What Are the Expectations of Students (Syllabus)?

BCH/CHM 392 - Introduction to Research Techniques Fall 2024

Instructor: Your mutually agreed upon research advisor

SMS Administrator: Prof. Chad Borges
Email: chad.borges@asu.edu
 

Class Meetings: 
There are no official class meetings. Meet with your research advisor as needed.

Course Description:
Introduction to Research Techniques is a course designed to give credit to chemistry and biochemistry majors who are conducting undergraduate research in the laboratory of faculty members of the School of Molecular Sciences or chemistry- or biochemistry-related undergraduate research with faculty members of other departments.

Students conducting chemistry- or biochemistry-related undergraduate research with faculty members of other departments (e.g. School of Life Sciences) can enroll in the class with PRIOR authorization of the instructor. These students MUST include in the web-based authorization page a short description of the research project in which they will be participating. Approval to enroll in this class will ONLY be granted after the student has provided the required information and the research advisor has approved the request for enrollment in this class.

Credit Hours and Time Commitments: 
Students have the option to enroll in this class during the fall and spring semester session for one or three credit hours. Students are required to dedicate a minimum of three hours per week per credit hour, as indicated below:

• 1 credit = minimum of 45 hours in the lab for the semester
• 2 credits = minimum of 90 hours in the lab for the semester
• 3 credits = minimum of 135 hours in the lab for the semester

Research advisors have the right to increase the minimum hours that a student must dedicate to undergraduate research per research hour. Faculty members have been asked to take into consideration the time that a student spends in the laboratory when determining the final grade. Failure to comply with the minimum time requirements could serve as the basis to grant a lower grade.

Grade rubric

Honors Contracts: 
Honors contracts are NOT available for this class. Honors College students are able to obtain honors credit for their participation in undergraduate research while working on their honors thesis through our two Honors Thesis courses: BCH/CHM 492 (Honors Directed Study) and BCH/CHM 493 (Honors Thesis) courses (see adjacent tab). These courses are usually taken during the senior year.

Grading:
Your final grade will be determined based on the grade recommendation from your research advisor and completion of final report. Students are required to turn in a final report no later than December 6, 2024 (last day of classes). If a student fails to turn in the final report, an Incomplete grade (I) will be assigned until this requirement has been fulfilled. If a student completes the final report, the grade that the faculty advisor assigns will be awarded. Research advisors are required to provide the final grade through our web-based system by December 16, 2024. If a professor does not provide a final grade for a student by this date, an Incomplete grade (I) will be assigned until a grade is provided by the professor.

Grading Rubric:

Final Reports:

A final report is required no later than December 6, 2024. The options for the format of the final report are described below. Each student must choose one format option and follow all requirements listed for that option. Students will not earn a grade in the course until their report is uploaded and approved by their advisor. As such it is imperative that students start working on their final report well before the due date to allow time for this process. The quality of the final report is an important factor in determining the final grade for the course (see Grading Rubric link above).

Final Report Format Options:

All BCH/CHM 392 students will be required to turn in a Final Report. Report format options are as follows:

Option #1 – Written Report: A written report should be 5-6 pages in length with single or 1.5 line spacing. It should include an abstract, an introduction, a short list of the specific research goals, a short description of the results indicating the techniques used to obtain these results, a short discussion/conclusion, and a final statement indicating the future plans for the project. Pertinent references should be included. Once submitted, the student’s advisor will be sent an automatic email prompting them to review the submission and submit a grade for the course.

Option #2 – Slide Deck of a Presentation Given by the Student: This option includes a PowerPoint or similarly formatted slide deck of a live presentation given by the student at a conference, symposium or local research group meeting. The presentation should have been approximately 20-45 minutes in length. It must have already been presented to a live audience of peers and/or scientists, including the student’s research advisor. Once submitted, the student’s advisor will be sent an automatic email prompting them to review the submission and submit a grade for the course.

Option #3 – Link to a Recorded Live Video Presentation to an Audience: This is a link (URL) to a recorded live video presentation of the student’s research given in a seminar-like format. The video should be anywhere from 20-45 minutes in length. It must have already been presented in front of a live audience of peers and/or scientists, including the student’s faculty advisor. The video must include at least screencast plus audio, but may include the speaker on camera as well. Recordings over Zoom are acceptable if given to a live audience. Solo recordings that do not involve a live audience are not acceptable. SMS does not host videos. So if this option is selected, the video must be hosted by YouTube, Google Drive or another third party hosting service. Students must ensure that the video is publicly accessible or at least assessible to users logged in within the asu.edu domain. Direct links to temporarily hosted Zoom videos that are hosted by Zoom and have automatic expiration dates are not acceptable.

Once submitted, the student’s advisor will be sent an automatic email prompting them to review the submission and submit a grade for the course.

Option #4 – A Poster Presented at a Meeting, Conference or Symposium: This is an electronic copy of a poster presenting the student’s research that was conducted over the course of the semester. The meeting, conference or symposium can be local to ASU, but the poster must have already been presented to a live audience of peers and/or scientists before the submission deadline. Once submitted, the student’s advisor will be sent an automatic email prompting them to review the submission and submit a grade for the course.
 

Please use your ASU Gmail account when accessing the form
Upload Report 

BCH/CHM 492 – Honors Directed Study

BCH/CHM 493 – Honors Thesis

Instructor: Your mutually agreed upon research advisor

SMS Administrator: Prof. Chad Borges
Email: chad.borges@asu.edu

Class Meetings: There are no official class meetings. Meet with your research advisor as needed.

Course Guidelines – Please download and read this important PDF document!

Course Description: 
Barrett students are required to complete an Honors Thesis/Creative Project. SMS students should enroll for 3 credits of CHM/BCH492 (Honors Thesis Research) in the semester before they plan to defend their thesis. In the following semester, they should take CHM/BCH 493 (Honors Thesis) for their thesis defense. Note that the 493 course is not repeatable for credit. Please submit your Thesis Prospectus to Prof. Borges when you register for 492 to ensure that your thesis topic is appropriate for SMS and that your committee is properly constituted (see details below).

It is expected that in most cases a student will have started their research project before taking CHM/BCH 492. Students can take research for credit as CHM/BCH 392 in that case. Remember that students taking research for credit will be expected to spend at least 3 hours per week in the lab on average for each credit hour received. Most people will take research for 3 credits each semester and work at least 9 hours (on average) per week on their project.

Students may choose any area of interest to complete their project. For credit in CHM/BCH 492/493, the student must (1) be a chemistry or biochemistry major, and (2) be engaged in a thesis project with substantial (bio)chemistry content. It is not necessary that the project be undertaken in the laboratory of an SMS faculty member. (Majors doing research in other areas can always get credit in HON 492/493.) All chemistry and biochemistry students are encouraged to consider the opportunities within SMS and elsewhere at ASU, as well as in the Phoenix area or at other research institutions.

Tips for undertaking research in chemistry/ biochemistry at ASU can be found at: https://sms.asu.edu/student-life/undergraduate-experience/undergrad-research-opportunities. The American Chemical Society provides exceptional guidance for the advantages and challenges of undergraduate research in chemistry as well as tips for selecting a supervisor on their website. There are books on the topic as well. (Getting In by Oppenheimer and Grey is an excellent book published in 2015 and available on Amazon in softcover.)

Guidelines for Thesis Committee Membership: The Director must be an ASU faculty member (per Barrett’s rules) and preferably a member of SMS. Although Barrett specifies a minimum of 2 thesis committee members, SMS requires all majors to have 3 members on their committee. The Director and Second Committee Member are required to be ASU tenure-track faculty. At least one member of the committee must be a faculty member of SMS. The Third Committee Member must have a PhD and does not have to be a faculty member but cannot be a subordinate of either of the other two members (e.g. postdoctoral fellow or research professor in the same research group). For a student doing research with a mentor who is not an ASU faculty member (e.g. at TGen, Barrow, VA Hospital), the research mentor would have to be the Third Committee Member and the student would have to recruit from among the ASU faculty (preferably in SMS) a Director who is nominally in charge of the thesis.

Grading:
BCH/CHM 492 students who perform satisfactorily automatically receive a grade of “Z” for the semester. Once they have completed  BCH/CHM 493 and a grade is assigned by the research advisor, both courses are given the same final grade.

BCH/CHM 493 students must submit a thesis and complete an oral defense of that thesis. Final grades are assigned by the research advisor.

Grading Rubric