Student Research

• To gain practical experience in the field of Environmental Studies
• To establish contacts with Faculty and other researchers/workers in Environmental  Studies
• To acquire skills in analysis, problem solving, methods, and techniques
• To read and evaluate scientific, historical, literary texts and other advanced literature and theory
• To expand skills in analyzing and communicating results
• To learn how research is designed and conducted

ENST 390: Independent Study | This Independent study offers a specialized exploration of a specific topic, with the student intensively investigating it while supervised by a faculty mentor.  Students should, along with the faculty mentor, create an intensive reading list in the area of focus and complete a substantial project during the semester. Occasionally this course can be used to award credit for an independent study completed over the summer supervised by an outside mentor, if the faculty sponsor approves it and sponsors registration during the fall after the summer the research is completed. Prerequisite: permission of instructor. Can be taken for up to 6 units total ( offered every semester)

ENST 391: Directed Research in Environmental Studies | Research activities or project in environmental studies done under the direction of an instructor in the Program. Permission of a faculty sponsor and program Director is required. Can be taken for up to 6 units total (offered every semester)

ENST 392: Directed Field Work in Environmental Studies | A student engages with Directed Field Work when they join an ongoing field work project being carried out by an Environmental Studies instructor. Permission of a faculty sponsor and program Director is required. Can be taken for up to 6 units total (offered every semester)

ENST 498: Senior Thesis Research | For those pursuing a Senior Thesis, this course includes several class meetings spaced across the semester and accounts for time spent on independent research completed in the second to last semester. Prerequisites: fourth year standing, eligibility for Honors, and permission of instructor. To be taken second in the final fall, either third or fourth year (3 units, offered fall semester)

ENST 499: Senior Honors | This course accounts for time spent on independent work for undergraduate Honors, including completion of final text and process of thesis formatting, to be supervised by a faculty member. Prerequisites, fourth-year standing, eligibility for Honors, and permission of instructor. To be taken in the final semester (3 units, offered every semester)

* Research mentors: Please contact us if you need a section of one of these courses in order for a student to enroll to do research with you.

 

• Students should average about 3-4 hours/credit, or 10-12 hrs per week for 3 units of credit for directed research. A plan for the time commitment and project goals should be arranged between the student and the faculty sponsor.
• If a student wants to spend 6 hrs/wk for 2 units of credit, the mentor will be asked to verify that it is a worthwhile project. 
• 3 units of credit or more must be completed if this course is to be used to satisfy the Capstone Experience requirement for the Environmental Studies major.
• The faculty sponsor should assign a grade of Incomplete (I) if the time commitment agreed upon has not been met. This “I” can be changed to “Pass” by work the student completes after the semester is over.

Research experiences should be carefully designed to facilitate productive, engaging, and collaborative experiences for students as they are novice, early-stage researchers. Students are learning about the epistemology, methodology, and professional social norms within a discipline. They are learning how to do research, including how to search for, read, and synthesize scholarly literature to learn about a new topic and prepare a written product. They are learning disciplinary methods of data collection, data analysis, and visualization and text descriptions of results and disciplinary writing. We have the following expectations for students and mentors:

1. Students should work directly with the faculty sponsor or with someone of the sponsor’s choice: research associate, post-doc, senior graduate student, technician. In the case of the latter, we ask four things of the faculty sponsor: (1) be certain that the direct supervisor is enthusiastic about the arrangement, (2) continue to accept responsibility for the student, (3) monitor progress in understanding and achievement, (4) lend encouragement. Student or sponsor is free to terminate the arrangement after one semester.
2. The research mentor should create a setting that facilitates an engaging, collaborative, mentored experience. Research mentors should are providing regular and timely coaching, mentorship, and feedback and meet regularly with the student, at an interval agreed upon by the student/mentor.
3. Students should spend a regular amount of time per week (~3-4 hours per credit hour) on research activities. Students should maintain notes on their work and progress, maintain regular communication with their research mentor, and engage in regular meetings with the research mentor, at an interval agreed upon by the student/mentor.
4. Projects should have defined goals, even though the goals are often not met in one semester. 
5. Tasks assigned by the mentor should be for learning related to the student’s project.
6. For students enrolled in ENST 390, 391, and 392, they should turn in at the end of the semester a <1 page written reflection that 1) summarizes the progress of what was completed during the semester and 2) reflects on what they learned in terms of content, skills, methods, or about themselves as learners/researchers/collaborators. Written reflections should be submitted to the research sponsor and environmental@wustl.edu. 

Below are several fellowship and internship programs available to students who wish to conduct environmental research:

• WUSTL Summer Undergraduate Research Award (SURA)
  • https://undergradresearch.wustl.edu/summer-research-award 
• WUSTL Tyson Research Center Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships (SURF)
  • https://tyson.wustl.edu/undergraduate-opportunities
• WUSTL Living Earth Collaborative research internships
  • https://livingearthcollaborative.wustl.edu/undergraduate-research/internships-2/ 
• National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduate Experiences
  • https://www.nsf.gov/crssprgm/reu/ 

In Environmental Studies, we recognize student accomplishment by awarding departmental distinction to graduating students who have excelled in some way within the Environmental Analysis Major, which could include high performance in coursework, completion of a senior thesis, participation in an internship, or leadership in an environmental club or organization.See bulletin for more info: https://bulletin.wustl.edu/undergrad/artsci/honors/

In Environmental Studies, we offer the following awards (recognition and modest monetary prize) to graduating Environmental Analysis Majors with outstanding accomplishment. Students are nominated and chosen by program faculty members. 

• Environmental Studies Award for Academic Achievement
• Environmental Studies Award for Scholarship and Research
• Environmental Studies Award for Environmental Leadership

To be eligible for Latin honors, students must produce a senior research thesis and have maintained a 3.65 grade point average through the sixth semester and must be accepted for candidacy by Environmental Studies. To earn honors, students must also maintain the minimum 3.65 GPA through the final semester. Per university guidelines, students may be awarded the A.B. cum laude, magna cum laude or summa cum laude according to the following proportions: top 15% in overall GPA of the full cohort of Latin Honors candidates who complete the necessary requirements of their major departments will graduate summa cum laude; the next 35% magna cum laude; and the next 50% cum laude. To learn more about completing senior thesis research, continue reading below.

In the Environmental Studies Program, any student may conduct senior thesis research regardless of GPA, and Departmental Honors and awards do not require completion of a senior thesis. Latin Honors for majors requires completion of a senior thesis in addition to meeting GPA requirements set by the university.

A senior thesis should reflect substantial effort, developed over the course of an academic year or more. The process will include development of a research question, substantial literature review and synthesis, data collection and analysis, writing, and revision. The final product will include an introduction that puts the research into an environmental studies context, synthesizing relevant literature, and motivating the research question. A methods section, more extensive than a journal article, should explain appropriate data collection and analytical methods. Results and discussion may be combined or presented separately. Tables, figures, and bibliographies should be in a standard form. 

Committees for senior honors research consist of a thesis advisor (primary research mentor) and two supporting committee members. At least one of these three committee members must be a core Environmental Studies faculty member. Refer to the list of potential committee members and core Environmental Studies faculty here.

Because our students often conduct research that is interdisciplinary and have committees that consist of housed in different departments and familiar with different disciplinary products and timelines, it is important that our students receive collective guidance early on. This helps to make sure the thesis is on track to meet Environmental Studies guidelines and prevents hiccups when reviewers from different disciplines read the final product through different lenses at the last minute. Thus, students and committee members should plan to participate in:

• One initial committee meeting in late spring, summer, or early fall of the fourth year
• At least one follow-up committee meeting at a time point agreed-upon by the committee, which could be at a midpoint, before the final draft is turned in, or for evaluation and discussion after the final draft is turned in. 

Student: Stay in regular communication with your research advisor and committee; utilize scholarly sources; complete a rigorous search and synthesis of your field and topic that motivates your project and serves as the background for your prospectus and thesis introduction; turn in items on time; if in doubt, ask mentor and committee questions for guidance sooner than later.

Thesis advisor: Serve as the primary research mentor; have capacity to supervise within disciplinary field and topic; devote time to student mentoring, communication, and regular meetings; engage in regular meetings with student to guide research, work through issues, guide data collection, analysis and interpretation of results; work with student to shape scope of the final product (e.g. thesis or policy brief or publishable manuscript); attend at least one initial and one follow-up committee meeting; read and provide constructive feedback on drafts within three weeks of receipt.

Committee members: Serve as supporting research mentors; provide additional expertise in some aspect of the topic or methodology of research; attend at least one initial and one follow-up committee meeting; read and provide constructive feedback on drafts within three weeks of receipt.

Some of our senior thesis students have been conducting research with the same research mentor for several summers or academic years; others begin their thesis research with a new research mentor about a year before graduation. The timelines for some of these activities may vary slightly depending on the history of the collaborative relationship between the student and mentor. The timeline for turning in key forms and paperwork and general timelines for preparing a scholarly product should be roughly similar.
The following outlines the process and general timelines for completion of a senior thesis assuming a spring graduation. If you plan to graduate in December, you can modify the timeline by moving all deadlines one semester earlier.

Third year: Take relevant methods courses and topical electives

• Sign up for Introduction to Research Methods (ENST 4995), the product of which is a literature review on a topic of your choice and a tractable research question.
• Make sure to sign up for any topical electives or disciplinary methods courses that could be useful for your thesis. Keep an eye out for courses that are only offered every other year and make sure to get them early. Examples of disciplinary methods courses include:
  • ANTH 428W: Original Research in Environmental Anthropology
  • ANTH 4501: Decolonizing Anthropology
  • BIOL 3100: R Workshop in Biology
  • ENST 364: Field Methods for Environmental Science 
  • IPH 431: Statistics for Humanities Scholars 
  • MATH 2200 or MATH 3200: Statistics
  • POLSCI 363: Quantitative Political Methodology 
  • POLSCI 4043: Policy Analysis, Assessment and Practical Wisdom 
  • POLSCI 495: Research Design and Methods 
  • SOC 3030: Introduction to Research Methods

Spring of third year: Identify your committee and thesis topic

• Identify one person to be your thesis advisor. This person will serve as your primary research mentor. Meet with them to discuss your thesis topic, question, and potential methods in depth, and ask them if they will serve as your thesis advisor. Ask their advice on who else they recommend for your committee. Your thesis advisor can be any person on the Environmental Studies thesis advisors list (see list of potential committee members here; please inquire if you'd like to add someone who is not already listed). 
• Then, identify two supporting committee members. Using your own experience and your mentor’s advice, seek out and meet with two additional people to serve as your supporting committee members. These committee members will offer strengths on particular aspects of your thesis, such as being a topical expert in something related to your thesis, or an expert in a research methodology that you will use.

End of spring registration: Turn in your thesis intent form

• Once you have identified a committee of a primary research mentor and two committee members, turn in your Latin honors thesis intent & committee form to environmental@wustl.edu. 
• Register for ENST 498/4998 in the fall and sign up for any methods or topical elective courses that will help you prepare your thesis. Ask your thesis advisor and committee members for recommendations on what courses to take next year.
• Work with your advisor to create a plan for reading relevant literature, methods, and data collection. Depending on the nature of the research and other student and faculty obligations, some students may do thesis related research over the summer, while others will complete it during academic terms. Regardless of when you complete the work, You will read extensively, take notes, and begin building a bibliography and literature review. You will narrow your research question, prepare a short summary of your preliminary argument, plan your methods, and depending on the discipline, collect data. You will confer with your thesis advisor at regular intervals to make sure you both agree on the timeline and that you are on track.

Fall, fourth year: Literature review, methods, data analysis

• Take ENST 498. As part of ENST 498, you will
  • Hold a committee meeting and report back to your thesis cohort. Your committee may decide to hold regular committee meetings or ask that you meet regularly with your primary research advisor.
  • Turn in a 2- to several- page prospectus to your committee and ENST 498 instructors. The prospectus length and form may vary by discipline, but in general the prospectus should include background information (from the scholarly literature) that motivates the project and outline the question/problem, methodology, and proposed analyses.
  • Turn in a 1-page academic year plan outlining your proposed timeline and tasks for fall, winter, and spring. This will help start you with planning, goal setting, and time & task management to keep you on track for finishing and producing a rigorous scholarly product.
  • Turn in 1-page winter/spring plan. This is your chance to revise your goals and timelines to make sure you are on track for progress over winter and spring. We’ll review them together and offer community feedback, support, and encouragement to leave you in a positive and confident place for moving forward as the semester ends.  
  • Regularly workshop your written materials such as your reserach question, literature review, prospectus, or sections of your thesis draft.

Spring, fourth year: writing and revising

• Analysis, results, and writing: You will continue to work on data analysis, preparing results, and drafting sections of the thesis over winter break and early spring semester. Plan your tasks and timelines to keep you on track for your goals.

• Turn in your final draft for evaluation by Friday before spring break: The final draft of your thesis is due to your committee by the Friday before spring break. Your committee will read and evaluate your thesis, and return comments to you electronically or at a final committee meeting during which you all discuss your thesis.

• Turn in your thesis evaluation form by March 31: Your committee will read your thesis and offer you feedback, either electronically or during a final committee meeting. Your committee will colllectively evaluate your thesis using the thesis evaluation form: they will accept it as is, with minor revisions, or with major revisions, and, if you are working on Latin Honors, will recommend your thesis be eligible for cum laude, magna cum laude, or summa cum laude. You and your committee will complete a thesis evaluation form to be turned in to environmental@wustl.edu. 

• Presenting your thesis research: We encourage all senior thesis students to present their research at the WUSTL Undergraduate Research Symposium or an Environmental Studies faculty breakfast at the end of their last semester. 

• Turn in your final version to EnSt by end of final exam period: After receiving final feedback from your committee on your final draft, you will make any major or minor revisions or editorial changes requested and submit a final version in PDF format to environmental@wustl.edu by the end of final exam period. Your diploma will be withheld until your final version is received.

Stay tuned for a document outlining the expectations and formatting guidelines for the final senior thesis document.

• Hanusia Higgins - Advisor: Dr. Mangan (Biology) "The Enemy of an Enemy, is a Friend"
• Emily Dewald-Wang - Advisor: Dr. Myers (Biology) "Plant chemical defenses, density dependence, and biodiversity in temperate forests"
• Addison Green - Advisor: Dr. Lowry (Political Science) “Exploring bicycle culture as it relates to European cities”
• Joseph Stromberg - Advisor: Dr. Evans (Philosophy) “A Study of Land Tenure and Livelihoods on the Lakota on the Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota”
• Ted Erker – Advisor: Dr. Knight (Biology) “Is the relationship between phylogenetic novelty and invasiveness dependent on spatial scal
• Katherine Seidler – Advisor: Dr. Knight (Biology) “Understanding Invasiveness: How does habitat heterogeneity influence dispersal kernels of wind-dispersed species”
• Kristyna Solawetz – Advisor: Dr. Giammar (Environmental Engineering) “Arsenic Mitigation and the Role of Traditional Knowledge in Bangladesh”
• Arthur J. Singletary and Kelley E. Greenman – Advisor: Dr. Stone (Anthropology) “Pesticides in Indian Groundwater”
• Brittany Teller – Advisor: Dr. Knight (Biology) “Do Invasive Species Change the Biomass of Dependent Trophic Levels in Communities?”
• Aaron David – Advisor: Dr. Knight (Biology) “Environmental Conditions and Inbreeding Depression in Mimulus ringens”
• Anna Truszczynski – Advisor: Dr. Knight (Biology) “Which mechanisms promote success in phylogenetically novel invasive species?”