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GRADUATION WITH DISTINCTION IN BIOLOGY

Eligibility & Criteria (last updated Fall 2009)
The Biology Department honors a limited number (around 10%) of graduating majors with Distinction in Biology. Each spring the faculty review those eligible students who have applied for Distinction in Biology, and award those who best fulfill departmental ideals of academic excellence, scholarship, and extracurricular/community involvement in biology with the aid of the criteria below.

Eligibility

To be considered for Distinction in Biology, a student must be a biology major who has participated in Biology Department activities during his/her tenure in the department and who has conducted significant independent research.  A significant research experience may include an Independent Research (IR) course, participation in St. Olaf’s Summer Research program, or participation in research (summer or during the school-year) off-campus. In cases where a student has participated in a collaborative research project, the student’s own contribution must be clearly described. Research projects initiated during the Spring semester of the applicant's senior year will not be considered sufficient for distinction.

If a student’s significant research has been off-campus or with a St. Olaf faculty member outside of the biology department (such as Chemistry), the student must arrange for a member of the St. Olaf Biology Department to mentor them in applying for Distinction in Biology.  Talk to Kevin Crisp about arranging for a mentor.  Remember that the permission of the student’s off-campus research supervisor must be obtained before any presentation of the work (including applying for Distinction in Biology).

Eligible students must submit an application for Distinction in Biology (available from the Department Office in RNS 360) by Friday March 5, 2010. This application includes an abstract of the student’s research, as well as places for the student to indicate all of the Biology Department activities in which they have participated. The student must also attach an unofficial degree audit to the application form, and submit an electronic copy of the abstract to Tory Borovsky (borovskt@stolaf.edu). Dates for Distinction deadlines for this year are below.

Criteria

While the criteria below are necessary for consideration for Distinction in Biology, simply meeting these criteria is not a guarantee of this honor.

1. Distinction Paper: The Distinction Paper is a polished, complete research paper styled after published primary literature, or another suitable written project, authored solely by the student in consultation with his or her mentors.  It should include an appendix that explains the student's precise contributions to the work, especially if the work was conducted off-campus or the paper has multiple authors. It is a major piece of work that after submission will be reviewed by two readers designated by the Biology Department who will share their assessment of the work in the departmental deliberations. The quality of the research paper is a central consideration in evaluating distinction candidates.
2. Poster Presentation: The student must have presented the research to the Biology Department during one of two poster sessions (one in the Fall [11 Dec 2009] and one in the Spring [19 April 2010]). The Biology faculty will visit the students at their posters and evaluate the quality of the poster as well as its presentation. These are to be formal, professional presentations conducted as though at a regional or national scientific meeting.
   • Video on how to make a poster using PowerPoint (Univ Missouri website)
   • Advice on designing scientific posters (Colin Purrington, Swarthmore College)
3. Extracurricular/community involvement: Part of the application for Distinction in Biology involves detailing the ways in which the student has been an active member of the Biology Department over his/her tenure at St. Olaf. Examples of extracurricular/community involvement include (but are not limited to) attending seminars and poster sessions, being a teaching assistant, writing for BioMass, working in the greenhouse or on the natural lands, presentation of research findings at regional or national meetings, and active membership in the Biology club, Herpetology club or Tri-Beta.
4. Grade Point Average: The student's grade point average in her/his biology major and overall will be considered; while no official cutoff point is designated, generally students with a major GPA below 3.3 are not considered for Distinction in Biology.

Calendar 2010

Application - will be available soon