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Summer Honors College
The Bing Honors College runs the first two weeks of September
Bing Honors College is offered by the Department of Biology and the Program in Human Biology and is a two-week program designed to support students who are actively engaged in Honors thesis work. In BHC, each student commits to making meaningful progress on his or her thesis, and to joining other students in creating a serious and supportive intellectual community.
Apply for the BHC by second week of May.
Bing Honors College Benefits and Requirements
BHC in Bio/HumBio has four major goals:
- to provide an opportunity for the student to make progress on his or her honors thesis, unfettered by other demands and with the mentorship of Honors College faculty.
- to create a sense of community among Biology and Human Biology Honors program students.
- to help students learn and practice skills in written and oral communication of thesis research to a multidisciplinary audience.
- to deepen students’ understanding of the nature of research in Biology and Human Biology.
These goals are supported by a variety of activities led by Bio/HumBio Honors College faculty mentors or by the broader Bing Honors College faculty.
- Students receive free room and board for the duration of BHC in campus housing along with thesis students from other departments, where they will share meals and some BHC-wide programming.
- Participants will meet with their research mentors and Honors College faculty to set concrete goals for their time in Honors College and beyond.
- All Bio/HumBio Honors College students will present a poster, make progress on their literature review, and create a calendar for completing thesis work.
- According to their needs, students will commit to completing additional tasks during BHC, such as finishing the literature review, designing survey instruments, completing data collection, or learning to analyze data;
- Most days, BHC participants will attend group meetings where they will learn useful approaches to thesis writing, discuss key issues in research methodology, gather tips on poster design, and hone their skills in literature search tools (such as PubMed) and reference management software (e.g. Zotero, EndNote, and RefWorks)
- BHC participants will design and present a poster that describes their thesis work to date. They will receive design tips, technical guidance, and peer-critique before the final presentation in a mutually supportive setting.
- As students learn about each other & research, they will observe a range of research methodologies that reflect the diversity of projects possible within the Biology and Hum Bio Honors Programs.
BHC participants may not have scheduling conflicts (such as RA or PHE training) that would cause them to miss any weekdays during the program.