ERSC Research as Senior Capstone Experience | Research as Senior Capstone Experience

Majors who complete the capstone with research must complete either ERSC 550 (Independent Research) or ERSC 560 (Student/Faculty Collaborative Research). Students will earn 0.5 credit in the spring semester of the junior year as they conduct background research, formulate a testable hypothesis and draft a project proposal. Should a student be abroad for the first 0.5 credit, the student will meet regularly via Skype (or other appropriate real-time media) with the faculty member on campus who is advising the capstone project. The second 0.5-1.0 credit will be completed in the fall semester of the senior year with data collection, analysis and writing. Ideally students will do this as a 3.5-4.0 course load that semester.

Your advisor can nominate you for Honors at the end of the fall semester of your senior year based on your capstone research project. To be considered for Honors, you must have a cumulative GPA across the College of 3.5. Only those students doing independent research for their capstone can be considered for Honors (i.e., either ERSC 550 or 560). The faculty other than the thesis supervisor will decide if you are worthy of Honors. You can do more independent research in the spring of your senior year (up to 2.0 credits of capstone independent research), but the Honors decision is based on your GPA and thesis at the end of the fall semester of your senior year.

Junior Year Spring Semester

Date	Items Due
Before 4 PM on the Last Day to Add/Drop	Sign up for 0.5 credit of ERSC 550 or ERSC 560 by completing the Registrar's "Special Course Options Permission Form "
3rd Monday of the semester	Students submit the on-line Senior Capstone Prospectus Form. Faculty and the department technician will provide feedback to the advisor to return to the student.
4-6th Tuesday of the semester	Students give 5 minute presentations at the department seminar on their prospectus. Your talk can be PowerPoint based or not and should include: Why does this research need to be done? What are the broad-scale research questions that are driving the research? A clearly stated hypothesis and predictions based on the hypothesis. Suggested field locations (s), sample collection strategies, materials needed, and a brief description of possible analytical methods to be used (as applicable). If you are doing a PowerPoint based talk, send your slides to the department technician by at least the day before.
4 weeks before the end of the classes	First draft of research proposal is due following the Research Proposal Guidelines
2 weeks before the end of classes	Students get their proposal back
Last day of classes	Final proposal is due, no exceptions

Senior Year Fall Semester

Date	Items Due
Before 4 PM on the Last Day to Add/Drop	Sign up fo 0.5 or 1.0 credit of ERSC 550 or ERSC 560
4 weeks before the end of classes	First draft of final paper due following the Thesis Format Guidelines
2 weeks before the end of classes	Students get their paper back
Last day of classes	Final paper is due, no exceptions

Senior Year Spring Semester

Date	Items Due
Early in the semester if not continuing research into this semester (dates to be determined in the seminar series schedule)	Students give oral presentations (longer time allowance for honors students)
Late in the semester	Each ERSC major doing research is expected to present a poster at the annual Science Symposium Poster Session. A pdf of your poster is due to Rob by two days before the poster session.