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North Pocono students present AP Capstone research on social media, PA public defenders and PA physician assistant title change
Summary
Three North Pocono AP Capstone seniors presented independent research projects to the board, covering social media and language, a professional name change in health care, and public defender funding in Pennsylvania.
Three seniors in North Pocono’s AP Capstone program presented original research to the board at the May meeting, describing methods, participant recruitment and key findings from yearlong projects.
Liberty Owen summarized an AP Research study that interviewed two speech-language pathologists to assess how social media affects language development in 9- to 12-year-olds. Owen told the board the small sample limits generalizability but said interviewees reported both positive and negative effects: social media can expose tweens to diverse vocabulary, while heavy social-media use may hinder development of complex sentence structure and face-to-face conversational skills. "Social media can have both positive and negative effects...depending on how it is used," Owen said.
Alyssa Lynch described a phenomenological study of how actively employed physician assistants perceived the profession’s name change from "physician assistant" to "physician associate." Lynch noted that "the name change was first decided on by the American Academy of Physician Associates...in May of 2021" and said participants generally understood the change and did not expect it to affect stress, burnout or career satisfaction, though they believed the new title could help correct misconceptions about the role.
Lisonbee Fisher presented research on Pennsylvania public defenders, including interviews with three public defenders. Fisher concluded that underfunding and high caseloads contribute to stress and burnout among defenders and that participants suggested increased funding as a remedy. "Underfunding is a direct cause of the stress and burnout experienced by public defenders," Fisher said.
Superintendent Daniel Powell and other board members thanked the students for their presentations and noted the AP Capstone program offers college-level research experience in high school.
