Biology Senior Requirements and Guidelines

This page provides some general guidelines. For current guidelines and dates, refer to the google site for Bio 193 (fall) or Bio 194 (spring)

参加独立的高级研究项目(生物学193-194或195-196)或临床项目是所有高级生物学专业的必修课.  我们的目标是向您介绍开放式调查工作的类型，这是大多数专业生物学家的主要活动之一, and that attracted most of us to this field. 我们希望你的高级研究项目是一项重要的原创工作，你将独立完成.  在你的项目过程中，我们希望你能从项目开发和实验设计的初始阶段，到数据的收集和分析，经历和进步, 最终以期刊文章的书面形式和向同行听众的口头报告形式正式展示你的研究成果. Your faculty research advisor can help guide your ideas and teach you techniques, but your project is ultimately your responsibility. The outcome of a senior research project varies, 你是否得到“好的”结果取决于项目本身的性质，也取决于你投入的努力.  Nonetheless, 在过去的5年中，至少有5个HMC在生物学方面的高级研究项目已经在期刊上发表(更多的正在筹备中)!), and several have been presented as posters at national meetings of professional societies.

During the course of the year, 你将被要求完成几项专业生物学家在研究过程中必须完成的练习.  During the fall semester we will ask you to prepare a written research proposal in the format of a grant proposal, and to present that proposal orally to an audience of your peers.  At the end of the second semester, 我们希望您以符合生物学期刊文章标准格式的书面报告呈现您项目的最终结果.  In addition, you will present your findings in a 15-min talk during HMC Presentation Days.

Specific Expectations and Assignments

1. Time Commitment

We expect you to spend at least three (3) hours per week per unit working on your research project (in lab, library or writing).  Students taking Biology 193-194 (3 units per semester) should therefore be spending a minimum of nine (9) hours per week engaged in research-related activity; students enrolled in Biology 195-196 (Intensive Research, 6 units per semester) should count on spending twice that amount of time. 要知道，有些星期你可能要花更多的时间在实验室里——实验并不总是符合预先安排好的时间块, and living subjects don’t always cooperate at scheduled times!  You should arrange the details of your research schedule with your individual research advisor.  S/he will probably want to know what hours during the week you intend to work in the lab, and may also want to arrange a regular conference time or group lab meeting.

2. Lab Notebook

You are expected to keep careful records of all research work, including details of the methods you use and the results of allexperiments you do (even those that “don’t work”). Your records should enable you, another student, or your advisor to understand what was done when and to repeat the experiments exactly.  Your notebook should be neatly organized and clearly legible.  The particular format you use to record your data (e.g. bound notebook, 3-ring binder, computer files) must be approved by your advisor. Different advisors have different record-keeping preferences, and conventions also vary among sub-disciplines of biology.

Note that your lab book and all other research records (e.g. computer files) must remain in your advisor’s laboratory following the completion of your research project.

3. Research Proposal

All good research projects begin with a well-thought-out research proposal; in most cases, 获得研究所需资金的唯一途径是撰写一份拨款提案，使同行评审小组(通常是同一领域的其他专家)相信所提议的项目是重要的, interesting and feasible enough to warrant funding.  在生物193的第一学期，我们将要求您准备一份书面研究计划，格式类似于拨款提案.  Your proposal should include a detailed review of the literature relevant to your project.  Details of the proposal format will be given out in a separate handout.  In addition, you will be asked to present your proposal in a 10-minute oral presentation to the biology department, to be scheduled during our regular Wednesday afternoon (4:15-5:30 pm) colloquium series (Biology 191).  See the accompanying schedule of due dates for both written and oral proposals..

4. Final Results

学会将你的研究成果有效地传达给其他科学家，这是一项与进行实际研究同样重要的技能.  Remember, if you can’t convey your conclusions clearly, you might as well not have done the project in the first place!  You will have the opportunity to present the final results of your project in two different formats, orally and in a written paper.  Fifteen-minute oral presentations, identical in format to the talks that are given at professional meetings, will be given by all senior research students during spring Presentation Days (5-7 May 2008).  Written results will be presented in a paper that conforms to the standard format of a professional biological journal.  These final papers will be due during the last week of the spring semester.

5. Your Grade

Your grade will be based on the quality of your work as known to the department, as reflected in your oral presentations, and in particular as reflected in your papers.  除了你的研究指导老师外，你的研究计划和期末论文将由生物系的另一位成员阅读.  你的成绩也会反映出你在项目上投入的时间(那些每周花在项目上的时间少于预期时间的学生，即使他们的成绩很好，也不太可能得到“A”)，以及你表现出的主动性和独立性.  For the fall semester please note that you will receive a grade of “N” (“continuing”); because senior research is a year-long course, the grade you receive at the end of the spring semester will be applied retroactively to the fall semester.  请注意，研究成绩是由生物学教师的共识决定的-尽管你的研究顾问的意见至关重要, s/he will not assign your final grade.

6. Questions and Correspondence

As a general rule, you should address questions concerning the specifics of your research project to your research advisor.  Questions concerning general requirements can be addressed either to your research advisor or to Prof. McFadden.  我们将在一年中定期通过电子邮件发送或请求信息-您有责任阅读所有电子邮件通信并在收到请求时及时回复.

Some General Remarks About Expectations For Student Research

Students are sometimes unclear about the expectations for research and how their final grade is determined.  Although different advisors may emphasize different aspects, 下面的评论应该会让你更好地了解成功完成各种研究活动和要求的期望.  Pleaseread this section, then discuss with your advisor what s/he expects in each area (it isyour responsibility to do so).

1. Collect and analyze data

Directed research or project work is different from directed reading, although appropriate reading is certainly part of research. In any research project, you must perform an experiment and collect and analyze data, either from the laboratory, in the field or from computer simulation.  In a design project, you are expected to collect and analyze data from a prototype or simulation to demonstrate the design.  Successful research students analyze their data appropriately, seeking help if necessary. They think about what their data mean, and what this implies about the next step in their projects.

Be advised that both experiments and the data analysis that follows always take longer than you think they will.  Equipment fails or is difficult to obtain.  Stock rooms run out of things, computers crash and animals die.  You are still responsible for the results of the semester. In some two-semester projects, the actual experiments may not be carried out until the second semester, but in all of these cases, a detailed experimental plan should be completed by the end of the first semester.  The most successful students organize their work, work carefully, and use their heads to minimize mistakes.  They keep up a sustained effort and do not let their flies, Arabidopsis, Tetrahymena, lizards, etc. die from lack of care and feeding.  They pay attention to important details and know when something is not as it should be.  如果某件设备出现故障，他们会通知教员(或其他负责人).

You will probably learn that experiments can have negative or ambiguous results and some designs don’t work.  在这些情况下，最重要的是要证明工作中的想法，并对哪里出了问题以及未来可能采取的不同措施进行良好的分析.  The best students put a lot of their own creativity and originality into the experimental design.  Not all students can design experiments initially when the projects are technically complex, but they should become independent as they learn the experimental system.  And all good students think independently about control experiments and replication of results (reproducibility).

2. Know the literature in your field.

Good scientists must be conversant with the work others have done in the past and are doing currently in their field.  最优秀的研究生熟悉与他们的研究项目相关的背景文献，并在一年中积极寻找新的参考文献.

3. Write a report and give a talk.

最后的论文应该充分详细地描述项目期间所做的工作，以便另一个在该领域只有一般背景的学生可以根据论文的内容和参考文献继续工作. Good research-paper practices must be followed.  The literature review and research proposal (due at the end of the first semester) sets forth the project, puts the project in context with the existing literature (i. e., what has been done already by you or someone else), and prepares the reader for the research to be described.  Appropriate references to the literature are essential.  最优秀的学生不仅了解与他们的项目相关的研究文献，而且还会自己寻找最新发表的文章, without prodding.  They are able to explain clearly to others what their project is about (i.e. “The big picture”) and demonstrate a knowledge of professional communication in biology.

4. Keep good records.

The most successful students keep good records of all work done throughout the project period, so they know what’s happening as they go along. As stated above, you should discuss with your advisor the format you should use for record keeping.

5. You are responsible.

在定向研究中，学生被期望表现出超越讲课或实验课程的主动性. Your instructor will act as an advisor and resource for the work, and approve the direction and priorities of the project.  But the responsibility for keeping up the pace of the work, solving day-to-day problems and seeing to it that something is complete by the end of the project period lies with you.

6. Amount of effort.

Your advisor expects a certain amount of effort (at least 3 hours per week per credit hour).  Even if a student does all of the above well, but for only a fraction of the agreed-upon time, then that student may not receive a high grade.

7. And most important: Have fun!

这里列出的指导方针和作业旨在帮助你精通设计和执行实验，并有效地传达你的结果.  These skills will serve you well whether or not you plan a life as a researcher.  During the year, we hope to convince you that research is both a useful and an enjoyable activity.  Most of us who do it find it to be tremendous fun!  We hope that you will not consider senior research merely as another course required for graduation, 但你会把它看作是一个机会，去探索生物学的一个方面，这是你以前在HMC可能没有遇到过的.  Designing and performing your own experiments can be enormously satisfying.  We hope that you experience first-hand the excitement of biological discovery during the upcoming year.