Sara Moore
Science Editor
On Thursday, April 23, students gathered to hear about some of the STEM Zone Interns’ processes of completing an Independent Study (I.S.) in a STEM field (science, technology, engineering or math). The panel featured five senior STEM Zone interns from four majors: Evie Stanford (environmental geoscience), Serena Warner (computer science), Ethan Hunt (economics), Bella Coenan and Jake Enzman (biochemistry and molecular biology [BCMB]). This panel was hosted by the STEM Success Initiative (SSI) with the goal of helping underclassmen understand the elements of completing an I.S. in STEM. Coenan acted as the moderator for the event, reading questions from the agenda as well as taking questions from attendants.
The panel began by discussing the process of selecting your I.S. advisor. The selection process looks different depending on the size of the department and the number of students and professors, but the department works to assign professors who they believe will be a good fit with the student’s topic. In some majors, like computer science and BCMB, the student submits a proposal for their I.S. and then professors choose an advisee based on which topics they would like to work with, while in other majors, like environmental geoscience, students choose the professor they would like to work with directly Selecting an I.S. advisor is largely based on the professor’s background and research speciality, but also their personality and advising style. Coenan said, “A good way to get to know that is just to be really close with your department, to always be talking to different professors [and] like, kind of get to know everybody.”
The panelists then moved on to talking about setting expectations with their advisors and labmates. I.S. is an independent process, but students are not alone while they are working on it. The seniors emphasized the importance of communication and understanding your advisor’s expectations as well as your own. Expectations differ widely depending on the professor, as some choose to be more hands-off while others are more involved in the process. This is where knowing your professor and understanding their role as your advisor is important. Advisors are there to assist students in the areas of research they might be more unfamiliar with, so students should not be afraid to ask for help. Stanford said, “this is an independent study, but it’s also, like, we’re senior undergraduate students, so… we don’t a lot of times have that experience leading our own research.”
Another element of I.S. that varies across the departments is selecting your topic. Some of the panelists chose to build upon what they had done in Junior I.S., while others decided to switch to a different topic based on available research. Some majors such as computer science are very broad, and students can choose to do their I.S. on almost anything within the field. Other majors are more targeted, like BCMB, where students choose their topic based on the gaps in research done by professors at Wooster. Some seniors, like Coenan, chose to do a self-designed I.S., provided, “you can find an advisor willing to work with you, and … you can find the funding.” The panelists emphasized the importance of selecting a topic that is interesting to you as you will be working on it for an entire year.
The seniors then discussed the challenges that came with their I.S. The panelists spoke about issues with finding data, their methodology not being right for what they were researching and the long hours of doing repetitive tasks like regression and other modeling. To get through this, Hunt said, “you just gotta … look at the big picture. You gotta willpower through some of it, but, like, then taking breaks, and like trying to look at things holistically instead of how miserable you might be at one point.” When it comes to I.S., the most important thing to remember is to be flexible. Students also talked about how the I.S. process helps to prepare you for graduate school or your career. It allows you to develop key research skills and determine your interests within the field.
To close out the panel, the seniors discussed what they enjoyed most about the I.S. process. The shared sentiment among them was the joy of completing their I.S. and being able to share their findings with others. Warner said, “I really enjoyed being able to talk about what I did, because a lot of people are like wow, that’s really interesting. I never would have thought about it that way.” I.S. can feel daunting but the panelists showed that although it is a lot of work, it is worth the effort to have a research project you can call your own.