PS700
Physics Research Skills
11 Professor Michael Smith
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SWITCH ROOMS/TIMES?
Room change: 11 am Thursdays SPS Room 110 - Yes
OBJECTIVES:
Science report writing
Planning and preparation of research proposal
Presentation skills
ASSESSMENT PATTERN FOR PS700
(1 - 1) CWORK (100 %) - CRSEMK
Requires 5 of:
 (2 - 1) ASSESS (10 %) - Wk13 Coll. Report 1
 (2 - 2) ASSESS (10 %) - Wk24 Coll. Report 2
 (2 - 3) PRES
(10 %) - Outline of Proposal
 (2 - 4) ASSESS (20 %) – Presentation
 (2 - 5) ASSESS (50 %) - Case for Support
Colloquim Report
Week 13 (10%)
Colloquium Report
Week 24 (10%)
Outline of Project Proposal
Week 20 (10%)
Presentation
Week 22 (20%)
Case for Support
Week 24 (50%)
LECTURE SCHEDULE:
Week 1: ------Week 2: Introduction (Lecture 1)
Week 3: History, Organisation of Research Councils + overview(powerpoint)
Week 4: (Colloquium) Report Writing
Week 5: PPARC, Facilities
Week 6: Case for Support, Choice of Proposals, proposals-esprc
PS700
Physics Research Skills
22 Professor Michael Smith
Week 7: Proposal Writing; full economic costing
Week 8: Presentation Methods; charts milestones. (Lecture 7)
Week 9: Examples of Proposals
Week 10:
Information Retrieval
Week 11: Examples
Week 19-20: Workshops
Week 22: Presentations
MATERIAL:
http://astro.kent.ac.uk/mds/Modules
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PS700
Physics Research Skills
33 Professor Michael Smith
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Colloquium Appraisal & Referee’s Reports.
Colloquia are a standard means of passing information between
researchers, as are seminars, conferences, etc. A colloquium normally
means a fairly small group, up to 60, and the speaker will present his talk
in 60 minutes; 50 minutes presentation plus 10 minutes questions and
answers. The speaker will use audio-visual aids, which nowadays means
a PowerPoint presentation. Getting the most out of a presentation does
take some practice and is a skill that has to be learnt. The essence is
to get a good set of notes from the colloquium, which cover the key points
of the talk. These can then be expanded at a later date.
New this year is the referee’s report: paragraphs on the strengths and
weaknesses of the presentation and contents. Would you fund the research
or the further research proposed in the seminar?
For this module students will attend two of the SPS colloquia (or similar
seminars upon agreement with the convenor), each term (September to
December, January to March). The chosen colloquia will cover a variety
of physics and chemistry. At the end of each term the student will submit
a report on one of the colloquia for that term. The report should aim at
the criteria presented below.
The deadline for the first term work is the end of that term. Students will
be very busy in the second term so the colloquia will be chosen from the
early part of the term.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Total word count less than 2200;
Titles and names of speakers of two talks attended;
Choose one talk to write about;
Coverage of all the key points of one talk;
Students may want to structure the report; introduction,
background, questions/answers, conclusions, etc.
The key
objective is to get a coverage of the important features of one talk;
Strengths. What did you like most about the Colloquium? What did
you gain from it? What did you find most valuable, productive,
interesting, enlightening, challenging, etc. about it? What surprised
you?
Weaknesses. What did you like least about the Colloquium? What
did you find to be unproductive (or even counter-productive),
misguided, etc.? How would you have changed these things? What
surprised you in a negative way?
The report should be word processed, a hard copy should be
handed in and a soft copy emailed to m.d.smith@kent.ac.uk.
.
The colloquia for this term are……TBD
Marking System………TBD
PS700
Physics Research Skills
44 Professor Michael Smith
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