The aim of these courses is to provide you with
an opportunity
to learn in more depth about a topic in physics or a physics-related
field
that particularly interests you, and at the same time gain experience
in doing
literature research, preparing a scientific presentation, and writing
a scientific article.
My role as instructor will be to help you choose an appropriate topic,
help answer questions that come up as you research this topic,
and provide feedback on the drafts of your paper and your presentation.
My intention is to provide detailed feedback
on not only the scientific content of your paper, but also its style
and use of language. I will give you comments on your initial draft and
then reread the revised version (the latter being
what the grade will be based on).
The paper should be submitted as either a PDF file
or put up as a web page. It should be "scientific" in style, probably
with
an abstract, introduction, the body, and then a conclusion
and references. But what matters to me more than the precise style is
the clarity and accuracy of the presentation.
Presentations should be created on the
computer (e.g. in powerpoint or whatever other software you want).
They will be 25 minutes long, with 10 minutes for
discussion. I strongly advise you to practice your talk
beforehand.
The final papers, as well as presentations,
will be posted on the class web page as they are completed,
although each student needs to agree with the posting of his or her
material beforehand.
You should work individually.
The paper for an individual
should contain at least 5 "normal" pages of text (excluding figures and
references). Please make sure
to write all the text yourselves. Of course,
links to web pages or other information are good as appropriate.
Week 1 : October 4 : Introduction to class, discussion of
course structure.
Week 2 : October 11 : Finalize topic selection and presentation
date.
Available dates for
presentations are 11/8, 11/15, 11/22, 11/29, and 12/6.
Week 3 - 5 : October 18 - November 1 : Research and
presentation development
Students do research into topics,
corresponding with instructor
by email as needed, and begin draft of paper and presentation.
There will be no class meetings during this period ... 10/18,
10/25, 11/1.
First draft of paper must be
received by me at
least one week before
the presentation to allow time for feedback. Thus the students giving
the first talks (on 11/8) will have to get something to me prior to
11/2.
Week 6 : November 8 : Presentations begin.
I anticipate 2, possibly 3, talks pers session.
Weeks 7 - 10 : November 15 to December 6 : Presentations
continue.
Students prepare final
version of paper
after feedback on draft
and on presentation.
Finals Week :
The final exam time for this course is
10:30-12:20 p.m.
Thursday, Dec. 15, 2005. I do not anticipate meeting at this time
unless there are presentations that cannot fit into the above dates.
Please keep this time open
until the
schedule has finalized.
Tuesday, November 8 : Kevin
Daily on Ice Mono-layers.
Tuesday, November 15 : Ryan
Jones on Solar Technology, Kamil Michnicki on Neutrino
Oscillations, and Craig
Dowell on Magnetic Resonance Imaging.
Tuesday, November 22 : Tomasz
Biediadzinski on Quantum
Computing, and
Michael Nickerson on Gravitational
Waves.
Tuesday, November 29 : Mark McClelland on Type II
Superconductivity, Adam
van Etten on Tokamaks and
Fusion, and
Mayumi Fugami on Femto-Second
Frequency Combs.
Tuesday December 6 : Jessica Mitchell on The Nature of Neutrinos...Dirac or
Majorana, Caleb Mathieson on
Dark Matter, and Thea Steele on
The Planck Satellite and Cosmology
Thursday
December 15 : Jessica Baumgaertel on Searching for the Higgs Boson.
Your course grade will be based on
attendance
and participation
in class sessions (approximately 20%),
your paper (approximately 40-50%) and your presentation (approximately
40-30%).
A grade of 0.0 will given to
anyone not completing both their
paper and presentation.