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References: Capstone Design Challenges and Course Wrap-Up

  1. Engineering design process - Wikipedia - Explains the iterative cycle of defining requirements, generating and evaluating concepts, prototyping, and testing that professional engineers use, directly paralleling this chapter's design-brief-to-prototype-to-testing loop.

  2. Project-based learning - Wikipedia - Describes the instructional model in which students learn through extended, real-world investigations culminating in a shared product, the pedagogical foundation underlying this chapter's capstone project structure.

  3. Capstone course - Wikipedia - Covers the culminating, integrative project common at the end of an educational program, matching this chapter's definition of a capstone as a self-directed synthesis of a student's accumulated skills.

  4. Engineering in Elementary STEM Education: Curriculum Design, Instruction, Learning, and Assessment (2018) - Christine M. Cunningham - Teachers College Press - Cunningham created the "Engineering is Elementary" program's accessible Ask-Imagine-Plan-Create-Test-Improve design cycle, the child-friendly framing of the engineering design process this chapter's design-brief-and-prototype loop builds on.

  5. Setting the Standard for Project Based Learning: A Proven Approach to Rigorous Classroom Instruction - John Larmer, John Mergendoller, and Suzie Boss - ASCD - Credits the authors' "Gold Standard PBL" model and its seven essential project design elements, including public product and reflection, mirrored in this chapter's demo day and portfolio guidance.

  6. Engineering Design Process - TeachEngineering - An NSF-funded K-12 curriculum library outlining Ask-Research-Imagine-Plan-Create-Test-Improve steps with grade-banded activities, giving teachers ready classroom material for the requirements-to-prototype cycle this chapter teaches.

  7. Gold Standard PBL: Essential Project Design Elements - PBLWorks (Buck Institute for Education) - Defines the seven design elements of high-quality project-based learning, including sustained inquiry, critique and revision, and public product, that underlie how this chapter frames a well-planned capstone.

  8. About READMEs - GitHub Docs - Explains what a README file should contain and where it belongs in a project, directly supporting this chapter's guidance on writing technical documentation for a finished capstone build.

  9. Hosting a PBL Showcase: One School's Story - PBLWorks - A case study of a high school's project showcase night, detailing how to display student work, engage families, and collect feedback, modeling this chapter's community showcase event format.

  10. Before the PBL Classroom Empties: 4 Practices That Document Learning - PBLWorks - Outlines four end-of-project practices for documenting student learning and curating artifacts, closely matching this chapter's project reflection and portfolio-artifact guidance.