Honors Program Senior Projects

What is the Senior Honors Project?

The Honors Senior Project is meant to be an "Honors-appropriate" representation of upper-level work in the student's major field of study. The culminating project already required in the student's department may be used for this purpose (as long as it is "Honors-appropriate," as defined below).

What does "Honors-appropriate" mean?

We recognize that disciplines vary widely in the range of projects appropriate to expect from undergraduates--even Honors Program students. For this reason, "Honors-appropriate" is largely to be defined by the student's own department, with the student's project advisor taking the lead in this definition.

While we are not outlining length or number of sources or other across-the-board criteria, use the following to assist you in the process of thinking about an "Honors-appropriate" senior project in your field. The project should:

Reflect excellence in advanced undergraduate work in your discipline.

Provide suitable preparation for graduate or post-undergraduate work in your field.

Demonstrate the student's graduate or professional potential in your field.

Represent work that might be presented or performed at an undergraduate conference in your field.

Requirements common to all Honors Program Senior Projects:

A committee of three (the student's project advisor, another Bethel faculty member chosen by the student in consultation with the advisor, and a reader from outside of Bethel--again chosen by the student in consultation with the advisor) must agree that the student's project represents "Honors-appropriate" work in the discipline. The student will meet with these three readers (face-to-face, or via conference call if necessary) in a short "defense" of his or her project.

Each student will make a ten-minute presentation of her or his project at an Honors Forum in late April or early May. In this presentation, the student must be able to make the project clear to a broader audience than might normally occur for non-Honors students in the same field.

A bit more about the outside reader:

Read a finished draft of the student's project (made available at least a week before the student's "defense")

Attend (in-person or via telephone) a meeting consisting of the student and her or his three readers. At this meeting, the readers will approve the student's project or direct the project advisor to supervise revisions.

We are able to pay outside readers $75 for their assistance.

A bit more about the project defense:

In general, think of this as a conversation about the student's project--a conversation consisting of the student and her or his three readers. In this conversation, the following should occur:

The student should be prepared to talk about and answer questions regarding the project.

The readers should participate in this conversation, asking questions and offering ideas for strengthening the project and/or continuing the research.

The three readers will either declare the project complete and accepted, or they will make clear and put in writing the revisions required--revisions which the project advisor will supervise and the student will complete no later than ten days before commencement.

The signed project completion form and a clean copy of the student's project must be submitted to the Director of the Honors Program no later than ten days before commencement.

A bit more about the ten-minute Honors Forum presentation:

Your main task here is to consider the needs, interests, and knowledge levels of a diverse group of faculty and fellow Honors Program students. Some suggestions:

In preparing your presentation, be sure to spend some time talking with people outside of your major so that you can develop an accurate sense of terms you'll need to define and background knowledge you can assume. (This will be particularly important for those of you completing projects in fields such as math or science where specialized terms and fundamental concepts are less accessible to people in other fields of study.)

Appropriate visual aids (e.g., overheads, video clip, and slides) help your audience see as well as hear your project, keeping our interest and focusing our attention on your main points.

Plan to talk to us for about ten minutes and then be prepared to entertain about five minutes of questions.

Senior Project Timeline:
I'll send out periodic reminders along with the relevant forms during the 2002-03 school year to help you keep on track with this schedule.

Late-September: Project proposal due. At this point, you'll simply need to indicate your project advisor and give a general sense of the nature of your project (in a paragraph or so). The proposal form also asks you to attach a description of the culminating project requirements already in place for all seniors graduating with your major so the Honors Program Committee can help you determine what an "Honors-appropriate" version of such a requirement might look like.

Mid-February: Indicate who your three readers will be. Remember that one must be an appropriate person from outside of Bethel, chosen in conjunction with your project advisor.

Sometime in March: Plan to schedule your project defense with your three readers.

Mid-April: Draft to your project advisor.

Late April-early May: Polished draft to your three readers at least one week before your scheduled defense date.

Early May: Ten-minute oral presentation to the Honors Program.

Last day of class: Signed reader form & final copy of your project due.

Note: If you plan to complete your project in time for December graduation, you should contact Marion Larson so we can discuss an appropriate schedule.