Tag Archives: projects

CAN YOU PROVIDE EXAMPLES OF CREATIVE WORKS THAT STUDENTS HAVE COMPLETED FOR THEIR CAPSTONE PROJECTS

Leave a reply

One student who was studying digital media created an interactive virtual art exhibit that could be experienced through virtual reality headsets. The art exhibit featured 10 different virtual art installations that visitors could walk through and interact with. Some of the installations included virtual sculptures that changed shape when touched, paintings where the brush strokes were generated by the visitor’s movements, and an environment made of light particles that reacted to sound. The student learned skills in 3D modeling, animation, programming interactive elements, and virtual environment design to create this immersive virtual art experience.

Another creative capstone was a documentary film produced by a student majoring in film. The 80-minute long documentary told the story of a small traveling circus through the eyes of three generations of a family who owned and performed in the circus. The student conducted extensive interviews with family members, located historical footage and photos from the circus’s 50 year history, learned cinematography and editing skills to shoot additional footage at the circus’s current performances, and compiled it all into a film that captured both the artistic skills of the performances as well as the personal histories of the family struggling to keep their tradition alive. The documentary provided an intimate look at a unique American institution and the relationships that held it together.

A graphic design student created an illustrated children’s book as their capstone project. They came up with an original story about a group of forest animals discovering their individual strengths during a snowstorm. The student hand-drew all of the illustrations combining ink drawings with watercolors. They also designed the layout for each page, the cover, and additional promotional materials. Through the process, the student strengthened their illustration and page composition abilities as well as learning self-publishing and book production skills. Several local elementary schools and libraries now have copies of the book to share with students.

A musical theater major composed music and lyrics to produce an original one-act musical play for their capstone. They wrote the story, six original songs, and worked with other student directors, choreographers, actors and designers to stage a full production. Through collaborating with other theater students and completing every step from initial conception to final performance, the student demonstrated comprehensive skills in musical theater creation, production and performance. The short play received positive feedback and interest from those who saw it about the student’s potential for future musical theater work.

As part of a community health science degree, one student identified a need for more accessible athletic opportunities for disabled youth in her community. She created an adaptive sports program for kids ages 8-16 with physical disabilities. Through extensive research, grant writing, collaboration with local organizations and volunteers, she launched a six-week long pilot program. It included lesson plans, skill progressions, and rules modifications for sports like swimming, boccia, wheelchair basketball and sled hockey. Program evaluations demonstrated improvements in the kids’ confidence, socialization and mobility skills. The success of the pilot program helped the student advocate for ongoing funding and institutional support to establish the program long-term through her county department of parks and recreation. Her capstone showed initiative in identifying a community health issue and implementing a sustainable solution.

These are just a few examples of the diverse types of creative works students across various disciplines have produced for their capstone or culminating projects. Through generative thinking, research, technical skill building and collaborative efforts, these projects allowed students to demonstrate comprehensive understanding, innovation and professional potential within their fields of study. The process of conceiving and completing singular works that combine theory and practice exemplifies the purpose of a capstone experience to showcase learning, growth and preparation for post-graduate work or research.

CAN YOU PROVIDE MORE EXAMPLES OF POTENTIAL CAPSTONE PROJECTS IN PUBLIC HEALTH

Leave a reply

Community-Based Obesity Prevention Program – Develop and implement a community-based program to address childhood obesity in your local area. Conduct needs assessments and partner with schools and community organizations. Develop educational materials and programs focused on nutrition, physical activity, body positivity. Assess the effectiveness through BMI/weight tracking and surveys.

Disease Surveillance and Outbreak Investigation – Work with your local health department to conduct surveillance on a disease such as influenza. Develop protocols and train staff to collect data. Analyze trends over time. If an outbreak occurs, lead the investigation into the source and impacted populations. Develop recommendations to control spread.

Mental Health Awareness Campaign – Research a mental health issue such as anxiety, depression, or suicide in your area. Develop educational materials and host community events and forums to increase awareness and reduce stigma. Work with mental health organizations to share resources. Conduct pre/post event surveys to evaluate effectiveness.

Health Program Evaluation – Choose an existing public health program in your community such as a diabetes prevention class, smoking cessation clinic, or nutritional assistance program. Conduct in-depth interviews with staff and participants. Review program materials and outcomes data. Write a detailed report analyzing the program’s strengths, weaknesses, and making recommendations for improvements.

Substance Abuse Prevention Planning – Research the issues of underage drinking, opioid misuse, or other substance abuse problems impacting local youth. Conduct focus groups with students and community leaders. Develop a comprehensive strategic plan for a multi-pronged prevention program involving education, enforcement, treatment and policy efforts. Provide implementation guidance and tools for stakeholders.

Access to Care Assessment – Survey residents in medically underserved areas to understand barriers faced in accessing affordable, quality healthcare. Interview local clinicians and review utilization data from clinics and emergency rooms. Produce a written report and online dashboard depicting healthcare deserts and recommending solutions such as expanding Medicaid, funding community health centers, implementing telehealth programs, addressing transportation barriers. Work with taskforce to implement recommendations.

Healthy Aging Initiative – Partner with senior centers and assisted living facilities to conduct needs assessments with older adults. Identify predominant health conditions, social determinants of health concerns, and gaps in community support services for the elderly. Develop wellness programs, fall prevention classes, chronic disease self-management workshops. Create educational materials on nutrition, exercise, medication management, advance care planning. Track participant health metrics and quality of life indicators.

Reproductive Healthcare Clinic Development – Research the need for expanded contraceptive access, STD testing, and women’s healthcare services in an underserved community. Create a business plan for a new low-cost clinic including startup costs, facility requirements, staffing needs, partnership/funding opportunities, proposed services, and operating budget. Develop promotional materials and conduct outreach to generate patient volume and support. Address policy barriers at local level.

Environmental Health Impact Analysis – Choose a local issue involving air or water quality, toxins exposure, sanitation practices, climate change preparedness etc. Conduct tests/samples if applicable. Research health effects through literature and interviews with experts. Produce a report for residents and policymakers analyzing the problem, at-risk populations, economic/social costs, recommended solutions, and best practices from other communities.

This covers just a sampling of the many possible approaches to a capstone project in public health. The key is to choose a timely issue impacting the community that interests you, conduct thorough needs assessments and research, develop an evidence-based intervention, implement activities, and evaluate outcomes. A detailed proposal and final culminating report allow for maximum learning and impact. With dedication, any of these projects could delve into important health challenges and make meaningful improvements.

CAN YOU GIVE ME MORE DETAILS ABOUT CAPSTONE PROJECTS FOCUSED ON DATA AND ANALYTICS

Leave a reply

Data and analytics capstone projects provide students with the opportunity to apply the skills and knowledge they have gained throughout their analytics program by undertaking a substantial project focused on solving a real-world data problem or answering an important business question. By their very nature, capstone projects allow students to showcase their abilities to think critically, work independently, and deliver meaningful analysis and solutions.

Some common types of data and analytics capstone projects include:

Business intelligence project: Students work with a company to build dashboards, reports, or other business intelligence tools that deliver insights from their data to help with decision making, performance monitoring, or strategy development. This allows students to apply skills like data warehousing, ETL processes, data visualization, and reporting.

Predictive analytics project: Working with a partner’s dataset, students will develop and compare predictive models to forecast or classify outcomes. Examples include predicting customer churn, credit risk, medical diagnosis, or financial performance. This applies machine learning algorithms, model development and evaluation, and ability to select the best predictive model.

Data mining project: Students perform exploratory data analysis on a substantial dataset to discover hidden patterns, associations, anomalies and classify important subgroups. This could involve market basket analysis, sentiment analysis, fraud detection, customer segmentation or identifying at-risk patients. Skills in unstructured data analysis, statistics, visualization and communication of findings are important.

Data management project: Working with an organization’s data management challenges, students implement solutions around data governance, quality assurance, integration, architecture and standards. This could cover database design, ETL processes, data lineage documentation, data policies or metadata management. Experience in data modeling, SQL, and system design and implementation is gained.

Web analytics project: Students design and implement web analytics solutions to understand user behavior and optimize key metrics. This may involve setting up Google Analytics, heuristic analysis, A/B testing, tagging implementations and dashboard development to provide actionable insights. Experience in Javascript, tagging, reporting and optimization strategies is developed.

Data visualization project: Leveraging a partner’s complex dataset, students effectively visualize and communicate insights through dashboards, stories, and presentations. Skills in data storytelling, perceptual principles, interactive visual interfaces help clearly convey findings to non-technical audiences. Experience with tools like Tableau, Power BI, D3.js or custom visualizations provides practical skills.

Social media analytics project: Analyzing social media datasets, students build Dashboards, reports or predictive models to understand sentiment, measure influence, predict viral content or spot competitive threats. This applies NLP, graph analysis, social network analysis and emerging social analytics techniques.

In all cases, the scope of the capstone project aligns with the program’s learning outcomes and requires substantial effort—usually estimated at 300 hours. Students follow a defined process, from problem definition to data collection, analysis, communications of findings and deliverables. Regular meetings with capstone advisors provide guidance and feedback.

At the culmination, students present their process, results and learnings to a panel, which often includes industry representatives. A final written report and demonstration of interactive exhibits or working prototypes are also typically required. This mirrors real-world analytics consultancy experience.

Successful capstone projects showcase the value of analytics, demonstrate acquired skills and knowledge, provide tangible work experience, and often result in job opportunities. They allow students to undertake meaningful work that creates visible impact, serving as a valuable professional credential and differentiator in their post-graduation pursuits.

Capstone projects focused on data and analytics provide a unique opportunity for students to synthesize their learning through substantive independent work. While challenging, they empower students to solve real problems, develop concrete recommendations, and showcase their mastery of critical technical and soft skills required for success in this high-growth field.

CAN YOU PROVIDE MORE EXAMPLES OF BSN CAPSTONE PROJECTS THAT FOCUS ON PATIENT OUTCOMES

Leave a reply

The effects of a diabetes education program on hemoglobin A1C levels. For this project, the student developed and implemented an educational program for diabetic patients focusing on diet, medication management, glucose monitoring, foot/skin care, and importance of follow-up appointments. They provided the education to a sample of 20 patients over 4 weekly sessions. Hemoglobin A1C levels were measured before and 3 months after the program to see if the educational intervention led to improved glucose control/lower A1C levels. Statistical analysis was used to determine if the changes in A1C levels were significant. This project focuses on how diabetes education can improve an important patient outcome measure.

Reducing hospital readmissions among heart failure patients through a telephone follow-up program. For patients with heart failure, hospital readmissions are both costly and can affect patients’ quality of life. For this project, the student implemented a telephone follow-up program for heart failure patients within 1 week of hospital discharge to address any questions/concerns and review symptoms, medications, diet and weight monitoring. They followed a sample of 25 patients for 3 months after discharge to track readmission rates compared to historical hospital data from patients who did not receive the follow-up calls. Statistical analysis was used to determine if the follow-up intervention significantly reduced 30-day and 90-day hospital readmission rates, improving an important patient outcome.

Implementation of a fall prevention program for elderly patients in a skilled nursing facility. Falls are a serious issue among elderly patients that can cause injuries, loss of mobility/independence, and increased healthcare costs. For this project, the student coordinated a multifaceted fall prevention program in a skilled nursing facility involving risk assessments, exercise/balance classes, room safety evaluations, low beds, non-slip footwear, and education. They tracked fall incidents over 6 months pre- and post-intervention among 100 patients to see if the program led to a statistically significant reduction in falls. Decreased falls would indicate an improved patient safety and functional outcomes.

The effects of opioid/pain management education on patient satisfaction scores. Ineffective pain control as well as patient concerns about opioid use and addiction are ongoing issues. For this project, the student developed an educational program for postoperative patients about pain scales, non-opioid options, safe storage/disposal and other topics. Using a sample of 50 patients, they administered a patient satisfaction survey regarding pain management pre- and post- education to see if knowledge improved pain control and satisfaction. Statistical analysis determined if satisfaction scores significantly increased after the intervention, indicating enhanced patient outcomes.

Implementation of bedside shift report to improve nurse/patient communication. Poor communication during shift changes has been tied to medical errors, patient falls, and satisfaction issues. For this project, the student trained nurses on a unit to adopt bedside shift reports versus phone/computer handoffs. They surveyed 50 patients pre- and post-intervention about their understanding of plan of care, comfort with asking questions, and overall perception of nurse communication. Patients were also asked about any safety concerns they had during the shifts. Statistical analysis determined if patient-reported outcomes regarding communication and safety significantly improved with the practice change intervention.

These are some examples of BSN capstone project ideas that utilize quality improvement or evidence-based practice frameworks to implement an intervention and quantitatively measure its impact on important patient outcomes. All incorporate planning, implementation, data collection and statistical analysis components required of a culminating project. By focusing on outcomes like disease control measures, safety incidents, readmission rates or satisfaction scores, they directly address nurses’ ability to affect patients. With IRB approval and adequate sample sizes, these types of projects can generate meaningful evidence and improve clinical quality or processes in a specific healthcare setting.

CAN YOU PROVIDE EXAMPLES OF CREATIVE COMPONENTS IN CAPSTONE PROJECTS?

Leave a reply

Some common capstone projects involve conducting original research on a topic and presenting findings. While research itself may seem like a more academic endeavor, students have opportunities to incorporate creative elements in how they present their work. For example, a student studying the effects of climate change on local habitats could create an interactive website or virtual reality experience to illustrate their findings in an engaging way. Rather than a traditional research paper, multimedia and technology allow for creativity in sharing information.

Another option is for a capstone to involve designing or building an original prototype, model, or product. Engineering, computer science, and other technical programs often have capstones focused on applying knowledge to solve real-world problems through creation. A few examples could include building a functional robot, coding a new software program or mobile app, developing assistive technologies, or constructing environmentally-friendly products. The creative aspect lies in coming up with original and innovative solutions. Prototyping and modeling also let students demonstrate their ideas in a hands-on format beyond a standard paper.

For students in creative fields like art, music, writing, and design, their capstone naturally centers around an original creative work. This could manifest as something like a collection of paintings, sculptures, or photographs that tie into a unifying theme. It could also be composing and performing a new musical piece or producing an original play, film, or other performance. Another creative path is designing and carrying out an art exhibit, book of poems/short stories, or design campaign. The capstone directly involves generating new creative works through each student’s chosen medium and area of focus.

Some interdisciplinary capstones integrate creative elements throughout the entire project experience. For instance, a healthcare administration student may produce a documentary film exploring an issue in their field or hold an art gallery focused on raising awareness. A business major could curate a cultural festival as part of launching a new nonprofit organization. History and humanities students may develop an augmented reality walking tour through a historic area. In each case, the students are tying together their academic knowledge with hands-on creative work to develop new perspectives or address real-world problems.

For any capstone project, students also have flexibility to incorporate creative presentation formats when communicating their work to others. Many opt to develop engaging multimedia capstone websites, design informative infographics and posters, or produce video summaries. Interactive exhibits utilizing augmented or virtual reality are growing options as well. Presentations don’t need to rely solely on traditional paper or slide templates. Innovative presentation forms allow students’ unique personalities and interests to shine through in sharing out their capstone experiences.

In any field, capstones provide an opportunity for students to creatively synthesize the knowledge and skills they have gained over their educational programs. While fulfilling academic requirements, creative outlets let individuals explore their personal interests and talents. Whether through original works of art, innovative prototypes, multimedia storytelling, hands-on community engagement, or beyond-the-box presentation styles, the sky is the limit for integrating creative expression. Capstones represent a chance for both practical application and self-guided exploration, making each student’s final project experience truly their own.

There are endless possibilities for incorporating creative components into a capstone project across all disciplines. From designing original products and models, to producing artistic works, to developing engaging multimedia presentations, to integrating hands-on creative activities, students have freedom to showcase their individual talents and perspectives. While meeting academic standards, capstones can also cultivate personal growth and discovery through creative means of research, problem-solving, communication, and self-expression. The options are only limited by each student’s unique interests, skills, and imagination.