Research Courses

 

All research courses are restricted to the Biology majors

Biology 395/396 – Undergraduate Research in Biology

Prerequisites: BIOL 201 or 202. GPA of 3.0 or better.

Counts as: Experiential Education credit. 3-5 credit hours of research may be counted as one lecture course toward fulfillment of major requirements; 6 credit hours may be counted as one lecture course with laboratory toward fulfillment of major requirements.

The purpose of Biology 395 is to provide students with research experience while working on a question of current biological interest. Students will learn how science is practiced in a particular area of scientific endeavor, and will also make new discoveries.  Dr Gidi Shemer (bishemer@email.unc.edu) is the director of the 395/396 program.  He reviews all research applications and makes the final approval.  Research is done under the supervision of a faculty member in the Department of Biology or in another department on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus (for example in a medical school department or some other department that does biological research). Students may enroll for 1-3 credit hours of Biology 395 in any one semester. Each credit hour represents 3-4 hours of research per week, on average, during the Fall or Spring semester, so that students enrolled for 3 credit hours should spend 10-12 hours or more on the research per week.  During one summer school semester, 1 credit hour is equal to 45 hours of research, 2 credits = 90 hours of research and 3 credits = 135 hours of research.  Normally, students should take Biology 395 for 3 credit hours.  Requests to register for 1-2 hours requires permission of the Biology advisor, and will granted only for special circumstances.

Students must identify a faculty member in the Department of Biology or in another department on the UNC-CH campus who has agreed to supervise the student’s research. If that person is outside the Department of Biology, the research must address a biological question, and a faculty sponsor from within the department must agree to monitor the student’s research experience. This is done by meeting with the student once per month during the course of the research to discuss the project and the student’s progress. Your sponsor can be a Biology faculty member you have taken a class from or who has some knowledge of the area your research will be about. It is advisable to secure these supervisors well in advance.

An enrollment form is required and it is available oneline or from our Biology Undergraduate Student Services Specialist, Summer Montgomery (sundance@email.unc.edu) in the Student Services office (213 Coker Hall).  This form should be turned in before the beginning of the semester. The form requires signatures of the research supervisor and Biology Department sponsor (if applicable), and a short description of the planned research project. Students whose GPA does not qualify them for Biology 395 may enroll in Biology 295 (see below). After your research has been approved by Dr Shemer, Summer will register you.

395 may be taken for no more than six graded academic credits. Additional semesters of research are taken as Biol 396, which is taken pass/D/fail. Additional hours of research course credit will be counted as elective hours toward graduation.

Biology 395 Course Evaluation

The grade for Biology 395 is assigned by the Biology department advisor (or sponsor, in consultation with the advisor, if the advisor is outside the department). Students participating in Biology research courses will be held to a standard as high as, if not higher than, the norm for any other graded course. The grade will be based on three aspects of a student’s performance:

(a) Fulfillment of required hours in the laboratory. Students are expected to spend on average 3-4 hours per week for each credit hour enrolled. Failure to complete the expected number of hours will reduce the grade.

(b) Performance in the laboratory context. Biology research courses are meant to promote student creativity and initiative even in projects that are already well-defined. At a minimum, students should seek to confirm their understanding of the project through discussions and readings, and should learn how to troubleshoot basic problems.

(c) Written report. Students must write a paper describing their research and submit this to Summer Montgomery, Undergraduate Student Services Specialist (sundance@email.unc.edu) in 213 Coker Hall.  These papers are due:  Fall semester on the last day of classes and in the Spring semester the Friday before the last day of classes. The final grade will not be given until the signed final paper is turned in.  The paper should be in the format of a scientific paper, and should contain the following sections: i) an Introduction that describes the rationale for the research and the biological question it addresses; ii) a Methods section describing how the experiments were done; iii) a Results section showing any data obtained; and iv) a Discussion explaining what (if any) conclusions were reached from the experiments. Appropriate literature should be cited. For students who are taking this course to count towards their experiential learning requirement, the paper should be at least 10 double-spaced pages long. This paper must be reviewed and approved by the research supervisor and, if applicable, the faculty sponsor from the Department of Biology.

Students who fail to complete the written report will be given an IN grade for the semester.

 

Biology 295 – Undergraduate Research in Biology

Prerequisites: BIOL 201 or 202. permission of the instructor (Dr. Jennifer Coble).

Counts as: Experiential Education credit, but NOT credit towards the major.

This course can only be taken once.

Dr Jennifer Coble (jcoble@bio.unc.edu) oversees all students and assigns the final grades.  There will be 3-4 mandatory class meetings during the semester.

The course requires that you spend 135 hours doing research in a lab or field work setting during the semester and that you write a 10 page paper on either your research experience or on a scientific topic related to your research.

It is the student’s responsibility to find a research lab in which they can do the research required for the course. This may be in the Department of Biology or elsewhere in the University as long as the topic of the research is appropriate for Biology course credit. Research carried out in a location other than UNC is not appropriate for this course and students wishing to do this should register for Biology 293 instead. A Biology 295 enrollment form is available online or from the departmental Undergraduate Student Services Specialist, Summer Montgomery (sundance@.email.unc.edu) in the Student Services office (213 Coker Hall), and should be turned in before the beginning of the semester. The form requires the signature of the research supervisor, and a short description of the planned research project. After you have returned the completed form to Summer in  213 Coker, she will register you.

 

Biology 293 – Internship in Biology

Prerequisites: BIOL 201 or 202. permission of the instructor (Dr. Jennifer Coble).

Counts as: Experiential Education credit, but NOT credit towards the major.

This course can only be taken once.

Dr Jennifer Coble (jcoble@bio.unc.edu) oversees all students and assigns the final grades.

The purpose of Biology 293 is to allow students to obtain experience in biological sciences resulting from off campus work. The experience in Biology can be in a research laboratory or field station or a company such as a pharmaceutical company which carries out biological research, or it can be in an educational setting such as a museum or national or state park or forest where the emphasis would be on how to communicate information about biology to the public or to students.  If appropriate, the student can be paid for the work.  Students must identify a place in which to carry out the internship get permission for Dr. Coble in advance (by early November for the spring semester and by early April for the summer or fall semester).  In general, the project should involve hands-on work by the student and not simply observation of someone else doing the work.   The student will need to spend at least 135 hours on the project. At the end of the project the student will write a 10 page paper describing the work on the project in a format to be determined by the sponsor and the course director.   The paper will be approved by the sponsor and the course director. The course grade will be determined by the course director.

 

Biology 691H/692H – Senior Honors Thesis

Prerequisites: BIOL 395, and permission of the instructor (Dr. Jeff Sekelsky).  Overall GPA at the start of the final semester: 3.3 or better. Biology GPA (not including allied sciences and 395): 3.4

Senior majors only.

A course designated and required for Biology students that are candidates for honors or highest honors. In the final semester, candidates for Honors must enroll in Biology 691 or 692. This class meets weekly and provides a series of exercises designed to aid students in preparing their research for evaluation, focused on four general professional skills: (a) explaining research to different audiences, (b) design of graphical aids, (c) effective writing, and (d) giving a research presentation. Students receive a grade for their work in the course that is separate from their honors grade. For more details, please follow the Biology Honors program link

 

Biology 211 – Introduction to Research in Biology

Prerequisites: BIOL 201 or 202. Permission of the instructor for students lacking the prerequisite.

Counts as: 211 + 1 semester of 395 = A biology elective with lab. Students with BIOL 211 credit may take a maximum of three hours of BIOL 395.

Not open to seniors

Seminar based on current investigations at UNC. Students examine sources of scientific information, explore the logic of investigation, and develop proposals.