Capstone is something that all the fifth graders at Heathcote School complete. In this, a student chooses a topic he/she is interested in and then researches a question relating to the topic. Capstone involves interviews, sight visits and 6-8 weeks of continuous toil and research.
For me, choosing the topic was fairly simple. Ever since third grade, when I read the Percy Jackson series, I have been interested in Ancient Greece. I pride myself on knowing many of their gods which I learned from different books. But I didn’t know too much about life as a Greek citizen. So I wanted to learn about that. Yet when I talked to my teacher about this, she said it was a bit broad so I decided to research Sparta, an ancient Greek state known for its strength and army, which was said to never question orders.
Mrs. Cooper, my teacher had us answer a question sheet which could help us find our topic, such as what field trips we would like to go on or what books we liked to read. For me, this was a bit pointless as I already knew what I wanted to do. But the questions asked about certain areas of expertise and what we enjoyed studying about. What was interesting though, was that I changed my second choice after answering the questions from horses to the Ancient Incas. I realized that the Ancient Incas were an interesting civilization and it might be fun to research how scientists recovered their remnants and crafted together hypotheses from those.
The only thing I am worried about with my topic, Greece, is that I might get a bit bored if I read the really long novels about every little detail in Greece. Also, there are tons of different sights in which different information is displayed. I might get confused if every source says something different.
Other than that, I am excited for Capstone. I really think that Ancient Greece will be an interesting topic to study.