Capstones and practica in environmental studies and sciences programs: rationale and lessons learned

Abstract

Environmental Science and Studies (ESS) programs grapple with the need to address several important, and sometimes competing, goals in curricula, such as understanding coupled human-natural systems, interdisciplinary approaches, problem solving, science literacy, informed citizenship, and career preparation. Hands-on projects that allow students to apply their academic learning to the real world in the form of capstone projects and practica offer the potential to meet many of these goals. In June 2010, a session was convened at the Association for Environmental Studies and Sciences (AESS) annual conference at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon, to discuss the benefits of these projects for student learning and to share practical experience of facilitating these types of projects and associated courses on different campuses across the country. This special issue of JESS features eight case studies of ESS capstone course projects at various institutions, from small liberal arts colleges to large research institutions. These examples serve as templates for instructors hoping to start similar programs at other institutions or to adapt new projects in existing capstone courses. This paper synthesizes the collective lessons learned from these case studies. We found that that while these case studies help instructors achieve some similar learning goals, several important differences exist, suggesting that curricula and the demands faced by instructors in the emerging field of ESS are still quite varied.

Training for the Industry: Examining the Use of Real-life Consultancy Projects in Development Studies Programmes

“…The literature has been almost unanimously supportive of the proposition that these objectives are indeed being achieved, finding that consultancy projects lead to ‘increased course satisfaction, policy analysis, general professional skills and dedication to community involvement’ (Ahmed, 2015; Allard and Straussman, 2003; Ardley and Taylor, 2010; Camill and Phillips, 2011; Flynn et al, 2001; McGaw and Weschler, 1999; Roberts and Pavlak, 2002; Sprague and Hu, 2015: 263; Whitaker and Berner, 2004).…”

“…The literature also discusses various practical, micro-level implementation challenges associated with the use of consultancy or capstone projects (Ahmed, 2015; Allard and Straussman, 2003; Camill and Phillips, 2011; Meltzer, 2013; Roberts and Pavlak, 2002). However, across disciplines, there have hardly been any efforts to reflect more systematically and critically on some of the bigger implications of adopting this teaching device.…”

“…First, the question of whether or not the consultancy should be paid is difficult to answer, as all scenarios come with some drawbacks. Unfortunately, the literature on consultancy projects in other disciplines is silent on the implications of going for either option (Ahmed, 2015; Allard and Straussman, 2003; Ardley and Taylor, 2010; Camill and Phillips, 2011). Both appear to be practiced, albeit with a clear preference for consultancy and live capstone projects to be free of charge.…”

Integration of an electrical engineering capstone course with social justice and global studies

“…Courses that combining GE topics with engineering or STEM content have been presented in the literature for many years [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11], and there have been GE only capstone programs that have been successful [12][13][14][15], but there seem to be no multi-course package that combines GE and an engineering capstone course. This work is important because future engineers need to take into account societal needs when designing a product.…”