Honors Contracts – Option 1
You will choose a scientific manuscript from a professor at ASU working in the field of biophysical chemistry and write a paper that summarizes the work and describes in detail the underlying physical chemistry concepts needed to fully understand the research presented in the manuscript. (1) The summary can be done as a screencast, podcast or interview with the professor and submitted as an mp4 formatted video (typically a 5-10 minute video). (2) Or, a student can write a summary paper which would need to be typed (Arial, Times New Roman, Helvetica or similar font, size 11 points, single spaced), and should be between 2 and 4 pages long, including equations and summary statements that discuss the basic physical chemistry topics required to understand the research within the manuscript. Professors that work in the general area of biophysical chemistry include
- James Allen
- Alexander Green
- Sidney Hecht
- Matthias Heyden
- Anne Jones
- Marcia Levitus
- Yan Liu
- Dmitry Matyushov
- Yuval Mazor
- Gary Moore
- Vladimiro Mujica
- Steve Presse
- Kevin Redding
- Alexandra Ros
- Wade Van Horn
- Xu Wang
- Jeff Yarger
To start, look at the professors in the list to see what you find more interesting in terms of the science they do. Choose 2-3 to look up their peer reviewed papers and pick one to review that has a clear relationship to topics covered in physical chemistry.
If you decide on writing a summary paper (instead of a screencast or interview), use the following guidelines:
- You may include a figure of an equation from the paper you are describing, but provide a citation.
- Use proper grammar and spelling.
- Don’t copy entire sentences from the papers you read or from any other source (including online sources). This is plagiarism, and it’s a serious academic integrity violation. If not sure, always ask!
Deadlines:
This screencast or report is DUE 1 week prior to the final exam for the course.
Honors Contracts – Option 2
You will create two screencasts to help future students that take this course. You will identify two topics from the course that you want to work on, and we will choose the problems together (or with one of the TA’s in the course). The problems can be from any physical chemistry book, and you can suggest options if you want (not mandatory). A screencast should be about 5-10 minutes long. You will be responsible for creating the video and editing it so it is sufficiently clear to a student watching it. Your assignment will be marked as “successfully completed” if your solutions are correct, and if your videos are clear. You are free to use whichever technology you like, but the videos need to be in MP4 format.
Deadlines: Note: Meeting these deadlines is an absolute requirement. If you miss a deadline your honors contract will be automatically marked as “Not Successfully Completed”, with NO EXCEPTIONS.
BioPchem 