Spring 2027

Senior Honors Thesis

Individual study for microbiology majors completing senior honors theses, involving research investigation, experiment design, and thesis writing.

offering recorded2–3 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Michael Thomas4.2/5Daniel Amador-Noguez3.9/5Charles Kaspar3.8/5 +20 more

Summary

What you’ll be able to do

  • Investigate a science topic in conjunction with other investigators to develop a deep understanding of a research problem.

  • Identify a research problem and develop a series of experiments to test a hypothesis related to the problem under investigation.

  • Carry out designed experiments and collect data related to the research problem under investigation.

  • Analyze the results of experiments and use them to test the validity of the developed hypothesis.

  • Communicate the results of investigations via written and/or oral means to an appropriate audience.

  • Write an honors thesis that contains an abstract, background, a demonstration of research skills, analysis of the research question, and a summary of the impact of the work.

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

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average GPA
letter grades

No recorded grade history.

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

Consent of instructor

  • Consent of instructor
MICROBIO 681

This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree
  • Consent of instructor

Professors

Spring 2027

Michael Thomas

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 4.89/5 from 18 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

No course-specific feedback yet.

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 4.80/5 from 5 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

No course-specific feedback yet.

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 4.00/5 from 17 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

No course-specific feedback yet.

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 4.00/5 from 1 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

No course-specific feedback yet.

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 3.71/5 from 7 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

No course-specific feedback yet.

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 3.67/5 from 3 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

No course-specific feedback yet.

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 3.50/5 from 2 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

No course-specific feedback yet.

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 3.56/5 from 9 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

No course-specific feedback yet.

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 3.38/5 from 8 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

No course-specific feedback yet.

No course-specific feedback yet.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

BRIANA BURTON is recorded teaching in Fall 2017, Fall 2024. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

CHARLES KASPAR is recorded teaching in Fall 2016, Fall 2020, Fall 2022. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

DANIEL AMADOR-NOGUEZ is recorded teaching in Fall 2016, Fall 2019. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

DAVID HERSHEY is recorded teaching in Fall 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

ERICA MAJUMDER is recorded teaching in Fall 2023. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

FEDERICO REY is recorded teaching in Fall 2015. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

JAEHYUK YU is recorded teaching in Fall 2009. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

JUE WANG is recorded teaching in Fall 2017. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

KARTHIK ANANTHARAMAN is recorded teaching in Fall 2022, Fall 2024. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

KATRINA FOREST is recorded teaching in Fall 2019. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

MARK MANDEL is recorded teaching in Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
IND 061Classroom Instruction0 / 100
IND 030Classroom Instruction0 / 100
IND 002Classroom Instruction0 / 100
IND 005Classroom Instruction0 / 100
IND 006Classroom Instruction0 / 100
IND 008Classroom Instruction0 / 100
IND 010Classroom Instruction0 / 100
IND 011Classroom Instruction0 / 100
IND 017Classroom Instruction0 / 100
IND 018Classroom Instruction0 / 100
IND 020Classroom Instruction0 / 100
IND 026Classroom Instruction0 / 100
IND 034Classroom Instruction0 / 100
IND 071Classroom Instruction0 / 100
IND 091Classroom Instruction0 / 100
IND 095Classroom Instruction0 / 100
IND 096Classroom Instruction0 / 100
IND 097Classroom Instruction0 / 100
IND 098Classroom Instruction0 / 100
IND 099Classroom Instruction0 / 100
IND 100Classroom Instruction0 / 100
IND 037Classroom Instruction0 / 100
IND 102Classroom Instruction0 / 100

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records

No records available.

Student experience

the class

Individual study for majors completing theses for Honors degrees as arranged with a faculty member.

difficulty & workload

No workload feedback recorded.

Topics

  • Research problem identification and hypothesis-driven experiment design
  • Experimental result analysis and hypothesis validation
  • Honors thesis composition including abstracts, research analysis, and impact summaries

Skills

  • Investigating science topics to develop deep understanding of research problems
  • Identifying research problems and developing experiments to test hypotheses
  • Analyzing experimental results to test hypothesis validity
  • Writing comprehensive honors theses including abstracts, backgrounds, and impact summaries

Grades

Instructor

Grade distribution · % of letter grades

No grades available yet.

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

Download part 1
Selected offering source records
MICROBIO 681 · Spring 2027

Senior Honors Thesis

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
[
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:192:001653",
    "course_id": "MICROBIO 681",
    "course_uid": "course_6fba1c85cb2f1b757744702f",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "001653",
    "source_subject_id": "192",
    "title": "Senior Honors Thesis",
    "credits_min": 2,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Fall, Spring, Summer"
  }
]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

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Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

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Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "a320364aa6397691f3291ce509f8d300dcac5e2a72e14ca4fa7e4cbc1d5e269b",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}