The case coach
A case · you decide
Dr. Reyes — the fair examiner
Dr. Reyes — chairs the capstone defence panel
A candidate has just claimed their recommendation is the best one. As chair, you decide how the panel questions it.
A trick question can trip up a student who genuinely did the work — and let a rehearsed answer slide. That is the opposite of what a defence is for.
Dr. Reyes has one move she repeats: after any claim, “why — and how do you know?” Never a trap; always a door back into the student’s own reasoning.
How should the panel question the candidate?
The candidate stalls on a big question. What does Dr. Reyes do?
The best defences are not survived — they are entered. Dr. Reyes proves your project by helping you explain it, one honest “why” at a time.
A case · you decide
Mara — the process-keeper
Mara — keeps a running log of every capstone decision, dead end, and change of mind
You just hit a messy dead end three weeks into your project. You can record it now, or tidy the story up later.
Classmates tease Mara — “it’s just a notebook.” Then the defence comes, and she can say exactly when and why every choice happened.
The others can only say “it just… came together” — and a panel cannot tell whether that means insight or outsourcing.
What should you do with the messy middle of the project?
Mara’s process portfolio IS her defence. The mess she kept is the proof the work was hers — which is why no tool can hand it to anyone.
A case · you decide
Tomas — the honest AI-user
Tomas — used an AI tool to brainstorm angles — and wrote down exactly how
You used an AI tool to list possible driving questions and to check your grammar. Now you decide what to say about it.
Tomas chose and narrowed the questions himself; the final argument and every source are his. He wants his own name on what is actually his.
A vague claim invites suspicion; silence invites a false accusation. A specific line does neither — it draws the exact border between help and his own thinking.
How should Tomas handle the AI help in his write-up?
Tomas’s ledger does not weaken his capstone — it is what lets him defend it with a straight face. Owning your process is the point.
A case · you decide
Selin — the probing follow-up
Selin — the study partner who never lets a first answer stand
A partner says their capstone is “about climate.” You can accept that, or push one more question.
Selin’s move: “Which part of climate? For whom? So what?” Three questions in, a vague topic becomes a real driving question — or reveals it was never one.
She does the same to her own ideas before anyone else can — so her questions get sharper and her critiques get kinder.
Your partner’s topic is “about climate.” What do you do?
Selin rehearses the defence long before it happens — by asking her own ideas the questions a panel eventually will. A sharp question is half a finished capstone.
A case · you decide
Mara and Tomas keep the AI in the record
Tomas & Mara — seventeen, halfway through a capstone on local water quality
Tomas asked an AI assistant to summarise three long research reports. The summaries were helpful, and one of them contained a statistic he cannot find in the original report.
Tomas's primitive is the AI-use ledger: using AI is allowed in his course, and saying exactly how is part of integrity.
Mara's primitive is the process record: the dated notes kept from day one are what show how the work was really done.
What should Tomas do?
The record does not just show what you made. It shows you can stand behind it.
A case · you decide
Selin and Dr. Reyes at the defence
Selin & Dr. Reyes — seventeen, answering questions at her capstone defence
Selin surveyed 40 students about sleep and screen time. Dr. Reyes asks: "Why a survey, and not something else?"
Selin's primitive is the why-chain: each answer should be able to survive one more "why?"
Dr. Reyes's primitive is the fair examiner: the question is there to find out what Selin understands, not to catch her out.
Which answer shows the most understanding?
Understanding is knowing why you chose something and what it could not do.