2025 Capstone Project Task Handout REVISED 160125
2025 Capstone Project Task Handout REVISED 160125
Scenario:
You are members of a team of interns at a government agency hired to promote active
citizenship through a social media campaign. The quality of your work will be evaluated to
determine if you will be given full-time positions upon the completion of your internship.
PROBLEM STATEMENT
Singapore needs to step up and help address the challenges we face as a society. How can
we encourage them to be active citizens?
OBJECTIVE
Your team has been engaged to encourage active citizenship with a social media product
that is meant to be viewed on social media by the citizens in Singapore.
STRATEGY
● Develop concern about the issue by examining its impacts on various groups in society,
and by building a persuasive argument using various sources of information as evidence.
● Inspire action to address the issue by examining the causes of the issue, proposing
feasible and effective courses of action, and encouraging targeted viewers to play their
part by doing something to bring about desired outcomes.
BACKGROUND
The Government of Singapore has been promoting active citizenship in response to the
changing needs of an increasingly diverse population and an uncertain future brought about
by rapid change and more complex international relations.
Being an active citizen means taking an active interest in the society that you live in.
Concerned citizens often express their opinions and concerns through various platforms with
the intention of raising awareness and inspiring change. They do so by appealing to others’
empathy and sense of justice with reasons that can convince those who might have different
values or perspectives. They also take direct action to address the issue by spending their
time, money and effort, and mobilising others who are willing to help.
Identify the group best positioned to help solve the social problem identified. Your target
audience should be a part of the general public, and these might be community members,
students, parents, or even small business owners. Think about who has the power or
resources to address this issue effectively.
Technology has made it easier for those who are passionate about a cause to reach out to a
larger audience and advocate action, particularly with engaging videos that seek to motivate
collective action on issues ranging from environmental protection to tackling inequality.
You will produce a Social Media Product as your main deliverable. Leading up to it, you will
first have to submit an Individual Research Report. Your team will then collate all the
reports of its members and detail production plans in a Group Project Proposal. You will
then use that proposal to craft an Oral Presentation. In it, you will pitch your ideas for the
documentary to seek approval from your superiors to proceed with the actual production of
your video.
● After forming your group, you will individually decide on a preliminary social issue to
investigate, based on where you live. You will conduct research to understand it, collate
and frame your ideas in an Individual Research Report (refer to the template provided
in Section G below).
● This is individual work. Collaboration with your group mates is strictly prohibited. The
quality of this report determines the quality of choices that your group will have later when
deciding on the final social issue to tackle in your media product, so you should aim to do
your best work.
● Your report should not exceed a word limit of 800 words (excluding references) and must
include all the sections specified in the template.
● After reading each of your other group members’ individual proposals, work as a group to
decide on the final social issue your group would like to pursue. Next, work on deeper
research to provide the best arguments and evidence for your Group Project Proposal
(refer to the template provided in Section H below).
● Your group proposal should not exceed a word limit of 1200 words (excluding references
and appendices) and must include all the sections specified in the template.
● After conducting further research on your chosen issue and developing your arguments,
you will present your consolidated work on the issue in the form of an Oral Presentation,
which will flesh out in detail the outline provided by your Group Project Proposal, and
form the basis for your Final Social Media Product.
● The Oral Presentation will take place in class during a lesson in T2W6-7. With the use of
presentation slides, you will be presenting as a group to your teacher and the rest of the
class, and will be asked questions after your presentation.
● Your Oral Presentation should clearly detail your understanding of the issue and its
impacts, causes and solutions. Your arguments should be supported with relevant
evidence (e.g. statistics, examples/case studies, etc.) from credible popular and
academic sources (e.g. CNA news stories, IPS working papers, etc.).
● Your group will have a total of 20 minutes for your presentation, and each member of
your group will be given between four to five minutes to speak, depending on how
many members you have. Your presentation slides should have no more than 30 slides
and 70 words per slide, excluding references. You should use around five to six
slides per section. Your group may incur grade penalties for exceeding the presentation
time limits, slide limits, or word limits.
2. A convincing argument why viewers should be concerned about the issue (with
consideration of its impacts) using various modes of persuasion (appeals to
authority, reason, or emotion – refer to https://owl.excelsior.edu/rhetorical-
styles/argumentative-essay/argumentative-essay-modes-of-persuasion), and
3. An inspiring call to action suggesting how your viewers can help address the issue
with solutions that directly address its causes.
● You may choose the platform of the social media campaign that your group feels is most
effective in reaching your target audience. This could include Instagram reels or a short
documentary or even a short film posted on Youtube. However, please ensure that the
product is ultimately able to inform the viewers of the severity and reality of the situation
in Singapore with strong pieces of evidence and inspires clear actions that your target
audience can take to address the social issue.
● Your social media product must have a minimum of five minutes’ worth of content. It
must also not exceed six minutes (excluding credits), or you will incur a grade
penalty for based on how far you exceed the limit.
● Creativity and production quality are important and will help make your social media
product more engaging and easier to understand. Think carefully about your presentation
of the issue to make your social media product an effective one.
● You should consult your teacher early to begin production as soon as possible and refer
to the suggested schedule of work below to ensure that you remain on task and can meet
the submission deadline.
● Interviews with laypersons and experts (such as academics with a relevant area of
research) are optional and not necessary. Note that you should also:
o Avoid interviewing members of the public.
o Avoid interviewing ministers or other senior civil servants.
o Avoid interviewing teachers or your own parents unless they are subject-matter
experts who are directly relevant to your issue.
o Seek approval from your teachers for all correspondence with members of the public,
and consult them if you are unsure of any of these guidelines.
● Together with the submission of your social media product, each member of your group
will also have to complete an online individual written reflection on the entire process.
This reflection is ungraded, but mandatory. You may consider the following questions
to help you with your reflection:
o Key challenges faced – What difficulties did you encounter?
o Important lessons learnt – What have you learnt from the process and issue?
o Areas for improvement – What could you have done differently or better?
● All components will be submitted through assignments on Teams. Please carefully read
the instructions on each assignment before you submit your work.
● You are assessed individually for the Individual Research Report, both as a group and
individually for the Oral Presentation, and as a group for the Group Project Proposal and
Final Social Media Product.
● Your work will be awarded marks based on how well it meets the evaluation criteria
described in the assessment rubrics attached below. Refer closely to them when
working on the various parts of the Capstone Project.
● Failure to meet any of the specified submission requirements may result in your work not
being graded. Exceeding the word, slide, and time limits will incur mark penalties
(this applies to both the Oral Presentation and Final Social Media Product).
● You must inform your teacher early of any difficulty the group faces with particular
individuals. Do not wait until the submission deadline to bring any issues within your
group to your teacher’s attention.
● All group members are expected to contribute fairly to all group components of this
project (Group Project Proposal, Oral Presentation, and Final Social Media Product). By
default, each of you will receive the same marks awarded to the group. Consistent
negative feedback from other group members on your contribution to group work will
result in an individual grade penalty (i.e. your mark will be adjusted downwards).
● The following schedule has been drawn up to help you approach this task systematically.
You are strongly encouraged to complete each step in the order listed below.
● Use this schedule as a checklist when you consult your teacher. Put a tick in the “Check”
box beside completed tasks to track your progress. The group leader is to keep a master
copy of this schedule, which your teacher might ask to check anytime.
● Each group is to send one member for the workshop to attend one of the sessions;
attendance of that participant is compulsory. Each date will have limited places for
participants from each class. Your teacher will manage workshop signups and track
attendance.
● Inform your teacher if you intend to conduct any kind of interview (with experts, members
of the public, or students/staff in RI). Note that interviews are entirely optional and not
required for your media product.
● To comply with the PDPA, you must seek written consent from anyone you intend to
interview for your social media product. Use the Annex B: Interview Consent Form
Template to prepare your own consent forms.
Each group in a class should choose a different issue—no two groups can have the same
topic within the class unless given permission by your teacher.
Key words:
Possible topics:
These are topics that were previously done by earlier batches. This list is not exhaustive or
meant to restrict your choice of topic:
Other issues can (and should) be explored, but first check with your teacher.
We generally want to avoid controversial issues (e.g. politics, race/religion, LGBTQ rights,
etc.) that may struggle to engage with your audience (the general public).
● Who does this issue affect, and in what way (both directly and indirectly)?
Identify how this issue negatively impacts various groups in Singapore.
Primary Evidence
2. Source insert
3. Source Summary
● How does the source show that the issue is pertinent in Singapore?
Explain how evidence that shows that the social issue exists and is a problem
Singapore.
● Who does this issue affect, and in what way (both directly and indirectly)?
Identify how the evidence collected shows how the issue negatively impacts
various groups in Singapore.
Secondary Evidence
2. Article Summary
● How does the source show that the issue is pertinent in Singapore?
Explain how evidence that shows that the social issue exists and is a problem
Singapore.
● Who does this issue affect, and in what way (both directly and indirectly)?
Identify how this issue negatively impacts various groups in Singapore.
● Individual Research Report word limit: 800 words total for both articles excluding
references.
● References must be provided for all sources according the APA Style
(https://apastyle.apa.org/).
1. Presentation of Issue
● What is the issue?
Clearly describe the issue and show that the problem actually exists using
relevant evidence.
2. Impacts of Issue
● Who does this issue affect, and in what way (both directly and indirectly)?
Consider how this issue negatively impacts various groups in Singapore.
3. Causes of Issue
● What are the factors that contribute to this being an issue?
Consider the causes of the issue, and if there are any root/underlying causes.
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For Oral Presentation:
4. Proposed Solutions
● What are some ways that the issue can be resolved? By whom?
Consider possible solutions to the issue that address the causes you identified,
evaluate their relative strengths and limitations, and clearly identify the
various stakeholders involved.
5. Target Audience
● Who will be the target audience for your social media product and why?
Consider who has the power to effect the greatest change on the social issue that
your group has chosen.
Remember that your target audience must be a part of the general public and not
the government.
6. Addressing concern
● Consider the sceptic’s concern: Research and present one reason why someone
might be sceptical, apathetic or dismissive of your product’s message
● Address the sceptic’s concern: Present how your group would attempt to address
this concerns.
7. References
8. Appendices
● A. Resources
o What sources of information will you need (primary and secondary)?
o What locations do you intend to shoot at?
o [Optional] Who do you intend to interview?
● B. Allocation of Work
o What are the strengths of each of your group members?
o How does your group intend to divide the work? What will each member of
your group be responsible for?
● Group Project Proposal word limit: 1200 words excluding references and appendices.
● References must be provided for all information taken from other sources according the
APA Style (https://apastyle.apa.org/).
Source: https://www.nyfa.edu/student-resources/how-to-write-a-documentary-script/
Thank you for kindly agreeing to our request for this interview.
We are a team of Year 4 Raffles Institution students and we are conducting this
interview as part of our Social Studies performance task, which is a social media
product on the topic of “XXXX”.
We are currently studying how… (briefly describe topic) and we seek your opinion
on the topic because… (explain why you wish to interview this person – subject
matter expert, etc.).
In this interview we will be asking you… (list the questions you will ask).
All responses will only be used for this performance task. The social media product
we are producing is meant to be viewed only within the school and will not be made
public. If you do not wish to disclose your identity, we will attribute your response to
an anonymous source.
We seek your consent to proceed with this interview, and to use your responses in
the manner in which we have described.
Thank you.
Thank you again for allowing us to interview you. Your time and comments are
greatly appreciated.
Group Members: WWW (index no.), XXX (index no.), YYY (index no.), ZZZ (index
no.)
Group XX, Class XX
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Class: ________________________________________
3. ___________________________________(____)
4. ___________________________________(____)
5. ___________________________________(____)
Title: ________________________________________________________
I have read and understood the school’s guidelines on academic dishonesty, and declare
that this assignment is my own original work and does not involve plagiarism or collusion.
The sources of other people’s work have been appropriately referenced, and I have not
submitted any part of this assignment for another subject or course.
3. ____________________ 4. ____________________
5. ____________________
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