About MCDB 198 ABCD
Honors Research in Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology

Project Proposals

The Basics:

• Proposals should be typed.


• Your name, UID, and e-mail address should appear on the first page; name and UID should appear on every subsequent page.


• Your research sponsor's full name, telephone and e-mail address should appear on the first page.


• Pages should be numbered.


• Both you and your research sponsor must sign the proposal prior to submitting it, indicating that you both understand/agree to what is expected of you and what will be accomplished during the course.


• For the contract you must submit along with your proposal, logon to MYUCLA and click on "Contract Courses" (listed under MyUCLA Features). The entire process of creating a contract is detailed on pages 4 & 5 of this handout. Step 5 of that process will require you to select a course. You should select Honors Research (CRS# 198). Further along, at Step 8a, you will be required to select the appropriate course number (MCDB 198A, or B, or C, or D, as appropriate). The number of units should be four (4) and the grading basis should be "Letter Grade."


• When you have completed the contract, print the form. Sign it yourself, and obtain your research sponsor's signature as instructor.


• Please do not seek to obtain a signature from either the MCDB department chair, or the chair of your research sponsor's home department. This will be handled by the MCDB Undergraduate Office.


• Your project proposal should be prepared on separate paper and then appended to the contract and acknowledgement forms.

The Proposal:

IMPORTANT: It is a form of academic dishonesty to turn in material written by someone else in the lab for some other purpose (a section of a grant proposal, or an article in preparation) and given to you for use as a guide in preparing your research proposal, or your paper. Both your proposal and your paper should be your own write-up, reflecting your understanding in your own words. If you do utilize such materials, make sure to cite them appropriately in your paper.

• Your proposal should begin with a problem statement - a clear description of the larger problem within which your research project is situated.


• Your proposal should outline a project that is appropriate in scope for a year's worth of research, culminating in a thesis.


• A description of the specifics of your 198 project should follow, which includes the following:
  • The particular research questions to be answered.
  
  
  • The existing bodies of literature that will set your project into context.
  
  
  • The methods that will be used to generate data.
  
  
  • How data will be collected and subsequently analyzed.
  
  
• Your proposal must make clear the precise role that you, the student, will play in the lab, including how much and what part of the data collection will be completed by you.


• The description of your project should be followed by an explanation of how this specific project contributes to the solution of some larger problem. In other words, what role might your project or its findings play in answering questions posed by the larger problem?


• The project that you and your research sponsor design should reasonably fit the research and writing within the three-quarter framework imposed by MCDB 198A-B-C and require no less than 12 hours per week in the lab.


• Your research sponsor should provide an estimate of approximately how many hours per week (for the duration of all three quarters) the proposed project is expected to involve on your part. That estimate should be included in your project proposal.