Syllabus: Physics 703 Seminar in Physics

Instructor: Robert Ehrlich

Email: rehrlich@gmu.edu

Phone: x3-1268

Office: 301C ST1

 

 

A schedule of speakers is available at http://mason.gmu.edu/~rehrlich/Colloq_Fall_2012.html

 

Talks will be held on THURSDAYS at 3:15 pm (refreshments at 3:00) either in 163 Res I or JC 325 (see schedule).

 

The purpose of this course is to expose you to interesting topics of current research. Again this semester, I have included several talks on subjects which are outside the traditional realm of physics research. More and more, disciplinary boundaries are being blurred, and students should be aware that there are many areas in which those with training in physics can make important and interesting contributions.  During each talk please consider both the scientific as well as the presentation aspects of the talks. You can learn a great deal about how to give effective talks if you attend lots of talks by others and think about what worked and didn’t work.

 

Requirements

 

To receive credit, you are required to:

1.      Attend at least EIGHT seminars, and

2.      Turn in a filled-out evaluation of each talk you attend – see details below. This form must be turned in within one week after the talk.

 

Forms may be emailed, campus-mailed, or delivered to me at the addresses above.  The purpose of the evaluation form is to ensure that you pay attention and get something out of the talk. You are not required to actually understand the talk, but you should show some evidence that you tried to understand it, and that you thought about how the talk was presented.

 

 

Contents of your evaluation

 

1.      Your name

2.      Date and speakers name

3.      Key points of talk (2-3 sentences)

4.      The most interesting thing you learned

5.      The strongest & weakest aspects of the work presented

6.      Some good and bad things the speaker did

7.      Several questions you would have for the speaker

– or even better that you actually asked!