more on the independent project

one of my students sought guidance as to what was "required" with respect to the independent project for this course, and i find that i've composed an uncharacteristically lucid (for me, anyways) reply, with which i'm quite pleased. hereby i share it with you that it may inform your thinking on the subject:

.... ultimately, i'd like you to do a project that you (1) enjoy; (2) get something out of; (3) learn from; and (4) have an opportunity to apply what you will have learned in this class.

i know that all sounds very vague and healy-feely, so, as to specifics:

(1) there should be some data involved. you can gather them yourself, borrow them from someone else, make them up (though scientists tend to frown somewhat on this last option), whatever. they should probably involve something you have at least a passing interest in... maybe?

(2) these data (probably) shouldn't have already been analyzed and published (at least in the way you plan to analyze them).

(3) you should do some analysis. test a hypothesis or two. do the right tests. do them the right way. don't violate any assumptions, or if you do, do it with panache. :)

(4) you should maybe keep a notebook, journal, big pile of paper (with a note on top that says "don't move this!), or, if you like blogging, maybe a separate blog (blogger lets one "person" (your login name) keep multiple blogs) in which you record the progress and process of your analyses. i'll show you how to do this in class.

(5) you should write it all up in some format approximating the "methods" and "results" portions of a standard scientific paper. you may or may not want to add a little "intro" and/or "discussion."

(6) you should give it all to me by the end of the course. if you're not shy, you can show me what you've got as you go along, and i will try to offer helpful advice, humor, anecdotes, and other generally irritatingly useless and vague comments.

(7) or you can ignore all that and just do something else.

how's that?