Senior Capstone

Your capstone experience might include a research project, in-depth library project, senior seminar, or portfolio -- depending on your major.

For example:

• Music majors can select an independent study with a faculty mentor in the areas of music theory, musicology, performance, or composition. The capstone project may include a one-hour lecture/recital, one-hour senior recital, significant composition, or a major research paper.
• Math majors are required to participate in the independent study of a topic of current interest and produce a talk on the topic.
• Students in Gender and Women's Studies may participate in the Antioch Women's Studies Abroad program, an internship, a community action project, a research/creative project carried out through independent study or an Honors thesis. 
• English Literature majors participate in a seminar that focuses on issues in literature that are currently being discussed or debated nationally or internationally. The term culminates with a conference where students present a research paper and answer questions from an audience.

Recent Senior Capstone Projects

Biology

• Lateralization of visual mate choice in female Zebra finches
• Biological altruism as it presents in strains of Dictyostelium (pulled from Green Oaks soil samples)
• Behavior of fox squirrels in winter using a GIS database that maps their nests around campus

Biology/Environmental Science

• Bathymetric map and plant survey of Lake Sharvey at Green Oaks

Chemistry

• Lab exercises in protein unfolding and refolding using RNase S

Environmental Studies

• Design and construction of a Knoxquaponics system for a study of a contained water system

Neuroscience

• Use of guanfacine or clodine to attenuate stress-induced cocaine seeking
• NHR-14 expression in c.elegans and altering the temperature in which they are grown

Neuroscience/Psychology

• Long-term voluntary running test in an intensity-dependent manner to alter expression of brain derived neurotrophic growth factor in the rat hippocampus and affect spatial learning in the Morris water maze

Psychology

• Effects of alcohol on sexual arousal in heterosexual men