Advanced Credits
By Lauren W.
May 27, 2022
On Wednesday, April 20th, KLHS held a community meeting where the advanced credits for this term were presented. Advanced Credits are a high-commitment, 100-hour project in which an applying student pursues a passion project of theirs. A few students with advanced credits explained their projects and experiences, but as soon as everyone was hooked they were forced to stop because there were just so many to go through! This season, thirteen students pursued advanced credits, and In this article, we take a look at projects which they are so passionate about.
This year, many students took on a project surrounding education, but a particularly exciting passion project was Varin’s project on mitigating climate change. He had been fascinated by climate change for a while now; in middle school, he had created a plug-in for Minecraft which informed users about the effects of climate change. So of course, he was happy to extend his understanding and do a project on the subject. He researched climate change and realized that “there wasn't a single source that would inform people entirely about the scope and magnitude of this problem.” Dismayed, he decided he would write two blogs through GitHub to solve this problem and inform the public about climate change. He found that “ the scope of this problem of climate change is far bigger than we can imagine, and the solutions far too few.” He feels like he has a much more tangible sense of what it will take to solve climate change, and hopes he has transmitted that to his readers.
Another particularly interesting advanced credit was Maddie’s project on tutoring kids in Malaysia. Using her communication skills, leadership skills, and her creativity, she set up a pen pal program between them and kids at KLS. Despite a few logistical issues, she enjoyed getting to know her students and the overall experience. “I loved how they relied on me and trusted me to create fun, educational projects for our class,” says Maddie, “ I also liked getting parent feedback from those who appreciated my work.” In the future, she plans to re-assign pen pals based on who hasn't been writing their letters in past weeks and who is planning to join her program.
The last project we will review is Adam’s advanced credit on 3D printing PPE for the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the course of about 300 hours, he printed about 500 plastic face shields. With the help of The American Medical Women’s Association and The Robonauts, an FRC robotics team, he was able to distribute the shields to 40 different recipients, including healthcare providers in Navajo Nation Arizona, Nepal and Haiti. Although it was a huge time commitment, he enjoyed knowing that “what [he] was printing can [...] help save some lives.”
Although this article only covers three of the advanced credit recipients, there are many more amazing projects not shown in this article. Below is a list of the advanced credit recipients and their websites. We hope you, the reader, will also consider doing your own Advanced credit! Not only are they a very interesting project, but they also help you stand out to colleges and universities and show that you have the time management skills and commitment to carry out a project that you’re truly passionate about.
Adhya: Mental Health Biases in Education: https://adhyak3.wixsite.com/my-site
Ishansh: Musical improvisation program: https://sites.google.com/khanlabschool.org/mic-completer
Maddie: Malaysian Tutoring: es.google.com/view/tutoring-malaysia-maddiewang/home
Varin: Carbon Capture: https://sites.google.com/khanlabschool.org/varinsikka-ac1/home
Pooja: loneliness in education: https://sites.google.com/khanlabschool.org/poojapunnlonelinessklhs/home
Jay Warrier: Analyzing Spotify API: https://sites.google.com/khanlabschool.org/spotify-recommender-project/home
Jay Bhan: Created and Taught a Geometry Course: https://sites.google.com/khanlabschool.org/jay-bhan-geometry-ac/klhs-philosophy
Adam: Create and Donated PPE Supllies https://sites.google.com/khanlabschool.org/adam-shams-ppe-advanced-credit/home
Amartya: Neuro Psychopathy: https://sites.google.com/khanlabschool.org/advanced-credit-amartya
Vivek: community education and course development: https://sites.google.com/khanlabschool.org/vivekpunn-ta-advancedcredit/home
Simon: Social Justice and Accountability: https://sites.google.com/khanlabschool.org/the-archiver/home
Robert: Community Education and Outreach: https://sites.google.com/view/childrengiving
Aruna and Margot: Research, analysis, practice and presentation of extremely challenging musical material https://sites.google.com/khanlabschool.org/margotarunadvancedcredit/home
