Capstone is the culminating educational experience for all eighth graders at Belmont Day School. After a year of research, paper-writing, interviews with subject experts, and project work, each student presents to the community what they have learned. The research topics were as varied as the personalities and passions of members the Class of 2021. Throughout this past week, Monday, April 12 to Friday, April 16, more than 40 students pushed their audiences to think about new topics, revisit familiar topics in a new way, and consider deeply the need to be actively engaged in making the world a better place.
Thank you to the many community members who attended: alumni, faculty, middle school students, lower school students, parents of eighth graders, parents of younger students, and new BDS families. The spirit of curiosity and the love of learning and sharing are alive and well at BDS!
A Capstone presentation site to send compliments to the presenters and visit their portfolios is available here. In the coming weeks, recordings of the all presentations will be posted to that site as well. And click here to read head of school Brendan Largay’s column highlighting what he learned from each of the presenters.
Kudos to our eighth grade students for a year of excellence! Check out their topics below:
- Ripley Bright: Why Dinosaurs Are the Best | Mentor: Ellen Brandt
- Henry Monroe: A Short History of Cryptography | Mentor: Stephen Bennhoff
- Zephyr Borisy: Nanomedicines: A Miniature Approach to Disease | Mentor: Leigh Twarog
- Henry Buckley-Jones: Making Waves: Graffiti and Street Art | Mentor: Larissa Rochford
- Noah Kokinos: Cryptocurrency: The Future of Money | Mentor: Alex Tzelnic
- Kenna Schneider: ADHD: A Blessing and a Curse | Mentor: Emma Nairn
- Ellora Roy: Racial Implicit Bias and Its Role in American Society | Mentor: Brendan Largay
- Margot Klug: The Midwest: A Forgotten Region | Mentor: Dean Spencer
- Cameron Colbert: The Elephant in the Room: Animals in the Entertainment Industry | Mentor: Mary Norman
- Aviva Pearlmutter-Bearson: Misinformation: The Growing Plague of Conspiracy Theories | Mentor: Kathy Jo Solomon
- Jacob Stephenson: Ancient Religion | Mentor: Gretchen Fogelstrom
- Harry Reitshamer: Alternative Education and Its Place in Our Schools | Mentor: John O’Neill
- Bree Legrand: Black Hair: An Evolution | Mentor: Leesa Mercedes
- Sophia Tang: A Brief History of Books | Mentor: Minna Ham
- Alice Shu: Helping Small Business During This Pandemic | Mentor: Sarah Barrow
- Cody Casanave: The Amazing Technology of Self-Driving Cars | Mentor: Jim Walker
- Brooks Largay: Virtual Healthcare: How VR is Affecting the Medical Field | Mentor: Elinor Hannum
- Lucy Myers: Eating Disorders | Mentor: Ellie Brennan
- Isaac Frehywot: Splitting the Atom: The Science Behind and History of Nuclear Technology | Mentor: Tara Lightbody
- Bonnie Wang: The US & China Trade War | Mentor: Heather Woodcock
- Milly Noble: Child Labor | Mentor: Cicely Gibson
- Ben Rowe: Van Gogh Painted My Cat (and How AI Is Changing Our Future) | Mentor: Kurt Robinson
- Elijah Allen: Fixing Circadian Rhythms | Mentor: Dale McGhee
- Charlotte McIntosh: Karate: Martial Art, Sport, & Philosophy | Mentor: Fred Colson
- Dana Chang: Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? | Mentor: Leal Carter
- Susanna Kelman: Prison Reform | Mentor: Anderson Santos
- Jake Walsh: Interior Design: More Than Just Furniture | Mentor: Anne Armstrong
- Alexander Colangelo: Planes: How Aviation Technology Has Changed Over the Years | Mentor: Nathalie Pellenq
- Claire LaFarge: A Perspective on Children’s Rights and the Media | Mentor: Angela DeVecchi
- Devon Holman: Heritage Leatherwork and Its Place in Modern Society | Mentor: Nicole Buck
- Kendree Chen: Think Positive: The Impacts of Optimism and Positive Affect | Mentor: Alice Henry
- Toby Gauld: Third Political Parties in the US | Mentor: Deborah Brissenden
- Vivian Chuang: Introversion and Extroversion: Bias in Schools | Mentor: Sunny Lee
- Clio Burger: Representation in Television: The Evolution of the Small Screen | Mentor: Julia Juster
- Thierrence Mathurin: The Evolution of Computers and Where They Are Today | Mentor: Liz Gray
- Amanie Yusef: Chemotherapy| Mentor: Abbey Nyland
- Rosie Schrag: Animal Consciousness: What’s Really Going On in Their Minds? | Mentor: Carlos Hoyt
- Audrey Wu: Beauty: From Mirrors to Magazines | Mentor: Yui Kitamura
- Gemma Shoor: The Turnover of Hong Kong | Mentor: Catherine David
- Sarah McPeek: Housing Discrimination in Suburbia | Mentor: Pati Fernandez
- Noah Brauner: Machine Learning in Medicine | Mentor: Kaleen Moriarty
