P2P Capstone 101

Pathways to Prosperity Capstone (P2P101)

Full-year Course

The goal of this course is to tie together the different concepts of design and manufacturing that have been studied throughout the Pathways to Prosperity curriculum and apply them to an authentic engineering project. During the first semester, various engineering projects of smaller scope will be assigned to individual students and teams. The nature, scope and focus of these projects will be determined by the instructor, in part based on students' interests and academic needs, so that they prepare the students for their Capstone Project. During the second semester, the Capstone Projects will begin. The class will be divided into cross-functional teams. Each team will seek out, through research, a real-world problem that can be solved using engineering design and manufacturing methods. These problems might come from the school, the larger community or industry. Each team will write a problem statement, including design requirements, and will plan and design its engineering solution to the problem. To implement that solution, each team will prepare a project proposal; schedule tasks required to accomplish its proposed solution; accomplish those tasks, dividing the work among team members as needed; make and test a prototype; assess the effectiveness of its proposed solution; and prepare a final report detailing their work and its outcome, including a discussion of how the solution could be implemented fully (likely in full-scale production). In addition, each team will present its final project to an audience that might include peers, educators, experts from industry and government and community members.