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The Honours Thesis in Environmental Science is intended for undergraduate students who are interested in undertaking an independent research project on the topic of environmental science, under the supervision of 51ÉçÇøºÚÁÏfaculty or an external supervisor.

Who can supervise my thesis?

EXTERNAL TO SFU
Supervisors should be a natural or mathematical scientist and usually will be found in the Faculty of Environment, Science, or Applied Sciences. Any Assistant or Associate Professor at 51ÉçÇøºÚÁÏworking in the field of environmental science (within the School of Environmental Science, or related departments like Biology, REM, etc) may supervise an honours thesis. An intended supervisor who is a Continuing Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, or Adjunct Professor may be approved with special permission, arranged through the Approval of Supervisor form.

EXTERNAL TO SFU
The supervisor may be external to 51ÉçÇøºÚÁÏif a titular supervisor at 51ÉçÇøºÚÁÏis arranged to fulfill a co-supervisor role – this should also be arranged through the Approval of Supervisor form.

Contact evscadv@sfu.ca with any questions.

Deadlines to Apply

**IT IS RECOMMENDED THAT STUDENTS COMPLETE THEIR APPLICATION EARLIER THAN THESE DEADLINES IN CASE EDITS TO THE PROPOSAL ARE NECESSARY**

Steps to Apply:

1. Speak with the School of Environmental Science (SES) Undergraduate Advisor about the requirements and your plans for a thesis (evscadv@sfu.ca).
2. Find a supervisor and plan your timeline and funding applications. Look through faculty profiles on departmental and school websites or speak with your instructors or advisor to see what kind of research people are conducting and who might be an appropriate choice for your project. Send in an Approval of Supervisor form if your preferred supervisor is a Lecturer or Adjunct Professor, or external to SFU.
   • Your thesis may be a portion of a larger project that your supervisor or a senior lab member is working on. It could be analysis of existing data, meta-data analysis, observations you make and accompanying analysis. It is critical however that your undergraduate thesis be your own work.
   • Review funding options if you would like to extend research over more than 2 semesters (RA-ship, Work-Study, Ocean Action Grant, MITACS).
3. Complete the online application and wait for your proposal to be approved.
4. Enroll in EVSC 489 – Thesis I and undertake independent work as defined by your proposal, under the supervision of your supervisor or a senior lab member.
   • The SES Undergraduate Advisor (evscadv@sfu.ca) will enroll you in this course during open enrollment.
   • Examples of work appropriate for this course would be data collection, a literature review, an annotated bibliography, a research plan or proposal, a series of presentations to your lab group, etc.
5. Enroll in EVSC 490W – Thesis II. This class should be used for you to analyse your data and write your thesis.
   • The SES Undergraduate Advisor (evscadv@sfu.ca) will enroll you in this course during open enrollment.
6. Write the thesis and submit it to your supervisor. The thesis should be in the format of a , using their template (its size and scope should be much smaller than a MSc thesis!).
   • Connect with 51ÉçÇøºÚÁÏResearch Librarian ()
7. Develop a grading timeline with your supervisor to allow them plenty of time to read and suggest revisions before the final grading deadline. The Undergraduate Advisor will contact you with the final grading deadline during the semester.
8. Organize and submit all your data to your supervisor for archiving.
9. Once the thesis is complete, the student will submit it to the SES Undergraduate Advisor (evscadv@sfu.ca) in PDF format. The supervisor will submit all grades to the SES Undergraduate Advisor for processing as well.

You should consider publishing your thesis in the 51ÉçÇøºÚÁÏScience Undergraduate Journal (). It is a journal specifically designed for undergraduate theses. But check with your advisor before pursuing this, as they may have other plans for your thesis!

Application Forms