PHY 3091:
COMMUNICATION IN PHYSICS
Instructor:
Bernd A Berg (bberg at fsu . edu),
- Office 615 Keen Bldg.,
- Phone 644-6246
- Office Hours: Monday, Wednesday 10 to 11,
after class and by appointment (send e-mail).
Class meetings: Monday and Wednesday 13:25 to 14:15 in UPL 0211.
Prerequisite:
Interest in science and and in talking about scientific topics
Text: no text needed
Purpose of course:
-
To develop abilities in the area of oral and written communication,
with emphasis on scientific and technological topics.
Outline of class:
- The class will be
conducted in an informal format. Participation will be monitored.
- Every student is expected to give three talks during the semester,
with the schedule of talks to be determined.
- In consultation with the instructor, students will choose
topics. The selected topics can be drawn from any area of physics or close
to physics (science other than physics is OK -- subject to instructor's approval,
but physics majors should mainly talk about physics.)
The topic chosen can
be the subject of the student's research project or his/her interest, or
can be one that the group as a whole is interested in learning about.
- The physics related to the lab experiments, including description of the
experiments and discussion of the results, can serve as suitable topics.
- Once topics have been agreed on, students will then
- produce a written outline of a short presentation of their selected topic
and submit it to the instructor at least one weak before the presentation
- make short (about 20 minutes) presentations of the subject;
for this presentation, projection from a computer file in standard
format (see below) must be used, and the files have
to be submitted to the instructor at least two days before the
presentation.
- goal of these activities is:
- practice oral communication skills
- learn how to organize the material in a presentation;
- become more comfortable talking in front of others and develop
skills in delivering a talk;
- become accustomed to answering questions from the audience;
- Improve your thinking-on-your-feet capabilities.
- .....
- have fun talking about physics or other scientific topics,
and teach each other some physics or chemistry or biology,..
- practice writing understandably about scientific issues
- increase your proficiency with word-processing and presentation
software tools
- grading:
- Evaluation of talks: After every presentation, your instructor will
discuss your talk with you in his next office hour (or by appointment)
with comments, suggestions for improvements, and give you a point grade.
- Peer evaluation: In addition to being judged by your instructor,
your talk will also be evaluated by your fellow students according
to criteria on the provided form
TalkEvaluation.pdf (download and
print this form in the numbers you need). In the afternoons after
class these forms have to be turned in to the instructors mailbox
(3rd floor Keen building) using envelopes that contain the evaluators
name on the outside. The forms may be given to the speakers, but
the evaluators will be kept anonymous (the same systems is used
by editors of scientific journals for peer reviews). This evaluation
should give you feedback on how well you conveyed your message to your
audience.
- final grade will be based on class participation including peer reviews
(24%), the talk outlines (6%), and the presentations (70%). Two missing
peer reviews count -1% against the class participation score. Peer reviews
are only accepted from students for talks which they attended entirely.
Conversion to letter grades: A > 91%, A- > 87%, B+ > 83%, B > 76%,
B- > 72%, C+ > 68%, C > 60%, C- > 56%, D > 50, F.
Grades ingredients:
Class participation
|
24% |
talk outlines
|
2% each
|
First talk
|
17%
|
| Second talk | 24% |
| Third talk |
29% |
The only accepted method of submitting the
outlines and presentations is in the form of a computer file in a standard
format (plain text, MS Powerpoint, Word XP, pdf, html),
attached to an e-mail message to the instructor.
Paper copies will not be accepted.
Classes (tentative schedule):
- 8/27/12 On Short and Other Talks (pdf).
- 8/29/12 Student Introductions.
- 9/5/12 Talk 1: Robert Bendt ``Title 1''.
- 9/5/12 Talk 2: Karen Bermes ``Title 2''.
- 9/10/12 Talk 1: Hampton Black ``Title 1''.
- 9/10/12 Talk 2: Kevin Blondino ``Title 2''.
- 9/12/12 Talk 1: Jason Buchanan ``Title 1''.
- 9/12/12 Talk 2: Christopher Coffmann ``Title 2''.
- 9/17/12 Talk 1: Patrick Delallana ``Title 1''.
- 9/17/12 Talk 2: Alec Fisher ``Title 2''.
- 9/19/12 Talk 1: Alicia Gomes ``Title 1''.
- 9/19/12 Talk 2: John Kilgore ``Title 2''.
- 9/24/12 Talk 1: John Norris ``Title 1''.
- 9/24/12 Talk 2: Emmet O'Dunn ``Title 2''.
- 9/26/12 Talk 1: Spencer Rosenfeld ``Title 1''.
- 9/26/12 Talk 2: Frederick Thomas ``Title 2''.
- 10/1/12 Talk 1: Matthew Trimble ``Title 1''.
- 10/1/12 Talk 2: Enrique Zepeda ``Title 2''.
- 10/3/12 Talk 1: Robert Bendt ``Title 1''.
- 10/3/12 Talk 2: Karen Bermes ``Title 2''.
- 10/8/12 Talk 1: Hampton Black ``Title 1''.
- 10/8/12 Talk 2: Kevin Blondino ``Title 2''.
- 10/10/12 Talk 1: Jason Buchanan ``Title 1''.
- 10/10/12 Talk 2: Christopher Coffmann ``Title 2''.
- 10/15/12 Talk 1: Patrick Delallana ``Title 1''.
- 10/15/12 Talk 2: Alec Fisher ``Title 2''.
- 10/17/12 Talk 1: Alicia Gomes ``Title 1''.
- 10/17/12 Talk 2: John Kilgore ``Title 2''.
- 10/22/12 Talk 1: John Norris ``Title 1''.
- 10/22/12 Talk 2: Emmet O'Dunn ``Title 2''.
- 10/24/12 Talk 1: Spencer Rosenfeld ``Title 1''.
- 10/24/12 Talk 2: Frederick Thomas ``Title 2''.
- 10/29/12 Talk 1: Matthew Trimble ``Title 1''.
- 10/29/12 Talk 2: Enrique Zepeda ``Title 2''.
- 10/31/12 Talk 1: Robert Bendt ``Title 1''.
- 10/31/12 Talk 2: Karen Bermes ``Title 2''.
- 11/5/12 Talk 1: Hampton Black ``Title 1''.
- 11/5/12 Talk 2: Kevin Blondino ``Title 2''.
- 11/7/12 Talk 1: Jason Buchanan ``Title 1''.
- 11/7/12 Talk 2: Christopher Coffmann ``Title 2''.
- 11/12/12 Talk 1: Patrick Delallana ``Title 1''.
- 11/12/12 Talk 2: Alec Fisher ``Title 2''.
- 11/14/12 Talk 1: Alicia Gomes ``Title 1''.
- 11/14/12 Talk 2: John Kilgore ``Title 2''.
- 11/19/12 Coffee Break / Discussion.
- 11/26/12 Talk 1: John Norris ``Title 1''.
- 11/26/12 Talk 2: Emmet O'Dunn ``Title 2''.
- 11/28/12 Talk 1: Spencer Rosenfeld ``Title 1''.
- 11/28/12 Talk 2: Frederick Thomas ``Title 2''.
- 12/3/12 Talk 1: Matthew Trimble ``Title 1''.
- 12/3/12 Talk 2: Enrique Zepeda ``Title 2''.
- 12/5/12 SPOT Forms / Discussion.
Websites: