EEB graduate student orientation seminar
EEB 5100 (Planning for a career in EEB) - FALL 2018
This 1 credit seminar course is intended to provide orientation information to incoming EEB graduate students, although it is open to other students; we strongly advise new students to take it. The course will meet for about an hour a week, with 2-3 faculty or a small panel of other EEB-connected people discussing a given topic each week.
Meeting time: Tuesdays 3:45-5
Location: Bamford Room (Torrey 171B)
Course coordinators: Elizabeth Jockusch, Chris Elphick
Grading: Officially, letter grades are assigned in this course; in our minds, it's graded on an S/U basis (but there are significant paperwork hurdles to doing that officially). Regular attendance and participation constitutes satisfactory performance, for which students will earn an 'A'.
Tentative syllabus (subject to change)
Date | Presenters | Topic | Resources | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
Aug 28 | Kent Holsinger | What do you aim to accomplish in grad school (and beyond)? | Kent's presentation on career paths EEB graduate employment |
NSF fellowships |
Sept 4 | Carl Schlichting, Elizabeth Jockusch | University/department structure and resources; Degree ontogenies |
|
Homework: track the hours you work this week and next |
Sept 11 | Paul Lewis | Communicating your work: web sites | ![]() |
Homework: complete your web site and send a link to Paul (cc to Chris and Elizabeth) |
Sept 18 | Jill Wegrzyn, Andy Bush, Jason Lech |
Work-life balance | In defense of downtime Greedy institutions, overwork, and work-life balance (Sullivan 2013) |
Homework: come up with three questions for next week's panel - email to Chris, before Monday morning |
Sept 25 | Grad panel: Sam Apgar, Dipanjana Dalui, Kevin Keegan, Katie Weeks |
Courses, committees, TAing, getting started | Panel discussion: come with questions | |
Oct 2 | Louise Lewis, Annette Evans |
Developing as a teacher | Louise and Holly's presentation on teaching Discussion participation rubric |
|
Oct 9 | Kurt Schwenk, Dan Bolnick |
Formulating good scientific questions | Janine and Kurt's presentation on choosing questions Kurt and Yaowu's handout on choosing research questions |
|
Oct 16 | Alumni panel: Sacha Spector, |
Careers outside academia | Ecological careers at NGOs | Panel discussion: come with questions |
Oct 23 | Chris Simon, Sarah Knutie |
Mentoring | Science Careers: Getting mentoring Nature: Good mentoring |
Homework: Conduct a Pivot search related to your research interests; identify at least 3 grant programs (excluding NSF) where you can apply for funding |
Oct 30 | Carlos Garcia-Robledo, Jeff Seeman, Anna Sjodin |
How does research funding work | Carlos's funding presentation Funding info from Eric Schultz |
Homework: come up with three questions for next week's panel - email to Chris E, before Monday morning |
Nov 6 | Grad panel: Becca Colby, Eliza Grames, Diler Haji, Andrew Stillman | Getting started in research | Homework: Identify 3 journals and 1 annual conference specific to your discipline; look up the impact factor and read the instructions to authors for each of the journals. | |
Nov 13 | Morgan Tingley, |
Communicating your work: conferences and publishing | Getting a speaker award How to network |
Homework: identify an ethical dilemma you have faced during work/school that you are comfortable sharing with the class |
Nov 20 | THANKSGIVING BREAK | |||
Nov 27 | Pam Diggle, Gene Likens |
Research ethics and regulations | Nature Editorial on research misconduct Biological Conservation Editorial on coauthorship |
Homework: Identify a piece of science outreach that has influenced you in some way |
Dec 4 | Margaret Rubega, Dave Wagner, Tanisha Williams |
Broader impacts, social media, and communication outside academia | NSF letter on broader impacts NSF web site on broader impacts |
|
Useful readings:
Some modest advice for graduate students: Steve Stearns and Ray Huey
The full exchange is on Ray Huey's page: http://faculty.washington.edu/hueyrb/prospective.php
Stephen Stearns's later reflections: http://stearnslab.yale.edu/designs-learning
Nature editorial on life outside of academia
Nature perspective on choosing alternative careers