The Extended Application is a non-credit Oregon graduation requirement that asks students to apply knowledge and skills in the context of their personal interests, career interests, and goals after high school. Students use what they have learned to solve problems, create products, perform, conduct research, or participate in new and complex experiences.
The Extended Application must connect to the student’s Education Plan and Profile and be informed by Career-Related Learning Experiences. It should represent meaningful growth, not simply the repetition of a regular classroom assignment.
Learn more about Oregon’s Extended Application requirement.
Senior Project – Click here for the Senior Project Handbook
Students complete the Extended Application through a Senior Project. The project is designed around a possible career path or lifelong interest.
Students will:
- Research a career path or lifelong interest
- Design an approved project
- Work with or learn from a mentor
- Complete an experience
- Create a product, performance, or other final outcome
- Maintain a project log
- Document the process
- Demonstrate career-related skills
- Develop and deliver a final presentation
- Reflect on how the experience affected future plans
Every Senior Project Must Include Both Components
Experience Component
The student must learn, do, observe, practice, investigate, or participate in something beyond the student’s previous experience.
Examples include:
- Working with a mentor
- Completing a job shadow
- Participating in an unpaid internship
- Attending a workshop or seminar
- Learning a new technical process
- Preparing for a public performance
- Conducting research
- Organizing an event
- Working with a community organization
- Testing and revising a design
Product Component
The student must produce, perform, demonstrate, or present something that shows the learning gained through the experience.
Examples include:
- A physical product
- A technical project
- A performance
- A demonstration
- An event
- A research product
- A portfolio
- A digital product
- A publication
- A presentation of an experience
- A documented solution to a problem
A student completing an experience-based project may use the final presentation and documented demonstration of newly gained knowledge as the product component.
Standards for an Approved Project
The project must:
- Be meaningful to the student
- Connect to a career interest or lifelong passion
- Present a complex challenge
- Extend the student’s previous learning
- Require new learning or skill development
- Include an original product, performance, or documented experience
- Go substantially beyond a regular classroom or extracurricular requirement
- Include a mentor or knowledgeable adult
- Include documented student effort
- Include a final presentation
- Include reflection
A classroom assignment may provide the starting idea, but the student must extend it substantially and make it an original experience. A slight variation of an existing assignment does not qualify.
Similarly, a required extracurricular activity—such as participating in a regular school concert, athletic competition, or scheduled performance—does not qualify by itself. The student must extend the experience beyond the ordinary participation requirement.
Project Types and Examples
Product-Based Projects
A product-based project results in something visible or tangible.
Examples include:
- Building or rebuilding an engine
- Programming a game
- Publishing a cookbook
- Writing a collection of stories or poetry
- Designing a kitchen
- Designing and constructing a piece of furniture
- Applying classroom welding skills to create an original product
- Developing an architectural design
- Completing a material-science project
- Creating a technical-theater design
- Developing a website or digital product
- Designing and testing a prototype
The student must document the development process, including planning, revisions, challenges, hours, and final results.
Performance-Based Projects
A performance-based project involves public execution of an authentic skill, talent, or ability.
Examples include:
- Auditioning for and participating in a community-theater production
- Planning and performing a musical program
- Choreographing and presenting an original dance
- Producing an artistic exhibition
- Coaching a sport or developing a training clinic
- Demonstrating an advanced athletic skill
- Planning and executing an event
- Presenting an original dramatic or spoken-word performance
- Delivering a technical or professional demonstration
A regularly required school performance or competition does not qualify by itself. The project must create an additional challenge and extend the student’s learning.
The student must document the performance through permitted photographs, video, programs, advertisements, audience materials, or other evidence.
Experience-Based Projects
An experience-based project involves extended unpaid participation with an organization or mentor connected to the student’s career goal or lifelong interest.
Examples include:
- Job shadowing
- Completing an unpaid volunteer internship
- Participating in a summer seminar or workshop
- Learning from a police officer
- Working with a chef
- Shadowing a beautician
- Learning from a millwright
- Volunteering with an animal-rescue organization
- Participating in a health-care exploration program
- Attending a journalism workshop
- Combining experiences with two or more mentors
Experience-based Senior Projects require at least 15 hours of participation. Students must maintain an accurate log and follow all school approval and safety procedures.
Choosing a Project
Students should begin by asking:
- What am I interested in?
- What might I want to do after high school?
- What is something I care enough about to investigate deeply?
- What skill have I always wanted to learn?
- What can I make, perform, organize, investigate, or experience?
- How can I extend something I have already started?
- Who has expertise that could help me?
- What would present a meaningful challenge?
- What will I know or be able to do afterward that I cannot do now?
Students who do not yet have a topic will use Cobra Advisory, interest assessments, career research, and adult guidance to identify possibilities.
The Mentor
Every Senior Project should include interaction with a mentor or knowledgeable adult connected to the project field.
The mentor may:
- Explain the career or skill
- Help refine the project
- Recommend appropriate activities
- Demonstrate professional processes
- Provide technical guidance
- Suggest resources
- Give feedback
- Verify participation
- Help the student understand professional expectations
The student remains responsible for completing the project. The mentor guides the work but does not do the work for the student.
Project Process
1. Select and Approve the Topic
- Identify a career path or lifelong interest.
- Choose a product-, performance-, or experience-based project.
- Explain why the topic is meaningful.
- Describe the new learning or challenge.
- Obtain required approval.
2. Identify a Mentor
- Locate an appropriate adult with relevant knowledge.
- Confirm the mentor’s willingness to participate.
- Follow school procedures for approval and communication.
- Establish expectations and appropriate boundaries.
3. Create a Plan
- Establish goals.
- Identify the intended experience and product.
- Develop a timeline.
- Identify required materials and resources.
- Determine how the work will be documented.
- Identify possible barriers or safety concerns.
4. Complete and Document the Work
- Maintain a project log.
- Record dates, activities, and hours.
- Document challenges, decisions, and revisions.
- Take approved photographs or video.
- Save work samples and other evidence.
- Meet with the mentor.
- Complete the product, performance, or experience.
5. Connect the Project to Career-Related Skills
Students will use all six career-related skill areas:
- Career Development
- Employment Foundations
- Communication
- Teamwork
- Problem Solving
- Personal Management
The final presentation must specifically address Communication, Teamwork, Problem Solving, and Personal Management.
6. Prepare and Deliver the Final Presentation
Students must create and present a PowerPoint that follows the required order.
Final Presentation Requirements
Introduction: Two to Three Slides
- Student’s name
- Project title
- Date
- Photograph of the student
- Brief information about the student
- Interests and future plans
Relevance: One to Two Slides
- Why the topic was selected
- How it connects to the student
- Why the topic is important or interesting
Rigor: At Least Eight Slides
This is the central section of the presentation and should contain most of the project photographs and evidence.
Students should explain:
- What they did
- What they knew before beginning
- What they needed to learn
- What new knowledge and skills they gained
- What challenges occurred
- How problems were addressed
- What education, training, or additional experience may be needed
- The career’s job outlook, salary, hours, working conditions, and benefits when applicable
Career-Related Learning Standards: At Least Two Slides
Students must explain how they used:
- Communication
- Teamwork
- Problem Solving
- Personal Management
Students should provide specific examples, explain why each skill matters in the selected field, and describe how each skill will be used in the future.
Sources: One to Two Slides
- List sources in MLA or APA format.
- Briefly explain what information was gained from the sources.
Reflection: At Least Two to Three Slides
- What did the student learn?
- Did the experience change the student’s future plans?
- What would the student do differently?
- What is the student’s next step?
Required Evidence
Students must submit or present:
- An approved project topic
- A project plan
- A mentor connection
- A project log
- Dates and hours
- Photographs, video, or approved alternative evidence
- Research and sources
- Evidence of the experience component
- Evidence of the product, performance, or final outcome
- Career-related skill examples
- A final PowerPoint
- A final presentation
- A reflection
Students working in professions with privacy or confidentiality restrictions must ask the mentor what documentation is permitted and arrange an approved alternative with school staff.
Student Completion Checklist
- I selected an approved topic connected to a career or lifelong interest.
- My project presents a meaningful and complex challenge.
- My project extends beyond a regular assignment or activity.
- I identified and communicated with a mentor.
- I completed an experience component.
- I completed a product, performance, or documented outcome.
- I maintained a project log.
- I recorded my hours.
- I collected approved photographs, video, or alternative evidence.
- I documented challenges, revisions, and new learning.
- I addressed Communication, Teamwork, Problem Solving, and Personal Management.
- I researched relevant career or training information.
- I cited my sources.
- I created the required PowerPoint.
- I completed the final presentation.
- I reflected on what I learned and how the project affected my future plans.