START Seminar – Class Summaries for Fall 2014

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25 - 29 August 2014

Notes from previous START Seminars exist: Spring 2014, Fall 2013, Spring 2013 and Fall 2012.

This semester we will focus on the basics of PowerPoint and developing a web page; we will continue to develop skills with Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

See the following two sites about the design of PowerPoint slides:

• A video by Michael Alley regarding PowerPoint presentations.
• A web site by Michael Alley entitled "Rethinking the Design of Presentation Slides: The Assertion-Evidence Structure"

1 - 5 September 2014

Some of the following faculty members from the Department of Environmental and Health Sciences attended today's seminar:

Leslie Kanat
Tania Bacchus
Liz Dolci
Robert Genter
John Pellerin
Brad Moskowitz
Karen Uhlendorf
Hans Haverkamp
Amy Welch
Kevin Johnston
Gustav Verderber
Greg Petrics

Assignment (due 8 Sep 2014): Biographical Statement [1 point]

Please send a well-written email (including a signature block) that has the following information: name, major, city and town where you live (when not at JSC). The text of the email should be a paragraph that describes why you came to JSC, what you will study while you are here, and what you plan to do when you graduate.

 

Either see me, or use the PC Productivity Guide for assistance.

Next week, the Year 1 and Year 2 START students will meet in Bentley 309; the Year 3 cohort will meet in WLLC 216.

Let's plan on taking a group photograph on Monday, 15 September 2014 (we will all meet in WLLC 216).

8 - 12 September 2014

15 - 19 September 2014

Additional faculty from EHS will introduce themselves in class today.

There was discussion about the poster project for this course. A rubric will be posted soon.

Next week, the Year 1 and Year 2 START students will meet in Bentley 309; the Year 3 cohort will meet in WLLC 216.

Assignment (due 17 Sep 2014): Biographical Statement [2 points]

Please send a well-written email (including a signature block) that lists, in order, the names of the two faculty members who you would like to interview for the poster project.

 

29 September - 3 October 2014

Reviewed a technique for finding high resolution images, saving images with appropriate file names, inserting images in Word, creating a three-part figure caption, and creating properly formatted references.

The eraser tool in Adobe Photoshop was introduced; use the '[' and ']' keys to change the size of the eraser. Use the eraser tool to remove extraneous information from figures.

STARTers were assigned faculty members for the poster project.

Information appropriate for the poster is listed below:

• Name of faculty member
• Academic history
• Publications, research and projects
• Position at JSC (including courses, committees, and other work)
• Interests
• Personal history (?)
• Web sites
• QR scan code for an appropriate link
   

Organization of material on the poster:

• Effective use of white space (for example, do not write across the entire width)
• Title of poster (faculty member)
• Author (you)
• Date
• Pictures or figures (at least three); use the following format for figure captions: Figure 1. Figure Title (Author Year).
• References and reference list (publications must also be specified in proper format).
• Font size: 36 point minimum
• Poster size: 24” x 36” using landscape orientation
• Paragraphs, grammar, spelling, punctuation, capitalization…
• Acknowledgements: text and logos

Assignment (due 3 October 2014 at 5:00 p.m.): Figures, figure captions, and references (all STARTers) [4 points]

Create a Word document that includes two figures with three-part figure captions.

Create a reference list that includes appropriately formatted references that related to the figures (see the Referencing Guidelines). An example of the final document may be found in U:\START\kanat\

Please send a well-written email with the Word document attached.

Assignment (due 3 October 2014 at 5:00 p.m.): Biographical Statement (Year 1 and Year 2 START cohorts only) [2 points]

Please send a well-written email that includes your improved and shortened biographical statement.

6 - 7 October 2014

13 - 17 October 2014

Assignment (due 17 October 2014 at 5:00 p.m.): Figures, figure captions, and references – Round 2 [8 points]

Create a Word document with the following characteristics:

• Proper cover page.
• Use of page numbers (none on the cover page).
• Sentences that refer the reader to the appropriate figure.
• Include at least two figures with three-part figure captions.
• Create a reference list that includes appropriately formatted references that are related to the source cited in the figure captions (see the Referencing Guidelines).
• Please send a well-written email with the Word document attached.

20 - 24 October 2014

We will join President Murphy at her home for dinner on Monday, 10 November 2014 at 5:30 p.m.

Assignment (due 24 October 2014 at 5:00 p.m.): Illustrator Poster 1 [5 points]

Please attach your best effort at your first draft of a poster to a well-written email.

27 - 31 October 2014

We will join President Murphy at her home for dinner on Monday, 10 November 2014 at 5:30 p.m.

Assignment (due 3 November 2014 at 4:00 p.m.): Illustrator Poster 2 [15 points]

Be sure to include the following:

• Poster title (faculty member information).
• Two figures (with captions and references).
• Three paragraphs.
• Place holders (for text and imagery).
• Proper style for captions and references.
• Authorship (name and date).
• Submit an 8.5” x 11” printout – do not submit via email.
   

3 - 7 November 2014

10 - 14 November 2014

We will join President Murphy at her home for dinner on Monday, 10 November 2014 at 5:30 p.m.

Assignment (due Wednesday, 19 November 2014 at 4:00 p.m.): Illustrator Poster 3 [30 points]

Include the following

• Poster title (faculty member name, title, and position).
• Three appropriate figures; real photographs of real work.
• Proper style for figure captions and references.
• Authorship (name and date).
• Submit an 8.5” x 11” color printout – do not submit via email.
• Three columns – use the white space.
• Smaller logos; they can be at the top of the poster.
• One QR code (citation not needed).
• Bulleted statements (must use hanging indents).
• Be professional – use Dr. Kanat, not Les.
• Use paragraphs (and white space).
• Add a quote from the faculty member; be sure to contact the faculty member.
• Turn off the hyphenation module.

1. Background (born, colleges, employment, years at JSC, personal life, hobbies…)
2. At Johnson State College (service, courses taught, students, projects…)
3. Professional Work (publications, membership in associations, grants, research activities – projects and findings…)
x. Community Service
x. References

Font-size specifications

48 point: title line (and emboldened)
36 point: subject headings (including the information beneath the faculty member's name)
32 point: all text
24 point: figure captions and references
Use the same font face for all text.
 

Additional comments: loss of two points of for each incorrect occurrence or use of: capitalization, hyphen, long dash, spelling, period, or apostrophe. Maximum loss equal to 30 points.

End of assignment.

17 - 21 November 2014

Work with Illustrator.

24 - 29 November 2014

Thanksgiving Break – please be careful.

1 - 5 December 2014

Work with Illustrator – please bring a current draft of your poster to class.

A template, developed in class, can be accessed here (or on U:\START\kanat\facultyPosterTemplate.ai).

Assignment (due Monday, 8 December 2014 at 4:00 p.m.): Illustrator Poster 4 [45 points]

• Standardize (somewhat) the presentation style based on the examples discussed in class.
• Embolden subheadings.
• Avoid orphan text.
• Figure 1 is always the first figure.
• Put thin borders around figures.
• Center figure captions, and if necessary, break the line appropriately.
• Cite a couple recent(?) publications or presentations – if necessary, ask the faculty member for details.
• Find out more about the faculty member's work at JSC. What do they do here other than teaching and research?
• Consider placing the logos at the top of the poster to allow more room for text.
• A few comments about college degrees:
  i) One graduates with a baccalaureate degree (B.S. or B.A.), not a bachelorette degree. The degree usually takes four to five years of work.
  ii) A master’s degree (M.S. or M.A.) may be earned after completion of a baccalaureate degree. The degree usually takes two years of post-graduate work.
  iii) A Ph.D. applies to anyone who received a doctoral degree, or a doctor of philosophy. Doctorate is a noun, so one may have a doctorate or a doctoral degree (not a doctorate degree). The degree usually takes about four years of research.
  iv) One might also pursue postdoctoral research (a postdoc), that is, a person who holds a doctoral degree may become a postdoctoral scholar (a standard abbreviation for a postdoc does not exist and therefore is not part of one's title). Postdoctoral research opportunities can span from a few months to many years.
• Boston University has a good description of the classification of ranks and titles for faculty appointments.
• Make corrections to the 19 November 2014 version of the poster.
• Submit a color printout of penultimate version of the poster in class.
• Send a .pdf version of the poster (as an attachment to a well-written email) to the appropriate faculty member and ask that individual to look at your poster to ensure the facts and statements are correct and appropriate; be sure to include me on the "Cc..." line of the email.
• Be sure to forward the faculty member's comments to me – I understand that the comments will arrive later in the week.
• Where should we place our name, date and course identifier?
• Use the following format for the title of the poster (but do not use borders):

Upcoming Events

Northeast Geological Society of America
50^th Annual Meeting
Bretton Woods, NH
23 to 25 March 2015
http://www.geosociety.org/Sections/ne/2015mtg/
 

7^th Annual Vermont EPSCoR Student Research Symposium
Sheraton Hotel in Burlington, VT
30 March 2015 from 3:00 to 8:00 p.m.

National Conference on Undergraduate Research
Cheney, WA
16 to 18 April 2015
http://www.cur.org/ncur_2015/
(Expected to attend: Shayna and Heather)

American Society for Microbiology
115^th General Meeting
New Orleans, LA
30 May to 2 June 2015
http://gm.asm.org/
 

Past Events

New England Intercollegiate Geological Conference
106^th Annual Meeting
Boston, MA
10 to 12 October 2014
http://w3.salemstate.edu/~lhanson/NEIGC/Conference.html 

(In attendance: Steven, Steve, Shayna and Heather)

Finals Week

Final Exam: Monday, 15 December 2014 at 4:00 p.m.
 

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