EEB graduate student orientation seminar

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EEB 5100 (Planning for a career in EEB) - FALL 2021

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 75 min, once a week, to discuss topics related to professional development with a rotating cast of faculty, grad. students, or other EEB-connected people.

Meeting time: Tuesdays 3:45-5

Location: TLS 371

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. 31 Chris Elphick,

Elizabeth Jockusch

University/department structure and resources; Degree ontogenies Elizabeth's presentation-Resources
Chris's presentation-Compliance
Homework: (1) Identify, for next week's discussion, 3-5 qualities that you look for in a mentor.
(2) Advance notice: build (or update) a professional web site--complete a draft website to share during class on 21st Sept. Paul Lewis's very helpful instructions will get you started Pdficon small.gif.
Sept 7 Chris Simon,
Sarah Knutie
Mentoring Good mentoring (from Nature)

Getting mentoring (from Science)
Megan Duffy's mentoring plan outline (from Dynamic Ecology)

Homework: Identify, for next week's discussion, 3-5 characteristics of good scientific questions
Sept 14 Dan Bolnick,
Yaowu Yuan
Formulating good scientific questions Alon 2009 on choosing good scientific problems

Schwartz 2008 on the importance of stupidity in research
Founding of the NSF: text pdf
Good and less good reasons for choosing a question
Dan's blog posts on finding inspiration and fads
Predictability of transformative research
100 Questions in Ecology

Homework: Build (or update) a professional web site--complete a draft website to share during class on 21st Sept. Paul Lewis's very helpful instructions will get you started Pdficon small.gif.
Sept 21 Paul Lewis Communicating your work: web sites Homework: identify, for next week's discussion, a person or activity that greatly influenced your learning
Sept 28 Kurt Schwenk, Louise Lewis,
Val Milici
Developing as a teacher Kurt's tips on learning

Tips on engaging students
Tips on how to learn
Benefits of Active learning for inclusivity
Field courses narrow achievement gaps
Specimen-based research courses
Graduate Certificate in College Instruction

Homework: come up with three questions for next week's alumni panel - email to Chris, before Monday morning
Oct 5 Sarah Bois,
Erin King,
Krissa Skogen,
Sacha Spector
Alumni panel: Careers outside academia Homework: Identify at least 1 annual conference or professional society specific to your discipline
Oct 12 Cindi Jones,
Carlos Garcia-Robledo
Conferences and professional societies Homework: come up with at least three questions for next week's grad. panel - email to Chris, before Monday morning
Oct 19 Grads TBA Grad panel: TAing, research & anything else you want to talk about! Homework: track the hours you spend on work this week (for discussion next week)
Oct 26 Jill Wegrzyn,
Mark Urban
Work-life balance

Jill and Mark's slides
10 simples rules for balance
Grad perspective on balance
Achieving balance with kids

Identify at least 2 journals relevant to your discipline; look up the impact factor, read the instructions to authors for each of the journals, and figure out the cost of publishing in each. Also identify at least 2 grants you could apply for.
Nov 2 Bernard Goffinet, Liz Clifton
Writing and Publishing Bernard and Liz's slides

The Writing Workshop
highly recommended by Liz!
Guide to Peer Review (British Ecological Society)

Homework: Read Lopes et al. (2018) (linked below); fill out google form, and identify a piece of science outreach that has influenced you in some way
Nov 9 Margaret Rubega,
Holly Brown (NAS Research Associate in Science Education; EEB alum)
Outreach and communication outside academia Lopes et al. 2018

Lupia 2013

Homework: do all of the following
  • Identify an ethical dilemma you have faced during work/school that you are comfortable sharing with the class
  • Read UConn's code of conduct, especially the Research Principles section
  • Look up the code of conduct for one professional society, meeting or academic institution of your choice
Nov 16 Pam Diggle,
Gene Likens (watch the video here)
Scientific ethics UConn RCR training

Read this blog post
And, either this or this

Homework: bake a pie!
Nov 23 THANKSGIVING BREAK
Nov 30 Kent Holsinger What do you aim to accomplish in grad school (and beyond)?
Dec 7 Elizabeth and Chris Semester debriefing and course feedback

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

Advice for new graduate students

Advice on a range of topics from Science magazine