Project Design | Grading | Funding | Presentation

In conjunction with the larger discussion on Honors College issues, the faculty at St. Mary's College of Maryland adopted the requirement for an eight-credit St. Mary's Project (SMP) in the spring of 1996. The original proposal passed by the faculty was for this project to be a general education requirement; in the spring of 1998, the faculty voted to make the project a departmental requirement.   After a vote of the faculty on Sept. 12, 2000, it was decided that the SMP would remain an option for all students but also that certain departments might require the SMP whereas others might not.   The Department of Psychology has voted that all students majoring in psychology must complete 8 credits of SMP with a grade of C- or better.

Students may conduct their projects within the discipline of psychology or in another discipline, including in established cross-disciplinary programs, provided they have completed sufficient required coursework in the relevant discipline(s). Students who complete their SMPs in disciplines other than psychology should be certain that they have fulfilled the upper division psychology coursework requirements.

PROJECT DESIGN

A St. Mary's Project is a student initiated, coherent, eight-credit experience that results in a product relating to some domain of psychology. 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 psychology. Specifically, it must demonstrate satisfactory performance in regard to the following criteria: methodological competence; familiarity with the current state of knowledge in a particular psychological 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 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 psychology uses a variety of methods of inquiry, substantial latitude will be allowed. For example, some students may choose a well-controlled laboratory experiment, whereas others may select a case-study approach. Paramount in judging the methodological competence of the project is that the method is an appropriate one, and that it is executed adequately.

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.

3. Synthesis, analysis, integration, and reflection. At a senior level, it is expected that students will be able to synthesize a variety of basic psychological 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 mental health setting on standards established in the mental health field 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 for undergraduate research presentations. 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.

GRADING

Students who enroll in the St. Mary's Project will ultimately receive their eight credits by the end of their project work. They may take 4 credits each semester while working on the project, may register for all 8 credits in a single semester, or may take 2 credits across four semesters. A grade of IP (in progress) will be submitted in semesters prior to the completion of the eight credits of St. Mary's Project work. The mentor will assign letter grades to each semester during which a student was working on a St. Mary's Project.