Senior Thesis Colloquium (397-0-20)

Instructors

Gary John Galbreath
847/491-8775
Hogan Hall, Room 2-144, 2205 Tech Drive

Meeting Info

TBA: TBA

Overview of class

A student intending to write a Thesis in Biological Sciences must register for Senior Thesis Colloquium (BIOL SCI 397-0) during Winter Quarter of the Senior Year. It is in the context of this class that Senior and/or Honors Theses are written. Do not also register for a 399 that quarter; for the Winter, BIOL SCI 397 replaces 399 with regard to both your research and its write-up.

The course will begin with online group meetings among the instructor, the students as a whole, and NU Scientific Reference Librarian Becca Greenstein, focusing on both how to locate appropriate references, on aspects of how to write the thesis, and on how to properly format references at the end of the thesis. Every one to two weeks throughout the quarter, each student will then meet individually with the instructor for 20 to 60 minutes, discussing both the progress of the research, and the most recent versions of relevant sections of the Thesis.

Any use of AI in composing the Thesis is considered unethical for the purposes of this course, and would constitute grounds for rejection of a Thesis.

Registration Requirements

Pre-requisites: A permission number from the instructor is required for registration. At least one BIOL SCI 398 or 399 registration must have preceded BIOL SCI 397 (do not register for BIOL_SCI 398 or 399 during the same quarter as 397). The fundamental data underlying the student's research for Honors or 397 must have been collected by the student -- not by others, nor taken from the literature or from websites.

Evaluation Method

A provisional but thorough version of three particular sections of the thesis is due to the instructor by January 30th (see ‘Honors' at the Biological Sciences website, for details about these sections). Further rewrites, normally including an increasing proportion of the thesis, will occur throughout the quarter, in conjunction with scheduled meetings with the instructor (mostly individualized). Class letter grading will be based on: 25% -- Participation in the group meetings and in individual meetings with the instructor. 25% -- Producing iterative and appropriate versions of the various Thesis sections, meeting deadlines; 50% -- Improvement of the thesis sections over time (to the extent needed), without the help of other students or of AI.

Class Attributes

Advanced Expression