Curriculum

Senior Seminar -- Biology 480

Senior Seminars are student-initiated, student-taught, and student-evaluated. Topics, content, reading materials, seminar structure, scheduling, and student evaluation are all to be decided by seminar participants, and must be approved by the Biology Department.

The seminars are expected to be discussion-based and should include significant research by all participants. The final products of the seminar should consist of an oral and a written component. These two components must together demonstrate a depth of knowledge and synthesis, in all participants, that is representative of graduating seniors in biology. Students and/or groups with weak products will be asked to redo and increase the quality of either or both components.

Students are to submit an Initial Proposal during the semester prior to enrollment in BIOL 480, and a Full Proposal at the beginning of the semester of the senior seminar. It is the design and hope of the faculty that the senior seminar will enable you to incorporate the skills and knowledge that you have developed in your previous courses, and to make your oral and written components crowning accomplishments for your biology experience at Earlham! It should be fun, hard work and a rewarding experience!

Guidelines

1. Only senior biology majors and minors are allowed to enroll in these seminars. Exceptions to this are conceivable. For example, senior chemistry or psychology majors could be invited to participate in certain cross-disciplinary seminars. Also, juniors who will be off campus may participate.
   
   
2. In order to enroll in BIOL 480, students must submit an Initial Proposal to the Biology Department. This must happen during the semester prior to enrollment in BIOL 480 (no later than 3 pm on the last Monday of scheduled classes). Details on the Initial Proposal are given below.
   
   
3. At the beginning of the semester of the senior seminar (no later than 3pm on the Friday of the first full week of the semester) the student groups must submit a Full Proposal to the department for approval. See below for details on the Full Proposal. Failure to meet this deadline may result in postponement of the BIOL 480 to a subsequent semester.
   
   
4. All seminars are 2 semester hours, requiring a minimum of 6 hours of work per week in and out of class. A minimum of 2 hours should be spent together each week.
   
   
5. Grading is CR/NC (it is a college rule that all student initiated courses are CR/NC). Student participants will evaluate one another in appropriate ways, including the ultimate determination of CR or NC.
   
   
6. Attendance at all meetings is expected. No more than two absences are allowed for successful completion of the course. This attendance policy must be spelled out in the course proposal.
   
   
7. Minimum enrollment = 4, maximum enrollment = 10.
   
   
8. Each seminar will have a biology faculty person as an advisor. The faculty advisor should be consulted before the initial and formal proposals are submitted to the department.  Additionally, each seminar group will meet with the advisor on two occasions during the semester (one meeting early in the semester as a check-in and one meeting later so the faculty advisor can offer expectations for the written and oral component). This advisor's roll will vary but is presumed to be very minor. For example, faculty will not be attending class unless specially invited, and even then only very occasionally. The advisor can be a helpful resource when organizing the seminar.
   
   
9. Seminars can be scheduled either in the fall or spring semester of the senior year. Class meeting times and locations are at the discretion of the participants.
   
   
10. Seminars are not meant to be study groups for comprehensives.
    
    
11. The graduating class (all of you!) is responsible for seeing that all are enrolled in at least one seminar. Please be inclusive! Also, it is each individual’s personal responsibility to be an active part of a seminar group before the full proposal is completed.
    
    
12. Each seminar group is required to meet their faculty advisor around mid semester.  At this time the advisor will discuss expectations, progress, achievements, questions, comments concerns, etc. Additional monthly meetings are also encouraged.  This forum will ensure that seminar groups are on track and focused, and that students are working towards previously agreed objectives.
    
    
13. Each seminar group must give a mandatory practice presentation during which individual seminar groups will present to two biology faculty members. This must occur at least one week before their final presentation (time slots will be made available to groups approximately one month before the end of the semester).  These time slots will be one hour long and it is expected that the entire presentation will be given at that time (50 min.), allowing 10 min. for the faculty to provide constructive feedback.
    
    
14. A written evaluation from each group member is to be submitted to the faculty advisor at the conclusion of BIOL 480 (the same deadline as the final paper). Specifically, individuals are to assess the contributions of each group member to discussions, library research, writing, and presentation.
    
    
15. Both a written (individual or collective writing) and an oral component (a departmental colloquium) are expected for satisfactory completion of BIOL 480. Together the written and oral work must demonstrate that the seminar participants have investigated the topic in sufficient depth and have effectively synthesized the knowledge gained. If either of these is not sufficiently demonstrated, the faculty may ask for additional work.
    
    
16. The final research paper is due by the last day of class. Each individual’s contribution to the written paper should be a minimum of 10 pages (double-spaced) with at least 15 cited primary resources.

Initial Proposals

During the semester prior to enrollment in BIOL 480 (no later than 3 pm on the last Monday of scheduled classes), a seminar group must submit the following: A) a list of the students in the group, B) the topic for the seminar plus several potential subtopics that the group may pursue, C) at least five good references for each subtopic, and D) the signature of the faculty advisor.

The purpose of the initial proposal is to ensure that the semester of enrollment in BIOL 480 may be maximally utilized for research and writing, and not wasted by working out topics and logistical details. Further, the initial proposal allows sufficient time for the library to obtain materials pertinent to your topics.

Full Proposals

Written proposals to the department should include the following: title, list of participants, student leader(s) (if appropriate), faculty advisor, time and meeting place, course objectives, detailed description of subtopics to be covered, revised preliminary bibliography for each subtopic, other resources to be used (books, guest speakers, field trips, etc.), course structure (how is the course taught?), paper assignment, oral presentation format (colloquium, guided poster session, or guided web page presentation), requirements for successful completion (i.e., attendance policy, required assignments) and evaluation format. In addition, an appointment day and time with the Science Librarian should be stated in the proposal. Each seminar is required to meet with the Science Librarian by the end of the second full week of the semester.

The seminar group will first review their proposal with the faculty advisor and then the department must formally approve the proposal. Significant planning should be accomplished in the semester before the seminar is to be taught, culminating with the Initial Proposal. With more planning and with final polishing, the Full Proposal with the approving signature of the advisor will be due no later than 3pm on the Friday of the first full week of classes. Approval by the department should be completed by the end of the second full week of the semester.

Previous Topics

Just to stimulate your creative juices, here are some seminar topics that have been conducted by seniors in the past: ebola, the biology of human sexuality, RNAi, invasive species, apoptosis, landscape ecology, selected topics in biology of war, breast cancer, habitat fragmentation, mycology, human impacts on the ecology of the desert southwest, disease threats in the modern world, biology of color, advances in immunology, ecology and biogeochemistry of global change, history of evolutionary thought, herpetology, virology, current topics in medicine, human sexual behavior, animal cognition, medicinal plants, physiology of sleep, physiology of stress, cancer and monoclonal antibodies, agricultural ecology, and Alzheimer’s disease. Proposals of some of these past seminars have been placed on reserve in the Wildman Science Library.

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This page last updated: April 16, 2009