PrintCapstone Project: Directions and Requirements
This course looks at the processes that shape the coastal zone, produce coastal hazards, mitigate those hazards through engineering, impact coastal societies and economies, and influence public policy and planning to reduce vulnerabilities and risks. The capstone project is an opportunity for you to assemble and integrate this wide array of processes – and to apply modern Earth Science principles of systems thinking – into a single project.
Your finished product will be 2 presentation-quality PowerPoints created using the provided templates. One is called the CVAT Coastal City Audit and the other is called Coastal City Slides. These presentations will encapsulate the key concepts learned in the course relative to one coastal city. You will gather and record details about your city and submit these details as assignments when prompted at certain stages in the course.
Coastal Vulnerability Audit (CVA)
In order to assess your understanding of the diverse multi-disciplinary components of this course, from the perspective of geoscience, coastal engineering, risk assessment, public policy, and environmental planning, we are asking you to complete a Coastal Vulnerability Audit (CVA) for a coastal city chosen from the list provided. Your CVA should demonstrate your ability to apply key topics from every section and module of the course.
To complete the audit, you will use the Coastal Vulnerability Audit Tool (CVAT) PowerPoint (CVAT Coastal City Audit) that serves as an outline to aid you as you develop your capstone throughout the duration of the course. As you will see, each section of the CVAT is organized hierarchically to follow the content of the course. Each week, you should make notes on the CVAT PowerPoint and make progress on the Capstone rather than waiting until the end of the semester to do all of it.
Complete and submit the partially complete CVAT PowerPoint as indicated in the table below and in the course calendar (Capstone Stages 2, 3, 4).
Goals of CVAT Coastal City Audit Presentation: Your PowerPoint should contain the most relevant information gathered during the course about your chosen city. It should tell the story of the city in terms of each of the topic areas we covered in each section of the course. It should be presentation-quality, suitable to present to an audience of peers to convey the most important concepts in a 10-15-minute presentation.
Coastal City Slides
Finally, you will complete the additional Coastal City Slides PowerPoint with maps, relevant illustrations, graphs, and other data compiled in assessments. Follow the stages to make sure you don’t miss anything.
Goals of your Coastal City Slides Presentation: This separate slide deck should contain the graphics and summary for your project. You can make the presentation your own by editing and adapting the slides provided. Be creative but stay within the basic framework to include required components, following the guidelines below. Be sure to include a narration. Your presentation should be suitable to present to an audience to convey the most important concepts in a 10-15-minute presentation.
Components of your finished Capstone Project
The completed project should comprise:
- Your completed CVAT Coastal City Audit PowerPoint compiling the most important features of your coastal city, drawn from your notes (do not just copy and paste all your notes; please make corrections based on feedback).
- A Coastal City Slides PowerPoint presentation containing 8 - 12 slides, following minimal guidelines of:
- A title slide.
- A slide including at least one map, annotated using text and symbols in PowerPoint, conveying the most important points about the city.
- At least eight (8) figures (photos, graphics, graphs of data) that help the viewer understand the details about your chosen city. Include captions for all figures and reference the source of the image. Figures can include graphs or other kinds of data as well as photos. Remember to use data resources that you have used during the course.
- Summary pages (2) with bullet points summarizing the most important take-away messages you want to get across about your city.
- One (1) page outlining your Recommended Resiliency Actions for your city.
- A list of references for all sources used in your research, written in citation format.
- An audio narration for each slide. Be concise and keep each slide to 30 seconds. Plan and write out your narration and read it, rather than ad-lib.
Project Deliverables (Stages) and Rubric
Below is the complete list of tasks and deliverables you'll complete this semester related to the Capstone Project. More details on each stage of the Capstone will be available throughout the course.
|
Capstone Project |
Document: Section | Details | Grading | Max Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stage 1 (CVAT) |
CVAT: Coastal City Selection | Download "CVAT Coastal City Audit" and "Capstone Coastal City Slides" PowerPoint files in Module 1. Submit your city selection choices to Capstone Project: Stage 1 (City Selection). I will post the list of cities against everyone’s name in the assignment comment box by the end of Module 3. | You will receive one point for submitting your city choices. | 1 |
|
Stage 2 |
CVAT: Physical System Assessment: Setting and Coastal Hazards | Complete Stage 2 of the CVAT Coastal City Audit PowerPoint (Physical System Assessment: Setting and Coastal Hazards) and submit by the due date. The instructor will grade your work and provide feedback where needed to help you improve your project. | Accurate and detailed characterization of the physical setting and coastal hazards in the student’s chosen coastal city. Provides details and examples and uses terms from class materials (10 points); Provides a description of the physical setting and coastal hazards, but some important information is less than accurate. Few details (6 points); Description of physical setting and regional and local coastal hazards contains significant inaccuracy/ missing information (4 points); Poor attempt to describe the physical setting and coastal hazards (2 points); No information on these topics (0 points). | 10 |
| Stage 3 (CVAT) |
CVAT Stage 3a: Human System Assessment |
Complete Stage 3 of the CVAT Coastal City Audit PowerPoint including Stage 3a: Human System Assessment and Stage3 b: Engineering and Infrastructure Assessment and submit by the due date. The instructor will grade your work and provide feedback where needed to help you improve your project. | Thorough and accurate analysis of the human systems and the hard and soft engineering and structural and non-structural strategies/ coastal defenses used by the city (10 points); Mostly complete; Some inaccuracies/ misinterpretation of the human system and the strategies for coastal defenses and mitigation used by the city (6 points); Many inaccuracies/ misinterpretations of the human system and strategies for coastal defenses and mitigation used by the city (4 points); Poor attempt to analyze the human system and coastal defense strategies (2 points); No Information on these topics (0 points). | 10 |
| Stage 4 (CVAT) |
CVAT Stage 4a: Vulnerability, Planning, and Action CVAT Stage 4b: Resiliency Policy, Planning, and Action. |
Complete Stage 4 of the CVAT Coastal City Audit PowerPoint including Stage 4a: Vulnerability, Planning, and Action and Stage 4b: Resiliency Policy, Planning, and Action and submit by the due date. The instructor will grade your work and provide feedback where needed to help you improve your project. | Thoroughly describes all relevant vulnerability and resiliency planning strategies and policy the city currently uses to mitigate coastal hazards and outlines potential resiliency measures (policy and projects) that could be appropriate. (10 points). Provides a description of vulnerability and resiliency planning and potential policies and projects, but the level of detail or clarity could be improved. (6 points). Description of vulnerability and resiliency planning and action items are sketchy, and details are missing (4 points). Very little information is provided regarding vulnerability and resiliency planning and action strategies (2 points). No information on these topics (0 points). | 10 |
|
DRAFT |
CVAT: Site-Specific Concerns and Considerations; Recommended Resiliency Action Plans; and References and Key Resources |
Please complete drafts of the Site-Specific Concerns and Considerations, Recommended Resiliency Action Plans, and References and Key Resources sections. These sections will not be graded until your Stage 5, Final CVAT is submitted. However, submitting drafts of these sections, along with your Stage 4 submission, will allow the instructor to give feedback before they are submitted as part of your Stage 5, Final CVAT. | These submissions are for feedback only. They will not be graded until they are submitted as part of your Stage 5: Final CVAT submission. | 0 |
| Stage 5: Final (CVAT) |
CVAT: Site-Specific Concerns and Considerations | Complete the CVAT Coastal City Audit PowerPoint: Site-Specific Concerns and Considerations and submit it as part of your Capstone Stage 5, Final CVAT PowerPoint. | Includes at least 5-6 excellent, well thought out concerns/ considerations (5 points); Includes 4-5 acceptable concerns/ considerations (3 points); Includes 2-3 brief concerns considerations (2 points); 1-2 concerns considerations, briefly described (1 point); No concerns/ considerations (0 points). | 5 |
| Stage 5: Final (CVAT) | CVAT: Recommended Resiliency Action Plans | Complete the CVAT Coastal City Audit PowerPoint: Recommended Resiliency Action Plans and submit it as part of your Capstone Stage 5, Final CVAT PowerPoint. | At least 5 suggested planning/policy Items are discussed in detail. Provides detailed insight into the coastal city’s planning for coastal hazards. Applies class materials (5 points); 3-5 suggested planning/policy items discussed in detail. Provided insight into the coastal city’s planning for coastal hazards. Applies class materials (3 points); At least 2 suggested planning /policy items discussed. Little application of class materials (2 points); 1-2 suggested planning/policy items discussed. Poor application of class materials (1 point); No suggested planning /policy items discussed (0 points). | 5 |
| Stage 5: Final (CVAT) |
CVAT: References and Key Resources | Complete the CVAT Coastal City Audit PowerPoint: References and Key Resources and submit it as part of your Capstone Stage 5, Final CVAT PowerPoint. |
More than 8 high-quality references, written correctly as a citation with online link included (5 points); 4-6 Good references. Includes descriptors; Online link included (3 points); 2-4 OK references; have online link only with, no written citation (2 points); 1-2 poorly written references or sources of poor quality; online link only (1 point); No references (0 points). |
5 |
|
Stage 5: Final |
Coastal City Slides: Overall | Complete the Coastal City Slides Presentation, including narration, summary, maps, photos, and figures, to the story of your coastal city. | An excellent presentation contains all the required elements. (5 points); Most of the required elements, including narration, are complete and presented well; some details are inaccurate/ lacking. (3 points); Some aspects of the presentation needed more work; elements missing; the student did not follow all guidelines; sloppy presentation/ grammar, etc. (2 points); Poor presentation; lack of attention to detail; many elements missing; little application of class material (1 point); No presentation submitted (0 points) | 5 |
|
Stage 5: Final |
Coastal City Slides: Summary Slides | Include pages that summarize your research, highlighting the key points about your coastal city. | At least two summary pages included, effectively summarizing the most important take-away messages about the coastal city (8 points); One summary page summarizing main points about the coastal city (6 points); Summary covers some main points but could be more thorough (3 points); Summary is lacking in detail (2 points); No Summary page (0 points). | 8 |
|
Stage 5: Final |
Coastal City Slides: Maps and Figures | Include relevant, annotated, and referenced maps, photos, and other graphics to illustrate the most important points about your coastal city. | The presentation contains at least eight (8) excellent, annotated, and referenced figures and illustrations, including maps, photos, graphics, data, etc. (8 points). The presentation contains adequate figures and illustrations to convey the main points. (6 points); Presentation contains few figures; inadequate or missing captions; more information needed for conveying full meaning (3 points); Presentation is lacking in figures and illustrations (2 points); Presentation contains no figures or illustrations (0 points). | 8 |
|
Stage 5: Final |
Coastal City Slides: Audio Narration | Include a narration for each slide - approximately 30 seconds per slide - which summarizes key points shown in slides. | Narration is well constructed, interesting, and succinct, conveying important information about the city (4 points); Narration is adequately executed, but lacks some elements (3 points); Narration is lacking or missing for some slides (2 points) Poor narration (1 point); No Narration (0 points). | 4 |
| Total Points Possible | 71 |