[TITLE OF YOUR PROJECT]

[Your Name]

[Your Mentor’s Name]

Proposal #[X]

[XX] Number of hours per week x [XX] Number of weeks = [XXX] Number of hours/Term

Term: [Fall, Spring or Summer]

Year:[20XX]

Mentor’s Signature:______Student Signature:______

Number of Words:[XXXX]

a) Abstract:

[In 250 words or less, include a brief project overview including (a) a brief statement of introduction to your project; (b) a brief statement of your project objective(s); (c) your hypothesis; (d) a brief statement describing your proposed work; (e) and a summary of results to date (if there are any)and a discussion of where the project is headed. Returning students must be sure that this abstract is updated to include the most recent semester’s research progress.

An example abstract:

Gummy Bears (GBs) are delicious candies consumed all over the world by children and adults alike. GBs are mostly composed of gelatin, sugars, and flavoring agents. In this work we want to explore the effects of the GBs components in the satisfaction the candy provides to consumers. We hypothesize that the chewier the candy is, the more satisfying it will be to consumers. To this purpose, we will be synthesizing gelatins of different consistencies, which will be then used to produce different GBs that will then be used to determine their Satisfaction Index (SI). To date, we have been successful in synthesizing the gelatin components and optimizing the concentration of flavoring agents added. We are currently optimizing a protocol to produce GBs with different Jelly Coefficients (JC), better known as chewiness. As future work, we wish to explore the relationship between the JC of GBs and the SI using a panel of expert chewers.

***Your abstract does not have to adhere to this format, but must include all the information detailed above.]

b) Introduction:

[Brief introduction on the general scientific relevance of your proposed research. Your introduction should aim to explain the basic science behind your subject of study and why is it important to study it. It should also explain any technical details particular to your work or field of study. Your introduction must give your audience the information needed to understand the rest of your proposal.]

c) Hypothesis:

[A hypothesis is the proposed explanation or expectation of the phenomenon you are testing. It is an educated guess (meaning that it must be based on previous observations) of the anticipated results of your research. The hypothesis must be worded so that it can be tested by your research. Do this by expressing the hypothesis using your independent variable (the variable you change during your experiment) and your dependent variable (the variable you observe-changes in the dependent variable depend on changes in the independent variable). In fact, many hypotheses are stated exactly like this: "If a particular independent variable is changed, then there is also a change in a certain dependent variable.”

An example hypothesis:

Previous work by Sanabria-Valentin et al. [1] has shown that consumers generally consider chewy foods as more satisfying than crunchy or mushy foods. Based on these observations, we hypothesize that if gummy bears are made with 50-75% gelatin, then they will have a higher Satisfaction Index than gummy bears made with 25-49% gelatin.

***Your Hypothesis does not have to adhere to this format, but it must inform your reader of what are the expected results or conclusions of your work.]

d) My Role and Work:

[Brief description of your particular role and anticipated work for this research period.

For example:

During this term, my role in the project will be to perform analyses and provide data from quantitative and qualitative assays, like consistency and jellification point analysis. To do this I will be performing assays using the Gelatinous Substance Analyzer (GSA) to determine the Jelly Coefficient (JC) of the prepared gelatin preparations. I will also be working with my mentor to prepare a manuscript/grant application/presentation for XXX journal/agency/conference. Additionally, I will be training new students/interns/pipette monkeys in the lab.

***Your “My Role and Work” section does not have to adhere to this format, but it must explain to the reader what types of undertakings and tasks are you responsible for in your lab.]

e) Methods and Equipment:

[Brief description of the methods, equipment, etc. which you will be using.

For example:

Some of the methods I will be using this semester are described below:

  1. Gelatin preparation: Using a hot plate/stirrer, bring 100mL of water to boil and add gelatin to the following concentrations: 25, 37.5, 50, 62.5, 75%. To this add flavoring agents and coloring substances. After allowing the solutions to cool down to 50°C, the solutions are transferred into bear-shaped molds in 1mL aliquots. Molds [2] containing the gelatin solutions are then allowed to cool off to room temperature over night before being transferred from the molds to a tray and placed at 4°C, where they are stored until they are used for analysis.
  2. Gelatinous Substance Analyzer (GSA): The GSA is an instrument that determines the JC of a substance by measuring the displacement of a heavy solid probe when the probe is placed on top ofthe substance and a known pressure is applied to the probe. The instrument is first calibrated with water (JC=0) or a block of lead (JC=1). As controls, we use the following substances for which the JC is known: 0.5% agarose (JC=0.1), 10% agarose (JC=0.5). The unknowns (Gummy bears made with different concentrations of gelatin) are placed in the Measuring Chamber and their JCs are determined.

***Your Methods and Equipment section does not have to adhere to this format, but it must explain to the reader the protocols and equipment you intend to use, and how they work.]

f) Bibliography:

[Please be consistent in the format of your references. Please include 3-5 relevant references to your project.Unlike the social sciences and humanities, which use APA and MLA style respectively, the physical and biological sciences do not have a single standard format for references. Each sub-discipline and even each journal has their own unique variation on how references are made, both in-text and in the bibliography. Please discuss the issue of reference style with your mentor and select a style that you will use correctly and consistently in this proposal.

Link to RefWorks:

GoogleScholar now allows you to get a formatted citation for your results in one of the popular documentation styles (APA, Chicago, MLA, and others). First, search for your citation in GoogleScholar ( Under the title and abstract, look for the word Cite. Click on it and choose your documentation style from the list.

Example citations:

  1. Sanabria-Valentín, E., Gibson, J. (2006). The Effect of Food Consistency on Food’s Satisfaction Indexes. Journal of Candy Science, 20(9), 1534-1536.
  2. Kraft Corner Store - Jello Molds. Kraft Corner Store. Retrieved June 19, 2014, from
  3. Jimenez, F., Carpi, A., Lents, N. (2008). Gummy Bears as a source of Satisfaction for the Chewer. Journal of Made-up Stuff, 45(3), 25-26.

Appendix

[If you have started work with your mentor, the proposal must include, as an Appendix, a maximum 2-page discussion on what you have accomplished up to this point in time. This section should be a discussion of your results in the context of the aims of the project. It should tell the reader what you were looking for, what you have found, what your results mean in the context of the “big picture” project, and where these results are leading you. Use figures/tables/graphs to show your data and explain them in this discussion (figures do not count towards the page limit). Do not include figures that are not explained. Make sure all figures include a figure number and a legend explaining what the figure is about.

For example:

Figure 1. The Satisfaction Index (SI) of Gummy Bears of Different Colors and Jelly Coefficients (JC). The SI of red gummy bears increases significantly more than blue gummy bears as the JC is increased.]