Search Courses
You may search for a Senior Capstone course by selecting a THEME or TERM from the menu at the left. You may also search by entering a part of the title or the instructors name in the box below. For concise listings of all 2021-2022 Capstone offerings, review our Capstone Capsule. If you need assistance, contact the Capstone Office/University Studies at 503.725.5890.
Please refer to the PSU Class Schedule regarding the days, hours, and meeting location. For information about when the new class schedule is available or when you can register for the new term, follow this link: When to Register.
NOTE: Due to the intensive nature of Capstones, students must receive permission from the course instructor prior to the first day of class if they are going to miss the first class session. For on-line Capstones, students must demonstrate active participation during the first week of the term. All Capstone courses factor in student attendance and participation into the final grade which is deeply impacted by missing the first week of the term.
NOTE: "Sustainability" tagged courses will NOT automatically count toward the Sustainability Minor. Students must seek approval from Joseph Maser, Ph.D. in the Environmental Science & Management department to count any Capstone toward that specific minor.
SEARCH BY Title or Instructor: Enter a single word from the title of a Capstone, "gardens", "justice", "literacy", etc., the Course Registration Number (CRN), or a professor's first or last name in the box below.
Instructor Name: Michelle Culley
CRN: 63800
Click Here for Tutoring Times and Locations.
Students should sign up for a tutoring opportunity via the link at the top of the page and then contact Michelle Culley, mculley@pdx.edu, immediately after registration.
Capstone students will work with adult English as Second Language learners for 2.5 to three hours a week at local community colleges (locations and times vary). Capstone students must be proficient speakers of English but are not required to be native English speakers. In...
Fall 2021Fall 2022Spring 2020Spring 2021Spring 2022Spring 2023Summer 2020Summer 2021Summer 2022Winter 2020Winter 2021Winter 2022Winter 2023
Education- Adult
Instructor Name: M. Khalil Zonoozy
CRN: 44137
A comprehensive and engaging examination of contemporary multicultural and cross-cultural imperatives, this capstone explores the barriers to justice for ethnic and racial minorities. Special attention will be given to the U.S. institutional structure and the justice system. Utilizing a progressive and proactive approach, students will acquire a deeper understanding, awareness and appreciation of the root causes of the existing disparities. Their learning outcome will be enhanced through...
Fall 2019Fall 2020Fall 2021Spring 2020Spring 2021Winter 2020Winter 2021Winter 2022
Community Health Criminal & Juvenile Justice
Instructor Name: Erik Bodegom, Drake Mitchell (Winter 2022)
CRN: 64794
IMPORTANT: This Capstone course will not be available for the 2020-2021 academic year.
This Capstone takes place over the winter and spring terms. Students enrolled in Research Experience for Science Majors will develop an understanding and appreciation for scientific, societal, economic, political, and ethical dimensions of science. This will be accomplished through group work, where a selection of readings will be the springboard for presentations and discussions. Further work is...
Spring 2020Spring 2022Winter 2020Winter 2022
Business-Engineering-Technology Research Science
Instructor Name: Rick Hugo
CRN: 63758
Your course project will be to create a Virtual Field Environment (VFE) which will be used by K-12 classroom teachers and community educators to "visit" local field sites with their students. You can find a list of our VFEs here. Our challenge is to take a VFE beyond the typical virtual tour and create a rich, engaging learning environment that facilitates student-centered inquiry. You must also strive to engage learners from different cultural backgrounds and with different learning...
Fall 2019Fall 2020Fall 2021Fall 2022Spring 2020Spring 2021Spring 2022Spring 2023
Education-Youth Science Outdoors Ecology Sustainability Education
Instructor Name: Heather Petzold
CRN: 63789
Being an Effective Change Agent in Portland This course is for students interested in being effective change agents for the public good. Each student (individually or with others) will take the initiative before the Capstone begins to arrange a project with a community organization. This project may be an existing relationship or one sought for the purpose of this class. A minimum of three working hours per week with the organization is required. During the course, students will be supported ...
Fall 2019Fall 2020Fall 2021Fall 2022Spring 2020Spring 2021Spring 2022Spring 2023Summer 2019Summer 2020Summer 2021Summer 2022Winter 2020Winter 2021Winter 2022
Community Health Education-Youth Research
Instructor Name: Molly Gray
CRN: 63788
It is estimated that 1 in 10 individuals identify as a sexual minority. Often an already challenging stage in identity development, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender & questioning (LGBTQ) youth face a set of issues unique to their daily lives. We examine the paths sexual and gender minority youth navigate in society, exploring such questions as: What challenges do LGBTQ youth encounter? How do they cope, survive, find understanding & celebrate themselves amidst homophobia and...
Fall 2019Fall 2020Fall 2021Fall 2022Spring 2020Spring 2021Spring 2022Spring 2023Summer 2019Summer 2020Summer 2021Summer 2022Winter 2020Winter 2021Winter 2022Winter 2023
Research Education-Youth
Instructor Name: Anmarie Trimble
CRN: 63783, 81198
In this Capstone we partner with the Native American Youth and Family Center (NAYA) through hands-on community-based service. Students will support youth programming in NAYA's after-school Learning Center (k-8) or College & Career Center (ages 14-21) and/ or support food sovereignty in NAYA's food and healing gardens. Students taking this course receive dual credit, fulfilling both their Senior Capstone requirement, and INS major/minor credit.
To support our work as allies to the...
Fall 2019Fall 2020Fall 2021Fall 2022Spring 2020Spring 2021Spring 2022Spring 2023Summer 2019Summer 2020Summer 2021Summer 2022Winter 2020Winter 2021Winter 2022Winter 2023
Education Education-Youth social work tutoring Mentoring social justice native american indigenous family NAYA trauma-informed trauma garden healing
Instructor Name: Deborah Arthur, Matthew Ross (Winter, Spring 2022)
CRN: 63765
This Capstone partners with the Multnomah County Department of Community Justice, Juvenile Services Division. Students work together to facilitate a writing/art workshop in juvenile detention. Through your work in the detention facility, as well as through supportive academic activities, you will have the opportunity to deeply explore current issues in juvenile justice. Successful background checks and Department approval are required for participation in this Capstone; prior to...
Fall 2019Fall 2020Fall 2021Fall 2022Spring 2018Spring 2019Spring 2020Spring 2022Spring 2023Summer 2018Summer 2019Summer 2020Summer 2021Summer 2022Winter 2021Winter 2022Winter 2023
Education-Youth Criminal & Juvenile Justice Community Health
Instructor Name: Gabe Sheoships
CRN: 81166, 14129
Students will participate in interpretive programs facilitated within the Tryon Creek State Natural Area.
It is important to ground ourselves and acknowledge the people whose land we are utilizing; the
Clackamas Chinook, the Wasco-Wishram, the Willamette Tumwater, the Multnomah, and other
Chinookan peoples, as well as the Tualatin Kalapuya, the Cayuse, the Molalla and other tribes and bands
of the Columbia and Willamette Rivers. It is important to acknowledge the original inhabitants of the...
Fall 2019Fall 2020Spring 2020Summer 2019Summer 2020
Education-Youth Sustainability Community Health Science Culture
Instructor Name: Sarah A. Bunton, PhD
CRN: 63933
Cultivating Leadership Capacity and Promoting Educational Equity
This interactive course explores the conceptual intersections of educational equity, social responsibility, and the development of leadership capacity. Using a tiered leadership model as a framework, and with a foundation emphasizing education as a key influence on an individual’s social and economic future and opportunities, this class partners with Portland Public Schools (PPS). Throughout the term, PSU students have...
Spring 2020Spring 2021Spring 2022
educational equity Education-Youth Leadership social change
Instructor Name: Sally Eck
CRN: 63782
Women’s Oral Narratives In this course, we will be working with our community partner, the local non-profit organization; the IPRC, Independent Publishing Resource Center. Our project is to coordinate a series of *rap sessions* with local teen girls about current issues in their lives. We will use these group conversations to encourage the girls to become a part of our ZINE project - where they will write, edit, and publish a grassroots, mini-magazine with our class. In preparation for this...
Fall 2019Fall 2020Fall 2021Fall 2022Spring 2020Spring 2021Spring 2022Spring 2023Summer 2019Summer 2020Summer 2021Summer 2022Winter 2020Winter 2021Winter 2022Winter 2023
Education-Youth
Instructor Name: Cindy Koonz
CRN: 63808
Linking the Generations, Communication, Aging and Society Students will engage with older adults to complete a variety of life history projects. Students will address their assumptions and stereotypes toward the aging population and will reflect upon personal barriers and successes in the intergenerational communication process. Communication issues will be addressed in the areas of intrapersonal, interpersonal, and intercultural communication. In addition to the community work, the course...
Fall 2019Fall 2020Fall 2021Fall 2022Spring 2018Spring 2019Spring 2020Spring 2021Spring 2022Spring 2023Summer 2018Summer 2019Summer 2020Summer 2021Summer 2022Winter 2021Winter 2022Winter 2023
Research Disabilities Community Health Hybrid or Fully online Online or Hybrid Courses
Instructor Name: Catherine Howells
CRN: 63786
Portland's Water: History and Challenges. This course is designed to give students an opportunity to learn about tap water and create community outreach products for the Portland Water Bureau. Our community partner for this class is the Portland Water Bureau. This class will focus on the Bull Run watershed (the source of Portland's drinking water) and the work of the Portland Water Bureau -- how they deliver our water to our taps. We will learn about the history of the water system, the...
Fall 2019Fall 2020Fall 2021Fall 2022Spring 2020Spring 2021Spring 2022Spring 2023Summer 2019Summer 2020Summer 2021Summer 2022Winter 2020Winter 2021Winter 2022Winter 2023
Sustainability Research Community Health Business-Engineering-Technology
Instructor Name: David Osborn
CRN: 64057
Forests, Narratives and Social Movements
Social movements have shaped the world we live in and are one of the most important sources of social change. They often organize to address issues of inequity, oppression or prejudice in local, regional, national and transnational spheres. They arise to address factual situations: the number of people without health care, levels of air pollution, racial profiling, unemployment, deaths in war or the destruction of the environment. However, facts alone...
Spring 2020
Sustainability Activism social movements Ecology Leadership Sociology
Instructor Name: Patrice Morris Ball
CRN: 63816
Design and Edit Organ Donation Outreach Materials
Students will work with the nonprofit agency Donate Life Northwest (DLNW) while learning about their mission to save/enhance lives through the promotion of organ, eye, and tissue donation. Students will design/edit promotional documents (digital, video, electronic or for print), while integrating knowledge from their own field of study, familiarity with today's popular culture, and the community partner’s mission to increase registration of...
Fall 2019Fall 2020Fall 2021Fall 2022Spring 2020Spring 2021Spring 2022Spring 2023Winter 2020Winter 2021Winter 2022Winter 2023
Research Global Perspectives Community Health Hybrid or Fully online Education-Youth Online or Hybrid Courses
Instructor Name: Conrad Schumacher
CRN: 63802
Teaching Art and Social Change The working Thesis for this class is that for Art, or indeed anything/anyone, to effect change in a society the work/ideas must be palatable to the majority, real and tangible in terms of outcomes and sustainable over time. We never get far when we try to change using hate, anger, force or such "clubs."
This course is open to anyone intrigued with the questions raised by public Art (and possibilities of Art) in our society. This capstone should be of particular...
Spring 2020Spring 2021Spring 2022Spring 2023Summer 2019Summer 2020Summer 2021Winter 2020Winter 2021Winter 2022Winter 2023
Community Health Arts
Instructor Name: Eva Thanheiser
CRN: 64818
Have you always wondered about how powerful mathematics is?
Mathematics is often used to excerpt power and suppress people. In this course we will examine how mathematics can be used to understand social and political issues in general and white supremacy in the United States in particular.
Topics we might examine:
- Current events.
- Understanding the diversity of people/resources/etc. across the world using math (various mathematics topics).
- The history in systemic racism in...
Spring 2020Spring 2022
Education-Youth Community Health
Instructor Name: Don Trapp
CRN: 64080
Service Coordination Team is multi-agency, multi-faceted program to manage what have been identified as chronic offenders in Multnomah County, Oregon. The purpose of this Capstone is to develop and undertake an evaluation of this program from both a process and outcome perspective. Students will work with all stakeholders in this program at various sites in the community. The final product will be a summary, presented orally and in writing, of the research findings.
Spring 2020
Criminal & Juvenile Justice Community Health
Instructor Name: Amy Minato
CRN: 63798
In light of looming environmental crises, what can individuals do to change direction? In this course we collectively examine our society to determine which cultural and personal values support, and which inhibit, sustainability. This course includes study, research, reflective writing and class discussion on the first book in the Ecochallenge series, Choices For Sustainable Living. Students participate in weekly minor “green" activities at home and report their accomplishments online at ...
Fall 2019Fall 2021Fall 2022Spring 2020Spring 2021Spring 2022Spring 2023Summer 2019Summer 2021Summer 2022Winter 2020Winter 2021Winter 2022Winter 2023
Instructor Name: Ann McClanan
CRN: 63768
The Medieval Portland capstone is a great fit if you love research, for in this class each student undertakes--with mentoring from the Professor--an individual research project about either a locally housed medieval object or a Portland building with influence from medieval architecture. Students from many different majors have done well in the capstone, as long as they work hard doing the detective work involved in original research. The community partner varies depending on the term, but...
Spring 2020Spring 2022Spring 2023
Research Arts Hybrid or Fully online Online or Hybrid Courses