Purdue West Lafayette Faculty encouraged to mentor John Martinson Honors College Students
The John Martinson Honors College (JMHC) is the place for interdisciplinary courses and innovative, high impact teaching and mentoring. We invite you to engage with us and honors students, who are highly motivated undergraduates from every disciplinary college. Each semester, there are many and varied opportunities for Purdue West Lafayette faculty to work with and mentor honors students. These include HONR courses, undergraduate research, and honors contracts in your departmental courses.
HONR Courses
Purdue faculty (TT and clinical) can propose courses to teach in the John Martinson Honors College in the fall, spring, or summer. HONR courses are small, interdisciplinary, high impact classes that introduce students to innovative topics, ideas, and pedagogies. Proposals are accepted each fall semester for the following academic year. More information about HONR courses and proposal requirements can be found here and here.
For academic year 2024-2025, the call for proposals opens October 18 and closes December 1, 2023. Proposals are reviewed by our curriculum committee and the selection process is highly competitive.
To apply, click here.
The deadline for proposals is December 1, 2023. Decision notices will be sent by December 15, 2023.
Questions about HONR courses or the proposal process should be emailed to Natasha Duncan, Associate Dean for Academic and International Affairs, at ntduncan@purdue.edu.
Honors Contracts
There are often honors students in your departmental courses each semester who would like to learn more. You can accomplish this, and assist students in earning honors credit at the same time, through an honors contract. An honors contract is an agreement between an undergraduate student and a faculty instructor that allows the student to turn a standard course into an honors course by going beyond the course’s standard requirements to deepen learning.
Faculty are encouraged to invite students to participate in a contract at the beginning of the semester. Many instructors have found it helpful to include a standardized honors contract addendum in their syllabi at the start of the semester. The benefit of this is two-fold: students are aware of their ability to contract the course, and the instructor has already incorporated honors elements allowing for group contracting.
The contract can take a variety of forms from having students engage in activities that support individual faculty research and pedagogical goals, to creating additional class materials and repositories, to expanding on existing course assignments, to engaging in service projects. Many instructors even work pre-existing modules, materials, or experiences outside of the course (e.g., certification programs, conferences, research fairs) into their existing syllabus and offer an individual or group contract.
The honors contracting process is usually completed at the beginning of the semester, with signed contracts due by the Registrar’s H (Honors) grade mode deadline. You can view Registrar deadlines for Spring 2024 here. The deadline to add H Grade mode for full-semester courses in Spring 2024 is Monday, January 22, 2024.
To further familiarize yourself with contracts, including forms and processes, click here. For questions about or more resources for honors contracts, please contact Natasha Duncan, Associate Dean for Academic and International Affairs, at ntduncan@purdue.edu.
Undergraduate Research
The John Martinson Honors College is home to the largest number of undergraduate students who engage in research. Undergraduate research and creative endeavors is one of the JMHC’s four pillars. If you are interested in being connected with our students for current or future research projects, or simply to serve as an informal mentor for students interested in your field, completing our Qualtrics form will 1) allow you to register your project with us so that we can help you recruit students; 2) indicate your interest in joining our the JMHC Faculty Research Network (a list of faculty and instructors who are interested in serving as mentors to undergraduate researchers); or 3) both! Click here to indicate your interest.
Questions about recruiting students for research projects and/or mentoring students in research should be emailed to Chaonan Liu at liu2313@purdue.edu.