MES Thesis Project

The MES program offers two ways to fulfill the thesis requirement.
Both require the student to engage in research on a topic of real-world interest and consider its political, economic and scientific aspects. The project might be a baseline study that considers policy implications for an ecological area or a study of a particular environmental problem. It can be an individual or a team effort; group projects are encouraged. The project preferably should be of value to an external client or organization and not just an academic exercise. Primary differences between the two thesis options lie in the scope of the problem examined and the manner in which the research is conducted. As the culminating act of the thesis project, students share results with faculty and students in a public oral presentation. Detailed information may be found in the Thesis Handbook (Word | PDF).

Students should consult with their advisor and/or the MES program director about their thesis option as they approach completion of sufficient credits for beginning thesis work, normally in the fall of their second or third year.

Thesis: Essay of Distinction

The Thesis: Essay of Distinction reviews and analyzes an existing body of information and does not involve substantial original field or survey research. This thesis option is written in a workshop setting during winter and spring quarters of the student's final year. Students selecting this option take eight hours of thesis credits and 32 hours of elective credits.

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Thesis

This thesis option represents a substantial research project conducted independently by the student with the support and guidance of a three-person thesis committee. It offers the opportunity for extended fieldwork, data collection and analysis. In general, the committee will be chaired by an MES faculty member who is the thesis advisor and will include another faculty member and an outside reader appropriate to the topic. Students selecting this option take 16 hours of thesis credits and 24 hours of elective credits. Students must complete a thesis prospectus and have it approved by the chair of the thesis committee and by the MES program director before registering for thesis credit.

MES students have completed a number of important theses. Recent examples are:

• Cougar-Human Encounters: A Search for the Facts by Debbie Carnevali
• Self-Reported Pesticide Exposure Among Apple Thinners in the Yakima Valley, Washington State by Steven Ganey
• Residential Energy Conservation: An Evaluation of the Strategy for the Proposed Eco-city Bamberton, British Columbia by Andrea E. Hallman
• Adventure to Action: An Outdoor Environmental Education Program for Pre-teens by Jonathan Orelove
• Pesticide Use in Cranberry Bogs: Water Quality Impacts and Regulations by Barbara Patterson
• Improving the Efficiency of Washington State Department of Transportation's Wetlands Mitigation Program Using Aerial Photography and GIS by Ronald Jay Pratt
• The Use of Indicators to Advance Olympia, Washington's Sustainable City Program by Nicole Helen Ribreau
• Risk Assessment and Clean-up Policy at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation: A Case Study by Douglas Joseph Vaugh