CHEM A499 SENIOR RESEARCH
GENERAL INFORMATION AND CONTRACT REQUIREMENTS
The capstone experience required of all Chemistry Majors consists of participation in a research
project under the direction of a USCA Chemistry Faculty member or other individual approved by the
USCA Chemistry Faculty. Students who are pursuing a double major must complete this requirement
independently of work undertaken in the second discipline. Joint projects with other departments will
only be permitted if there is a distinct chemistry component that is independent of the work conducted in
the other discipline. A written paper and oral presentation are required upon completion of the research.
The following are stipulations of the CHEM 499 contract as well as some general information
I.
Work and Meeting Times
As with other laboratory experiences, each student is required to work on the project 3 to 4 hours
each week for each credit hour earned. It is the student’s responsibility to set up a work schedule
with the supervising faculty member at the beginning of each semester before the contract is
signed. Except for major extenuating circumstances, the student is expected to adhere to that
schedule. Any changes to the agreed upon schedule must be negotiated with the faculty member.
It is strongly advised that major work periods be no less than two consecutive hours to allow
sufficient time to accomplish a task in the lab. Depending on the nature of the project, longer
periods may be required. There will be a regularly scheduled meeting time to discuss the
progress of the project with the supervising faculty member. There will also be time set aside for
faculty and seniors to meet as a group weekly or biweekly. During these meetings, issues
pertinent to chemistry majors can be discussed, such as “tricks-of-the-trade”, interesting new
developments in chemistry research, career issues, or interesting applications of chemistry.
Students should expect to present one or two progress reports over the course of each semester.
These individual and group meetings are mandatory.
II.
Notebooks
The Department will provide each student with a research notebook, which will remain the
property of the department. Notebooks will be checked periodically for completeness requiring
each student maintain his/her notebook. A format approved by the supervising faculty member is
required. Notebooks and data should remain in the laboratory at all times. The original
notebook and data will remain with the faculty member at the conclusion of the project, therefore
any students who wish to have a copy should either take the carbon copies or obtain photocopies.
III.
Senior Paper
A written account of your work, done in an appropriate scientific style, will be required at the
conclusion of your project. An complete electronic copy of this Senior Paper should be given to
the supervising faculty member. That faculty member may also request a paper copy. Citation
format to journal articles, books, proceedings, etc. as well as form, style and grammar are given
in The ACS Style Guide: Effective Communication of Scientific Information, edited by Anne M.
Coghill and Lorrin R. Garson, now in its third edition. This is a valuable resource. Please refer to
it often, particularly for your scientific writing.
After the semester is concluded, the faculty will read all the papers and evaluate them for
departmental assessment purposes. Each student should adhere to the set of following guidelines.
1. A draft of the paper must be submitted to the supervising faculty member no later than
the start of the second week of April. The deadline for submitting drafts will be
announced by the Dept. Chair at the beginning of the spring semester. Please submit your
draft to your faculty mentor by this date. Arrange to have working meetings with your
mentor so a satisfactory paper results well ahead of the deadline.
2. The final version must be submitted no later than the day after graduation.
3. All work must be turned in no later than the Friday before the grades are due to the
registrar. This is usually the Friday of Final Exams Week.
4. If the project continues over more than one semester, the student is required to provide a
brief written summary of their work (or a summary PowerPoint presentation) for each
semester until their segment of the project concludes. Each faculty mentor will notify the
student as to which document he or she would prefer. The summary includes a brief
description of the experiments conducted, the results obtained, and a brief recap of work
remaining.
5. The Senior Paper should include the following as well as specific information required
by the supervising faculty member:
a. Introduction: The introduction should include a brief review of the pertinent
scientific literature to provide background and context for the project.
Appropriate citing of references is required.
b. Experimental: The procedure(s) and instrumentation used for each
experiment(s) should be described in detail.
c. Results and Discussion: A narrative section should be included describing the
experimental results and their significance as well as any conclusion(s) that
can be drawn from the work. All final data (figures, tables, calculations)
should also be included in this section to justify the claims presented.
d. References: Literature citation should be in an approved scientific style that is
consistent throughout the paper. Chemists use most frequently the style of the
American Chemical Society.
IV.
Oral Presentation
A 15 to 20 minute formal oral presentation of the project completes the requirements for the
course. The use of PowerPoint or Prezi slides is expected. The organization of the presentation
should be similar to that of the paper but subject to what you and your mentor develop. The
audience will consist of interested USCA faculty, students, and guests. Each student’s
presentation will be evaluated for departmental assessment purposes by the chemistry faculty and
students present. The talks are usually scheduled during a free period during Final Exams Week.
The speaker will be expected to answer questions from the audience, which might include further
elaboration of experimental procedures, justification of the interpretation of data or conclusions,
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or predictions of additional experiments that might be appropriate to continue or expand the
project in the future. Each student should consult with the faculty mentor frequently while
preparing the oral presentation and also allocate plenty of time to prepare and practice.
V.
Public Presentation
In many cases, a student will be expected to present their research in either poster or oral format
in a venue outside of the department. Often, the quantity of research and its quality justify a
presentation, either oral or poster, at a conference or an event such as USCA Research Day or the
South Carolina Academy of Science annual meeting. These are very good undergraduate arenas
and activity here is encouraged. A poster should be prepared in final form 3 days prior to the
presentation to ensure adequate opportunity for changes and printing. That means the rough draft
should be done at least one week prior to the event. The poster format is available from your
mentor and examples can be seen on the bulletin boards in the main chemistry hallway. Oral
presentations usually follow the style already mentioned above. Close work with your mentor to
prepare for these public presentations is absolutely necessary.
VI.
Grading
Students are expected to meet the requirements described above. Letter grades will be assigned
based on the quality of work, the effort given, and the students’ ability to meet the requirements
described above. Further, it is expected that students will work more than the minimum time,
take initiative with the project, be well prepared for group meetings, and generally put forward a
superior effort. Students who fail to meet the expectations listed above will receive a lower
grade. Should an oral presentation to the chemistry faculty not be given or if the Senior Paper is
not turned in according to the time tables listed above, the student will not pass the final semester
of CHEM A499. They will need to repeat a contract during the next semester or Maymester
immediately following for whatever remaining credit hours are required for graduation. A
student can expect at least a half letter grade deduction for poor notebook quality, poor
attendance at group or individual meetings, and for not working closely with the mentor as the
projects nears the presentation stage. Students must submit an interim report at the close of a
semester for a continuing project to receive a passing grade for that semester.
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