CHEM 295: Intro to Research Independent Study

SYNOPSIS: The course covers systematic methods for retrieving research articles on your independent study project, research methodology, locating, reading and summarizing a lead reference provided by the research director, locating other articles on the research project, and general methods of keeping a research lab notebook and a literature research notebook, safety in the context of a research lab, safety in the research laboratory, research instrumentation, research ethics, writing a research proposal and progress reports. Chemistry 295, Introduction to Research for Independent Study, is required for majors who intend to pursue graduation with distinction in Chemistry or a degree in Chemistry that is certified by the American Chemical Society.

READER REQUIREMENTS: Readers must be chemists, biochemists, or medical or pharmacology professionals with a graduate degree and extensive research and laboratory experience in the industry and substantial experience with writing research proposals.

WRITING ASSIGNMENT: Scientific research proposal.

INSTRUCTOR SUGGESTIONS FOR READERS: There will be two substantive reader interactions in addition to the introductory meeting. One discussion will be about the Introduction and Literature Review sections of the proposal and the second will be about the Methods and Results sections. Each probably 5-8 pages.

Questions readers should ask when reading a draft:

  1. Is the writing clear and well organized? That is, how easy or difficult is it for you to follow the student’s line of reasoning?
  2. What do you find interesting and compelling?  Where are you skeptical or bored?
  3. If possible, do a “think aloud response”—reading the paper aloud and pausing frequently to describe your reactions to what you’re reading. For guidance on how to do this, please listen to this example:

IMPORTANT COURSE DEADLINES: Students will apprise the reader of all pertinent deadlines and student and reader schedule their interactions accordingly.

SYLLABUS: CHEM295_Widenhoefer_Syllabus