Senior Project Presentations

Salmon High School's Senior Project Presentations were held on Friday, January 21. However, the actual projects and required paperwork had to be complete by the first day back to school after Christmas Break. It is now a graduation requirement in Idaho that students complete a senior project with a minimum of 20 hours involved, and at Salmon High School, they also have a Senior Project class at school they have to pass and a bunch of paperwork that must be complete in order to graduate. The boys spent over 20 hours alone on JUST the paperwork! They each submitted a binder with a multitude of requirements, such as: an autobiographical letter written by the student about the student, the 2-page initial project proposal (that had to be approved of last spring before they began their project), 4 Proof-of-Progress Journal entries written throughout the span of their project, a detailed chart of time spent on just their project (not including time to complete the paperwork), 3 letters of recommendation, a 7-page project report complete with additional research and an attached bibliography, a mentor evaluation, and copies of photos taken throughout their project and receipts of items purchased for their project. The binder, which was a big project in itself, was graded by a panel of judges prior to the presentation day. 

For his project, Jonah designed and built a coffee table with golf balls displayed on the top and painted to replicate a U.S. flag. He chose Phil Jackson as the mentor who helped him construct the table. He picked out lots of golf balls from the golf course (Josh had a large supply from mowing the course and finding them all over), and painted them in red, white and blue. He used barnwood to create the frame of the table, and picked out a wooden pole from Edward's stack of logs he'd cut down to chop into firewood, and from that pole, Jonah made the legs for the table. The balls were laid into the table frame using epoxy, which was a major undertaking, and Jason Beyeler helped him purchase the epoxy (which Jonah worked off at his fencing company). It was a cool idea overall, and he saw his vision into fruition, which was so awesome! After he completed it, he donated it to the Salmon Valley Golf Course for use in the Clubhouse or on the deck. 

Micah learned how to weld. He chose Frank Dalrymple as his mentor, who has his own welding machines and is a family friend. Micah designed and created several outdoor decorations built out of horseshoes (such as metal flowers for our garden and a sign with our last name), fixed a few metal items from around our house, and created a bench with a wooden seat and horseshoe back and legs. Frank supplied the horseshoes, and the slab of wood came from inside a shed of an older couple that Josh helped move a few months back. The bench was the largest project, and Micah donated it to the Main Street business Real Deals, since they often have community events and food fundraisers in their parking lot and it would add to the decor of the business and be useful for people to sit and eat, too. 

On Presentation Day, the senior class was broken into 10 groups with 6 in each group to present in an assigned classroom at the high school. There were a panel of 3 judges in each room (the same judges who graded their binders also graded their presentations), and classmates, friends, and family were also invited to watch. Each student had to create a PowerPoint presentation (in advance), and then use the PowerPoint to give an oral overview of their project and self-evaluate their work with a verbal presentation that had to last between 10-12 minutes, with a question and answer session that followed. Thankfully, Jonah and Micah were both assigned to the same classroom: Mrs. Bellamy's Spanish room. Jonah's presentation was before Micah's. It started at noon on Friday the 21st, and lasted about an hour and a half. It was such a neat experience listening to the seniors give their presentations, and learning about all the cool things that they were able to do! 

They presented with Jaylee Morton, Toby Pace, Dakota James,
& TJ Anderson. Jaylee organized a roping event with proceeds
donated to the fairgrounds, Toby built a mobile sauna out of a
horse trailer, Dakota built a backyard firepit and seating area, and
T.J. rebuilt an engine to customize a truck. 

Jonah and Micah had their items on display in that classroom during their presentations, too, which was nice! After that, they were on display for over a month at the Public Library for the community to see all the senior's projects before they went to their final destinations. 

Afterwards, all the kids congregated in the commons and outside to check out each other's projects, and to hear how they each did, while they were waiting for the final scores to be tabulated. They both passed! Yay! It was a relief to finally be done with the projects, which had consumed their extra time since July! Jonah received a 97% and Micah earned a 95.6%, which were both awesome scores!

Josh and I took them out to eat dinner that night at The Ranch to celebrate their achievements and successful completion of the projects. We were so proud of both of them for being diligent to complete these monumental tasks, and doing so well at what they had worked so hard for!