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, this course assigns letter grades; 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 will result in a grade of S, which we will translate to an 'A'.
NOTE THAT THE SCHEDULE IS STILL BEING FINALIZED - DON'T TRUST ANYTHING IN THE TABLE BELOW ...
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 outcomes EEB graduate employment |
NSF fellowships |
Sept 4 | Carl Schlichting, Elizabeth Jockusch | University/department structure and resources; Degree ontogenies |
Carl and Elizabeth's presentation (ontogenies and resources) |
Homework: track the hours you work this week and next |
Sept 11 | Paul Lewis | Communicating your work: web sites | P. Lewis presentation |
Homework: complete your web site |
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 E, before Monday morning |
Sept 25 | Grad panel: TBD | 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, Janine Caira |
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, |
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: | 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 | 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