capstone project bc curriculum

J.N. Burnett Secondary School

Career Life Connections and Capstone Project

CLC SERVICE PROJECT DETAILS

For Grads of 2023, to complete your Capstone, please select 'CLC Service Project' below for the details of the CLC Service Project.

2023 SCHOLARSHIP WORKSHEET & APPLICATION FORM (Click)

CAREER LIFE CONNECTIONS & CAPSTONE

J.N. Burnett delivers the Career Life Connections course through our Conference days. Each grade level, 8 through 12, is expected to attend, participate in, and reflect on the activities that are presented during those days.

Students are responsible for uploading and storing their completed activities and reflections to myBlueprint.ca/sd38. This is important, as it is a record of their participation during Conference days.

Students who have an excused absence on a Conference day must complete the activities and reflections and upload them to myBlueprint.  Each Conference Day is based on a theme that addresses the Career Life Connections curriculum.

These themes are:

• Community Connections
• Health and Well-being
• Social Responsibility

Students will receive 2 credits in Grade 11, and 2 credits in Grade 12 for Career Life Connections.

CAPSTONE PROJECT

The Capstone Project is part of Career Life Connections. During grades 11 and 12, students will plan, design, document, create, and present a Capstone Project.

It is mandatory for all students to complete a Capstone in order to receive a Career Life Connections course credit.

The Capstone Project is an opportunity for students to demonstrate their learning in a particular topic they are interested in learning about.  This student-centered approach allows individuals to personalized their learning in an area that they are passionate about. 

Be prepared to invest at least 25 hours towards completing your Capstone Project. This does not include your 30 Hours of Work/Volunteer Experience, or the 90 Hours completed in the Work Experience (WEX) course.

CAPSTONE STYLES

What Can My Capstone Look Like?

Your Capstone Project can be presented in many different ways or styles. What form is your Capstone Project going to take? What will your final project look like? This is your chance to be creative!

Capstone Styles

We have provided 7 different Capstone Styles to give you an idea of what form your Capstone Project can take.  Please refer to the Capstone Styles Booklet below for detailed information. 

CAPSTONE PROPOSAL

Before starting your Capstone Project, you need to complete a Capstone Proposal.  Once this proposal is approved, you can start your Capstone journey.

You will need to find a Mentor to help guide you throughout your Capstone.

What is a Mentor?

A mentor is an adult that you trust, a person that can provide support and guidance as you are going through the process of completing your Capstone Project.

Once you find a mentor, you need to meet at least 3 times to discuss your Capstone progress. These meetings must be documented and signed on the Mentor Log sheet.

IMPORTANT CAPSTONE DOCUMENTS

Before your Final Capstone Presentation during the May Conference Day, you will need to have the following documents completed and signed off on your Career Life Connections Report Checklist:

• An updated resume
• 30 Hours Work/Volunteer Experience
• Your Mentor Log

Please bring your signed and completed Career Life Connections Report Checklist, along with the above documents, to your Capstone Presentation in May.  All of these forms, with the exception of your resume, can be found below.

FINAL CAPSTONE PRESENTATION

Your Final Capstone Presentation will occur during the May Conference day. 

Your Capstone is worth 50% of your Career Life Connections course. All students must present their Capstone Project in order to graduate.

The following document outlines the Capstone Rubric that will be used for assessment:

The Capstone project is a graduation requirement that allows students to demonstrate their learning using an area(s) of interest as the basis for the project, ideally an area they are passionate about and/or intend to pursue after graduation.

Resources: SD8 Capstone Overview video

The capstone is a rigorous learning opportunity for students to reflect and share in personally meaningful ways, and is a requirement for Career-Life Connections and for graduation. The purpose of the capstone is for students to demonstrate the knowledge, competencies, and passion(s) that they can offer the world, as they integrate personal interests and strengths with preferred future possibilities. It is a representation of the student’s learning journey and provides an opportunity to reflect and synthesize as well as showcase and celebrate.

The capstone includes, but is not limited to, two stages:

• the preparation process – students reflect on experiences in school and out of school, assess development in the Core Competencies, and share highlights of their learning journey

• the capstone product – students design, assemble, and present a capstone

Capstone 12 can take several forms including, but not limited to:

• school or community service projects
• academic research presentations
• coaching or volunteering presentation
• Fitness, nutrition, or athletics projects/presentations 
• trades or career pathway planning presentation
• script writing, multi-media, creative writing, art presentations
• dance, music, theatre, music composition presentations
• coding, technology, game building models
• workplace readiness presentation
• personal interest exploration
• gap year service leadership exploration

Capstone 12 will prepare students for scholarship presentations and applications, university or college entrance, and will help build their confidence through connecting to an area of personal interest.

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This learning activity helps students gather useful information and prepare for the creation of their personal integrated post-graduation career plan that can be included in their capstone project. If information is missing, students will use WorkBC.ca resources to support further research and exploration. Students will use the Explore Career Worksheet A as a guide and gather evidence of learning and achievement related to: self-assessment, career choice, career pathway (education and/or work), financial plans and health and well-being.

Download Worksheet(s) & Lesson Plan

• Lesson Plan - Explore Careers - CLC.pdf 100 KB
• Worksheet A - Explore Careers CLC.docx 56 KB
• Worksheet A - Explore Careers CLC.pdf 161 KB
• Resource Requirements
• Key Questions
• Thinking about Teaching
• Proposed Scope & Sequence
• Activity One: Overview of the Capstone Project and the Personal Integrated Plan for Post-Graduation
• Activity Two: Identify, Assemble and Evaluate Evidence that Demonstrates a Rationale for the Post-Graduation Plan
• Activity Three: Use Resources Such as WorkBC to Conduct Further Exploration and Research
• Activity Four: Create a Format to Store Evidence
• Assessment Ideas
• Curricular Competencies
• Core Competencies
• Activity One
• Activity Two
• Activity Three
• Activity Four

In Career-Life Connections (CLC), grade 11 and 12 students continue to develop their career-life planning competencies and further their understanding and awareness of the world of work, and of themselves. Career development competencies developed over the senior years of high school will result in an understanding that careers, education and life opportunities change over time. This awareness encourages ongoing exploration, planning and connecting with mentors. Students will have used a variety of career exploration, research and reflection techniques to think about career opportunities – in the process, they will be identifying aptitudes, attitudes and achievements needed for post-graduation plans. Through using a variety of career planning tools, including WorkBC.ca , students will identify and assemble evidence, and design and create their capstone project.

Worksheet A: Preparing for your capstone project post-graduation plan (available for download)

WorkBC resources for students:

Career Discovery Quizzes

Career Trek

Explore Careers

Career Search Tool

Other Requirements: Computer, tablet or smartphone.

• Do I have the right information so I can plan and create my integrated post-graduation plan for my capstone project?
• I nterests and experiences.
• What I am looking for from a job?
• Where I will live?
• Types of work environments I would like to work in.
• Essential skills.
• Employability skills.
• Work skills.
• Academic skills.
• In-school and out-of-school courses that support post-graduation plans.
• Community learning experiences.
• Internal and external influences on personal development and career choices.
• Achievements that support my career choices.
• My career support network.
• Can I identify and provide evidence of the aptitudes, attitudes and achievements that shaped my post-graduation goals and plans?
• Can I identify and provide evidence of learning experiences I undertook that helped me choose a career-life pathway, including education and/or work?
• Can I demonstrate that I gathered information on the finances required to support my career-life plans?
• Did I ensure that all my information is current and that I updated it as required?
• Did I assemble the information in a format that will be useful when I create my post-graduation plan as part of my capstone project?

In Career-Life Connections (CLC), grade 11 and 12 students continue to develop their career-life planning competencies and further their understanding and awareness of the world of work, and of themselves.

Career development competencies developed over the senior years of high school will result in an understanding that careers, education and life opportunities change over time. This awareness encourages ongoing exploration and planning.

Students will have used a variety of career exploration, research and reflection techniques to think about career opportunities and to identify aptitudes, attitudes and achievements needed to support their post-graduation plans. Through learning about their career options, students are better prepared to achieve their post-graduation plans.

The capstone project is embedded in the CLC curriculum. The capstone project allows students to demonstrate their cumulative learning, using an area of interest as the basis for the project. Ideally, this would be an area they are passionate about and hope to pursue after graduation.

In CLC, students will identify and assemble evidence, and design and create their capstone project. They will present it to an audience to demonstrate personal learning and achievement (in and out of school), as well as their growth in the core competencies. Their presentation should reflect how they came to their decision regarding their post-graduation plan.

Students who participated in the learning activities associated with WorkBC Career Discover Quizzes and Career Trek lessons, will have accumulated a number of learning experiences that will be helpful when they create their capstone project.

This learning activity is specifically intended to help students gather useful information and prepare for the creation of their personal integrated post-graduation career plan. This plan will be included in their capstone project.

If information is missing, students will use WorkBC.ca resources to support further research and exploration.

Students will use Worksheet A as a guide and gather evidence of learning and achievement related to:

• Self-assessment.
• Career-life choices.
• Career-life pathways (education and/or work).
• Financial supports.
• Health and well-being.
• Learn about the integrated personal post-graduation plan and the capstone project.
• Evaluate the evidence to determine whether it is sufficient to support post-graduation goals and plans.
• Use WorkBC resources to conduct further exploration and research, so students have up-to-date evidence.
• Create an approach to pull all the evidence together, so it is ready to be used as part of the integrated post-graduation plan within the capstone project.

As an introduction to this activity, provide an overview of the elements of the capstone project. Students should understand the purpose for gathering evidence about what they have learned and achieved in their career planning activities. They should be aware that when presenting their capstone project they will need to demonstrate connections between their learning and achievements, and their post-graduation plans.

As an example, one student has chosen to pursue a career as a provincial park ranger. When asked why, she may provide evidence of participating in outdoor activities such as hiking in nature, belonging to the environment club at school and achieving honours in her biology class.

For further information see the Ministry of Education guide to Career Education 10-12 (PDF) .

In this activity, students will individually gather evidence and evaluate its usefulness for creating their post-graduation plan. Students will need to develop evaluation questions and a method to save their evidence electronically. Prior to starting their work, review part one to four with the students, review the WorkBC resources, and answer any questions they might have.

Part One: Assemble and Identify

Provide an overview of the process students could use to gather information and what they should be looking for to support each element. Ideas include:

• Results of self-assessment quizzes and other exploration (for example: Career Discovery Quizzes, Career Trek), self-evaluation and in-school or out-of-school experiences that influenced their career options.
• Decisions related to career options and the basis for those choices (for example: Career Discovery Quizzes, WorkBC career profiles).
• Results of research related to education and/or work pathways that will support their achievement of career goals (for example: EducationPlannerBC or WorkBC Job Board).
• Identification of financial support (for example: bursaries, part-time work) that will be required to achieve career goals (for example: WorkBC Financing for Students).
• Identification of actions that will support health and well-being, while working towards the achievement of career goals.

Part Two: Evaluate Evidence for Usefulness and Currency

Let students know that after gathering their evidence, they will reflect on and assess its usefulness. If they are missing evidence, then they will do further work to fill in the gaps.

• Provide an example of how to conduct an assessment of evidence, using the Key Questions above to determine whether the information is relevant to their post-graduation goals and plans. The following activity may be useful.
• Students should develop evaluation questions to help guide their assessment of evidence.
• Have I collected all the right information needed to create my integrated post-graduation plan?
• Have I completed a self-assessment such as Career Discovery Quizzes, and do the results still reflect how I feel about my post-graduation plans?
• Have I identified career choice(s) that work for me? Have I shared my thoughts with my network to get their feedback?
• Do the values I identified earlier still make sense now that I am in grade 12?
• Have I researched scholarship opportunities that I could use for the education program that interests me?
• Have I researched the prerequisites for the education program(s) I want to take, and do I have what I need?
• If I want to go directly to a job, have I researched my work options?

Over Career-Life Education (CLE) and Career-Life Connections (CLC) programming, students will likely have used the WorkBC.ca website to conduct research into various career options. If student identified gaps in the evidence they assembled, they can use WorkBC to help them fill in the gaps.

• To refresh students’ memories, give a short demonstration of WorkBC resources that will be useful to them.
• Many students will have an account in WorkBC. If they do not, provide the instructions for setting up an account.
• If they need to conduct additional research, students can explore other sources on the internet to help them make decisions. School districts may have proprietary resources that can also support student career research.

Students will need to develop a way to store the evidence they gather, so they can access their materials when they are ready to create their final post-graduation plan.

• Students will develop the storage framework and format prior to collecting their evidence.
• Digital book using the Book Creator App on the iPad or similar app.
• Slide presentation using Google Slide or Microsoft PowerPoint.
• Poster using the Pic Collage app on the iPad.
• Electronic folders for each element.

Self-Assessment

Ask students to provide evidence of the statement:

• I identified and assembled evidence of learning and achievements that will support the creation of my integrated post-graduation plan.
• I evaluated and assessed my evidence for usefulness and currency.
• If I found evidence that was not current, I took action to bring it up to date.
• I created a product that represents the evidence I collected to support my integrated post-graduation plan.

Teacher Assessment

Teacher creates rubrics to assess product.

This lesson plan supports elements of British Columbia's Career Education Curriculum as outlined below. For further details on the curriculum itself, visit the Ministry of Education's Career Education Curriculum webpage.

• Career-life development includes ongoing cycles of exploring, planning, reflecting, adapting and deciding.
• Career-life decisions influence and are influenced by internal and external factors, including local and global trends.
• Mentorship opportunities.
• Factors that shape personal identify and inform career-life choices.
• Reflection strategies.
• Career-life exploration.
• Ways to represent themselves, including consideration of personal and public profiles, digital literacy and citizenship.
• Self-assessment to achieve goals that advance preferred career-life futures.
• Methods of organizing and maintaining authentic career-life evidence.
• Diverse post-graduation possibilities including personal, educational and work options.
• Post-graduate budget planning.
• Capstone guidelines.
• Approaches to showcasing the learning journey.
• Examine: Analyze internal and external factors to inform personal career-life choices for post-graduation planning.
• Examine: Assess personal transferable skills and identify strengths including skills that require further refinement.
• Interact: Collaborate with a mentor to inform career-life development and exploration.
• Interact: Engage with personal, education, and employment networks to cultivate post-graduation resources and social capital.
• Interact: Create and critique personal and public profiles for self-advocacy and marketing purposes.
• Experience: Explore possibilities for preferred personal and education/employment futures, using creative and innovative thinking.
• Experience: Identify and apply preferred approaches to earning for ongoing career-life development and self advocacy.
• Experience: Engage in, reflect on, and evaluate career-life exploration.
• Share: Reflect on experiences in school and out of school, assess development in the core competencies, and share highlights of their learning journey.
• Share: Design, assemble and present a capstone project.
• Explain/recount and reflect on experiences and accomplishments.
• Personal awareness and responsibility.

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Career Life Connections and Capstone 12

Career Life Connections 12 Course Overview

From:  https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/curriculum/career-education/all/career-life-connections 

Introduction

In this course, students will learn how to effectively manage their life journey towards several possible preferred futures. They will be learning how to recognize their evolving interests and strengths, refine their learning goals, and apply this self-knowledge to explore post-secondary possibilities in diverse educational, work-related, and personal life contexts.

Where does this course fit?

• Pre-requisite:  Career Life Education 10
• Graduation Status:  Career Life Connections and Capstone is a REQUIRED course for Graduation.
•  (Students on the Adult Grad program are not required to take this course. However, they may choose to take this course as an Elective) 

Course Materials

• All materials and resources are provided in the course.
• Students will need access to a word processor (e.g. MS Word).
• They will also need community support to complete the Work/Volunteer Experience and Capstone Project.

Brief Outline

Assessment Percentage Breakdown

You have up to a year to complete your course.

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Capstone Project

About this material.

This document provides two options for either a capstone research assignments or project.

Using This Material

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CLC 12: Career Life Connections/Capstone Project

Career life connections / capstone project.

Career Life Connections helps students discover a bridge between classroom learning and workplace and post-secondary realities, and is intended to make their learning meaningful and relevant.

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2023-2024 Design & Innovation Day Project Showcase

A capstone design project is a major component of our engineering curriculum. capstone students will design a product/service of significance, and solve an open-ended problem in electrical or computer engineering., students must register to the specific capstone project course related to their program and option, as the nature of the projects offered will be different. , are you a member of industry interested in getting involved to find out more please visit our  call for capstone proposals  page, or to learn more about submitting a project proposal visit our project submission page ., interested in seeing some of our past capstone projects see some of the award winning projects from 2020 below, and check out the 2022/2023 and 2021/2022 capstone award winners.

CPEN 491 Computer Engineering Capstone Design Project

Elec 491 electrical engineering capstone design project , elec 494 biomedical engineering capstone design project, take a look at some previous year’s projects: 2021 ,  2020 , and  2019 ., some of the skills gained through participation in a capstone project:, – work in a team, – communicate with a client, – formulate and analyze a problem, – explore and propose a solution, – manage a budget and run a cost evaluation, – present to an audience in written and verbal format , – implement and validate a working prototype of your proposed solution, course structure, capstone runs from september to april and counts for 10 credits. students are grouped into teams of four to six and focus on working with a client or customer. in many cases, the client will be from local industry or from an organization on campus., each project will be assigned an instructor, who will act as your supervisor. you may also be assigned a project mentor or advisor to provide expertise as required., you will be supplied funds for the project., two afternoons each week will be reserved for the capstone design project courses to allow for regular meetings with your supervisor for:, – progress reports, – in-class instructions, – invited lectures, – student presentations, – team meetings and work time, each student is expected to put about 260 hours of work across both terms into this project., if you know of any industry members who would like to submit a project, or if your co-op employer is interested in offering a project, please contact  [email protected]  or visit the  capstone partners  page..

Created by the Great Schools Partnership , the GLOSSARY OF EDUCATION REFORM is a comprehensive online resource that describes widely used school-improvement terms, concepts, and strategies for journalists, parents, and community members. | Learn more »

Capstone Project

Also called a capstone experience , culminating project , or  senior exhibition , among many other terms, a capstone project is a multifaceted assignment that serves as a culminating academic and intellectual experience for students, typically during their final year of high school or middle school, or at the end of an academic program or learning-pathway experience . While similar in some ways to a college thesis, capstone projects may take a wide variety of forms, but most are long-term investigative projects that culminate in a final product, presentation, or performance. For example, students may be asked to select a topic, profession, or social problem that interests them, conduct research on the subject, maintain a portfolio of findings or results, create a final product demonstrating their learning acquisition or conclusions (a paper, short film, or multimedia presentation, for example), and give an oral presentation on the project to a panel of teachers, experts, and community members who collectively evaluate its quality.

Capstone projects are generally designed to encourage students to think critically, solve challenging problems, and develop skills such as oral communication, public speaking, research skills, media literacy, teamwork, planning, self-sufficiency, or goal setting—i.e., skills that will help prepare them for college, modern careers, and adult life. In most cases, the projects are also interdisciplinary, in the sense that they require students to apply skills or investigate issues across many different subject areas or domains of knowledge. Capstone projects also tend to encourage students to connect their projects to community issues or problems, and to integrate outside-of-school learning experiences, including activities such as interviews, scientific observations, or internships.

While capstone projects can take a wide variety of forms from school to school, a few examples will help to illustrate both the concept and the general educational intentions:

• Writing, directing, and filming a public-service announcement that will be aired on public-access television
• Designing and building a product, computer program, app, or robot to address a specific need, such as assisting the disabled
• Interning at a nonprofit organization or a legislator’s office to learn more about strategies and policies intended to address social problems, such as poverty, hunger, or homelessness
• Conducting a scientific study over several months or a year to determine the ecological or environmental impact of changes to a local habitat
• Researching an industry or market, and creating a viable business plan for a proposed company that is then “pitched” to a panel of local business leaders

For related discussions, see authentic learning , portfolio ,  relevance , and 21st century skills .

As a school-reform strategy, capstone projects are often an extension of more systemic school-improvement models or certain teaching philosophies or strategies, such as 21st century skills, community-based learning , proficiency-based learning , project-based learning , or student-centered learning , to name just a few.

The following are a few representative educational goals of capstone projects:

• Increasing the academic rigor of the senior year. Historically, high school students have taken a lighter course load or left school early during their twelfth-grade year, which can contribute to learning loss or insufficient preparation for first-year college work. A more academically and intellectually challenging senior year, filled with demanding but stimulating learning experiences such as a capstone project, the reasoning goes, can reduce senior-year learning loss , keep students in school longer (or otherwise engaged in learning), and increase preparation for college and work.
• Increasing student motivation and engagement. The creative nature of capstone projects, which are typically self-selected by students and based on personal interests, can strengthen student motivation to learn, particularly during a time (twelfth grade) when academic motivation and engagement tend to wane.
• Increasing educational and career aspirations. By involving students in long-term projects that intersect with personal interests and professional aspirations, capstone projects can help students with future planning, goal setting, postsecondary decisions, and career exploration—particularly for those students who may be unfocused, uncertain, or indecisive about their post-graduation plans and aspirations.
• Improving student confidence and self-perceptions. Capstone projects typically require students to take on new responsibilities, be more self-directed, set goals, and follow through on commitments. Completing such projects can boost self-esteem, build confidence, and teach students about the value of accomplishment. Students may also become role models for younger students, which can cultivate leadership abilities and have positive cultural effects within a school.
• Demonstrating learning and proficiency. As one of many educational strategies broadly known as demonstrations of learning , capstone projects can be used to determine student proficiency (in the acquisition of knowledge and skills) or readiness (for college and work) by requiring them to demonstrate what they have learned over the course of their project

In recent years, the capstone-project concept has also entered the domain of state policy. In Rhode Island, for example, the state’s high school graduation requirements stipulate that seniors must complete two out of three assessment options, one of which can be a capstone project. Several other states require students to complete some form of senior project, while in other states such projects may be optional, and students who complete a capstone project may receive special honors or diploma recognition.

Most criticism of or debate about capstone projects is not focused on the strategy itself, or its intrinsic or potential educational value, but rather on the quality of its execution—i.e., capstone projects tend to be criticized when they are poorly designed or reflect low academic standards, or when students are allowed to complete relatively superficial projects of low educational value. In addition, if teachers and students consider capstone projects to be a formality, lower-quality products typically result. And if the projects reflect consistently low standards, quality, and educational value year after year, educators, students, parents, and community members may come to view capstone projects as a waste of time or resources.

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