Capstone Critical Thinking and Analysis

This is the culminating (Capstone) experience for EHS MS Toxicology students. The course is meant to satisfy both the Capstone and APEx requirements. The course is designed for students to develop skills in project management, teamwork, leadership, organization, data presentation, effective stakeholder communication and analyzing primary data. The format of this online course is that a small group of students (2-3) will work with an assigned organization on a project typically aimed at solving an environmental problem that their organization has identified as a concern. Then the group will work to provide a background, draw conclusions and make recommendations to their organization in the form of a final report. A major requirement of the project is data collection and analysis. Each student will individually collect and analyze one portion of the data that is either provided by the organization or that they will gather from available sources. That analysis will be submitted by each student, that will include an outline of their methods and results. This will then serve to fulfill their practicum requirement. The data and analysis will be incorporated in the group project that will be part of the final report and presentation. The final report will include a Background, Methods, Results, Discussion, Recommendations and Executive Summary. This project is aimed at allowing each student to demonstrate their ability to synthesize foundational public health and EHS-specific departmental competencies (Appendix at end of document).

The final product will be an integration of the individual efforts of each student. Working with the instructors, each member of the group will be responsible for a specific part of the project. The instructors will work with each student to identify the appropriate foundational and department-specific competencies for their project portion. Each group will work on this semester-long project, which is meant to be a collaboration between an organization and a team of students. Throughout the project, organizations will receive high-quality output from the students focused on their project. The projects also serve to expand student’s professional networks by connecting future and current environmental leaders. Each group will be responsible for fulfilling the expectations of their organization in the form of a written report as outlined above. The group will prepare a formal presentation for their organization and provide an individual written document demonstratin