Original research work under the direction of a faculty member. Required of all honours students. Open to major students with a satisfactory standing, appropriate background courses and permission of the course instructor and the directing faculty member.
Honours students in Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences specializations are required to submit a thesis involving original research, on a subject approved by the Department, in their fourth or final year. (Honours ENSC and Honours ATSC students should enroll in ENVR 449 or ATSC 449, respectively, but all BSc thesis courses in the Department are run together as one course, EOSC 449.)
Before Major students approach potential EOSC 449 thesis supervisors, they must obtain permission from both their specialization advisor and the course instructor. They should seek an initial determination of eligibility from their specialization advisor no later than April prior to fourth year. Eligible Major students must have an Academic Record that is otherwise equivalent to that required of a student in honours (no failed courses, >68% average each Winter session, for entire Academic Record) except for not meeting the minimum credit load limit due to reasons such as a commitment to varsity sport or student government. A minimum grade average of 75% is strongly suggested.
By the end of this course, students should be able to:
1. Formulate and design their own research project, with the guidance of a supervisor
2. Research their scientific problem
3. Execute their research plan
4. Analyze and interpret their data
5. Write up their research project (using guidelines available on the course website)
6. Present their results in poster format
7. Defend the results of their research project
In addition, each student has a Thesis Supervisor. If a thesis is supervised by a qualified person (from inside or outside of the University) who is not a full-time EOAS faculty member, a full-time EOAS faculty member must be a co-supervisor.