The University's bachelor degree requirements strongly recommend that all students round out their undergraduate experience with a senior capstone course or courses in the major which draw together in focus the pieces of the four-year program as a synthesizing experience. The Physics and Astronomy Department's inplementation of the capstone experience for physics majors emphasizes the development of the science since the beginning of the century and where it might lead in the future for the science as well as for the individual. A student may choose a strictly classroom focus or a laboratory/writing experience cuminating in a senior thesis. These options are as follows:
PHY 491 Atomic, Molecular, and Condensed Matter Physics
PHY 492 Nuclear and Elementart Particle Physics
Associated with these two senior-level courses the students will receive the capstone culmination of most twentieth-century physics in which all of the basic physics learned in the previous courses will be applied to the explication of the major developments of twentieth-century physics at the atomic, nuclear, and subnuclear levels. In each of these courses the student will be expected to choose a particular aspect of twentieth-century physics and present a written essay of twenty to thirty pages which will be judged not only on the basis of scientific content and effort, but also on the basis of style, grammar, and structure. There will be feedback and revisions will be expected. Thus, the Tier II Writing Requirement may be satisfied as well.