From building tree houses to chess boards, quad copters to cakes, Independent Study Projects or ISPs have been a fun and challenging way for Junior and Senior Phoenix Gifted and Talented students to show off their creativity and explore talents they never knew they had.

Independent Study Projects have been around for years and every student seems to become more and more ambitious with their ideas.

Senior Paul Russell has written and recorded 8 songs ranging from folk music to rap. Graham Houpt, also a senior is creating a sitcom and Katie Primrose and Beth Cook are creating a documentary titled “The Anatomy of a Senior.”

“We are interviewing a boy and girl from every grade between preschool and senior year asking them all the same questions,” says senior Katie Primrose.

Some questions the girls will be asking include “What is love?” “What are you scared of?” and “What do you want to be when you grow up?”

“It’s a sentimental project that lets us look back on how we’ve all changed as we grow up,” says Primrose. “My favorite question we’ll be asking is ‘What would you tell your younger/older self?’ to really show how we change not only from personal experience but also from the generation we grew up in.”

Being able to choose anything to research or create gives each student an opportunity to learn about something they are interested in and may never have thought to study before.

Senior Alden Peri has been in Phoenix since second grade and has enjoyed working on ISPs for the past two years.

“Being able to work on something we’re passionate and curious about is beneficial for both the student and classes as a whole, and it motivates us to do our best on the overall product,” says Peri.

Independent Study Projects are controlled by the student, and gives them countless opportunities to explore and create anything they can think of, expanding their own learning environment by their own projects and the projects of others. Whether each student is creating music, food, poetry or magic tricks ISPs are a tradition for Allen High School students that let show off their talents or try something new.