Guidelines for Chemistry Majors Junior year
2012 – 2013
You are all probably planning for your SIPs and are probably
wondering “what’s next?” Well, the Chem Dept website has some details about
the what’s next- visit: http://reason.kzoo.edu/chem/sip/ and from there, click
through the SIP contents of the site for many info documents.
The SIP registration form is there under the SIP Registration’ link.
It is a pdf form that you can download, print, and fill out. The SIP
registration form is due to the registrar, filled out and signed by you and the SIP
coordinator, by the end of 10th week spring term. If your SIP will be a ChemSIP, then
the Chem Dept SIP coordinator must have your form before by the end of 9th week in
order to have time to approve your SIP, sign the form, and get it to the registrar on time.
[For non-Chem SIP, please also give us a copy of your SIP proposal for our records]
Filled out and signed forms must be to Mary Jane (office coordinator) by Thr of 9th week.
Regardless of whether you are doing a chemistry SIP or not, you MUST complete
“Module one” of the online ethics tutorial (link below) by the time you turn in your SIP
Registration form. Before any chemistry SIP is approved, the tutorial must be
completed (at the top of the registration form, please indicate “RCR Tutorial
Completed”). The tutorial is found at URL below): http://www.responsibleresearch.org/
Under “Users: Create an Account” fill out the “user account registration
form” [Dept. = Chemistry & group affiliation = Kalamazoo College Chemistry]. Then
proceed with completing the tutorial. If you have already done this for your research
group or another dept on campus, just indicate that on your SIP registration form.
You MUST register for the new Chem Senior Symposium course, CHEM4(5)XX [# to be
assigned soon] in fall term, at 11:50 AM for 0.4 units
(You are only allowed to take two other courses in your SIP term. Since most will
register for an “extended fall (Summer-Fall)” SIP, fall is the SIP term. Note, that you
WILL be allowed to register for 2 other credit bearing courses in addition to your SIP (2
units) and the new Chem Symposium course). To receive credit for this new course, you
will be expected to attend all of our external seminar speakers’ presentations in fall
term on Mondays at 11:50 am. If you cannot attend and have a legitimate conflict, you
must inform the faculty SIP coordinator who will bring your petition to the rest of the
dept faculty for discussion.
You MUST attend the Sci-Finder Scholar workshops scheduled this spring term (see
schedule)
Guidelines for Chemistry Majors Senior year
2011 - 2012
More and detail information about the SIP process can be found on our website at:
http://reason.kzoo.edu/chem/sip/. Although the bulk of the information in this
document is intended for chemistry majors that conduct SIPs in Chemistry general
information about the senior year is contained herein that is important for all.
A.
Chemistry Department SIP Guidelines- Most of you at this point are carrying out the
research for your SIP. You should be simultaneously writing your thesis; see
guidelines in the “thesis” section at our website (there are several PDF documents
here that should help you while you write). At some point in the writing process,
you need to have your mentor read your document and approve the information
you are putting in it.
You must submit the first complete version of your SIP thesis for departmental
review to the Chemistry Office by Friday of 2nd week of Fall Term. THIS IS A
NON-NEGOTIABLE DATE AS EVERYTHING ELSE THE REST OF THE TERM DEPENDS
ON US HAVING THIS DOCUMENT. The SIP coordinator will take a cursory view of
the document, and if it is not satisfactory, it will be returned for revision. If
satisfactory, the thesis will then go through the peer review process as described
below.
Your thesis, and those of several other Chemistry SIP students, will be assigned to a
faculty member in the department (your SIP advisor), and this will become your
“SIP review team” for the rest of the term. You will get detailed information
about how your team will proceed with the reviews of the theses from the SIP
advisor. The teams will not necessarily follow the same exact review process.
Team reviews of the SIP documents will be completed by the end of Fall Term. You
will then prepare the final version of your SIP thesis incorporating comments
from members of your SIP review team and your SIP advisor, and submit it to the
Chemistry office by Friday of 1st week of Winter Term. Your final SIP thesis will
then be reviewed one last time by your SIP advisor. Please note that as the SIP is
a College requirement, you should review the College’s guidelines and
requirements at: http://www.kzoo.edu/academic/sip/.
Your SIP thesis will be graded by members of the Kalamazoo College Chemistry
faculty, and will earn a grade of Credit (CR) or No Credit (NC) during Winter
Term. This will be your grade for CHEM593 (your SIP). If a NC grade is earned,
you may be asked to meet with the Chemistry faculty to discuss your options.
Honors (H) in the SIP will be considered after the oral presentations, as described
below.
B.
Chemistry Department Symposia Presentation - You will also present your SIP to
the department orally at either the Winter or Spring term symposium. These
symposia are public presentations and therefore, your presentation MUST be
approved by your original SIP mentor. Contact the Chemistry Department SIP
Coordinator if you need information about how to proceed with proprietary
information.
A schedule for the symposia will be posted outside of the Chemistry office and
online at our website by the end of Fall term. Each student will be assigned to a
student presentation referee group that will help each member polish their
presentation before the symposia (i.e., the group will ensure that the
presentation is clear, fits the allotted time, and that the audio-visual aids are
appropriate).
All chemistry majors will present their SIP work at one of the symposia, whether or
not the SIP was in chemistry. All chemistry majors are expected to attend both
symposia.
Note: A grade of Honors for the SIP is dependent on the quality of the presentation,
research, and thesis, and will be determined after ALL presentations have been
experienced by the Chemistry department faculty (if a grade of honors is
assigned, the “credit” SIP grade given in Winter term, will be amended to reflect
the new grade).