Independent study is an opportunity to pursue a topic that interests you but which is not adequately covered in an EPOB course.
Independent research involves laboratory or field work under the supervision of a faculty mentor.
A student may work on a project of their own design, a project designed in collaboration with a faculty mentor, or on an ongoing project in the faculty member's lab. Independent research usually involves a beginning phase of observation, hypothesis formation, and experimental design, followed by data collection and analysis, interpretation of the results, and finally written presentation of the results. Each of these phases is done in close consultation with a faculty mentor. The results from an independent research projects may be used as the basis for an honors thesis. Sometimes an independent research student will work most directly with a graduate student or post-doc, but the responsibility for final grading and insuring that the project is completed appropriately rest with the faculty member in charge of the lab.