Tuesday, April 8, 2008
The public is invited to attend.

GENERAL INFORMATION:

1. To make a presentation (either oral or poster), the student must have support from his or her mentor.  An abstract should not be submitted UNTIL the mentor has read the completed abstract and has agreed to support the submission.  Abstracts submitted without prior mentor approval will not be accepted.
   
   
2. The Student Research and Scholarship Symposium is designed as an extra-curricular event and should be kept separate from links to course requirements.  Participation in the Symposium should NOT be a requirement in any course as partial fulfillment of a grade.  If a faculty member requires a student to make a presentation based on his or her work as a course requirement, this should occur during a departmentally-sponsored presentation time and NOT during the Symposium.  The Symposium SHOULD NOT be a time to assess and grade your students as part of their course grade.  The Symposium SHOULD be a time for faculty members to encourage their best students to present their work in which they have ALREADY DEMONSTRATED competence.  Thus, abstracts concerning specialty department sessions in which students are graded or which constitute an amalgam of course-related presentations WILL NOT be accepted.
   
   
3. Mentors are asked to take a proactive role in determining which submissions potentially meet the guidelines for a quality submission. 
   
   
4. Student submissions should be made ONLY for projects that have been entirely completed, and each abstract MUST contain final results, final conclusions, and/or final interpretations.  Student abstracts should not be submitted for works in progress, and any abstract submitted which does not indicate the final outcome of the endeavor will not be accepted.  An exception may be made for seniors and graduate students who are nearing the conclusion of a senior or graduate student project and thus would not have the opportunity to participate in next year's symposium.
   
   
5. Presentation types will consist of either an oral presentation or a poster presentation.  Information related to each of these presentation types is noted below.
   
   
6. Regardless of the presentation type, a 250 word (maximum) abstract is required to be submitted for review.  Abstracts should adhere to one of the following models and include the requested information:  Model I:  a)  background information related to the project, b) the goal(s) of the project, c) course of action or methodology, d) results or findings, e) conclusions, and f) implications.  Model II:  a) a clearly worded thesis statement, b) a summary of researched support, and c) the resultant significance of the thesis.
   
   
7. Submitted abstract titles should indicate the important result or primary thesis.
   
   
8. Following on-line submission of the abstract, a confirmation e-mail will be sent to both the student and the faculty mentor.  If the student submitter does not receive a confirmation e-mail within 2 hours, please contact Dr. Raudenbush (raudenbc@wju.edu or 243-2330).
   
   
9. Abstracts with multiple student authors are acceptable.  However, the first author will be the contact person concerning the submission.
   
   
10. Students and mentors will be notified of abstract acceptance or rejection by Friday, March 14, 2008.
    
    
11. Symposium attendance will be open to the general public, and participants are encouraged to invite whomever they would like.
    
    
12. Awards will be made for the best presentations in each of the submission areas.
    
    
13. By submitting an abstract, the student and mentor are OBLIGATED to attend both the Opening Ceremony and the Closing/Awards Ceremony.  The Opening Ceremony will also serve as a registration period, where the Program Schedule will be distributed.  In addition, the presenters are obligated to meet their presentation time, as scheduled by the Research and Scholarship Committee.
    
    
14. The Student Research and Scholarship Committee retains the right to request additional information from either the student or the mentor, to ask that changes be made to improve a submitted abstract, or to decline scheduling a presentation that does not meet the required guidelines.  In addition, the Committee will not schedule presentations that have not been supported and approved by a faculty sponsor.
    
    
15. Once submitted, no changes to the abstracts can be made, unless the Committee has specifically requested that change.