Senior Capstone Projects for Students Doing an Experimental Project
2015-16
Grading for Ch 497/8/9
Your faculty advisor will assign your grade as outlined in the table below; all assignments must
be completed in order for you to receive a passing grade. The course must be taken for an A-F
grade, and incompletes will not be given.
Grading Criteria
(%)
Effort in Lab
Lab Notebook
Paper
Oral Presentation
SOAR Poster
Attendance
Portfolio
DUCK exam
497
498
499
30
10
30
20
NA
10
NA
NA
30
10
30
25
NA
5
NA
NA
25
10
25
25
5
5
5
P/NP
Effort in Lab/Notebook
If you’ve registered for 1 credit of Ch 497/8/9, the minimum time expectation is three hours per
week for ten weeks (for a total of 30 hours per term) spent in the lab on your project.
Realistically, you probably will spend more than 30 hours per term. You can sign up for one
credit of Ch 401 if you wish (1 credit of Ch 401 = 3 hours/week.) You will be graded on your
efforts towards obtaining results in the lab; these efforts should be reflected in your lab
notebook. If you did all of your lab work over the summer, either at SOU or at an REU site, you
don’t have a lab work commitment but you will follow the schedule for papers and talks on the
course schedule.
Paper
At the end of the term you must turn in a copy of your final paper, as complete as is possible to
that point. Your paper must address the required content each term as discussed in 497/8/9. The
paper is due by 5:00 p.m. Friday of the tenth week; late reports will be penalized 10% per week.
Papers will NOT be accepted after Friday of week 11 (finals week.) If you do not turn in your
paper by 5:00 p.m. Friday of week 11, you will not receive a passing grade for Ch 497.
Oral Presentations
You will give one talk in the fall (5 minute talk + 2 minutes Q&A) in which you tell the class
what you are planning to do. In the winter your talk (10 minute talk + 2 minutes Q&A) will focus
on the results thus far. Your final talk in the spring (20 minute talk + 5 minutes Q&A) will
describe your results, conclusions, and future work. All talks should include appropriate visual
aids, should be well organized, and should be rehearsed with your faculty mentor.
Attendance
Attendance at Ch 497/8/9 class meetings is expected, and is a part of your course grade.
SOAR Poster/Portfolio/DUCK Exam
As part of your CH 499 grade in the spring you will prepare and present a poster at the SOAR
symposium. Poster preparation will be covered in CH 498 and 499. SOAR is the third week of
May each year. You will also prepare a portfolio and take the ACS DUCK (Diagnostic of
Undergraduate Chemistry Knowledge) examination.