Student-selected final projects in Introductory Physics

For a few years now, I have used projects as an alternative final assessment in my physics classes. In this talk, I will focus on the final project used in my year-long honors physics classes. My initial goal for this project was to give the students the opportunity to learn how physics was relevant to an area in which they were personally interested, which demanded a highly personalized project. It was challenging to set up a structure that provided this flexibility while still insuring a sufficiently rigorous project demonstrating a true understanding of the relevant physical models. After several years, I developed a structure that accomplished this goal fairly well, although there is still room for improvement.