Your Master's Project is the culmination of your graduate studies. This project is your opportunity to develop deep knowledge on a topic that is interesting to you and/or beneficial to your career. This project is when students branch out into their own areas of interest and apply the concepts that they have learned in this program, and in their career, into developing novel management solutions. The resulting document, your Master's Project, will share your solutions with the science and conservation communities.
This course is primarily to make sure that all students develop solid topics and stay on track for completing the thesis by the end of the semester. This course also provides a formal framework to receive feedback on ideas, writing, and the oral presentation from both your peers and the instructor.
Student Master's Project Presentations from the 2020 Cohort are available here.
FAQ
Q: How much time will this take, and when is the busiest? A: Writing this will take a lot of time. Students can take the course as a 2 or 4-unit course. We recommend not taking any other courses concurrently, and definitely not more than one. How much you have already done will determine how busy of a semester it is, and when it is the busiest. You could walk in the door on the first day of class with a mostly finished thesis. Or you could walk in the door with just a vague idea of what you want to do. You could have already done the bulk of background reading, or you could have not stepped in a library (physically or electronically) yet. These things will all influence how time-consuming the course is. You could try and do the bulk of the work early, or spread it out, or put in most of your effort after feedback. That will influence how your time will be allocated. It is not possible to put it off all to the end, the course is designed that way on purpose, but it is possible to do most of it early. - Q: What type of assignments are required for this course?
A: The focus of this course is on completing your thesis, so the assignments are primarily interim steps along the pathway to that end goal. Assignments include submission and peer review of bibliographies, outlines, drafts etc. You will also be giving an oral presentation on your topic at the end of semester, so we will be practicing that along the way as well. Some assignments are to help you better understand what is expected of you (such as reading past projects), and quick quizzes (open book/homework) to make sure you understand the project requirements. - Q: Can I do original data analysis for this project?
A: Of course! But it must be completed prior to the start of the semester, and should not be attempted during this course. Analysis can be time consuming in unanticipated ways, and you must be finished by the end of this semester. This course and this time should be focused on writing only.