1. Contact potential supervisors.
2. Submit the Online Registration Form:

1. •  BIOL 490: Fall or Winter
2. Deadline to submit the form: September 9 (Fall ) and January 10 (Winter ).

Deadlines:

Fall :

• September 9- Applications Due
• September 16- Add/Drop Deadline 
• September 30- Contracts Due
• November 25 -Midterm Assessment
• December 3- Course Withdrawal Date
• December 20- Final Paper Submission

Winter:

• January 10- Applications Due
• January 17- Add/Drop Deadline 
• January 31- Contracts Due
• March 26- Midterm Assessment
• April 2- Course Withdrawal Date
• April 25- Final Paper Submission

Downloads:

The course contract acts as the syllabus for the independent project courses and it is required, as per university policy, to have a syllabus. Please submit a copy on Canvas or email it to biougrad@ualberta.ca before September 30. 

(Note, this is a sample and should be edited by the supervisor for dates, course titles, and mark breakdowns as they see fit).

Sample Contract / Contract Outline

Guidelines:

BIOL 490 is a single-term, repeatable, *3 course that allows students to conduct research with a willing supervisor from the Department of Biological Sciences. Supervisors from outside the Department of Biological Science will NOT be accepted as the main project supervisor in any instance for BIOL 490 but may act as co-supervisors for the project. Students may work in the co-supervisor's lab. To repeat BIOL 490, the project must be unique and separate from the previous BIOL 490 project.

To register for BIOL 490, students must complete an online registration form. The form must be completed otherwise it will not be accepted. The title length is a maximum of 50 characters (spaces included).

Successful completion of BIOL 498 requires a midterm assessment to be completed by the main supervisor and a final written report.

For the evaluation of research performed and skills gained during summer employment, our current model emphasizes the quality of the research rather than when it was done. The basic guidelines are as follows:

1. Work done and skills gained during the summer may be used for a project course, but
2. Significant work, beyond writing up, must be carried out during the term in which the student is officially enrolled in BIOL 490. Work completed outside the term in which a student is enrolled in BIOL 490 should be identified in the written report.

Grade breaks down for BIOL 490 guidelines are as follows unless otherwise stated by the supervisor via course contract:

50% Lab Performance

50% Written Paper

The Midterm Assessment

It is a written document from the project supervisor that provides their student with formal commentary on their performance in the lab, which represents at least 20% of the total grade. Midterm assessments are to be given to the students by their supervisors, and the supervisors should email a copy to biougrad@ualberta.ca. The due date is November 25 for Fall and March 26 for Winter.

The Final Written Report

It is to follow a similar format to that of a peer-reviewed journal article. Such papers include the background introducing the study, results, supporting figures/tables/images, discussion, and references. The full report ranges from 15-20 pages. The student is responsible for discussing details of the report with their supervisor, such as formatting, style, and length (of the report and the various sections), and is responsible for following their supervisor's directions regarding the report in the same way that authors follow a journal's editorial board's directions. Final reports are to be sent to the main supervisor (and co-supervisor if applicable) and also uploaded to the Canvas site. The due date is December 20 for Fall and April 25 for Winter, unless the student's supervisor(s) has decided on an earlier deadline.

Depending on the supervisor, some of the weight of the report may be applied to other written exercises, such as a research proposal. The deadlines and assessments for these additional activities will be set by individual supervisors.