An honor’s project in this course requires the successful completion of work in three areas:

(1) Research
You will perform research on a topic of your choosing. Once you have chosen a general topic, I will guide you in developing a research question that can be answered within the parameters set by the SCC Honor’s Program. The research question should be fully developed within three weeks after the start of the course. Please meet with me by Thursday, February 7th, to finalize your research question. At this point, you will begin to gather references, which will consist of articles from professional science journals and/or scholarly books related to your research question. You will need to collect information from five to ten sources — sources that allow you to answer your research question. I will guide you in finding references by teaching you how to look for reliable sources of information. I also probably will suggest 1-2 specific references to help you get started. In addition to reference materials, you may choose to include empirical data that you have collected yourself. The more empirical data that you collect, the fewer references that will be required. I will provide guidance on how best to collect these empirical data after we have honed your research question.

(2) Written Document
Based on your research, you will write a 10-15 page paper (typed, double-spaced, MLA or APA style) that attempts to answer to your research question. You may find that your research raises other questions you hadn't considered. That is expected. These new questions should be included in the conclusion of your paper.The paper will include an Introduction, in which you describe background information on the research question obtained from your references. It also will include a Conclusion, in which you summarize your main findings and interpret these in answering your research question. In other words, the conclusion should take the form of an argument, where you provide the evidence and reasons for the answer(s) you give to the research question. You will hand in a rough draft of the paper by Thursday, April 13th. By Tuesday, April 18th, I will provide written feedback and make suggestions meant to guide you towards completion of your paper.The paper will be due on Tuesday, May 2nd. It will be returned on the final examination date for your section:

• May 9th for 10:30-11:45 AM section
• May 11th for 9:00-10:15 AM section

(3) Oral Presentation
On May 2nd, you will give an in-class presentation to your peers and (I hope) several faculty members. Your formal presentation should last no more than 10 minutes (and it would be good to include Powerpoint slides). In addition to the formal presentation, the students and faculty will be encouraged to ask questions about your research and the evidence for your conclusions. I will ask the faculty present to provide me with their evaluations of your presentation, and I will consider these when assigning a grade.The three components of your Honor’s project will make up 20% of your course grade and will consist of 100 points divided in the following way:

• The references will be worth 20 points.The paper will be worth 60 points.
• The presentation will be worth 20 points.

The project should require no more than 20 hours of research and writing during the semester (excluding travel time to and from libraries, and other similar nonresearch and nonwriting activities). I will be available at all times to help you complete the project successfully. But I definitely want to meet with you to discuss your progress on the following dates:

• Thursday, March 2nd
• Thursday, April 6th

Of course, I will make time to meet with you whenever you have questions, concerns, or need direction.