Fall 2012: Astronomy G9003: Research Seminar
For various reasons, I decided to have this class focus on the Astro2010 Decadal Survey. It was yet another experiment and I think it was semi-successful. I certainly learned a lot, but it was not always easy to generate good discussions, and sometimes the class felt rushed.
Sample comments from the evaluations for this class:
"I thought the class was really helpful in presenting an aspect of the profession that you only learn about from people who have been around longer. I'm finding that there are many things you learn in grad school by having the information passed down from older students and advisors. Picking a major topic (decadal survey; submitting a paper; research proposals, etc) like this for each semester might be a good format for the research seminar in the future."
"The annual report [sic] was fun to dissect, but I wonder if it was the very best use of everyone's time."
So definitely some mixed feelings about the usefulness of this class. Throw in some very different opinions about what the best use of research seminar is (both in this set of evaluations and in those from Spring 2011), and it's clear that the debate about research seminar is nowhere near over!
Spring 2011: Astronomy G9004: Research Seminar
A few articles of interest, possibly, for discussions of graduate student professional development:
- The Disposable Academic, one of the Economist's 2010 Christmas Specials (!).
- Changing the Way We Socialize Doctoral Students, by Leonard Cassuto, from the Jan 10, 2011 issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education.
- Beyond the Myth of the Perfect Mentor, by Linda Hill and Nancy Kamprath, published by the Harvard Business Schoool.
- The Care and Maintenance of Your Adviser, by Hugh Kearns and Maria Gardiner, from the Jan 27, 2011 issue of Nature.
Sample comments:
"I really appreciate that you made the class less about the research that we're specifically doing (I think our advisors are best to discuss this with) and more about research skills in general."
"I really liked how the course focused on how to present your research to others. It helped us become better researchers without us just going around and talking about what we did that week. Perhaps a way to enforce this next semester would be to make a few people each meeting give a pizza-lunch type presentation just so we keep practicing giving presentations."
Fall 2010: Astronomy C1403: Earth, Moon, and Planets
Thanks to Mahmoud Samori for pointing out the following review of my class from CULPA, which I'd never heard of:
"Marcel is a great professor, his lectures are super funny and are always enjoyable to go to, I highly recommend him if you actually want to learn about astronomy. He seems very interested in 2012 and the end of the world. There are only 4 homework assignments which are pretty easy. His quizzes are pretty tough if you don't go to lectures or study. You need to read everything from the book. The midterm and final were quite easy as long you put the work in to study. He is a really nice guy and he is always available to answer questions, and his sense of humor is great. This class isn't easy, but at the end of the course you actually feel like you learned something useful."
See the full review here. For the record, I'm not that interested in the end of the world, and there were only three homework assignments!
I found another CULPA review here. One telling quote:
"In terms of the class itself, the topics covered are just enough to give you a good understanding of the universe, physics, and ratios/scales. Anyone can understand it if you pay attention. Yes, the quizes can sometimes throw you for a loop because he expects you not only to know the material from the text and lectures but also how to apply them in other ways--taking the formulas and laws and using them to explain astronomical happenings in your own words, essentially."
I'm sure there will be some negative reviews there soon, but I plan not to check...