Welcome to the AHS Capstone Brainstorming page. We hope you will help us rethink the AHS Capstone by including feedback (signed or anonymous, we do not care) below. Please do not erase anything on this page and add as much as you like.
Why are we doing this? After running the current incarnation of the AHS Capstone for two semesters we believe it reveals several flaws. It is:
Frustrating for many students. In particular:
Some students, particularly those with smaller AHS concentrations, are unprepared for advanced work in a specific AHS discipline and therefore have trouble meeting deadlines because they need to educate themselves on basic concepts.
Many students are unfamiliar with the methods of advanced AHS work and challenge whether contextual research or intensive revisions are necessary.
Frustrating for some faculty. In particular:
This activity is extremely labor intensive, often taking as much or more work as a full-sized AHS course even though it is considered a half-course workload at most.
This activity does not make the best use of faculty expertise, as much of the time is required for simple administrative tasks or coaching projects in a different AHS discipline.
We want to know what we can do -- on any scale -- to make the capstone experience more valuable and less painful. Is the AHS capstone important to you? Is the structure fundamentally flawed? Would a small change make life easier?
The options listed here are only some possible suggestions; feel free to reply to them or to suggest your own. This is an open-ended activity.
Comments and proposals below
What are some options?
Allow students to take an off campus course for the Capstone
Perhaps after taking an outside course they should have to produce something cumulative, a major work, as this seems like the point of the capstone - it's not just another course. - Matthew Roy
Having taken a graduate-level AHS course at Brandeis, I think that a passing grade in such a course is the most that could possibly be expected of a student within the context of a 4 credit class. Adding a deliverable of any sort on top of that is an unnecessary burden. Upper-level seminars are challenging and are not 'just another course' along with your other intro classes. Classes aren't lecture, they're collaborative discussion of readings, debate, and fodder for the many papers that typically are assigned in such courses. -Matt Hill
Agreed. IMO, though it can be supplemented by an outside course, the capstone itself should be student-designed. -Mel
Also, the option of "basic course / IS /OSS first semester, AHScap 2nd semester" does exist - that's what I'm doing. -Mel
Make a more open ended version of the Capstone
More open-ended than what? What are the current regulations?
Open ended projects would be great, but perhaps should have the facet of requiring a cumulative deliverable that showcases the student's leanring and work over the course of their AHS experiance at Olin. - Matthew Roy
Wait, isn't it already open-ended? I thought we just had to tell you what we'd do in the end, but we could do anything (like ABET accreditation). -Mel
One facet of this open-endedness, from my perspective as a musician planning to pursue AHS depth courses in music and a recital as capstone, would be a change from the current requirement of research and presentation of that research as a significant paper. If the ability to produce an AHS deliverable of this kind is ideologically or pedagogically important to why we have an AHS capstone, then I feel there should be some dialogue about this, because it's not something I was passionate about in choosing to go to engineering school; however, if there is openness to change the nature of the deliverable, I put in a plug for the final project to be completed in the discipline of the project--for example, musicological research for the purpose of developing an interpretation of several works and then giving a performance of those works. -Sylvia Schwartz
Does the Capstone project have to be an individual project? Can we have students working together on a subject to produce a joint deliverable? Depending on the field, I feel like 2x or 3x 4 credit hours may be able to accomplish something of value where one person working alone might not be able to realistically. I know this has been done with E-capstones (right?) -- is this also a possibility for AHS then? - Meena
Create something different at Olin
Would we prefer a team-taught AHS course over a Capstone project?
What are the most important goals of the Capstone?
Student-driven AHS project?
I think it has to be student driven in that students must care about what they're doing. Taking a class in an area of particular interest should qualify--taking advantage of existing infrastructure is generally more effective than trying to build your own. - Matt Hill
AHS projects need to be "student driven" in thse sense that they should be self-motivated, however, I think most students need a faculty advisors to work closely with to develop something that's professional and polished. - Matthew Roy
Students need to set the agenda/be the boss, with the advisors acting as consultants/roadblock-removers of sorts. Not "Rob, what should I do now?" but more of "Rob, I need Foo but can't access Bar because Baz won't give me clearance. Also, what do you think of this schedule for next week?" -Mel
Develop additional AHS depth?
To some extent. You'll be learning during your AHS capstone, but it should be in an area you've had some experience (not necessarily formal classes) in before. Learn what you need to produce a Product. -Mel
I went into the capstone with that same mindset, Mel, but ultimately the goal of producing a Product only works for those who can manage to tie their concentration neatly into something worthwhile that can be produced. I took 26 credits of Japanese language prior to my capstone, but this still left me far from being able to produce a work that could add any kind of significant value to my discipline. I would have derived a lot more benefit and satisfaction from being able to continue deeper study into the language, rather than pretending I was an expert and twisting it into some kind of a crowning project. In my opinion, developing additional AHS depth is one of the most important attributes that should be in the capstone because asserting our proficiency in any discipline in which we've generally taken 3 classes or less is sort of a pipe dream. Only a few folks really have the ability to contribute to their field and the rest would stand to benefit a lot more by continuing their learning. - Dan Lindquist
All hail the wise and powerful Dan! Well said and seconded both philosophically and on the basis of my own experience! -Matt Hill
Creative conclusion to student's AHS experience?
Definately, it seems that the capstone is meant to be a crowning achievement in AHS, equivalent to SCOPE, it should pull together everything a student has done and be the crown jewel of a student's AHS experiance. - Matthew Roy
with SCOPE, OSS, and AHS Capstone we've got too many flipping crown jewels. We also don't have the same depth to support an AHS capstone as we do a SCOPE project. As a current capstoner, I strongly encourage transforming AHS capstone into something more structured and class-like. There's only so much you can handle structuring and motivating yourself in your senior year while also applying to grad schools/jobs and enjoying a last year with friends. Developing depth rather than meandering creatively, but without direction, is far more valuable and would contribute significantly to the mental health of seniors. - Matt Hill
What if you've got scattered AHS interests? It need not be The Culmination, but it can be; it should be a Significant Project. -Mel
I don't think that this ideal fits with the best interests of the majority of students graduating from Olin with a depth in AHS. - Dan Lindquist
Lifelong learning practice?
YES! - Mel
I agree here. AHS Capstone could offer a good opportunity to continue learning within a discipline without the support of a structured lecture class, something that we'll be doing a lot post-graduation if we want to continue our passions - Dan Lindquist
If you take a sufficiently challenging course, life-long learning is necessarily a component of the course. I disagree with the apparent philosophy at Olin that a lack of structure necessarily equates to life-long learning. Reading, forming opinions, understanding, debating, and analyzing are critical life-long-learning skills and are equally well developed in a seminar style course. - Matt Hill
In my view, the most important role of a capstone is to give students permission/an excuse to dig deep into something they're passionate about. This is a large part of what "life-long learning" means to me. -Stupin
What if Lifelong Learning has to do with the degree of planning of a Capstone? What am I trying to say here ... maybe, I am wondering if it is considered OK to kind of jump into a project and see where it takes you, or if we want to require all capstones to be the result of careful planning?
Give something back to the community?
If they want to. IMO, it should be something meaningful/helpful to the student, whether it benefits anyone else at Olin or not. -Mel
Make Something. To me, this sets the AHS cap apart from normal IS/OSS/Whatever. The goal is to produce a deliverable; you learn whatever you need to get there, but you get graded on Making Stuff more than Learning Stuff because you should have done that already via class/IS/whatever. -Mel
What is the point of making something if you don't yet know enough to make something worthwhile? I think that for those who feel they can make something worthwhile given their background, this is an excellent option, but I think that those like Dan and myself who feel that developing greater depth would be of more benefit should have other options that may not involve making something per se. - Matt Hill
Some AHS capstones might be experiences or performances (musical instrument, drama, teaching a class, working in a psychologist's office). How do we assess or evaluate those? -Mel
How do music and other performing arts fit into AHS? Assesment is really difficult because they don't produce a physical deliverable that's comparable to other deliverables, they're very "touchy feely" in a way, they don't really have quantitative assessment points.
Explore the context of an AHS project?
Should one goal be to link the Capstone to my SCOPE project in creative ways (even if it seems hard to do)?
What are the Criterion for a Capstone Project? Perhaps they might be:
A capstone project must reflect depth of knowledge in the subject of study, this does nor require prior coursework in this focus, but coursework in the area of focus should be strongly encouraged.
See note on "Make Something" above. You can't use AHScap as your Introduction to <Insert Discipline Here>. However, I agree there are other ways than coursework to gain experience in an area - can we define more what an acceptable level of experience is? -Mel
A capstone project must culminate in a deliverable of professional quality suitable for presentation and peer review. The deliverable should be polished and demonstrated verifiability, depth of knowledge, research, and understanding.
I think that a deliverable should not be the philosophical objective of AHS Capstone. The objective is learning, which doesn't require a single, uber-deliverable to happen--Learning can be part of a course and can be evidenced by intelligent participation, reading, debate, and papers--all of which are conveniently quantified in the course grade!
A capstone project must be reviewed by a faculty advisor at regular intervals, but that faculty member need not be involved in direct research. (What are faculty members currently doing for capstone that takes up so much time?)
Can we get a timesheet breakdown for a few faculty members on what they're doing per week on AHS capstone advising? I'd like to see where the hours go. -Mel
Likewise, would a few seniors mind putting their AHS timesheets on this wiki? -Mel
I don't keep a timesheet. Suffice to say that Rob has 8 students to meet with, 8 people to help through their problems with sources, changes in thesis/topic/direction, and all the administration to boot. This is far more than the half-course that it is supposed to take. - Matt Hill
A capstone should reflect a contribution to the field, much like a doctoral thesis, but at a lower level, and should justify that you have learned and thought about AHS throughout your time at Olin.
I don't think that this presents a reasonable approach to where an Olin student should be after a 2-3 course concentration. We are not humanities scholars, and we wouldn't have enough depth to qualify us for a minor in our 'concentration' at most schools, let alone a major. To think that we are consistently going to be able to make a significant contribution to a field is simply the epitomy of Olin student 'I can do anything better than anyone else because I go to Olin' hubris in my mind. - Matt Hill
Contribution to the field doesn't mean "can be published in scholarly journal about field," right? Things like art exhibits or teaching a class are ok. -Mel
I don't think published in a scholarly journal is the only way to contribute to a field, though it certainly is a great way too, teaching a class would be a great way to contribute to the field, while contributing to the community. Performances are tough because they're so transient in time, but sure, why aren't they a contribution to the field? - Matthew Roy
What are the standards for success? What are the conditions for failure? Is it possible to fail a Capstone project or does everyone pass?
Would I fail if I only complete foo% of my project where foo is less than 100? Is it enough for me to try my best?
Would I fail if I do my project in a haphazard manner? Do I care about the method, or just the end product?
Would I fail if I do my project in isolation, without thinking about what others have done in similar disciplines? Do I care about context (if that is the right term)?
Perhaps you can't fail and that is part of the lifelong learning piece. No one in life is grading you, you have to decide for yourself if you suceeded in doing as much and delving as deep as you wanted to or not. The capstone is your opportunity to make a mark and Do Something in a field which you may or may not ever delve into again in your professional Engineering career. What you make of it is up to you as a senior about to enter into a professional career. Some students will want to sideline capstone in favor of SCOPE and some vice versa, perhaps its a personnal choice, in an environment were it is okay to fail yourself without messing up your life. That sounds a lot like lifelong learning to me. -Matthew Roy