Physics 95 Fall 2016
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Thanks for signing up for a Physics 95 presentation. You're our speakers on Sept 16. As you may recall we have the students prepare a bit by reading a paper or two ahead of time. Can you please send me, by end of this week at the latest, one or two PDF files of papers that pertain to the topic you'll be discussing? Ideally, these would be Physics Today level overviews accessible to undergraduates. Also if you send me a title we'll post it for the grad students as well.
Physics 95 attracts an audience of undergrads and beginning graduate students. One goal of the course is to map out the research frontier in physics so some introductory comments putting your work in broader context would be much appreciated. Also, I hope you'll take 5-10 minutes in the beginning to describe your personal story, and how you ended up doing what you do.
We'll have 45 minutes total available for each of you.
Here's the drill for Wednesday:
We'll gather at mailboxes in Lyman at 6 pm then have dinner with students in Lyman 425, dinner runs 6-7 pm
Presentations runs 7-8:30 in J356, so 45 minutes for each of you
at 8:30 pm we'll do ice cream and informal discussions, ending no later than 9 pm.
Many thanks!
Student presentation topics
| student | topic 1 | topic 2 |
|---|---|---|
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TF tasks:
- collect next Monday's submissions into a single PDF file
- figure out how to get Google Form to capture information on each speaker.
- video camera and tripod
- web site curation
- file uploads on Canvas
| Element | |
|---|---|
| Attendance | 40%20% |
| Participation | 20% |
| Presentations | 20% |
| AssignmentsPosters | 20% |
Pre-meeting with Matt Strassler and Masahiro Morii, Wed June 3
- goals and structure
- grad vs. undergrad students- fac want to talk to G1's. Fac need that as an incentive. Fewer G1's as the year progresses.
- honing presentations
- grading
- attendence
- resources
- what if someone only comes for one of the two terms?
- written communication as well as oral?
We are only offering it one term this coming year!
Matt had 8 students- Three full presentations each, roughly. 15-20 min talks. One with PPT. Then two at blackboard. Made himself avail. beforehand, and consultation afterwards to go over video in person. TA set up taping. Grading- nearly impossible. Assessed on strength of presentations. Mostly B+, A-. took derivative into account. Effort and participation in class and discussions. They did have students evaluate each other. Matt anonimized the student feedback, met with one on one after each presentation.
Hardest part is to get faculty to give talk title and contact person who mediates online discussion and attend Monday presentation. Critical thing is whether a good review article was available. Vital to get that early in order for students to have time to prepare. Only one faculty talk per evening, unless there is a clear connection. Since there is only one term I need to control this more than Doodle poll.
Masa had a TA- he set up web site, reading, etc, online discussions. Came to all presentations and feedback sessions.
| Abstracts | 20% |
Presentation Types:
scientific meeting 15 min talk
advice to capitol hill
responsing to a reporter
elevator speech
press release
blog post
Typical week
Monday:
Prepping:
- contact faculty member 2 weeks ahead of time, beg for papers by Monday to give students an entire week, or else cancel talk
- get papers.
- Get title, abstract optional.
- Get point person who will attend class and answer detailed subject questions. That person can also participate in on-line discussion.
- staff person for food is Wilhelm. Monika knows details. Get order in for Wed. Once Talk is set make posters and send emails to G1 and undergrads
- Use Wilhelm and not Dale.
Class meeting:
1-2 student 15-20 minutes presentations per meeting, then discussion. Include point person from research group.
Wednesday:
Papers should be ready on web site for subsequent Wed. Send ahead of them to students who are doing their talks on that topic.
Send out message saying papers available.
Give them guidance on what papers to read
Meet Thurs or Fri with students who are presenting the following Monday. Define scope of presentation.
Lab tours would happen here if we do it.
Dinner: establish rapport. G1's can come but should attend the talk. I should go. Help the faculty member engage students in conversation, and talk about career trajectory.
Dept pays for dinners, it's catered now. Law school seems easier.
dinner 6:30
seminar 7:30
ice cream 8:30
adjourn 9:00
Weekend:
students should read papers in preparation for Monday, and have email discussion about them. That has been a struggle to get engagement. Ask Melissa how she made that work.
contact students who are going to be presenting on Monday.
Structure and Meeting times
Mondays 3:00-4:15 (90 75 minutes)
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Wednesdays 7-9 pm (180 minutes)
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| week | Dates | Monday topics | Wednesday seminar topic | assignment for following Monday | Resources | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sept 1 | NA - no class on Monday org meeting, course goals, assessment introductions Wed topics are course structure, expectations, nature of assignments, grading, and structure of subfields of physics theory & experiment the research frontier . | none, that next Monday is a holiday. But assignment for subsequent Monday is to make single-page outlines of pros and cons regarding applicability of physics to the life sciences, which we will discuss | ||||||||||||
| 2 | Sept 7, 9 | Labor day holiday on Monday, no class | Scientific Presentations- good, bad and ugly Stubbs - bad talk examples, slide by slide |
| Feedback form | ||||||||||
| 3 | Sept 12, 14 | CWS: Discussion of outlines- make a single-page outline with pro and con of physics methods to the life sciences. Discussion about outlines and their importance. | Finkbeiner | Capitol Hill Converting an outline into a presentation Abstracts and scientific meetings. | all: watch Jamous youtube. reporter question - spy satellites. Send PDF to Stubbs no later than midnight Sunday | ||||||||||
| 4 | Sept 19, 21 | CWS: Making an overhead for a presentation- single-slide exercise on spy satellites, go over their slides
Students present their versions of today's exercise- Can a spy satellite read a document from outer space? | Talk 3Elevator speech assignment | Talk 4 | |||||||||||
Tufte article Basics of powerpoint for scientists Pick topics by Wednesday Sept 28 pick a topic for an oral presentation and abstract for a meeting (15 minutes) 5 | Sept 26, 28 | elevator speech exercise | Group A assignment for Monday- presentation and discussion Assignment for groups group B, C: prepare an abstract (250 word max) appropriate for a professional meeting, that will attract an audience to your talk and that coveys the key message you hope to convey. | ||||||||||||
| 6 | Oct 3,5 | Sept 26, 28 | Scientific talks, the good, the bad and the ugly. Class discussion about |
| Jamous youtube. Group A assignment for Monday- presentation and discussion Assignment for group B: prepare an abstract (250 word max) appropriate for a professional meeting, that will attract an audience to your talk and that coveys the key message you hope to convey. | 6 | Oct 3,5 | Stubbs gone group A gives 15 minute presentations group B turns in abstract |
| Group A assignment is to prepare abstracts Group B assignment is to prepare presentations | Lab tours! MM (Stubbs gone) | resources for making talks. Tufte article Basics of powerpoint for scientists Nature papers on scientific presentations Pick topics by Wednesday Sept 28 pick a topic for an oral presentation and abstract for a meeting (8 minutes+2 for questions) find an example of the worst overhead. write down what your own weaknesses are, and how you plan to address them in this class. Pick two different topics by Monday Oct 17. One as a science meeting talk, the other as a public presentation to an educated but non-physics audience. We'll make abstracts for the first, and press releases for the second. | |||
| 7 | Oct 10, 12 | Columbus day holiday on Monday, no class |
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| 8 | Oct 17, 19 | Stubbs gone group B gives 15 minute presentations group A turn in abstracts |
| CWS: Scientific talks, the good, the bad and the ugly. Class discussion about presentations- pace, content, goals, NYT example. What makes a good presentation? Tell a story! Second language issues (Don't assume they have read the material, go over it) show example from law school prof. pace and number of slides. Use slide numbers and keep track of time! Avoid technical failures- check things out. Your machine, or theirs? PPT issues between PC and Mac. Embedded videos. Driving projectors. backup slides giving the talk- the first few sentences, describe all plot axes, look at the audience. Short written documents: Abstracts and press releases.
| Group A assignment is to prepare abstracts Group B assignment is to prepare presentations | ||||||||||
| 9 | Oct 24, 26 | MM (Stubbs gone) Student Group A talk 6 Writing proposals Paper outline deadline, hand out for peer review plus CWS |
| #1 group B abstracts on topic #1
| make appointments to go over taped talks | ||||||||||
| 10 | Oct 31, Nov 2 |
Student talk 7 Writing applications for grad school, etc Revised outline deadline How to write a technical paper
open journals vs. for-profit subfield ideosyncracies Tex and Latex templates bibtex for citations |
| MM (Stubbs gone): Group B talk #1 group A abstracts on topic #1 | |||||||||||
| 11 | Nov 7, 9 |
Student talk 8 Paper first drafts due, peer and CWS review Writing technical reports How to make Figures and write captions How to make Tables and write captions Version control | Talk 17 Talk 18 | MM (Stubbs gone) : group A talk #2 group B press release on topic #2 | Draft Press release on topic of choice watch Stubbs LSST spiel on Youtube select presentation topic #2 for everyone. Presentation #2 is for a non-technical audience- advice to a Senate committee on a technical topic of your choice: solar energy, STEM education, quantum computing, nuclear weapons, etc. | ||||||||||
| 12 | Nov 14, 16 | Student talk 9 First draft feedback session Literature searches and tools How to make a bibliography, easily | Talk 19 Talk 20 | MM (Stubbs gone): group B talk #2 group A press release on topic #2 | |||||||||||
| 13 | Nov 21, 23 | Stubbs gone Student talk 10 Scientific posters as a communication tool Second draft papers due
| Thanksgiving break | here: Group A taped 15 min talks topic #2
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| 14 | Nov 28, 30 | Last class, celebration! Talk 21 Talk 22 | Stubbs here: Group B 15 min talks topic #2
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| 15 | reading period | Final posters due Wed Dec 9 Poster session/celebration
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| date | presenter(s) | ||||||||||||||
| Sept 9 | Levine | requested papers | |||||||||||||
| Sept 16 | Walsworth, Park | park title and papers sent | |||||||||||||
| Sept 23 | Finkbeiner | ||||||||||||||
| Sept 30 | Silvera, Cohen | ||||||||||||||
| Oct 7 | Doyle, Gabrielse | ||||||||||||||
| Oct 14 | Desai | ||||||||||||||
| Oct 21 | Kovac | ||||||||||||||
| Oct 28 | Dvorkin | ||||||||||||||
| Nov 4 | Westervelt | ||||||||||||||
| Nov 11 | Brenner | ||||||||||||||
| Nov 18 | Jaffe | ||||||||||||||
| Nov 25 | none (thanksgiving) | ||||||||||||||
| Dec 2 | Mazur, Yacoby |