Back to Index

Project Excerpts & Commentary: Financial Aid

 Page 1 | 2

a Information Tools and Techniques: The student gathers information to assist in completing project work; that is, the student:

• identifies potential sources of information to assist in completing the project;
• uses appropriate techniques to collect the information, e.g., considers sampling issues in conducting a survey;
• interprets and analyzes the information;
• evaluates the information in terms of completeness, relevance, and validity;
• shows evidence of research in the completed project.

Based on the results of their research, the students developed a recommendation to address the problem of interpretation and use of the financial aid forms. Their recommendation incorporated the students’ original ideas along with all of their research. The students also incorporated their research into a budget for the implementation of their recommendation. They researched the personnel costs by asking the Assistant Principal Organization for current “per session” costs plus fringe benefits formulas for personnel.

The list of works cited in the students’ final report indicates the range of sources they incorporated into their background research. It also records their use of interviews as a means of gathering information, in addition to printed sources.

b Communication Tools and Techniques: The student prepares a formal written proposal or report to an organization beyond the school; that is, the student:

• organizes the information in the proposal or report in a logical way appropriate to its purpose;
• produces the proposal or report in a format similar to that used in professionally produced documents for a similar purpose and audience.

Included here are selections from the formal written report submitted to Smith Barney and a panel of community experts. The students used an organizational structure appropriate to an academic report of this kind: Background, Research and Analysis of Results, Recommendation, Financial Implications, etc.

The students incorporated graphs and tables to make the information easily accessible for the reader. In the Financial Implications section, the students also used headings, bullet points, and a variety of fonts to aid readability. All of these techniques are commonly used in professional documents produced for a similar purpose and audience.

c Information Tools and Techniques: The student uses word-processing software to produce a multi-page document; that is, the student:

• uses features of the software to create and edit the document;
• uses features of the software to format the document, including a table of content, index, tabular columns, charts, and graphics;
• uses features of the software to create templates and style sheets for the document.

In order to present the financial information in a clear and concise manner, the students chose to incorporate tables and charts in their final report. They also used the bulleting program for some of the information in the document.

a Communication Tools and Techniques: The student makes an oral presentation of project plans or findings to an audience with expertise in the relevant subject matter; that is, the student:

• organizes the presentation in a logical way appropriate to its purpose;
• adjusts the style of presentation to suit its purpose and audience;
• speaks clearly and presents confidently;
• responds appropriately to questions from the audience;
• evaluates the effectiveness of the presentation and identifies appropriate revisions for a future presentation.

The students prepared a ten minute oral presentation of their project and made the presentation to a panel of community leaders at the headquarters of Salomon Smith Barney.

The index cards included here demonstrate that the students organized their presentation in an appropriate manner for its purpose.
In order to convince the panel of the importance of their recommendation, the students first asked the panel to attempt to fill out the application form—in Chinese. This clever rhetorical ploy put the participants in the position of non-English speaking applicants.
The students then immediately presented their solution to the problem in a concise, clear manner. This was followed with some more technical information that came directly from the students’ research. The students gave specific examples of the difficulties that applicants can experience even if their first language is English.

c Communication Tools and Techniques: The student develops a multi-media presentation, combining text, images and/or sound; that is, the student:

• selects an appropriate medium for each element of the presentation;
• uses the selected media skillfully, including editing and monitoring for quality;
• achieves coherence in the presentation as a whole;
• communicates the information effectively, testing audience response and revising the presentation accordingly.

Since the students were given a limited amount of time to present a great deal of information, they decided to use additional media to support their presentation. They developed a multi-media presentation which combined text, images and sound.

The students used PowerPoint and prepared visuals to enhance their oral presentation. The slides included here from their PowerPoint presentation show that the students communicated information and ideas in ways that were appropriate to the purpose and audience. They also show the attention the students devoted to selecting an appropriate format for each element of the presentation.

For example, the overhead that shows the response to the questionnaire prompt (Question 14) “I think a financial aid workshop with translators in my native language would have helped me in filling out the forms,” illustrates the power of a graphic for presenting key results compared with simply saying that 87% of those surveyed said “yes.”
Also, when presenting the information on the costs of providing these services to non-English speaking applicants, the students created a simple chart (e.g., Costs for Translations of FAFSA and Total Costs of Recommendations) to illustrate clearly exactly how much it would cost. Here the students even separated the costs out per borough for the panel’s convenience.

Back to Index