All ENVS majors complete a capstone during their senior year. This will give you the opportunity to pull together everything you’ve learned in ENVS, and to demonstrate your ability to do top-quality, creative scholarly work on a topic related to your concentration or second major. ENVS 400 (Senior Seminar, 2 + 2 credits) is a required course sequence you will take to do and document a capstone project following completion of ENVS 330.
Some students launch a project that turns into their capstone prior to their senior year. Some students who participate in an overseas program do a project that becomes the basis for their senior capstone, while others take an ENVS 499 independent study to pursue a project of interest. If you get started early, do make sure to consult with an ENVS faculty member for guidance.
Thesis vs. Non-Thesis Option
All senior capstone projects represent original work following our situated research approach. The final outcome of your capstone project, however, may take one of two forms:
- A thesis, which always results in an extended scholarly manuscript (though it could also include other outcomes, e.g., an artistic work). The thesis option is recommended for students planning on working toward an advanced scholarly graduate (or professional) degree. Note: the length of the scholarly manuscript depends on your project.
- There is also a non-thesis option, primarily for students planning on entrepreneurial or other post-graduation work, or in some cases a professional degree. A non-thesis outcome, which will be approved in advance by the ENVS 400 instructor, could result in a technical report, a sample curriculum, an architectural model, etc.
- Toward the end of the first semester of ENVS 400, you will choose whether to adopt a thesis or non-thesis outcome for your senior capstone project. Students planning on a thesis must demonstrate sufficient progress in first semester ENVS 400; otherwise we will work with you to identify a suitable non-thesis outcome, given the difficulty of writing an extended scholarly manuscript in the second semester alone.
Honors Option
There is also an honors option for your senior capstone project. Here are the guidelines:
- You must have a minimum 3.5 GPA in the ENVS major.
- You must plan on a thesis outcome, and should plan to complete your capstone project research by the end of fall semester of your senior year.
- You will indicate your interest in consideration for honors during your first semester of ENVS 400, and will be nominated to pursue honors by the ENVS steering committee by the end of fall semester of your senior year.
- By early spring semester of your senior year, you will select (with ENVS 400 instructor approval) an honors committee consisting of three CAS ladder faculty members, including at least one core ENVS faculty member. The honors committee will provide input and support as you prepare your thesis manuscript.
- You will circulate a draft for feedback by approximately week 5 of spring semester, then a final version for assessment by approximately week 9.
- If your honors committee finds your final thesis version to be worthy of defense, you will schedule an oral defense of your thesis attended by all honors committee members. Only very minor revisions to your thesis can be made following your defense.
- Your honors committee will decide whether or not to approve your thesis for honors by no later than the middle of April of spring semester.
Capstone Record
All senior capstones will be documented and shared with other ENVS students via a capstone record (see here for the capstone record database):
- First, you should initiate a project record for your capstone project.
- Then, add a new capstone! This record is for you to document your senior capstone for others. Most of the required information is simple, but do read the instructions on the form. Feel free to return to this record to update your summary, add one or more capstone outcomes (in web-accessible format, e.g., PDF or PNG), etc.
- Now, two important final steps after you initially save the record:
- Link the record to you!! Go to “Fields table” toward bottom, and select your student record.
- Link the record to your capstone project. Also under “Fields table” you’ll see “Capstone Projects”: select one project record. Make sure to save these changes!