Dear Colleagues:
Once again, we have undergraduate Environmental Science,
Biology, and Policy majors who need senior thesis projects, as
described
below. We
would appreciate getting your project description(s) by January
22, 2005 (We will try to accomodate your proposal, if you are a few
days late).
Barnard and Columbia have a number of environmental science students available to work on senior thesis projects during 2005/06. The work should be within the general area of environmental science, but can involve education and/or outreach, as well as research. The best projects require some data analysis and lab or field work, some literature review, and some interpretation and critical thinking by the student. A popular type of assignment is "project scoping," where the student gathers information and data as the first stage of a proposal that you are considering submitting.
Students get academic credit for about 9 hrs/week in the fall and
spring, starting in September and continuing through April. We also
encourage them very strongly to already work on their project during
the summer.
You should be available to meet with the student, preferably weekly,
especially at the beginning of the project. In addition, thesis mentors
are expected to provide input on draft reports and grading advice.
Students
provide interim reports at approximately 2-month intervals, culminating
in a final product in April (usually as a 50-page thesis). See the
course
web sites for more information on student requirements
If you have a proposal for a project or would like further
information,
please send it to Dallas Abbott at dallas@ldeo.columbia.edu.
We will list all of the projects on the web in early February and
students
will contact you directly about working on your project. You may have
several
requests, so think about whether you would like to take the most
qualified
student, or select them on a first come, first served basis. If there
is
previous coursework that is required for the project, please state what
it is. When submitting a project, please include the following
information (also here as Word
document with the entire solicitation):
Project Title: e.g., "Using
Gas Chromatography to Analyze the
Chlorofluorocarbon Content of Samples Collected from the Southern
Ocean near Antarctica, the Western North Atlantic, and the Arctic
Ocean".
Project Background: ca. 1
paragraph describing the project, e.g., The
results will constrain the formation and circulation of deep and
bottom water, both of which are important CO2 reservoirs....
For fieldwork, lab work and/or data
analysis: describe and include
hrs/week.
Pre-requisites: e.g., At least
two semesters of college level
chemistry.
Thesis mentor information:
e.g., Dr. John Doe (Chemical Oceanography),
jdoe@ldeo.columbia.edu, Tel. 845-365-xxxx
Last year's listings for undergraduate
research projects for Barnard
and Columbia are posted on the web at:
http://eesc.columbia.edu/undergraduate/thesis/thesis.html
I
am interested in working with a Barnard or Columbia student on a
thesis for the
just the
following
academic year
I could financially support an undergraduate student for at least 2
months in the summer (cost about $7500 for a CU student and $5000 for
a BC student