This is required but is not graded. All members of the class are expected to attend all of these and a substantial excuse will be required for any missed classes. Each student will be expected to meet at lest weekly with an assigned faculty member who monitors progress. Attendance will be taken. A traditional research paper in which literature is reviewed, an hypothesis generated and primary or secondary data is gathered and manipulated to test the idea.
Qualitative research is also entirely acceptable.
We are thinking of a mini-thesis here. This would be an especially good activity for those intending to go on to graduate school. An evaluation research paper. The idea here is to evaluate some organization or program in the local area. Evaluation is becoming a major activity in nearly all publicly funded programs and many privately funded ones as well.