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At Augustana, the senior biology capstone frames student reflection using history and philosophy within a liberal arts curriculum. In a flipped format, students write responses before class and discuss assigned readings in student-led seminars centered on function, development, and evolution. Assessment indicates writing and speaking skills improve, with course ratings valuing learning despite demanding workload and limited measurable midterm-to-final gains.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/using-history-and-philosophy-as-the-capstone-to-a-biology-major/594690/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/using-history-and-philosophy-as-the-capstone-to-a-biology-major/594690.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Ben ","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-22","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":19},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"Why are capstone experiences considered high impact educational practices?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"Capstones engage students over extended periods and support educationally purposeful behavior, enabling integration of learning across the curriculum.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"How does the Augustana senior biology capstone use history and philosophy?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"It frames students’ reflections so biological education becomes integrated within a liberal arts curriculum, using seminar-based discussions tied to philosophy and historical development.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"What outcomes and assessment results are reported for the course?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"Long-term assessment suggests students’ writing and speaking skills improve, and course ratings indicate strong perceived value despite heavy workload and a difficult format.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},594690,1792171496,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":19,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":44,"language":139,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":143,"read_time":144},2336478951081,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_276721f389ce27ea32af1340a28f341c","ARTICLES  \nUsing History and Philosophy as the Capstone to a Biology Major  \nNeil C. Haave*  \nDepartment of Science, Augustana Faculty, University of Alberta, Camrose, AB CANADA T4V 2R3  \n*[Corresponding Author:](Corresponding Author: nhaave@ualberta.ca)[ ](Corresponding Author: nhaave@ualberta.ca)[nhaave@ualberta.ca](Corresponding Author: nhaave@ualberta.ca)  \nAbstract: Capstone experiences have high educational impact with a number of approaches for biology. In most capstones, students produce a major project, typically as an undergraduate research experience, with a primary goal to integrate students’ learning. At Augustana, our senior biology capstone uses history and philosophy to frame students’ reflections and to integrate their biological education within our liberal arts and sciences curriculum. In a flipped classroom approach, students write a response to the assigned reading before class, when the paper is discussed through student-led seminars. Assigned papers consider the philosophy and historical development of biology focusing on its three conceptual pillars: function, development, and evolution, allowing students to examine how biologists arrived at their current understanding of life. Assessment often years of course offerings indicates students’ ability to write and speak are being successfully developed, but that thinking shows no significant learning gains between the midterm and final exams. Student quantitative and qualitative ratings ofthe course indicate that it is a valuable learning experience, despite its heavy workload and difficult nature.  \nKeywords: high impact educational practice, senior year, writing, speaking, critical thinking, functional biology, developmental biology, evolutionary biology, student learning outcomes  \nINTRODUCTION  \nHigh impact educational practices are teaching strategies in which “students invest time and energy over an extended period that has unusually positive effects on student engagement in educationally purposeful behaviour”(Brownell and Swaner, 2010) . Capstone experiences are considered to be a high impact educational practice because of their ability to engage students and integrate their learning (Hauhart and Grahe, 2015) . Rather than disconnected individual educational experiences (courses) a capstone experience should enable students to understand the connections between the courses and leave the program with an integrated, robust knowledge structure of their discipline and integrate that discipline into a broader understanding of the world-it is not just about biology, it is about embedding biology into the lived experiences of people (Smith, 1998) . Research has shown that attending to students’ engagement enhances their learning outcomes (Carini et al., 2006) . Capstone courses engage students typically through projects, senior theses, or an undergraduate research experience (Hauhart and Grahe, 2015) . What makes these engaging is students' sense of ownership and enfranchisement with their own learning-it becomes something they control in their own learning. Capstone courses can also provide an educationally purposeful activity by providing students with a forum to integrate their major and their entire undergraduate education (Kinzie, 2013) . Typically, students go through the undergraduate curriculum  \nticking off their course requirements from a checklist without understanding the integration implicit in their general education requirements and how they relate to their major (Smith, 1998). By linking students'learning to their prior educational experiences, students are able to construct a more robust knowledge structure. In addition, facilitating the integration of students’ learning with their own lived experience will increase their educational engagement by linking their personal to their academic lives making their learning relevant and significant. Capstone courses are one way to weave the different threads of students' undergraduate education and","cbCairD7VF91dLw4","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCairD7VF91dLw4","pdf",172155,"English","# Introduction\n# Methods\n## Course description","[{\"question\":\"Why are capstone experiences considered high impact educational practices?\",\"answer\":\"Capstones engage students over extended periods and support educationally purposeful behavior, enabling integration of learning across the curriculum.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the Augustana senior biology capstone use history and philosophy?\",\"answer\":\"It frames students’ reflections so biological education becomes integrated within a liberal arts curriculum, using seminar-based discussions tied to philosophy and historical development.\"},{\"question\":\"What outcomes and assessment results are reported for the course?\",\"answer\":\"Long-term assessment suggests students’ writing and speaking skills improve, and course ratings indicate strong perceived value despite heavy workload and a difficult format.\"}]","Using History and Philosophy as the Capstone to a Biology Major | PDF",1792079645,23]