This option is available within the Botany major at the following location:

• Corvallis
• Ecampus

The Customizable option is for students who have well-defined educational goals and career aspirations that do not fit easily within the existing options. The Customizable option allows students to have a transcript-visible program of upper-division courses that are tailored to their particular interests and professional objectives.

Option Code: 931

Upon successful completion of the program, students will meet the following learning outcomes:

• Communicate analysis of laboratory methods and experimental results.
• Explain interdisciplinary approaches used to determine the mechanisms that direct the flow of energy, materials and information in plant growth, development, and responses to external factors.
• Synthesize the complex network of biotic and abiotic interactions within ecosystems that determine energy flow, cycling of water, carbon, and nutrients and underlie local, regional, and global patterns in plant species richness and diversity.
• Identify and analyze the anatomical and morphological structures of plants that enable function and recognize structural differences between plant groups.
• Apply the diagnostic features of vascular plant groups to identify plant species and evaluate their phylogenetic relationships to understand the evolutionary origins of diversity and characters.

To create a customizable option, the student must do the following:

1. Define career goals and objectives.
2. Articulate a custom option title that briefly encompasses those professional goals (title is not transcripted).
3. Work with the botany advisor to create a program of courses for the option. The program should meet all of these criteria:
   1. minimum of 21 credits, at least 15 being upper-division
   2. all program courses must be taken for a grade (no S/U)
   3. courses may not double count with the BOT degree core requirements except for a WIC course or an “additional quantitative skills” course
   4. a maximum of 3 credits of experiential learning units may be applied
   5. up to 9 transfer credits may be applied with advisor approval
4. Plan how the courses will be scheduled, so that the option can be completed in a timely way. Remember that some courses are offered on an alternate year basis.
5. Write a one-page proposal that describes the career goals and outlines how each course in the program will relate to those goals.
6. Fill out a Customizable option form and submit it to your advisor along with your proposal. The advisor will review the plan and either approve it or make recommendations for revision.
7. When the plan is approved (signed), the course program needs to be submitted to MyDegrees. The Customizable option courses will appear below the Major Block under “student program of study”.
8. The Customizable option plan is locked, but can be modified if necessary, in consultation with your advisor.

Option Code: 931