Final Reports for Leave Term and Honors Thesis Grants

• Final reports are due on the last day of final exams in the term of the funded research
  • EXAMPLE: students who are awarded funding for spring term research must submit their final report on the last day of spring term exams
  • Final reports must be submitted by this deadline even if the research will continue after the funded term.
  • If you will be continuing the research as an honors thesis or for a Wetterhahn poster presentation, you must still submit a final report at the end of the funded term of research. That could in the form of a research summary (see below). 
• All final reports must acknowledge funding from the specific grant. The name of your funding source will be included in the end of term confirmation email.
• Attach your final report to the online Grant Evaluation and Confirmation form.
  • When you submit the form, your faculty mentor will receive an email requesting confirmation of the term of research. 

Research summary (3-5 pages)

• Summarize your research project and your conclusions to date
• Include a discussion of what you gained from doing the project (e.g. interaction with your faculty mentor, insights into a field of study, etc.)
• Discuss how the research is related to your academic and/or career goals
• Be sure to note how the grant helped you to accomplish your research

Poster presented at a research poster session

• Wetterhahn Science Symposium Poster Session (held annually in May): for research in the sciences (including PBS and neuroscience).
• Some departments may have their own poster sessions, or students may present at a national meeting/conference
• Guidelines on designing and printing a poster

Exceptions

You may submit your final report in either of the formats described above with the following exceptions.

• Robert G. McGuire III 1958 Memorial Fund: students who receive this award must submit a copy of their senior honors thesis or an academic research paper. Students may submit an electronic copy, although the donor prefers a bound copy, and UGAR will pay for the binding. If the project culminates in a senior honors thesis, a bound copy must be submitted to Rauner and include an acknowledgment of this grant. Most departments/programs collect bound copies from thesis writers and submit them to Rauner. If your department/program does not do this, you may submit a bound copy to UGAR, and we will ensure that it is submitted to Rauner.
• Mellam Family Foundation Research Award: students who receive this award must present a poster at the Karen E. Wetterhahn Science Symposium in May. That poster will serve as the final report, and instructions on submitting an electronic version to UGAR will be provided via email in late May. 

Consider submitting a 3 minute video about your research for a chance to win cash prizes! Short videos are a great way for you to share your research with the broader Dartmouth community. The MAD (Made At Dartmouth) Research Video Competition is jointly sponsored by UGAR and the Jones Media Center (JMC) in Baker-Berry Library. Check out the website for information about the competition and deadlines.

The Jones Media Center can help with your video by providing loaner equipment as well as tips and advice about shooting footage and editing your video. 

You are welcome to submit photos with your research report as we can use these on our website to highlight student research. You may also opt to submit a photo journal as a final report (but note the exceptions listed below for final report formats).

Technical Recommendations

• Always take the highest resolution possible for your camera.
• If you have the option of saving photos in your camera as either a tiff or a jpg, select jpg (it uses less space).
• Use a large capacity SD card (at least 8G).
• Save photos to Dropbox or Shutterfly to maintain quality/resolution and to facilitate sharing. Do not share your photos by inserting them into word docs or on social media sites, as this reduces the resolution.

Subject Matter

• Ask permission before taking your shot! 
• Get close to your subject; consider how you are framing your shot.
• We want photos of you in action! This means photos of you conducting your research and exploring your surroundings.
• When taking photos in clinical settings, do not take any photos of patients in which you could recognize the person (no direct shots of faces or other identifying information/features). Be sure to ask permission of both the patient as well as the staff before taking your shot.

Special considerations for photos of children

• These guidelines are to prevent misuse of these images online.
• If you are taking photos of children, please ask parents/teachers first.
• No full-body shots of children that include head-toe view (not an issue with photos of adults).
• It is preferable to take group shots of children together or children with an adult where the children's bodies are partially obscured.