The Pinnacle Project is a year-long 8th grade project where students explore a subject area that they are passionate about. Through out the project students will meet with a faculty advisor that will guide them through the essential steps of their projects. Students will also have the opportunity to garner feedback from community experts, during multiple stages of their projects. 

 

Students are able to able to choose between three different categories when choosing their Pinnacle project topic: The STEM Fair, National History Day, and a Capstone Project. You can learn more about each category below. 

 

Students in this category chose to complete a yearlong personal project. The projects are highly varied and reflect the students’ interests and aspirations. Most students learned new skills, such as documentary creation, and spent significant time working towards their goals. The projects are divided into different sub-categories for clarity, but all projects are individually creative and unique.

 

Students with work in this category chose to participate using the National History Day guidelines. The theme for this year’s National History Day was “Breaking Barriers in History”.  Students can compete by writing a paper, creating an exhibit or documentary, or developing a website or performance. They are able to choose any time period or figure in history as long as it fits the theme. In a typical year, these students would have competed in the regional and state competitions, but those events have been postponed.

 

Students in this category chose to complete a project using Colorado’s Science and Engineering Fair guidelines. They participated in a Science Fair at Summit with local community members as judges to earn a spot to compete in the Boulder Valley School District Science Fair.  BVSD Judges scored projects and some students gained admittance to the Colorado State Science and Engineering Competition. Due to the unique circumstances, this year’s state competition was held virtually, and students from Summit had some of the most successful projects at the event.

 

All 8th grade students will present their projects at the spring Pinnacle Conference Night. Family members and community mentors are invited to join us for this culminating event to celebrate the successes of our 8th grade students. All students will prepare a 5 minute presentation for the Pinnacle Conference Night that outlines what they learned from their project, what obstacles they overcame, what changes they had to make, and what final product they were able to produce. The audience will have a chance to questions and provide feedback on these projects.