Students will likely be introduced to potential faculty mentors and research topics through 200-level environmental courses.
Students should consider enrolling in independent research or a sustainability internship with a faculty mentor in their sophomore or junior year to assess whether intensive research is a good fit for them.
By the spring semester of junior year, students are encouraged to discuss the possibility of completing a senior thesis and potential thesis projects with a faculty mentor who has expertise in their area of interest.
Candidates for honors must have by graduation a cumulative GPA of 3.00 and a GPA of 3.20 within their honors program.
SUMMER PRIOR TO SENIOR YEAR
With guidance from their thesis advisor, thesis students should develop a broad research plan and begin making arrangements for the thesis committee.
At the discretion of the faculty mentor, one or more drafts of a thesis proposal may be required prior to the beginning of the fall semester.
FALL SEMESTER OF SENIOR YEAR
Having enrolled in Honors Thesis (EVST/EVSC 495), the thesis candidate begins research according to the plan outlined in their thesis proposal draft.
A Thesis Committee for the student will be finalized in the fall. The committee should consist of the student’s research mentor and two other faculty. All three committee members cannot be from the same academic department/program. At least one committee member must be on the environmental advisory committee. One of the committee members can be someone external to the College who possesses relevant expertise.
The responsibilities of the Thesis Committee are:
To meet with the student and review the Proposal during fall semester as well as the Thesis during spring semester;
To help direct and support the student in pursuing the Thesis both at formal Committee meetings and through informal discussion;
To render to the department a judgment about the acceptability of the Thesis.
The format and due date of the final thesis proposal is guided by the committee. The following elements are frequently included in the proposal itself:
An introduction consisting of a current literature survey, a clear description of the research objective/question, and how this objective interfaces with and/or intervenes in the current scholarship within the field;
A research plan that broadly outlines the specific experiments and/or studies to be done, archives to be studied, and/or theories that will be utilized;
The student will initiate a Thesis Committee meeting to discuss the proposal; this meeting may include a presentation by the student. At this time, any changes to the planned research can be discussed.
At the end of fall semester, all students pursuing theses in environmental science or studies will be required to give an overview presentation of their thesis proposal to the thesis committee and interested faculty and students. The proposal presentation, which should be 10 min in length followed by brief Q&A, will entail:
A brief explanation of the motivation for their study citing relevant scholarly literature;
A brief description of the methods/intervention they have employed and/or intend to employ;
A timeline of proposed work.
The thesis advisor in consultation with the thesis committee will evaluate the student’s progress and make a recommendation about whether or not the student should continue the thesis during the spring semester.
To get the green light to proceed, an Honors Thesis must demonstrate the student’s capacity for quality research and give evidence of mastery of the material.
The Committee’s review of the Proposal, a progress report (if required), and an evaluation of the student’s conduct as an investigator by the mentor will contribute to the grade given in Thesis for the fall semester.
INTERIM SESSION
If data collection during the fall semester was delayed or proceeded more slowly than initially anticipated, students should be prepared to return to campus during interim session to make additional progress on their projects.
Similarly, for thesis projects oriented towards humanities and/or the social sciences, research and writing during interim may be required.
SPRING SEMESTER OF SENIOR YEAR
If the thesis committee makes a positive recommendation at the end of fall semester, at the start of spring semester the thesis student should enroll in Thesis (EVST/EVSC 496).
The thesis student and research mentor must complete and submit a Notice of Graduation with Departmental Honors form to the Academic Progress Committee by the end of the second week of classes spring semester.
During the early part of spring semester, environmental science students should anticipate completing the data collection phase of their thesis and devoting significant time to data analysis and interpretation.
Thesis projects in environmental studies will move from research to writing at this time.
The student should initiate at least one committee meeting during spring semester to discuss progress, challenges, and get feedback from the committee members.
Thesis students must submit a final thesis draft to their thesis committee no later than one week before their final thesis presentation.
Thesis candidates will defend their honors thesis by giving a summary presentation, which should be 20 min in length, that is suitable for a general audience.
The presentation will be followed by a brief Q&A period open first to committee members, then to all attendees.
After this session, the honors thesis committee will judge the quality of the thesis, determining whether or not honors will be awarded and then inform the student of their determination. At this time, committee members will make any recommendations for revisions to the text of the thesis.
The research mentor will submit a completed “approval of thesis” form to the Academic Progress Committee after the senior thesis presentation.
Before the end of finals week, a final revised copy of the thesis with signatures of the thesis committee members should be submitted to the research mentor and to the program chair.