Year 4 Capstone Courses

In Year 4 of an Honours BMSc degree, students take their learning beyond the classroom to tackle a real-world, medically focused challenge in a research, community, industry, or clinical setting.

 

Research-focused Capstone Experiences in the Honours Specializations

4000-level Research Project courses (courses with the course codes 4985E and 4986Y) are mandatory in Year 4 of the discipline-specific Honours Specialization modules and available only to students in those modules.

Under the one-on-one mentorship of a faculty member, students work on Research Projects that usually include:

  • literature review
  • experimental design
  • collection, analysis and interpretation of results
  • communication of the scientific process and findings through oral and written presentations
  • research seminars

All of the Year 4 research project capstone experiences are comprised of:

  • a 1.0 essay designated course (4985E), which includes the research project, and
  • a 0.5 companion course (4986Y), which typically includes a skills component that covers topics like: research ethics, critical thinking, data analysis, professionalism, and more.  

The research-focused capstone course in the Honours Specialization in Interdisciplinary Medical Sciences is Medical Sciences 4990E: Advanced Laboratory and Research in Medical Sciences. 

This course contains a group-based project in the Honours Specialization in IMS. 

Under the direction of a faculty member, students work in groups to design, build, test and defend a Synthetic Biology lab-research project. The projects that student-teams propose and develop will be based on a research goal of their choice.

In the first term, teams will learn marketing and financial analytical tools with which they will demonstrate the practicality and feasibility of their project, which will be presented and assessed much like they would do if they were submitting a research grant proposal or working for a bio-tech company. In the second term the teams will implement their proposed project in the lab by building and testing their planned design. The projects will require interdisciplinary work that demonstrates how the biotechnology in their project will integrate into society through deliverables that include websites, presentations, and written reports.

Experiential Learning Capstone option for Honours Double Majors

In Medical Sciences 4000E - Partnering for Impact in Medical Sciences, groups of students are connected with a partner in:

  • Community-Engaged Learning Option: groups of students are partnered up with an organization in the London community,
  • Clinical-Engaged Learning Option: groups of students are connect with a partner to work on a project in a clinical environment, or
  • Industry/Entrepreneurial-Engaged Leanring Option: groups of students are connected with a partner to work on a project in industry or entrepreneurship.

 

Interested in learning more?

Attend the Med Sci 4000E information session in the third week of March. Check back for details soon! 

Ready to Commit?

Students will have an opportunity to rank their preferences in terms of project experience by completing the Medical Sciences 4000E Learning Option Preference form by March 31st