Overview

As an ENVS major, you will undertake a substantial, independent research project that demonstrates the development of depth of your environmental education and your ability to approach environmental issues from a systems-based, interdisciplinary perspective.

The senior capstone project usually takes the form of a research paper, but may also take the form of substantial creative works for those whose area of curricular focus is in the arts. The choice of topic should reflect your area of curricular focus. Capstone topics are finalized early in the fall semester, and the initial stages of the project are completed independently during the fall semester. Writing milestones and workshops occur during the first half of the Senior Seminar course (ENVS 461) in the spring semester, with the final capstone due during the week prior to spring break.

Required Characteristics

In completing the capstone, you should focus on the following goals:

  • Use primary literature to understand and develop ideas and arguments using an interdisciplinary, systems approach.
  • Demonstrate your ability to identify important questions, understand complex issues, synthesize information and think critically.
  • Demonstrate expertise in your curricular focal area and integrate material from your courses and focal area into a cohesive whole.
  • Demonstrate excellent communication skills.

Timeline

  • October 2, 2026: Topic proposal due to ENVS department chair
  • November 13, 2026: Annotated bibliography due to ENVS department chair
  • January 21, 2027: Detailed outline due to instructor of ENVS 461
  • March 3, 2027: Final capstone due to ENVS department chair
  • April 2, 2027: Results provided to students 

Topic Proposal

The topic proposal should be approximately two pages in length and should discuss the topic you hope to address in your capstone, your approach to the topic, potential guiding research questions, and an explanation of how the topic relates to your focal area. The more specific you can be at this point, the better, but we are not looking for any critical analysis or argument at this point. We encourage you to select a topic that you genuinely want to learn more about — this could be something that you briefly covered in a course, or something entirely outside of your ENVS coursework that you want the opportunity to pursue. The topic proposal should be sent to the ENVS department chair and is considered a capstone milestone. If the department is concerned about your topic proposal, we will reach out to you and ask that you meet with an appropriate faculty member; otherwise, you will receive a go-ahead to move forward with your project.

Annotated Bibliography

Your annotated bibliography should contain at least ten references. These should be primarily peer-reviewed journal articles, published reports, and books published on the subject. No more than three of your references should be books or review papers. In addition, make sure that at least three of your sources have been recently published so that your annotated bibliography contains some of the recent developments in the field.

In an annotated bibliography, the article citation is followed by a short description of the paper (see example below), highlighting the main points. In your annotation, you will also address why this paper will be useful as you write your capstone.

Example:

Weiskopf, Sarah R., Madeleine A. Rubenstein, Lisa G. Crozier, Sarah Gaichas, Roger Griffis, Jessica E. Halofsky, Kimberly J.W. Hyde, Toni Lyn Morelli, Jeffrey T. Morisette, Roldan C. Muñoz, Andrew J. Pershing, David L. Peterson, Rajendra Poudel, Michelle D. Staudinger, Ariana E. Sutton-Grier, Laura Thompson, James Vose, Jake F. Weltzin, Kyle Powys Whyte. 2020. Climate change effects on biodiversity, ecosystems, ecosystem services, and natural resource management in the United States. Science of The Total Environment 733: 137782.

This paper provides an assessment of the threat that climate change presents to biodiversity and ecosystems globally. The authors document changes seen in species (for example, changes in morphology, behavior, and range shifts) and in ecosystems (primary productivity, species interactions). This paper is relevant to my work because I am interested in reviewing the role of climate change on ecological systems, the species that make them up, and how this impacts the emergent properties of ecosystems. 

For the annotated bibliography and the final capstone, there is no single required citation format. Instead, citations must be in the format of a major journal in the discipline of your focal area. A standard journal paper citation includes authors, title, journal, volume, pages, and year, but other types of sources may require different or additional information. Once you identify a style commonly used in your focal area, you can use a style guide in Chalmers Library to guide your formatting. Consistency in citations formatting is critical.

Starting early on, as you prepare the annotated bibliography, use a citation management program, such as Zotero, to organize and format your citations. In addition, a citation manager program can help you to maintain notes about each article so you can search for key words and phrases across your source material. Here is a guide from Chalmers Library providing more information about citation management tools, including some basic instructions for how to use Zotero. Don’t be afraid of the up-front time it will take you to learn a new program. You will save significantly more time using a citation manager than you will invest in learning it and entering citations.

The annotated bibliography should be sent to the ENVS department chair and is considered a capstone milestone. If the department is concerned about your progress, we will reach out to you and ask that you meet with an appropriate faculty member; otherwise, you will receive a go-ahead to move forward with your project.

Detailed Outline

The detailed outline is due during the first week of the spring semester as part of ENVS 461, and will be graded as an assignment in the course rather than a capstone milestone. We strongly encourage you to work on your detailed outline before you return from winter break. The detailed outline should show the scope of your capstone project by giving details on each section. The outline should indicate the major sections of the capstone and articulate the flow of logic from one section to the next. Outlines are typically written in a hierarchical format designed to show your arguments, present some of the information you’ll use to support those arguments, and to track the relationships between ideas. Your detailed outline should be at least two pages in length; most successful detailed outlines are typically 3-5 pages in length. 

Rather than provide specific requirements for this assignment, we have provided examples of past outlines from different disciplines. View an example of a detailed outline with an English focal area, view an example with a biology focal area, and view an example with a public policy focal area.

Grading

Your capstone will be graded by two readers, assigned based on the topic of your capstone and the expertise of ENVS and affiliated faculty. Each reader assigns a grade independently, with differences resolved through a negotiated consensus. If consensus cannot be reached, another ENVS faculty member chosen by the chair will read the capstone and choose which grade prevails. The possible grades are: distinction, high pass, pass and no pass. In the case of no pass, the student must rewrite the capstone, addressing the problems identified by the readers. A grade of distinction represents exceptional work and is noted in a student’s transcript. Note that students with late submissions for the topic proposal, annotated bibliography, and final capstone are only eligible for pass or no pass.

Format

A research-based senior capstone should be 5,000-6,000 words in length (20-25 pages in the required formatting), not including references, figures, tables, headings, etc. The actual page count can vary widely depending on margins, headings, fonts chosen, etc. The final report should be double-spaced, with 12-point serif typeface (Times New Roman, Garamond, Caslon, etc.), in PDF format. Headings and figure/table titles may be formatted in a sans-serif font (Helvetica, Arial, Calibri, etc.) if desired.

AI Policy

In all cases when you use any source beyond your own brain, you must acknowledge that source. In some cases, this may take the form of a traditional works cited or references list. If you use artificial intelligence in any capacity, you are required to disclose exactly how AI was used. This includes any use related to finding and organizing sources or proofreading. AI should never be used to generate writing for the capstone or any of the intermediate milestones.

All work submitted for the capstone project must include an acknowledgement statement that includes the source and nature of any assistance. For example, “I used Grammarly to identify possible grammatical errors in a draft of my capstone.” Capstones must include an AI Use Statement in order to pass. If you did not use any AI, you must still include a statement affirming that no AI was used.