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Honors Tutorials

Research education requires learning opportunities that go beyond the classroom. The honors tutorials are designed to introduce students in the SEBS General (four-year) Honors Program to scholarly research or other experiential professional activities. Students graduating from the program are expected to have completed a minimum eleven credits of independent or experiential work, usually over the sophomore through senior years.

The requirement of 11 credits of research is primarily meant to ensure that our students have advanced practical experiences in the research of their field.

The research Tutorials are numbered to provide academic clarity for student progress. In addition, many of our students choose to complete an optional senior honors thesis as a George H. Cook Honors Scholar. For those pursuing that option, the honors thesis can count as a maximum of 6 credits out of the require 11 research credits.

The following classes count for SEBS Honors research credits:
  •  11:554:297 HONORS TUTORIAL I 1 credit
  •  11:554:298 HONORS TUTORIAL II 1 credit
  •  11:554:397 HONORS TUTORIAL III Credits by arrangement
  •  11:554:398 HONORS TUTORIAL IV Credits by arrangement
  •  11:554:497 HONORS TUTORIAL V Credits by arrangement
  •  11:554:498 HONORS TUTORIAL VI Credits by arrangement
  •  11:554:301 ARESTY RESEARCH ASSISTANTSHIP Credits by arrangement
  •  11:554:487 GH COOK HONORS PROG Credits by arrangement

In addition, the program will accept departmental independent research credits that are granted through departments (independent Research in _(Major)__)

In order to qualify, a research tutorial experience needs the following:

    1. To identify a qualified advisor willing to supervise the research tutorial,

    2. To identify an experience in which the student is directly exposed to actively conducted research for 45 hours per credit or pre-approved learning experience that is needed for building a specific research skill

    3. To file a tutorial research agreement with the program BEFORE the experience begins,

    4. To submit a summary of the learning experience

    5. Advisor submits a letter grade as acknowledgement of completion

Tutorial Advisors While the majority of tutorials are supervised by an SEBS faculty member, other researchers and qualified professionals can be approved by the Honors Program Director.

Tutorial Content Each honors research tutorial needs to clearly build research experience. Simple work in a research laboratory can expose a student to lab culture and prepare them for more advanced work. For the purposes of honors tutorials, research experiences include scholarship and creative work for fields in which those are appropriate. But a professional internship would not fulfill the expectations unless it includes a research or scholarship component.

Renumeration  Research is work. The program does not prohibit students from taking research opportunities for which the student is paid. However, students should be aware that the majority of opportunities for learning about research will be unpaid.     

Honors Tutorials I and II

The 1-credit tutorials for sophomores can clearly serve only as an introduction to the student's field of interest and should require no more than 45 hours of work on the student's part (three hours/week) over the course of the semester. Since this is likely the student's first experience with "independent study" – not to mention the "culture" of a laboratory or the procedures for professional work in this field –, clear direction and expectations from the Tutorial Advisor need to be specified in the Tutorial Agreement, submitted at the outset of the term.

Sophomores may elect to "double-up" on Tutorials I and II, completing two credits in the same term given the demands of their fall or spring course loads. Independent or experiential work undertaken in the summer may be credited for Tutorials I and/or II in the fall, provided that no other academic credit has been granted for the work.

At the conclusion of the tutorial, students must complete a short paper, describing the work and what they learned from it. A copy should be submitted to the Tutorial Advisor and the Honors Program Director by the end of the semester.

Honors Tutorials III and IV

Juniors must complete at least three credits of honors tutorial during the academic year, @ 0-3 credits/semester, depending on the demands of the student's other courses. Unless the student has changed fields completely, a bit more experience, initiative and "independence" on the student's part should be expected. A student may choose to take Honors Tutorial IV for additional credits in the spring semester.

Juniors may also substitute independent or experiential work required of their major or minor program in lieu of tutorials: e.g., design projects in landscape architecture or engineering, "Outreach" in biology, classroom observation in teacher education, participation in university-wide internships, etc. A short paper describing their work and what they learned must still be submitted to the Honors Program Director, even if it is not required by the course/project for which they are registered.

Independent or experiential work undertaken in the summer may be credited for Tutorial III in the fall, provided that no other academic credit has been granted for the work.

At the conclusion of the tutorial, students must complete a short paper, describing the work and what they learned from it. A copy should be submitted to the Tutorial Advisor and the Honors Program Director by the end of the semester.

Seniors beginning two-term senior honors thesis (The George H. Cook Scholars Program) will register for G. H. Cook research in lieu of the honors tutorials.

Honors Tutorials V and VI

Senior-year tutorials (3-6 credits/semester) are taken only by students who, for a variety of reasons, have opted not to undertake The George H. Cook Scholars (senior honors thesis) Program. The Tutorial Advisor should, however, expect the same level of initiative and independence as an honors thesis candidate, but no actual "thesis," "defense" or "committee" is required: Tutorials V and VI are simply independent study projects developed by the student. An exception to this might be the students using Tutorial V or VI to change entirely the direction their post-graduate work, and thus seek an opportunity for independent study or experience-based education in a relatively unfamiliar field. As with the sophomores, clear direction and expectations should be specified in the Tutorial Agreement; however, more in the way of maturity and independence should be anticipated by the Tutorial Advisor.

Again, independent projects or internships contributing to the student's major/minor program may be substituted for Tutorials V and VI. And, a paper describing their project(s) and what they learned from it (them) must be submitted to the Honors Program Director, even if not required by the substituted project.