With a full day of classes today and exams beginning tomorrow morning, campus is busy with preparations for the end of term. While many classes have formal examinations of a term's worth of material, the diversity in assessment methods at Proctor mirrors the differences in learning styles.



This Academic Lens post from last year highlighted some of the varying types of assessments used at the end of each term. This winter, Psychology students wrote and produced, and will now showcase biographies of individuals influential in their lives. World History students have written and will soon deliver speeches to their peers. Archtitectural Design students have built their own houses and will have the opportunity to share their learning process with the community this week.



This afternoon (Monday), Denning and Richard will present their independent study research projects through the Social Science Department on Native American Culture and Neuropsychology, respectively. Both students have worked incredibly hard this term on these projects and are excited to share their findings with students and faculty at the Community House starting at 4:00 pm.



Proctor's homepage featured the following video highlighting yet another means of assessment. Students in Josh Norris' Math Engineering class built and launched rockets as a way to demonstrate understanding of the mathematical formulas necessary for measuring altitude, velocity, and trajectory. A typical end of term assessment? Hardly. But we would not expect anything less from the unique curriculum options and dynamic teachers provided at Proctor.



Proctor's off-campus programs are also in their final days of the term, and students in each of those programs are working on their final assessments as well. For many, this is a time of self-reflection that proves incredibly valuable as students assess their own learning over the course of the term. One need to only have a conversation with one of these students returning from abroad to understand just how much they have grown and learned over the course of the term.



Across every department, students and faculty are working together to assimilate content, refine writing, and organize commitments during this final week of study before Spring Break. While the intensity of the week can be stressful at times, as a teacher, it is so exciting to see my students demonstrate their understanding of all we have explored together over the past twelve weeks. They are proud of what they have accomplished and the feelings are reciprocated!