|
Dr. Hood's
|
 |
|
Dr. Hood's
|
|
The
Purpose
Why
are we doing this? Basically to become introduced to the kinds of
biological research conducted by research scientists and to learn something
about some biological topic.
What
you need to do
Simply
attend
one of Loyola's Biology Research Seminars, most of which are scheduled
during the window on a Tuesday or Thursday (the schedule will be posted
soon). Listen to what the speaker has to say about his or her research
and do your best to understand the questions being asked, the methods,
the basic results obtained, and the future work to be done.
You will need to write-up a 1-page report (see below) and turn it
in at the very next lecture class.
The
Write-up
The
write-up has two purposes -- a) to provide a record that you
attended a seminar and b) to give you an opportunity to practice
thinking and writing about how scientists conduct research. The idea
is not that you will devote a huge amount of time to this (limit is
1 typewritten page), but that you simply report what you heard and
make some comments about what you got out of the talk. You should
include the following:
I am especially interested in you making your own personal comments, noting various aspects that you found interesting, too technical, or even boring. The titles of many of the talks are technical and can be intimidating, so go to the talks with an open mind to listen to what the speaker has to say about their research. Usually speakers explain their research in pretty accessible language. Finally, please note that the seminar room is very DARK when the lights are turned-off and its hard to write notes. I don't really think you need to write extensive notes, anyway! Just sit there and listen and think, and jot a few notes when you need to. You might plan to write-up the presentation as soon after the talk as possible, so you don't forget the main points.Speaker's Name, Title of the Seminar, and Date What Question(s) were they investigating ? What Methods did they use ? What did they discover ? What new questions or approaches will they pursue in the future ? What did you get out of the talk ?
The
assignment is worth 10 points. To get the full 10, you
need to attend one seminar (from beginning to end) and turn-in an acceptible
report at the very next lecture class meeting. If your report is
not understandable or has many obvious errors, I'll return it to you with
comments for a re-write. You get 0 if you don't
complete the assignment (attend and write-up a seminar) by the end of the
semester.
Some
Important Comments
I'd
like to make a few comments about attending a Research Seminar, so
that you understand how they are conducted and what's normally expected.
A seminar might seem like a "normal" lecture in one of your classes, but
really is different and rather special. The speakers are invited
from other universities and are our guests. They are presenting the
results of their research. One of our faculty will introduce the
speaker, giving some information about their background and where they
are now. Speakers usually have slides and will be talking for about
45 to 50 minutes. At the end of that time, they sum things up with
some conclusions and thank the audience (the lights usually come up). This
is not the end of the presentation! The next few minutes (usually
only about 10 min.) is the question and answer session, which is
really the most important part of the talk. Anyone from the audience
can ask questions, which the speaker tries to answer. You need
to stay to the end of the question period.
We need to remember that the speakers are our guests and they expect that the audience members will be there at the start time, listen carefully to their presentation (not talking to their neighbors), and stay to the end -- which includes the question period.
<= Return to Biol of
Orgs Homepage