Senior Seminar
The Senior Seminar course is a year-long experience that is unique to CVGS. It is comprised of three distinct components:
1) the Leadership, Teamwork, and Communication/Design Challenge (LTC/DC),
2) the CVGS Technology Labs, and
3) the Senior Capstone.
LTC/DC
This special experience is composed of two different, yet related, sets of activities. The first is a series of readings, videos, and activities designed to help you explore important ideas about who you are and how you can most effectively interact with others. This is referred to as the LTC (Leadership, Teamwork, and Communications) facet of the experience. The second facet is a series of increasingly involved collaborative design/build activities in which you will interact with others to accomplish various goals. These activities culminate with the DC...Design Challenge.
Interacting effectively with others is essential to a full and rewarding life, yet the knowledge and skills necessary to do so are seldom explicitly presented, discussed, and practiced. In the LTC activities, students continue the work they started in the junior project by exploring the concepts of effective verbal and non-verbal communication, teamwork, and leadership through readings, short videos, guided discussions, and reading and sharing posts on discussion boards. Students will be encouraged to reflect on what they read and hear, share their experiences and thoughts, refine their understandings, and recognize and appreciate others' insights. In the Design Challenge component of the LTC/DC, students have opportunities to apply their LTC concepts and skills by working collaboratively to address increasingly complex challenges.
The CVGS Technology Labs
During the second and third nine weeks students participate in four technology labs, each lasting about 5 weeks. In these labs students use sophisticated technologies and pursue topics on an individual basis and in small groups under the mentorship of one of the CVGS faculty members.
The laboratory experiences offered each year changed by on student and faculty interest. Some of the offerings include the following:
The Senior Capstone
During the final six weeks of the senior year, all students participate in the CVGS Senior Capstone. The Senior Capstone is a unique culminating academic experience for our students. All our seniors are placed into teams, trained in various lab and problem-solving techniques, and assigned a challenge. The seniors work on the capstone for their entire time at CVGS each morning, as the experience incorporates aspects of math, science, and technology and counts as part of their grades in all three courses. The capstone ends with team video presentations, which are always both enlightening and entertaining!