A St. Mary's Project is a student-initiated, coherent, eight-credit experience that results in a product relating to some domain of the discipline under which it is conducted. Because it is a capstone experience, it must demonstrate mastery of the discipline that is ordinarily expected of a person receiving a BA degree in that discipline. Specifically, when conducted under the discipline of Human Studies, it must demonstrate satisfactory performance in regard to the following criteria: methodological competence; familiarity with the current state of knowledge in a particular psychological, educational, anthropological, or sociological domain; synthesis, analysis, integration, and reflection; and presentation to the public. These criteria were established when the faculty approved the St. Mary's Project requirement in 1996. Each of these criteria is explained in detail below.

1. Methodological Competence. The St. Mary's Project must identify an area to be explored and propose a method of inquiry appropriate for this topic. Because Human Studies is interdisciplinary, it uses a variety of methods of inquiry, and substantial latitude will be allowed. For example, some students may choose psychological methodologies such as controlled laboratory experiments or qualitative analysis in a case-study approach. Others may choose to design a curriculum, put the curriculum into practice during a teaching internship, and write a reflection and evaluation of the curriculum as a follow-up.   Still others may elect to do an ethnographic fieldwork project in The Gambia or in another cultural setting, or to engage in the methods appropriate to archeological approaches or to large-scale survey research.   Paramount in judging the methodological competence of the project is that the method is an appropriate one, and that it is executed adequately.   For projects under the aegis of HMST, at least one of the methods courses for the major is required.

2. Knowledge of the domain. In order to conduct new and original investigation, the student must understand the principles and theories relevant to the topic. This understanding will be reflected in the development of the theme of the project, in the completeness and clarity of the ideas presented, and in the degree of elaboration and documentation. Particularly essential is that the student be aware of the most current state of knowledge in the field, as demonstrated by the use and citation of recent sources.   When the project crosses the boundaries of more than one discipline, then adequate background knowledge of all contributing disciplines is assumed.

 
3. Synthesis, analysis, integration, and reflection. At a senior level, it is expected that students will be able to synthesize a variety of basic disciplinary principles, integrating them with varied sources of evidence, to derive a project rationale, an appropriate methodology, and an accurate analysis of results and conclusions. The form that these critical thinking skills will take is not narrowly defined. Students doing a project that evaluates a semester-long internship in a community setting will demonstrate these skills in quite a different form than those who must decide what statistical test to use for a given set of data. The student who prepares a videotaped presentation of an early childhood lesson plan and reflects upon the role of this lesson plan in the student's total curriculum is demonstrating these skills in yet another way. Nonetheless, these types of projects and any others must be amenable to the use of critical thinking skills.

4. Presentation to the public. All projects must involve a dissemination component. The ways in which this dissemination takes place will vary, depending on the nature of the project. For some St. Mary's Projects, a paper or poster presentation will be appropriate. Sometimes, presentation to the non-college public will be most appropriate, as in a workshop for teachers, parents, or human service workers, or at a national or regional conference. The project must also be recoverable and available beyond the student's tenure at the college.

The St. Mary's Project encourages students to apply their years of accumulated knowledge in breadth and depth to the origination and completion of meaningful, self-designed research or other appropriate scholarly work. Failure to complete this requirement in a timely and satisfactory manner will prevent or postpone graduation.