Authoritative?
• Is it Accurate?
• What is its Purpose?

Once you’ve settled on a topic, please note that it should not be “Google-able,” should not have a simple answer, and it should have many stakeholders (various perspectives). In other words, it should be an open-ended question.

Get practice from an actual AP Seminar Test

EOC A tests your ability to read an article, analyze the claims made by its author(s), determine the relevance of the content, and whether the source is credible. 

For some sample student responses, read the AP Seminar Performance Task 1.

To get your own practice, check out these Free-Response Questions.

You may want to print and annotate it this. Note that you would have 30 minutes for this portion of the exam, but you are allowed to go over. If you do take more time on this section, just remember that it takes time from the second part of the exam. You will have 2 hours total to complete the entire exam. If you have questions about how you did, check out the EOC Part A Grading Rubric.

A Little Overwhelmed?

Along with our Full-Year SpearHead (FYSH) Program, MEK is also launching private mentoring for AP Research and AP Seminar students. Through this program, students will have a one-on-one research mentor who will provide direction and work with them to set reachable milestones. With the guidance of their mentor, students can achieve greater heights with their research project. Having support also builds confidence that will help them stand out in front of their AP Research or Seminar teacher at school.

Learn more about AP Capstone; read our blog here.