Instructor: Bernd A Berg (bberg at fsu . edu),

Office 615 Keen Bldg.,

Phone 644-6246

Office Hours: Monday, Wednesday 2:30 pm to 3:30 pm (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 week before the presentation
  • make short (15 minutes plus 5 minutes discussion) 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.
  • The instructor will provide his evaluation in writing using the same form. He will know the peer evaluations and weigh them, but he is under no obligation to follow them. Your point grade is provided on the form, which you take home together with the anonymous peer evaluations (as far as the latter are released by the instructor).
  • Final grades 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. In order to fulfill FSU's Oral Communication Competency Requirement, the student must earn a C- or better in the course.

  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 (past and tentative schedule):

• 8/27/12 Bernd Berg On Short and Other Talks (pdf).
• 8/27/12 APS Session Chair Guidelines.
• 8/29/12 Bernd Berg Your Working Routine (pdf).
• 8/29/12 Student Introductions.
• 9/5/12 Talk 1: Michael Howard Theory of Everything (ppt).
• 9/5/12 Talk 2: Karen Bermes Integrated Printed Moisture Sensors in Composite Structures (pdf).
• 9/10/12 Talk 1: Hampton Black Electromagnetic Railgun (ppt).
• 9/10/12 Talk 2: Kevin Blondino Transient Four-Wave Mixing on Lead-Sulfide (PbS) Quantum Dots (ppt).
• 9/12/12 Talk 1: Jason Buchanan The Feng Shui of Volcanoes: Ancient Chinese Scientific and Philosophical Theory in a Modern (ppt).
• 9/12/12 Talk 2: Christopher Coffman LABVIEW and its Application for Self-Monitoring Experiments (pptm).
• 9/17/12 Talk 1: Patrick De la Llana Deep Space Travel for Humans.
• 9/17/12 Talk 2: Alec Fisher Physics of Star Formation (pptx).
• 9/19/12 Talk 1: Alicia Gomez Axigluon sample generations for top quark forward backward asymmetry studies (pdf).
• 9/19/12 Talk 2: John Kilgore Microphone Types and Designs (ppt).
• 9/24/12 Talk 1: John Norris Fusion Power (ppt).
• 9/24/12 Talk 2: E. Seamus O'Dunn Quantum Teleportation (odp).
• 9/26/12 Talk 1: Spencer Rosenfeld Geo-Neutrinos: Neutrinos from the Earth's Interior (pdf).
• 9/26/12 Talk 2: Frederick Thomas Thin-Film Superconductors (pdf).
• 10/1/12 Talk 1: Matthew Trimble Planck Satellite (ppt).
• 10/1/12 Talk 2: Enrique Zepeda Galaxy Formation (pptx).
• 10/3/12 Talk 1: Michael Howard Dark Matter, Dark Energy and the Expansion of the Universe (ppt).
• 10/3/12 Talk 2: Karen Bermes Curiousity's Journey to Mars (pdf).
• 10/8/12 Talk 1: Hampton Black NASA's Future Plans (ppt).
• 10/8/12 Talk 2: Kevin Blondino VASMIR: The Future of Space Travel? (ppt).
• 10/10/12 Talk 1: Jason Buchanan Arc-Driven Shock Tube (ppt).
• 10/10/12 Talk 2: Christopher Coffman A Brief History of Mathematics and Physics: An Intertwined Fate (pptm).
• 10/15/12 Talk 1: Patrick De la Llana Science of the Microwave Oven (ppt).
• 10/15/12 Talk 2: Alec Fisher Quasars (Quasi-Stellar Radio Sources) (ppt).
• 10/17/12 Talk 1: Alicia Gomez Extra Dimensions and a Search to Find Them (pdf).
• 10/17/12 Talk 2: John Kilgore Physics of Baseball (pdf).
• 11/26/12 Talk 1: John Norris Eddy Currents and Induction Braking (ppt).
• 10/22/12 Talk 2: E. Seamus O'Dunn String Theory: A Short Introduction (odp).
• 10/24/12 Talk 1: Spencer Rosenfeld Orthogonal Polynomials and Applications to Differential Equations (pdf).
``Orthogonal Polynomials and Eigenvalue Problems''.
• 10/24/12 Talk 2: Frederick Thomas Televisions (pdf).
• 10/29/12 Talk 1: Matthew Trimble Black Holes (ppt).
• 10/29/12 Talk 2: Enrique Zepeda Physics of Martial Arts (ppt).
• 10/31/12 Talk 1: Michael Howard Space Elevator (ppt).
• 10/31/12 Talk 2: Karen Bermes Global Positioning System (pdf).
• 11/5/12 Talk 1: Hampton Black Mars One (pptx).
• 11/5/12 Talk 2: Kevin Blondino Tokamaks and Spheromaks (ppt).
• 11/7/12 Talk 1: Jason Buchanan Theremin Physics (ppt).
• 11/7/12 Talk 2: Christopher Coffman Quantum Computers (pptm).
• 11/12/12 Veterans's Day (No Classes).

• 11/14/12 Talk 1: Patrick Delallana Future Energy Sources for the Common Car (ppt).
• 11/14/12 Talk 2: Alec Fisher Nuclear Interactions in Supernovae (ppt).
• 11/19/12 Talk 1: Alicia Gomez Debunking the 2012 Apocalypse (pdf).
• 11/19/12 Talk 2: John Kilgore The Kasha Guitar (pdf).
• 11/21/12 Thanksgiving Holiday (No Classes).

• 11/26/12 SPOT Forms.
• 11/26/12 Talk: John Norris Femto Photography (ppt).
• 11/28/12 Talk: E. Seamus O'Dunn Artificial Intelligence and Hierarchical Temporary Memory (HTM) (odp).
• 11/28/12 Discussion.
• 12/3/12 Talk 1: Spencer Rosenfeld ``Special Relativity and Minkowki Space (blackboard presentation)''.
• 12/3/12 Talk 2: Frederick Thomas Introduction to Physical Property Measurement System (PPMS) (pdf).
• 12/5/12 Talk 1: Matthew Trimble Science of Fire (ppt).
• 12/5/12 Talk 2: Enrique Zepeda.

Websites:

• Class Website (you are on it): If you forgot to bookmark it, Google Bernd Berg, go to Teaching and find the class website again.
• For download: TemplateLaTeX.tgz. Template for those, who want to create transparencies with LaTeX.

  Unfold with tar -zxvf TemplateLaTeX.tgz. Create pdf with pdflatex DWmass2012.

• Tips on Writing a Short Paper and How to Give Effective Informal Talks by Prof. Michael Morrison, University of Oklahoma.
• Suggestions of possible topics for a science talk, from an Ohio State University class.
• A collection of science websites.
• Useful links (Prof. Horst Wahl), Useful links (Prof. Bernd Berg), Useful links (FSU).

Attendance Policy, Academic Honor Policy, ADA and Syllabus Change Policy:

• University Attendance Policy:


  Excused absences include documented illness, deaths in the family and other documented crises, call to active military duty or jury duty, religious holy days, and official University activities. These absences will be accommodated in a way that does not arbitrarily penalize students who have a valid excuse. Consideration will also be given to students whose dependent children experience serious illness.

• Academic Honor Policy:


  The Florida State University Academic Honor Policy outlines the University’s expectations for the integrity of students’ academic work, the procedures for resolving alleged violations of those expectations, and the rights and responsibilities of students and faculty members throughout the process. Students are responsible for reading the Academic Honor Policy and for living up to their pledge to “. . . be honest and truthful and . . . [to] strive for personal and institutional integrity at Florida State University.” (Florida State University Academic Honor Policy, found at http://fda.fsu.edu/Academics/Academic-Honor-Policy.)

• Americans With Disabilities Act:


  Students with disabilities needing academic accommodation should: (1) register with and provide documentation to the Student Disability Resource Center; and (2) bring a letter to the instructor indicating the need for accommodation and what type. This should be done during the first week of class.

  This syllabus and other class materials are available in alternative format upon request.

  For more information about services available to FSU students with disabilities, contact the:

  Student Disability Resource Center 874 Traditions Way 108 Student Services Building Florida State University
Tallahassee, FL 32306-4167 (850) 644-9566 (voice)
(850) 644-8504 (TDD)
 sdrc@admin.fsu.edu
 http://www.disabilitycenter.fsu.edu.

• Syllabus Change Policy:

  Except for changes that substantially affect implementation of the evaluation (grading) statement, this syllabus is a guide for the course and is subject to change with advance notice.