Past Senior I.S. projects
Timeline
| Junior year (spring) | Meet early with physics faculty about options for I.S.; Consider piloting a self-designed project in Jr. I.S. |
| Meet with potential self-designed project advisors before spring classes end | |
| Summer before senior year | Faculty-proposed projects sent to seniors in July; student project preference rankings due ~2 weeks before classes resume |
| Senior year (fall) | Senior IS projects and advisors are assigned by the first week of classes |
| Copeland funding application deadlines mid-September (early); mid-October (regular) | |
| All seniors present a progress report on the current status of their I.S. | |
| Two substantial thesis chapters due to Physics admin coordinator by 5 p.m. on the last day of classes | |
| Senior year (spring) | Completed thesis due to registrar (c.c. advisors) by 5 p.m. on I.S. Monday, just after spring break |
| After spring break, defend your thesis orally before the physics faculty (90 minutes) | |
| All seniors present their work at our departmental poster presentation on I.S. Symposium day |
Introduction
The yearlong senior thesis project, or senior Independent Study (I.S.), allows you to experience the beauty and cohesiveness of physics by working on an extended project closely with a faculty advisor. There are few projects, even though narrow in scope, that do not require a breadth of understanding and a dependence on the lecture and laboratory material covered in the major courses. Thus, the senior thesis is an integral part of your education. It can provide a stimulating climax to your college career while, at the same time, it can be a defining introduction to your profession.
This guide is written to clarify past questions and is not intended to dampen any of your enthusiasm for your senior thesis project. It does assume that you will enrolled in Physics 451-452 during successive Fall and Spring Semesters. The Physics Department reserves the right to update the guide at any time.
We do not expect you to embark on a project unaided by an advisor, but you should not expect your advisor to do the work for you (conduct the library search, construct the apparatus, develop the simulation, perform the calculation, take the data, and (re)write the thesis). Advisors advise and guide while you do the work.
Understanding the science in your project is extremely important and time should be taken to reflect on its meaning. This might mean, for example, not taking a last data run so you can understand the meaning of the previous data runs.
Thesis Topics
The Physics Department encourages you to consider your senior thesis topic early. During your junior year, the physics senior December talks and spring poster session can suggest multiple possibilities. We encourage you to meet with physics faculty early in the spring semester of your Junior year to discuss possible projects in our labs. It is often fruitful to test a topic during your Physics 401 self-designed project.
The most successful topics are often extensions of ongoing faculty research or take advantage of existing faculty expertise and available equipment.
Self-designed projects are riskier, as you yourself are responsible for formulating the motivating scientific questions. Seniors considering a self-designed proposal must prepare a detailed project proposal, including a literature review, and convince a faculty member to advise the project.
When considering possibilities for senior I.S. projects, please make use of the following resource:
Past faculty-proposed Sr. I.S. projects
Note that available projects and faculty can vary year to year.
Self-designed Senior I.S. Projects. The Sr. I.S. experience in the physics department is built around joint student/faculty investigation into active research projects in professors’ areas of expertise. However, if a student has previously established a faculty research connection outside of Wooster (e.g., during a summer REU program), they may submit a proposal for a self-designed Sr. I.S. project. A self-designed Sr. I.S. typically involves two weekly meeting: a meeting between the student and their external faculty advisor to collaborate with the student on the project content, and a separate meeting with a Wooster physics faculty member to advise the student on the I.S. process as a whole. The external advisor must agree in writing to volunteer this weekly time, and the student must submit a coherent proposal over the summer for consideration by the physics department of its feasibility for I.S. For more details, please see the following self-designed physics I.S. proposal guidelines.
Notebook
You must keep a complete, written record of the project either in ink in a paper bound notebook or in a web-based electronic lab notebook like Lab Archives, which your advisor (or others) may read to learn the details of your work. Your notebook is a scientific diary. It should be kept current each day and contain all relevant information for future researchers to duplicate or extend your work. Upon completion of your senior thesis, your advisor will keep your notebook.
Oral Progress Report
Near the end of the first semester, you will give a 10-15 minute public slide-show lecture on your senior thesis progress. This public event will motivate you to early accomplishment, provide you with valuable feedback, and inspire younger students.
Thesis Manuscript
The thesis manuscript summarizes and communicates your research to your student and faculty colleagues. To do so with integrity and clarity will document your work for future investigators while providing perspective for yourself.
The manuscript should be complete but not verbose, be well illustrated including drawings or photographs of relevant equipment, and contain appropriate references to the literature. Below are some guidelines toward the construction of a scientific thesis manuscript.
- Example Outline
- Prologue
Title page sample
Table of Contents
List of Tables
List of Figures
Acknowledgments (optional)
Abstract - Body
Introduction and Literature Review
Procedure or Methodology
Results and Analysis
Comparison among Experiment, Computation, Theory
Conclusion and Recommendations for Further Work - Epilogue
References (see the Physical Review Style Guide for proper form)
Appendices (optional – may contain computer programs, data sets, and so on)
- Prologue
- Style
- Multiple options for mathematical typesetting exist, including (but not limited to) LaTeX.
- Each of the sections in the above outline should begin on a new page.
- Pages should be numbered sequentially.
- Figures and Tables should be numbered sequentially, have self-contained captions, and appear in the text following (but near to) the first reference to them.
- All statements of fact which are not common knowledge must be referenced (see “Plagiarism” in the Code of Academic Integrity of the Scot’s Key). A thesis containing plagiarized material will result in an NC for 452.
- Good references for form and style include:
The Physical Review Style Guide.
The Technical Writer’s Handbook by Matt Young (2002).
- Products
- The manuscript must be printed double-sided at high resolution on 8.5 x 11″ white paper.
- The printed manuscript should be ring or spiral bound so that it opens flat and is durable.
- One printed manuscript is for the advisor and a second is for the department. Double majors will print additional manuscripts.
- The corrected manuscript must be digitally archived before the final Friday of the spring semester.
Oral Exam
The oral exam will be scheduled at a mutually convenient time for you, your first reader (advisor) and your second reader during the period in the Spring Semester allotted by the Registrar. The only visitors allowed in this exam will be departmental faculty. Exceptions can be made by agreement of all those present, or if the thesis is interdepartmental.
You will be expected to present an uninterrupted 20-minute overview of your project followed by questions on the thesis by the faculty committee. The presentation will be interrupted if it exceeds the 20-minute limit. The questions can be expected to turn to a general nature by the end of the exam.
Poster
You will share your senior thesis results with the campus community by presenting a poster at the Senior Research Symposium. Guidelines for the three-foot by five-foot poster are at our poster page. The poster will remain in the department.
Grading
The PHYS-451 grade is either Satisfactory Progress (SP), or No Credit (NC), and is based on the condition of the two substantial thesis chapters to be submitted by the last day of fall semester classes.
The PHYS-452 grade— Honors (H), Good (G), Satisfactory (S), or No Credit (NC) will largely represent an evaluation of the completed IS Monday Manuscript, oral defense, and the organization of the project effort. The physics department Sr IS rubric (linked below) serves as a guideline for evaluating these areas.
Physics department Sr. I.S. rubric
This rubric serves as a starting point for discussion among the physics faculty about PHYS-452 grades. Not all questions apply equally well to every project, and some are only appropriate for the first reader. Roughly speaking, a score of 4 in an area corresponds to Honors-level achievement, 3 to Good, and 2 to Satisfactory, with 1 and 0 indicating substandard performance.
However, the way in which these elements are weighted is topic-dependent, and a particular set of scores does not guarantee a certain PHYS-452 grade.
For double majors, the evaluation of the project from the perspective of the other discipline is also significant in determining the grade.
Note that this Sr. I.S. guide, including all linked material such as our rubric, is subject to change over time, as we are continually working to refine our Sr. I.S. processes.
Detailed Timeline
- Before Senior Year
- Discuss possible self-designed topics with potential advisors before summer.
- Choose topic in late summer.
- Start reading background material.
- Fall of Senior Year
- Conduct literature search* and record search strategy in your notebook.
- Apply for Copeland Funds for research equipment and travel.
- Collect or build equipment, write code, or perform initial calculations.
- Develop thesis outline and record in your notebook.
- Obtain preliminary results.
- Present oral progress report to faculty and majors in December.*
- Write thesis draft including at least two substantial chapters.
- Email thesis draft PDF to the Physics Administrative Coordinator by 5 p.m. the last day of classes.*
- Spring of Senior Year
- Collect final data or finish calculations.
- Complete thesis manuscript.*
- Deliver first complete draft of thesis to your advisor before Spring Break.†
- Submit thesis copies to the Registrar by 5 p.m. the Monday after Spring Break.‡
- Email a copy of the PDF to registrar@wooster.edu and carbon-copy your I.S. advisors
- Upload a copy of the PDF to the OpenWorks repository
- Print just the cover page of your Independent Study thesis
- Bring the cover page to the Office of the Registrar in APEX (Gault Library) anytime during regular office hours
- Receive your numbered I.S. button!
- Present results at the Senior Research Symposium poster session.
- Digitally archive corrected thesis manuscript PDF.
- Celebrate!
- Defend thesis orally before the physics faculty.*
* Complete in the semester indicated or risk an NC (No Credit) for that semester.
† Your adviser is not expected to read or comment on a draft submitted after this date.
‡ Failure to meet the deadline set by the Registrar could result in an NC (No Credit).
Academic Integrity from the Scot’s Key
An atmosphere in which each student does their own work, except when the instructor indicates that additional aid is legitimate and profitable, is necessary for genuine academic mastery. It is each student’s responsibility to be mindful of the difference between appropriate academic resources and support (such as services offered through the Academic Resource Center, Writing Center, and Math Center, as examples), versus inappropriate or unauthorized academic aid (such as plagiarism of another’s work). It also places on each student an obligation not to offer or make available unauthorized sources of aid to other students, knowing that such aid is detrimental to those students and to the college community. Finally, each student must be responsible for the maintenance of an atmosphere of academic integrity by confronting violators or reporting any actions that violate its principles, since such violations ultimately harm all members of the community. These principles merely carry out the general purpose of the college to be a community in which the members find it right and necessary to promote the fullest learning by everyone. In other words, a violation of the Code of Academic Integrity conflicts with the values, work, and purpose of the entire college community and is not merely a private matter between an individual faculty member and a student.
Principles of Academic Integrity
A student will not:
- give, offer, or receive aid other than that specifically allowed by the professor on any course work or examination
- knowingly represent the work of others, including materials from electronic sources, as their own
- falsify or fabricate data
- submit an assignment produced for a course to a second course without the authorization of all the instructors involved
- deny other students access to necessary documents/materials by stealing, misplacing, or destroying those materials
- give false reasoning to a faculty member or Dean when requesting an exam change or an extension on a paper/project
- violate the spirit of the code
HSRC statement
The College of Wooster’s Human Subjects Research Committee (HSRC), or “Institutional Review Board (IRB)” for federal purposes, is a specially constituted review body established or designated to protect the welfare of human subjects recruited to participate in research studies or assessment projects. Any member of The College of Wooster community planning to conduct research using human participants (this includes student projects such as Independent Study and other research projects involving human participants.). Information about how to apply can be found at https://inside.wooster.edu/hsrc/
IACUC Statement
The College of Wooster’s Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) is a federally mandated committee that oversees the college’s animal programs, facilities and procedures to ensure the appropriate care, use, and humane treatments of animals being used for research, testing and education. The IACUC serves as a resource to faculty, students, and staff, providing guidance in meeting applicable guidelines for animal care and use.
All college students and personnel participating in animal research should complete IACUC training, and all research protocols involving the use of vertebrate animals must be reviewed and approved (or classified as exempt) by the committee before they can be implemented. Information about how to apply can be found at htts://inside.wooster.edu/iacuc/