The neuroscience program has a number of options for students to satisfy the W3 requirement. These are meant to provide a range of opportunities that suit different goals and interests, and which can accommodate different scheduling constraints. While the opportunities differ in their particulars, they have the following features in common:

• They all provide training in project planning and management. 
• They all challenge you to engage with a complex, “real-life” question that is important, messy and open-ended (How do you get a damaged retina to regrow? How do you predict a chemical’s odor? Do Lewiston children on government health insurance have poorer academic outcomes – if so, why?) 
• They all require you to dive deeply into primary sources, and to engage in scientific inquiry through activities including experimentation, analysis, and the critical interrogation of data. 
• They all provide hands-on, domain-specific skills-training that is valuable for professional life (coding, experimental troubleshooting, etc). 
• They all provide opportunities for formal and informal professional development. 
• They all require you to synthesize your work into a final deliverable – a thesis that you will write, which will have your name on it, and which you can carry forward as a demonstration of your competence, originality, and professionalism.

Capstone Seminar

The capstone is organized around a central, focused research question that invites students to frame an original scientific inquiry (with assistance, of course), and test, develop, and scrutinize their ideas. It is a one-semester seminar that meets regularly on a standard class schedule. While some class periods might be used for traditional lecture/lab/presentation activities, a large amount of class time will be set aside for individual student consultations and advising. Specific capstone activities vary year to year, but will generally include some combination of: grant writing and instruction in grantsmanship (how to pitch your ideas effectively), data collection and/or curation, literature review, data analysis, scientific debate and discussion, manuscript writing, and scientific presentation. The capstone has limited seating so that there is ample time for faculty to work with students individually, and in small collaborative groups. There are no prerequisites and no expected prior preparation for the seminar beyond being a declared Neuro major who is a senior.

Empirical Thesis – One or Two Semesters

In empirical theses, students work with an individual faculty member as trainees in their lab, working collaboratively with them to develop a novel line of scientific inquiry. Students may have some input in project design, and some degree choice among projects, but in all cases projects will be strongly shaped by the field in which the faculty member is an expert, as well as the resources they have access to. The specifics of the projects will vary considerably by lab, and also within each lab, but generally speaking the arc of all projects will include: a period of literature review, articulation of a specific problem to be solved or hypothesis to be tested, acquisition of skills relevant to addressing the problem/hypothesis, data collection and analysis, and synthesis of results into a final written narrative (the thesis). Descriptions of faculty work will be described at an annual meeting for Neuroscience Juniors early during the winter semester. While the empirical thesis entails a very significant time commitment (speak with individual faculty to hear about their expectations), it does not meet on a class schedule, and therefore requires you to manage your time effectively.

Summer + Fall W3

This is an opportunity for students who will be returning to Bates in the fall after having spent a summer working in a lab full-time. Over the years, we’ve found that a fair number of Neuro students make a very significant investment in summer research, which they then regrettably have to leave behind in an incomplete or unfinished state. The “Summer + Fall” option provides a mechanism to continue the work at Bates, and maintain strong collaborative ties with your summer research partner. With the written consent of your summer advisor, you will continue to analyze data and develop your work during your fall semester at Bates. The final deliverable is a writeup (due before the end of the semester) in the style of a scientific manuscript (a thesis). A Bates Neuro faculty member will be assigned as your advisor, and will work with you in a consultative capacity to help problem-solve, strategize, and to give feedback on drafts. That said, it is unlikely they will be expert in the particular question you studied over the summer. For that reason, it is very important to have written confirmation from your summer advisor that they are interested in continuing to support you, and understand what their role entails. If the Summer + Fall option is potentially interesting to you, please reach out to the Neuro chair as early as possible so they can help you coordinate this. Please note that this option is only available to students who did summer work outside of Bates.

Community Engaged Thesis

This thesis option involves a collaboration with the Harward Center for Community Partnerships. Students will be matched to a local community partner with an identified need, and will work with a community-based mentor to help address the need through a research-based process that they will document, analyze, reflect-on, and relate to a larger scholarly or clinical literature. The specifics of the project and its execution are left to the discretion of the community mentor, but in all cases the final expected deliverable is a written thesis document that frames the problem, provides background, explains methodology, presents results, and interprets and discusses these results in the context of a larger literature. You will be assigned an advisor from the Neuroscience program who will meet with you regularly, help you meet the stated goals of your project, and provide you with feedback on drafts and analyses.