Finding a professional voice through original work
Through capstones, students often begin to express themselves as professionals.
Music majors may create an original composition. Biology majors often contribute to a national research initiative in anything from genomics to cancer research. Across all disciplines, students top off their educations with original work in their fields – and use this experience as a passport to both career and graduate school.
Here are videos of students talking about their capstone projects, plus a sampling of other capstones across all disciplines.
Capstone Projects Class of 2011
Humanities
Danny Hughes — Neil Simon: Respect and Recognition
Leslie Higgins — The Importance of Creating the Informed Reader: Teaching Night, Slaughterhouse-Five and The Things They Carried
Joe Ottomano — The Many Faces of the Pirate: A Study of Pirates as Heroes, Villains, and Everything in Between
Hanna Spence — Powerful Silence: Redefining Feminine Heroism in Fairy Tales
Lauren Fischetti — Escaping the Labyrinth: Young Adult Literature as Bildungsroman
Kim Williams — Exploring 'Monstrous' Women and Silence in Hawthorne and Poe
Jake Friedman — The Ghostwriter in David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest
Elaine King — Devotion and Death in Motherhood in Nella Larsen's Quicksand and Kate Chopin's The Awakening
Laura Manos-Hey — From Love to Theory: Adrienne Rich's Lesbian Poetry and Compulsory Heterosexuality
Alicia Better — Corrective Marriages: Fathers and Husbands in Jane Austen's Persuasion, Emma and Pride and Prejudice
Brain Appleby — Into the Maw of Madness: Sanity and the Abyss in H.P. Lovecraft
Claire Oyler — Franny and Sal in the Search for It All
Kelly Whall — The American Soldier in Literature and the True War Story
Perri Dejarnette — Writing the Word: the Apocalypse of the Native American Oral Tradition in House Made of Dawn, Tracks, and Ceremony
Laura Thompson — Rediscovering the Biblical Master Narrative: Inverted Christ Figures in The Amber Spyglass and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Kayleigh Smith — Moral Development in David Handler's A Series of Unfortunate Events
Anne Matthews — Rising from The Great Depression: Gone with the Wind, So Red the Rose, and the Creation of the 'New South'
Jacqui Williar — What Do You Do With a Problem Like Luna? The Problem of Gender in Harry Potter
Ashley Tieperman — (Moments of) Being Virginia Woolf
Stuart Fischer — Terrorized by Hidden 'Superhuman' Forces: Economic Anxiety in the Tales of H.P. Lovecraft
Jessica Clinton — Mary Cholmondeley, Thomas Hardy, and the Late Victorian Woman
Megan Robinson — Identity Crisis: The Effects of Ahistoricity in Lois Lowry's The Giver and Gathering Blue
Megan Giroux — Victorian Constructions of Childhood: Implied Readers in the Stories of A.A. Milne, Rudyard Kipling and Beatrix Potter
Science and Mathematics
Atlee Baker — Isolation of Toll-like Receptor 3 (TLR3) from Tenebrio molitor using immunoassays
Kristen Nuckles — Synthesis of H3trac and H3benac chelators for heavy metal ions Zn2+, Cd2+, Hg2+, and Pb2+
Alli Johns — The role of Let-7 microRNAs in the regulation of IL-6
Adam Fearnow — Annotation of Contig 28 of the Drosopila erecta Dot Chromosome
Bryan Yarrington — The Drosophila erecta Dot Chromosome: A Collaborative Annotation
Kristen Brennan — Toll-Like Receptor 11 detected in the grain beetle, Tenebrio molitor
Amanda Burke — Cloning of the TYRP1 gene in Jacob sheep
Turner Conrad — Annotation of a segment of the Drosophilia erecta Dot Chromosome
Kayla Vondy — Isolation and Characterization of a Nudix cDNA from Dictyostelium discoideum
Chris McLaughlin — Comparative Genomics of the Drosophila erecta Dot Chromosome
Micah Shelton — Role of sympathetic innervation in pancreas development
Bryan Ward — Sudoku puzzle generator that creates puzzles with a unique solution
Adam Dolbey — 3-Dimensional Version of Tetris
Emily Fair — A comparative study of invertebrate communities living within sponges from Indian River, DE
Nichole Howard — Sexual polymorphism in a population of Anolis sagrei on San Salvador, Bahamas
Brian Jumonville — Discovery of toll-like receptor 1 in the pupal stage of Tenebrio molitor
Ben Faber — Investigating Poisson's spot with a HeNe laser and CCD camera
Morgan DeHart — Building a signal mixing circuit for measuring the speed of light
David Hughes — Studying the bandgap of semiconductors as a function of temperature
Jenny Wallace — Paying for the Goods: Environmental Services in Central America
Jared Ginsberg — Brewing Sustainability: What Measures are Mid Atlantic Craft Breweries Taking to be Sustainable
Chris McLaughlin — Annotation of contig 28 of Drosophila erecta
Patricia Mellotte — Genomic DNA isolation and GenomeWalker library construction from Leiocephalus carinatus.
Kim Moran — Cloning of a putative mRNA decapping Nudix gene from Dictyostelium discoideum
Josh Thomas — Community Recycling in Westminster, MD: A Closer Look At Single Stream
Sunita Pathik — Costa Rica and the United States: A Comparison of Environmental Education Systems
Christina Paluskievicz — Differential response to pictorial food stimuli as a function of body image and gender
Emily Peoples — Sexual dimorphism and population structure in the San Salvador curly-tailed lizard Leiocephalus loxogrammus parnelli from San Salvador, Bahamas
Micah Shelton — Role of sympathetic innervation in pancreas development
Abigail Vickers — Synthesis of H3trenac and H3benac as chelators for heavy metals zinc, cadmium, mercury and lead binding
Dana Willoughby — Detection of toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) in the grain beetle Tenebrio molitor
Melissa Bollman — Institutional Rules in Action: A Multi-Level Analysis of Costa Rica's PES Program
Erin Duffy — Assessment of McDaniel College Students Fruit and Vegetable Consumption
Annie O'Grady — The Plastic Bag Reduction Act of 2009: How Successful Is It?
Kendra Shillenn — Organic Compost: The Future of our Food at McDaniel College
Shea Beitler-Akman — Institutional Analysis of Water Resource Management in the Middle East
Ben Clemm — Climate Change and the Evolution of Stormwater Management
Jamaal Morgan — How Sustainable is the Fashion Industry?
Josh LeBrun — Analyzing Student Achievement in a Badminton Unit
Victoria Pickett — Assessing Student Learning in a Flag Football Unit
Samuel Morris — Assessing Student Learning: High School Weight Training Unit
Lauren Wildasin — Student Achievement Within a Volleyball Unit
Rebecca Corban — Student Achievement Within a Flag Football Unit
Brett Bonneville — Application of Effective Teaching Methods to a Volleyball Unit
Benjamin Sapp — The Kimberling Shuffle
John Maddrey — Non-Well-Founded Sets
Laurie Grove — Additive-Multiplicative Magic Squares
Fenghao Wang — Counting Polyominoes
Christie Walker — Multiplex Polymerase Chain Reaction Screen for Feline Immunodeficiency Virus
Social Sciences
Jeneice Shaw — The Effects of Sexual Orientation, Gender, and Perceived Consent on Perceptions of Rape Victims
Mary Crocamo — Cross-Sex Friendships and Romantic Relationships
Michael Mandel — Exploring whether gender affects the contagiousness of laughter
Nancy Franklin — Parental Involvement Efforts in Middle and High School: Influences on Academic Successes
Brittany Baer — Profanity and its effect on team solidarity within male and female athletes
Harold Baines — Physician-patient communication: Improving primary care physician information seeking strategies during the physician-patient interview process
Fenghao Wang — Review of Indifference Curve Theory and Additional Notes
Steven (Andy) Carr — News seeking behaviors of college students relative to U.S. involvement in the Middle East
James De Atley — Violent video games: A uses and gratifications approach
Caitlin Flynn — Sexual equality and self-disclosure: An analysis of sexual-disclosure since the sexual revolution
Karla Holland — New media and the Christian community
Tom Little — Coaching leadership styles: A quantitative study on athlete motivation
Keith Mazurek — McDaniel College athletics: Supporting college sports teams and attending events
Brittany Odoms — Revealing motivations: American Sign Language learning and traditional foreign language learning
Alexa Panayi — Message design in the classroom: The good, the bad, and the effective
Carmen Wong — Manipulation of message design effectiveness increases attitudes towards the product
Jill Wooten — The effect of differing English accents on receiver evaluation of perceived source credibility: A quantitative study
Cindy Sordo — Effective communications strategies in persuading safe sex behavior
Omar Brown — Tw' Talk. The Phenomena of Double Talk in African American Society
Jake Friedman — It's Cool to be Different: Contemporary Hipster Discourse, Consumer Culture, and Postmodern Agency
Melissa Bollman — Alienation and the Artistic Process
Darcy Sullivan — Inked
Catherine Szczybor — Social Support, Intensity of Facebook Use, and Campus Involvement Among College Students
Kaitlyn Thomas — Hooking-up: Have Gender Roles Changed?
Kate Johansen — Campus Safety: Friend or Foe?
Heather Sands — Signs of Sickness beneath the Skin
Tyler Lewis — Studying: Beneficial or Waste of Time?
Jordan Doss — Does getting involved, get you sexually involved?
Whitney Arkin — Student satisfaction with Englar Dining Hall
Tim Batts — Sex, Gender, Roles, and Academic Success
Jessica Turkington — Minorities on a Predominately White Campus
Keith Martucci — Effects College Athletics has on Students Academic Performance
Tia Scott — Drinking Games on College Campuses
Alyssa Barrt — GPA and Study Habits: What Really Happens
Marely Heit — College Students' Lack of Awareness of Current Events
Allison Marriot — Facebook and Relationships: Bringing Out the Green-Eyed Monster in All of Us
Kimberly McShane — Interest and Relevance of National Politics
Sarah Byron — Hooking up on the Hill
Rachel Smiroldo — Academic Stress of a College Student
Antionette Adams — Why Did I Get Married?
Tyler Tart — Gender Differences and Driving Behaviors
Steven Carney — How Safe Are You? A View of Public Opinion Concerning National Safety Against Terrorism
Alexander Roell — Non-Medical Usage of Prescription Stimulants Among Small Liberal Arts Students
Rebecca Tilyou — Religiosity and Recklessness in Emerging Adulthood
Raquel Melendez— Relatedness at College and Academic Achievement
Fenghao Wang — On Human Uncertainty
John Modica — Rethinking Development: The Psychological Dynamics of 'un-sustainability' in the post-modern world
Ryan Allnut — Reasonable Mistakes: Strict Liability and Statutory Rape
Ben Andres — Can State Authority Be Justified? An Intellectual History of Liberal Attempts, And a Philosophical Consideration of their successes and failures
Tiffany Curry — Tinder, Toys and Trash: Fiat Money and Hyperreality in Monetary Exchange
Sean Shaffer — Where Moral Responsibility and Free Will (do not) Intersect
Michael Monaco — Perceived quality differences between CD and mp3
Margaret A. Powell — How can I be someone else? I'm ME!" The Effects of Acting Training on Autism Spectrum Theory of Mind Skills
Stefanie Quintero — Revolutions of the People
Performing and Fine Arts
Brittney Stanton — Music Recital (Voice)
Danielle Long — Music Recital (Voice)
Michael Monaco — Music Recital (Jazz Guitar)
Matt Clise — Music Recital (Percussion)
Aaron Burns — Music Recital (Piano)
Michael Phillips — Music Recital (Electric Bass)
Whitney Arkin — Set Design for Streetcar
Julia Williams — Theatre piece blending text from Cloud Nine with improvisation
Maggie Powell — Drama therapy series focusing on Boal's Rainbow of Desire
Brady Eisenberg — Directing from Bald Soprano
Amy Zipkin — Interactive Event related to Soprano using Transformations techniques
Britt Burr — Dramatic ritual connected to Antigone
Nina Minadakis — Environmental theatre piece related to Antigone
Brooke Freeland — Wang Wei: Father of the Chinese Landscape
Sarah (Beau) Reeves — A Comparative Study of German and Japanese Woodcut and Woodblock Print Techniques
JoAnna Jenkins — Shakespeare and the Arthurian Legend in the work of Pre-Raphaelites
Lindsay Wilson — The History and Religious Iconography of the Japanese Zen Garden
Megan Balladarsch — The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius and the Religious Sculpture of G.L. Bernini
Emily Johnson — Art Conservation and Restoration: Preserving our Past with Science
Stephanie Kurtyka — Digital Painting of Flowers