Thinking through the Thesis

This article proved to be one of the most difficult pieces I've ever had to write. The problem was not that I lacked resources, or that the assignment required extensive research. The problem was that once I began interviewing the '10s about their complex projects and passionate ideas, I feared my article would not do their work justice. My minimal expertise in the sciences could not fairly describe meticulous lab work and data analysis, and my less than stellar Gov 5 grade can attest to my ignorance in that field. This article hardly scratches the surface of the senior theses mentioned. Although some senior theses are published in specialized journals (to which very few of us if any subscribe), there is otherwise very little opportunity for the Dartmouth community as a whole to hear about these brutal projects that have consumed individual lives for over a year. So, this is The Mirror's effort to publicize the fantastic work done by the senior class a tribute to the grueling process and commendable results of the great ideas generated by Dartmouth students. In the science department, many senior thesis ideas begin as simple labwork. Students frequently aid a professor in research projects, and their senior theses become an extension of that fieldwork. As someone whose scientific interest ended abruptly after dissecting a pig in 9th grade biology, interviewing these science masterminds and translating their laboratory jargon was a struggle, to say the least. My conversation with Andrew Smith '10, an earth sciences major, was very much how I imagined a conversation with Einstein. He spoke very fast, very passionately and about things I did not, and probably will never, understand. I tried to feign geological knowledge, nodding and interjecting "ah yes, sedimentary paleomagnetism, of course," but he saw right through me, and ultimately agreed to send me a dumbed-down abstract of his paper. One reason Smith chose to write a senior thesis was because he wanted to work with a specific professor. "I e-mailed all the professors, and asked them if they had any research projects with a heavy field component and heavy lab component," he said of finding his thesis idea. "They gave me this one."Smith's work focuses on an eight-meter sediment core from Occom pond that dates back 14,000 years. In breaking down the different layers of this sample, Smith has been able to trace millenniums of climate activity in Hanover, specifically the arrival and disappearance of glaciers in the region. "The core is significant because it provides a sedimentary chronology of the deglaciation of Hanover, N.H., through the Holocene," Smith writes in his paper. Ann Elise Debelina '10, an engineering major modified with environmental science, had not planned to complete a senior thesis, until she worked on a mercury project with professor Mark Borsuk last Summer. After serving as a full-time research assistant, Debelina decided to continue the work into the Fall and Winter terms. "In particular we're looking at mercury in the New England area," she said. "What I've been working on over the year is trying to quantify how much mercury is released from electrical generation."From there, Debelina will study how the reduction of energy consumption and the use of green energy options will affect human health.Stephanie Gagnon '10, a Cognitive Science major, worked four years in the same lab. Her experiences there opened doors to papers and studies that ultimately inspired her to write a thesis on different patterns of brain activation stimulated by "contextually associated objects" and "spatial changes.""I wanted to culminate my time at Dartmouth with actually doing something on my own and making everything that I've done my past years at Dartmouth something tangible," Gagnon said.Not every senior thesis requires years of fieldwork and laboratory analysis, however. Departments like Government offer a senior thesis course, which provides instruction on how to write a political science thesis. Micaela Klein '10, a government major, will speak at TEDx on April 17, the conference that will bring together students and staff to present their innovative ideas, about her outstanding, and highly original senior thesis researching terrorist group longevity. "The literature that I'm dealing with on terrorism is pretty sparse," Klein said. "There really is not a lot of work done on it, and the work that has is very recent. It was a lot of sifting through random sources." If you're reading this and feeling extremely inadequate that you haven't done ground-breaking work in a science lab or research field, don't. Not every senior finds his or her thesis soul-mate right away.
"The Fall was a bit frustrating in that every time I thought I had found a new topic, it turned out that it was too complicated or had already been done," government major, Robert Hoffman '10, said.Hoffman eventually found an opportunity for original work in researching "how proliferation of Internet access has impacted Democracy worldwide, and all the ways that the Internet has changed the way that governments, leaders, and citizens interact."Hoffman is a member of The Dartmouth staff.Yet finding an idea seems to be the most uplifting stage of a senior thesis, besides handing it in. While most '10s entered the senior thesis process with bright eyes and bushy tails, searching for that "culminating experience" that would embody their academic career at Dartmouth, the project required serious and depressing sacrifices. Senior theses may offer research and fieldwork opportunities, but they turn out to be major fun-suckers. Psychology and government major, Becca Boswell '10, stayed at Dartmouth over the summer to explore thesis ideas. Smith and Klein spent their spring breaks in Hanover to begin writing drafts. "I could be out right now at the Senior Tails," neuroscience and biology major, Jeremy Chan '10, said. "But right now I'm sitting in the library going over my introduction serious hamper on social life."Especially in light of the recent spring weather, many seniors glare at their assignment as a ball and chain. "Right now, it's 80 degrees out and I'm sitting in the 1902 room, so that's kind of terrible," Hoffman said. "It's Saturday morning, and I'm in the library. I was here last night. I just kind of feel guilty when I'm not working on it."Yet even after these social cutbacks, no senior could deny their project was an overall rewarding experience."I think I'm going to be actually proud of it when I'm done, and I don't feel like I can say that about anything else I've done academically," Hoffman said. "It's also cool to feel like you're kind of an expert on something, even if it's just something really small."In that vein, what happens to these papers when they're printed, bound, and submitted? Does anything become of these great ideas, or are they left behind as a Dartmouth memory, or forgotten altogether? While some '10s consider publishing their work, some admit that little will come of their theses besides the valuable life experience. "I think there's just a presentation you give to the department, then you just have the knowledge and the reward of the experience," Debelina said. Hoffman, although originally planning to "probably light it on fire," ultimately agreed. "I don't see myself trying to publish it," he said. "For me it was more about the experience of doing it and getting to answer what a question that I thought was legitimately worth asking and has relevant implications to the real world."