Course Description
Fall Term (as 11:126:497) and Spring Term and Summer (as 11:126:498).
Format
The student carries out an independent research project under the supervision of the research advisor. A minimum of 3 hrs/wk in the laboratory per credit over a 14 week semester is expected. A final report similar to a scientific paper is required. Research director must submit a suggested grade and assessment to the Biotechnology program director.
Description
The student, under the guidance of a faculty member, carries out a research project. Most often, a faculty member may engage the student in some aspect of a research project that the faculty member is pursuing. However, the student may also identify her/his own project in consultation with the research advisor.
Learning Goals
Upon completing the course, the student will have –
- Gained background knowledge of the field of the project and the specific problem(s) to be addressed using the public literature and coursework and appropriately summarized it.
- Appropriately stated the hypothesis or hypotheses to be tested and explained the experiments devised to test it.
- Gained proficiency in the laboratory techniques and scientific approaches used in biotechnology to address the specific hypothesis (es) at hand.
- Appropriately documented (e.g. notebook) and analyzed data.
- Learned to interpret data and draw appropriate conclusions and future possible directions of the work.
Assessment Measures
1. Assessment Rubric:
At the end of the project the mentor (research advisor) will complete and send the assessment form to the program director
| Rubrics | Ranking Scale | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Unsatisfactory | 2 Satisfactory | 3 Good | 4 Outstanding | |
| Learning Goal 1: Knowledge of the field –factual and conceptual | ||||
| Learning Goal 2: Statement and Justification of hypothesis | ||||
| Learning Goal 3: Laboratory techniques proficiency | ||||
| Learning Goal 4: Analysis, presentation And interpretation of data | ||||
| Learning Goal 5: Drawing appropriate conclusions and identifying and interpreting implications. | ||||
2. Student report
Students are required to submit a final report to the advisor for assessment to the course management (Canvas) page. The report should in general be in the format of a scientific research paper (introduction and background, statement of problem or hypothesis, description of methods used, report of data and results, and discussion and conclusions) in the range of 4-6 pages total not including the required graphs, figures and citations. More detail will be given on the course Canvas page.
Grading
The research advisor is responsible for grading the student and reporting the suggested grade to the Curriculum Coordinator using the rubric above as an assessment report. The grade reflects overall performance in the laboratory, including the final report.
At the end of the project the mentor (research advisor) will complete and send the assessment form to the program director