AP Capstone
An Innovative Approach to Cross-Curricular Education and College-Level Critical Thinking/Writing

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 AP Capstone is an innovative program developed and offered through College Board in conjunction with other Advanced Placement accelerated coursework, with the intended purpose of giving students the chance to further develop and cultivate a love for academic discourse. The two-year program combines research and analytic skills, critical thinking, and an interdisciplinary approach meant to enhance the learning already happening in and between the various AP courses. Students who choose to complete the Capstone program will spend two years delving deeply into special topics of cross-curricular discussion, relevant to today’s world, their local communities, and/or their school-specific academic interests.

Students who complete the program will have significant bodies of work in major areas of research, which may provide them with internship, research, and academic opportunities at the college level. Students will be given opportunities to use this work to further advance their scholarship, career, and personal educational goals. There will be opportunities to apply for scholarship contests, professional publication, and conference-presentation (all great for college resumes!) embedded in the coursework of the program. For more information, see the Academic Conference page, and the Publication The Equitation page. 

Students who complete both years of the Capstone Program with passing AP scores for AP Seminar (year 1) and AP Research (year 2) will receive an AP Seminar and Research Certificate, signifying success in the program; students who do so, and successfully pass four other AP exams (in any subjects) qualify for the AP Capstone diploma, signifying exemplary academic achievement and college-skill readiness. Students applying to colleges are strongly encouraged by College Board to use their research projects and individual interests as spring boards for college admissions, which may serve as a way for colleges to place students in special programs and internships as a result of their already-completed research.

Year 1: AP Seminar

Year 2: AP Research

 AP Seminar is a year-long preparatory course, serving as the prerequisite to AP Research.* The content of the course is flexible, often taking a multidisciplinary, cross-curricular approach, designed to showcase for students the overlapping and interdependent nature of their educations, while introducing skills for analysis, interpretation and evaluation of information and preliminary research practices.
Open to Sophomores and Juniors (by application)

AP Research is a year-long culminating study based on individual student inquiry in a specific cross-curricular area of interest through personal, peer, advisor, and expert mentorship. Students may choose their own topics, synthesizing areas of study from a variety of their own coursework, conduct research, studies, surveys, interviews, etc. in order to contribute in some way to the academic discourse surrounding their area of inquiry.
Open to Juniors and Seniors who have completed AP Seminar

For more on AP Seminar

For More on AP Research

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Meet the Teacher:
​Stacy Cabrera has taught English, Philosophy, and Research at Mira Costa High School since 2011. Her professional goal is to expand philosophy to the public-school setting, which is currently taking her to opportunities with the American Philosophical Association Committee for Instruction in Pre-college Philosophy, as well as collaboration with the Pacific Partnership for Critical Thinking with colleagues at UCLA, Pepperdine, and The University of Queensland.
 
Personally, and Academically, her interests are primarily in Hermeneutics and Critical Literary Theory, as well as Aesthetic theories and Philosophies of Education (of course). She is influenced by the philosophies of Kant, Hegel, and John Dewey, and has a particularly deep knowledge of the works (both literary and expository) of Aldous Huxley. She would like to think of herself as a foremost Huxley scholar (totally unproved, and self-professed--but will now get to prove it as a member of the International Aldous Huxley Society).

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Applying for the Program

Applications for AP Capstone will begin March 24; Interest Letters are due May 21  to mchscapstone@gmail.com; Writing Samples will be submitted by May 21 to Turnitin.com for consideration. ​ 

to Apply for the Program

Prospective students are encouraged to attend Mira Costa's Academic Conference, or even participate by submitting for presentation! To see students' prior work:
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The equitation: ​MCHS Academic Journal