Being a bridge between students’ undergraduate curricula and the real world, a capstone course in economics is an effective method to promote the achievement of economic proficiencies. The main focus of the course is a substantial research paper that integrates theoretical and analytical skills, advance data collection and processing, and econometric analysis techniques. The course also hones graduating seniors’ professional writing and presentation skills. In this article, we describe how a one-semester, required capstone course in economics is developed, so it serves the purpose of being a transformative learning experience. The data come from 170 students in eight sections of the course taught over the course of six semesters. We used multiple assessment methods for data collection: questionnaires, faculty evaluations of the research project, and formal course evaluations. We make recommendations for design, teaching, and assessment of the capstone course.

作为学生的本科课程与现实世界之间的桥梁，经济学的顶峰课程是提高经济水平的有效方法。本课程的主要重点是大量的研究论文，其中整合了理论和分析技能，先进的数据收集和处理以及计量经济分析技术。该课程还磨练了应届毕业生的专业写作和演讲技巧。在本文中，我们描述了如何开发一学期的经济学必修课程，因此该课程旨在成为一种变革性的学习体验。数据来自在六个学期中教授的课程的八个部分中的170名学生。我们使用了多种评估方法来收集数据：问卷调查，研究项目的教师评估，以及正式的课程评估。我们为顶峰课程的设计，教学和评估提出建议。