{"id":576,"date":"2015-09-26T10:45:02","date_gmt":"2015-09-26T15:45:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/chemistry\/?page_id=576"},"modified":"2025-02-11T11:03:31","modified_gmt":"2025-02-11T17:03:31","slug":"experiential-learning-activitiesprojects","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/chemistry\/information-for-current-chemistry-majors\/earning-distinction-in-chemistry\/experiential-learning-activitiesprojects\/","title":{"rendered":"Experiential Learning Activities\/Projects"},"content":{"rendered":"

Experiential learning activities may take many forms.\u00a0 Some options include:<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0\u00a0 Chemistry 297, Independent Study
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0 Chemistry 298, Independent Research
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0 Chemistry 394, Academic Internship
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0 Chemistry 396, Directed Undergraduate Research
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0 Chemistry 398, Independent Research
\n\u2022\u00a0 \u00a0Summer research at St. Olaf College
\n\u2022\u00a0 \u00a0Summer research at another site<\/p>\n

Independent Study<\/u> (Chemistry 298) allows a student to receive level II course credit for independent study projects that might involve experimental work or library research work.\u00a0 The interested student seeks out a faculty member willing to supervise the proposed project.\u00a0 This faculty member then becomes the student’s distinction mentor.<\/p>\n

Academic Internships<\/u> (Chemistry 394) allows a student to receive course credit for working as a chemist.\u00a0 Eligible projects require that students contribute a significant creative effort to the project.\u00a0 Working as a lab technician, while valuable experience, generally does not allow students to contribute to the creative effort.\u00a0 Students are advised to work with the Center for Experiential Learning (CEL) office to set up internship opportunities and to check with a chemistry faculty member to determine whether the project would qualify for distinction.\u00a0 The student will choose a chemistry faculty member to serve as their distinction mentor.<\/p>\n

Independent Research<\/u> (Chemistry 297, 396, 398) allows a student to receive 1.0 or 0.25 level III course credits, respectively, for advanced, independent research.\u00a0\u00a0 For either option, the interested student identifies a faculty mentor willing to oversee the project.\u00a0 This faculty member will serve as the distinction mentor.<\/p>\n

On-campus summer research<\/u> in the Chemistry Department is one of the most common ways of engaging in experiential work.\u00a0 Each fall faculty planning on conducting summer research publish brief descriptions of their projects.\u00a0 Early in the spring semester the same faculty present their research project ideas in a public forum, typically one of the chemistry department seminars.\u00a0 Interested students apply for positions and many are hired for the subsequent summer.\u00a0 The faculty member under whom the researcher works becomes the distinction mentor.<\/p>\n

Off-campus summer research<\/u> is also a popular summer activity for St. Olaf students.\u00a0 Summer research can be carried out at a wide variety of institutions, especially major research universities, some of whom offer summer undergraduate research programs.\u00a0 Some companies also have undergraduate research summer programs that involve projects in which the researcher provides a significant intellectual component to the work.\u00a0 Students pursuing off-campus research must have a St. Olaf chemistry department faculty mentor for the distinction process.\u00a0 It is best to identify the departmental distinction mentor before leaving for the summer.\u00a0 The faculty member or scientist with whom the work is actually accomplished (at the host institution) will serve as an additional mentor (and must give permission for the student to disseminate research results).\u00a0 Students pursuing this route are required to include the host institution mentor in the plans for distinction and to come back from the summer with a good start at the writing of an “Experimental” or “Materials and Methods” section for their paper.\u00a0Interdisciplinary projects conducted on- or off-campus are encouraged, but must maintain a chemical focus in order to be suitable for distinction in chemistry.\u00a0 Decisions about the suitability of projects will be made on a case-by-case basis by the chemistry department.\u00a0 For off-campus projects, the departmental distinction mentor makes this decision, in consultation with the Chemistry Department Leadership Triad, before a distinction faculty committee is named.<\/p>\n

Various aspects of the distinction process are described at the links below.<\/p>\n

Qualifications<\/a> necessary for pursuing distinction.<\/p>\n

The required elements of the distinction process:
\n1. Participation in an experiential learning activity or project<\/a>. (current page)
\n2. Production of a formal paper<\/a> describing the project, usually in journal format.
\n3.\u00a0Oral presentation of the paper to a small committee of faculty<\/a>.
\n4.\u00a0Public\u00a0oral presentation<\/a> of the work.<\/p>\n

Timeline<\/a> for the completion of the distinction process.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Experiential learning activities may take many forms.\u00a0 Some options include: \u2022\u00a0\u00a0 Chemistry 297, Independent Study \u2022\u00a0\u00a0 Chemistry 298, Independent Research \u2022\u00a0\u00a0 Chemistry 394, Academic Internship \u2022\u00a0\u00a0 Chemistry 396, Directed Undergraduate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":714,"featured_media":0,"parent":550,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-576","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/714"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=576"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/576\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2176,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/576\/revisions\/2176"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}