EEB graduate student orientation seminar
EEB 5894 Section 003 (Planning for a career in EEB) - FALL 2017
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: This course is graded on an S/U basis. Regular attendance and participation will result in a grade of S.
INFORMATION BELOW STILL REQUIRES UPDATING FOR THE UPCOMING SEMESTER
Tentative syllabus (subject to change)
Date | Presenters | Topic | Resources | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
Aug 29 | Kent Holsinger, Chris Elphick | What do you aim to accomplish in grad school (and beyond)? | NEEDS UPDATEGraduate Certificate in College Instruction Employment Data GradHacker - A blog with advice on graduate school and beyond Grad Traps: Traps to avoid in graduate school, written by a philosopher, but the advice is good for everyone |
Relate to strategies for different career paths |
Sept 5 | Carl Schlichting, Elizabeth Jockusch | University/department structure and resources; Degree ontogenies | NEEDS UPDATE Departmental and University Resources University Resources II |
|
Sept 12 | CONFIRM Paul Lewis | Communicating your work: web sites | NEEDS UPDATE P. Lewis presentation Example files: html-examples.zip |
You should leave knowing more about how web sites work and what options you have for creating your own web site at UConn
|
Sept 19 | NEEDS UPDATE Bernard Goffinet, Kurt Schwenk | What is a dissertation/thesis? | NSF fellowships |
|
Sept 26 | NEEDS UPDATE Pam Diggle, Chris Elphick | Research ethics and regulations |
Nature Editorial on research misconduct |
NSF ethics training/IACUC/IRB/EH&S/BAUR/other lab safety/etc |
Oct 3 | NEEDS UPDATE Eric Schultz, Mike Willig | How does research funding work | Schultz funding presentation |
need to address both NSF/NIH and other agency/foundation sources, cover OSP etc. |
Oct 10 | NEEDS UPDATE Grad panel-Jessie Rack, Lily Lewis, Geert Goemans, Manette Sandor | How to fund your graduate work | Panel discussion | |
Oct 17 | NEEDS UPDATE Mark Urban, Louise Lewis | Communicating your work: how does publishing work | Louise and Mark on publishing Guide to Peer Review (British Ecological Society) |
|
Oct 24 | NEEDS UPDATE Morgan Tingley | Communicating your work: talks, conferences, and networking | Getting a speaker award |
Homework: get set up to edit in eebedia or Aurora |
Oct 31 | NEEDS UPDATE Yaowu Yuan, Janine Caira | Formulating good scientific questions | Alon 2009 on choosing good scientific problems E. O. Wilson on scientific discovery Janine and Yaowu on good questions |
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Nov 7 | NEEDS UPDATE Margaret Rubega, Dave Wagner | Broader impacts, social media, and communication outside academia | How Broad Are Our Broader Impacts? An Analysis How The Culture of Science Engagement is Evolving |
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Nov 14 | NEEDS UPDATE Eldridge Adams | Developing as a teacher | Reading on teaching innovations is here | (also discuss how TA assignments work) |
Nov 21 | THANKSGIVING BREAK | |||
Nov 28 | NEEDS UPDATECindi Jones, Andy Bush | Work-life balance | Notes and links | |
Dec 5 | NEEDS UPDATE Grad/postdoc panel: Kerri Mocko, Matthew Aiello-Lammens, Diego Sustaita, Laura Cisneros | Lessons I learned the hard way | Panel discussion | |
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