Mentor Information
Here are some commonly asked questions regarding mentoring 486 students. I'll provide you with my best answers. If you have any other questions, please contact me at Susan.Raylman@wvu.edu.
What is expected from me when I mentor a Biology 486 student?
What are the requirements for a 486 proposal/thesis?
Shall I treat my 486 student as I would one of my graduate students?
How can students schedule their defense?
Where are defenses held and how are they reserved?
What happens during the thesis/proposal defense?
What happens after the thesis/proposal defense?
Are the theses also submitted online?
Can I invite other people to my 486 students defense?
What is expected from me when I mentor a Biology 486 student?
During the first semester, you will
- help your student find someone to serve as the third committee member. You and the 486 coordinator (Sue Raylman), will serve as the other two members. There can be an additional member if you choose;
- meet with your student every week or at least be in email contact each week to monitor their progress;
- help your student determine the scope of their research. Steer them to relevant literature. What will they specifically be investigating? Some mentors have ideas for student projects, others let their student discover their research question(s). Remember that the student is an undergraduate and so will require more direction than a graduate student;
- help your student become acquainted with the methodology for their research project. This can be done with the aid of graduate students, post-docs;
- push your student to provide a draft of their proposal early enough in the semester so that you can read it, provide feedback, have them revise it, and so on. Make a plan and schedule deadlines for when they should give you sections of their proposal so that a final draft is completed in time to provide to the committee. They send their completed final draft to their committee at least two days before their defense. I will provide the deadline for proposals in an email near the beginning of the semester. Students also have access to 486 deadlines on eCampus. Note that your student will likely not be defending right on the day of the deadline, since there are other 486 proposals scheduled each semester. Only a few can be scheduled on the last day;
- respond in a timely manner to attempts by your student to schedule their defense;
- it is encouraged that you give some guidance to your student to make sure they understand the visual aspect of powerpoint presentations (i.e. slides should have more than just text);
- come to the defense and ask any relevant questions;
- provide a grade to me that describes the performance of your student that semester (provide during finals week)
During the second semester, you will
- continue to regularly meet with your student and monitor their progress as they collect data;
- provide a grade to me that describes the performance of your student that semester (provide during finals week)
During the third semester, you will
- continue to regularly meet with your student and monitor their progress as they collect data;
- work with your student to make a plan for when they should stop collecting data and focus on their writing. The stopping point should generally be around the middle of the semester;
- make a plan for when they should provide you with drafts for various sections of their thesis. They send their final draft to their committee at least four days before their thesis defense. I will provide the deadline for theses in an email near the beginning of the semester.
- respond in a timely manner to attempts by your student to schedule their defense;
- come to the defense and ask any relevant questions;
- provide a grade to me that describes the performance of your student that semester (provide during finals week)
What are the requirements for a 486 proposal/thesis?
A guideline for the page requirements, formatting and such is available at this link. Proposals are not expected to be written in the form of grant proposals, although you can determine the overall format. The introduction section should contain all the relevant background information. It is recommended that information in the introduction be organized with headings. Hypotheses should be clearly stated. Methods section should be as detailed as you would find in typical research papers. Although the total number of articles cited varies, the average proposal should have at least 12 cited articles and an average thesis somewhat more than that. You can choose what specific type of formatting you would like your student to follow (i.e. whether using numbers when citing, specific citation format, etc.)
Shall I treat my 486 student as I would one of my graduate students?
Since 486 students are undergraduates, they will generally need more guidance than graduate students, especially in their first semester. Depending on their ability, they may require a lot of assistance with scientific writing. The overall experience of Biology 486 is somewhat like a "mini-masters" but with additional guidance, especially at the beginning.
My student is not coming to meetings or not completing the work that is expected of them. What should I do?
Warn them that their performance throughout the semester will reflect in their grade. A grades must be earned. Contact me, Sue Raylman, if you continue to have issues.
How can students schedule their defense?
I encourage the students to use doodle.com or when2meet.com for scheduling their defenses. If they do, you will receive an email from one of these sites asking you to participate in a poll. You can select the dates and times when you are available. Other committee members will also participate so that a time that is suitable for all can be found. The 486 student will view the results of the poll and inform the committee of the best date and time. If you wish to have the defense in a building other than the Life Sciences building, inform me and please reserve a room for that time.
Where are defenses held and how are they reserved?
The defenses for students mentored by biology faculty are held in the Life Sciences building, typically in the chair's conference room or 4001/5001. The 486 coordinator can reserve the defense location. The defenses for students mentored by non-biology faculty can be held either in the Life Sciences building (and I will reserve a room), or held in another building (the mentor's location). If the defense is held outside of the Life Sciences building, the mentor is responsible for finding a location and reserving the room.
What happens during the thesis/proposal defense?
The student will give a 15-20 minute presentation using powerpoint. It is best if they can give their presentation without reading from note cards. After the presentation the committee will ask the student relevant questions. The quality of the writing can also be discussed. Afterwards, the committee can confer without the student present. Plan to have a hour of time devoted to a proposal or thesis defense.
What happens after the thesis/proposal defense?
Any revisions that the committee requires are submitted to the student. In cases where the proposal needs a good deal of work, another revision will be required of the student in the beginning of the next semester. For theses, any revisions would need to be completed by the end of finals week. The research mentor will also provide a grade to me by finals week.
Are the theses also submitted online?
For those students that are in the honor's college and following the Presidential honors track, their 486 thesis can be submitted as their honor's thesis and the submission is online. Note that the thesis would then be available to view online by anyone. If the thesis contains information that you would rather not be available online, you can ask the honor's college to delay their posting of the thesis. Contact the honor's college for more information.
Can I invite other people to my 486 students defense?
You may do this. Sometimes other lab members are invited (grad students, postdocs, etc). Sometimes the department is notified of the defense and other departmental faculty attend. You would be responsible for inviting others if you wish it. It depends on what you and your student are comfortable with.
My 486 student has issues collecting data (problems with methodology, weather, tissue provision, subjects all died, etc.)
Contact me or have your student contact me. Depending on when in the process of the 486 project these issues occur, it is possible for a student to change their methods, or switch to a different project with more reliable methodology. If the project completely changes, the student may need to write an update to their proposal. If the project remains promising but needs more time, it is possible for a student to register for a fourth semester. This option is provided when there are unforeseen circumstances and the student is otherwise performing to your expectations. This option is not provided when the student is simply not doing the work they should be doing and needs more time.
I have a 386 student who would like to continue their research as a 486 project. Would they need to register for three semesters of 486 to complete the capstone?
Biology students can fulfill the capstone requirement with one semester of 386
and two subsequent semesters of 486.