Honors Activities at LPC: Courses and Contracts

Embedded-Honors Courses

Each semester, a number of transferable courses are offered with honors "embedded" in them. If students wish to take any course for honors credit, they first be admitted to the Honors program. (See forms for the application.)

The honors student will be expected to complete the requirements as outlined by the instructor in an honors syllabus, which is separate from the regular course syllabus. To receive honors credit, students must earn an A or B in the regular course as well as completing the requirements for the honors portion. Students who successfully complete the honors requirements will receive an "Honors" designation next to the course title on their transcripts.

Honors Contracts

Any transferable course at LPC may become an honors course. Here's how it works:

Suppose an Honors student is interested in taking a Psychology course for honors credit, but the Psychology course she is currently taking is not listed in the schedule as having an embedded-honors option. In this case, the student goes to the instructor during the early weeks of the semester to inquire if that instructor is willing to mentor the student through an honors project. If the instructor agrees, the student and instructor together create and plan the project, and the student submits an honors proposal. If the student completes the project to the satisfaction of the instructor and the honors director by the designated date at the end of the term, that student's transcript will have an "Honors" notation on it next to that class.

If a student fails to complete the project, there is no penalty. A student must receive an "A" or "B" in the course for the honors contract to qualify.

Honors contracts consist of in-depth research, demonstration of critical thinking, and scholarship of greater breadth or depth than the normal coursework. The specific content and shape of the projects vary widely and should be designed to help prepare the student for work at a four-year institution. Topics are invidivdual and very flexible, but here are some examples:

• a traditional research paper
• a case study or series of case studies
• a specialized lab experiment
• an art project
• a musical composition
• a literary composition
• an original software or hardware creation
• an empirical research study or fieldwork
• an extensive gathering and analysis of statistical data

Contact Dr. Schatz for more information.