At the end of the year in 5th grade we do a project called capstone. Capstone is where we find a topic we’re interested in and don’t know much about. Then, we research it. My topic is the A-10 warthog. I feel excited for capstone because it will be fun researching something new. I also am nervous because one, I still can’t find a person to interview and two, I don’t like presenting.
To come up with a topic we each had a google doc that had questions like, what do you do after school? We then answered these questions to make ideas. Then we narrowed all our ideas to the top two. We did some pre research on our #1 question. If this did not work out you could go to your second one. I chose the first one, the A-10 Warthog. I chose this because I was interested in the A-10 Warthog but not an expert.
To make our main questions it was important that they had to be good, broad questions because they would narrow down our topic to a researchable size but not overdo it and make it too narrow. We first answered questions on two google docs about making good questions. We then went on to another doc that had subjects like science, math, art… we then made questions for our topic under each one. After that we chose our favorite question and went to a fourth google doc. In this google doc we made variations to our question and decided on the best. Then we went to a fifth google doc where we copied our question in. Then Mrs. Cooper checked it over and helped us revise it. My revised main question is What has been the role of the A-10 in different wars and what advancements have been made over the years?
To come up with our sub questions we basically need to break down our main question. Some challenges were making it not too big or too small. Two of mine were What different roles has the A-10 played in wars and What are some patterns in the way the A-10 has affected wars.
In conclusion, in fifth grade we have been working on a capstone project. I am excited because it will be fun researching my topic and nervous for this upcoming CapCon where we have to present.