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Notes from previous START Seminars: Fall 2014, Spring 2014, Fall 2013, Spring 2013 and Fall 2012.
This semester we will focus on grant writing and improved writing skills.
The Wednesday Group
The Year 3 Cohort will also meet on Wednesday to improve learning skills, and work with Word and PowerPoint.
All STARTers may attend on Wednesday, but the Year 3 Cohort must attend the Wednesday sessions.
All Wednesday notes and assignments for the Wednesday group will be reported on this page and distinguished by brown horizontal lines.
Please send the current version of your poster (as a .pdf file) to Leila Bandar (leila.bandar@jsc.edu) by 6:00 p.m. on Monday, 19 Jan 2015.
Attach the file to a well-written email and include me on the cc: line. She will review the posters and respond to you on Tuesday morning. Consider her comments when revising your poster.
Please schedule an appointment with me to print the final draft of the poster you created last semester. Use this Doodle link to schedule a time to print your poster.
Heather came across an informative article about scientific posters; consider exploring Collin Purrington's web site for other helpful ideas.
Review the JSC scholarship opportunities. Please attach a Word document to a well-written email that lists the JSC scholarships you will apply for, a list of the required materials, and a few sentences that describe why you are a great candidate for each of the scholarships you choose.
The Wednesday Group
Activity: Working with the resources in the Willey Library.
- Please send Mrs. Linda Kramer (linda.kramer@jsc.edu) an email that describes what you learned and what else you would like to know about the library.
- Attach a copy of the notes you made in class today.
- Please cc: me on the email.
Melissa Rixon spoke about a summer opportunity for those who are considering medical school in their future. To apply to be an Assistant Director for CollegeQuest, follow this link http://www.nevahec.org/ and look under the “In the Spotlight” section for application information. Read an article from Primarily Vermont magazine that features CollegeQuest at http://nevahec.org/uploads/1417787672.pdf.
We reviewed the use of quotes and the minus sign with search engines; the 'View Tab' in Word, the printing of .pdf files, and a few other things.
- Please put together your best argument for one or more JSC scholarships.
- Each essay should have an appropriate title and the name of the associated scholarship.
- Each essay should start at the top of a new page.
- The footer should have your last name in the lower left and the page number in the lower right.
- Where will you put your name and date?
- Format the document carefully.
- Send a .pdf file to Dr. Daniel Towner; please copy me on the email.
Note: Click on the 'Apply for Student Scholarships' button on the JSC scholarship web page to learn more about the process. Login, look around, but do not submit your essay at this time.
The Wednesday Group
Dr. Karen Madden met the group and discussed academic support services at JSC.
The Wednesday Group
Daniel Towner, Professor of Writing and Literature, will visit the START Seminar on Wednesday to talk about writing.
Lauren Philie, Director of Development and Alumni Relations, will visit the START Seminar on Monday to talk about the JSC Scholarship opportunities.
Please send me your latest draft of your JSC Scholarship essay.
The Wednesday Group
Use of Excel to make a table for tracking daily routines.
Please continue track your time for the entire week. Come by my office on Thursday or Monday and show me your progress.
On Wednesday, please add up the hours for each category for each day and put the results in the spreadsheet created in class today.
I will collect the spreadsheet at the beginning of class.
Essay presentations and editing...
Please complete your online application and submit your essay for the JSC Scholarships.
The Wednesday Group
Leila Bandar, Academic Support
Services, will visit the START Seminar on
Wednesday to talk about time management skills.
Please complete your time management spreadsheet by adding up the time spent in each category for each day.
Format the cells appropriately.
Send me an Excel file, named appropriately, before class begins.
Winter Break
Resumes (or curriculum vitae) were discussed.
There was a review of some features in Microsoft Word: ctrl-shift-space for a hard space, ruler bar, tabs, alignment, line spacing, and space after a line.
Please prepare a resume and a reference list. Put both documents on the same letterhead. No page numbers or footer on the first page; last name and page number on second page; last name, resume completed date, and page number on last page.
Please attach both documents to a properly written email.
The Wednesday Group
Beth Walsh will discuss resumes.
Russ Weis spoke about his ideas for grants.
Please work with your group and prepare a sob story and budget for the items you would like to seek external grant support. The Word document should have the following characteristics:
- An appropriate, informative, short title for the grant (preferably with an acronym, not an initialism).
- Use Word to write one or two paragraphs that describes the problem, the need, and what would result if funding was not secured.
- The authors should be listed in either alphabetical order, or, the order of who did the most work.
- Use Excel to create a budget.
- Print out both documents, bring them to class, and be prepared to describe your project to the others in the class.
The Wednesday Group
Ellen Hill will discuss internship opportunities.
We worked with Excel and used the data each of us collected from our time tracking activity to learn how to use functions and make graphs.
- Use the data from your time tracking activity and develop two informative, well-labeled graphs.
- Send the Excel file to me attached to an appropriate and descriptive email.
- Schedule a time to meet with me to discuss your findings.
Each group will make a short presentation related to their grant project.
Work with SPIN.
- Follow the guidelines from the original resume and reference list assignment.
- Improve your resume and references based on my comments on the first draft.
- Be specific and quantify everything possible – make your resume stand out from all the others.
- Add to your resume the items you will be conducting this summer.
- Add section: Presentations and Participation in Scientific Conferences (list NEIGC, NE-GSA, RACC, NCUR, ASM and others – include dates, but do not use acronyms).
- Add section: Honors and Awards (be sure to list START – but do not use acronyms).
- Avoid acronyms, abbreviations and contractions.
- Submit a printed version in class and be sure to attach the earlier drafts that have my comments.
- Send electronic versions of the revised documents as .pdf files attached to a well-written email. Note: your current version of each of the original documents will have a version number (for example: kanatLeslieResume14.docx) yet the submitted .pdf file should have the following format: kanatLeslieResume.pdf and kanatLeslieReferences.pdf (no spaces, no numbers, nothing unusual or interesting in the filename, and last name first). Be sure to print to an Adobe PDF printer – do not save the file as a .pdf file.
The Wednesday Group
Leila Bandar, Academic Support Services, will visit the START Seminar on Wednesday to talk about learning skills.
The Monday meeting of the START Seminar was cancelled because many of us participated in the Northeastern Section of the Geological Society of America Conference in NH.
The Wednesday Group
Clyde Stats, Academic Support Services, visited the START Seminar on Wednesday to talk about note taking skills.
Monday's seminar introduced the use of the SPIN database for seeking external funding.
The Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE) program, from the National Science Foundation, invites proposals that address immediate challenges and opportunities that are facing undergraduate STEM education. See a short description at http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2015/nsf15023/nsf15023.pdf and the full proposal at http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=505082 and the guidance at http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2014/nsf14588/nsf14588.pdf. It seems plausible to use this source of funding to support some of our projects. What do you think?
The Wednesday Group
We worked with scroll bars in Excel to build models. One example of the type of functionality is shown in a screen shot below.
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Spring Break – please be careful.
- Improve your resume and references based on my comments on the recent draft.
- Please send both files as .pdf files to me.
Make the case for one aspect of the request for funding defined by your group. Each person should have their own presentation. Be sure to use the Assertion-Evidence Structure. Create a ten-minute persuasive PowerPoint presentation with the with the following slides:
The Wednesday Group
We worked on the Assertion-Evidence model for PowerPoint presentations and the following suggestions.Modifications to the graphics will highlight main points:
Presentation shortcuts help tell the story
:
Nasser, Eliza and Steven presented their arguments for funding.
There was a good conversation about presentation style. Please read comments by students at JSC regarding the Assertion-Evidence model for PowerPoint slides; the students respondents represent all years (freshmen through seniors) and many majors.
Please watch this TED talk regarding presentations.
Heather, Shayna, Erika and Liz were awarded an Outstanding Undergraduate
Poster Award at the Geological Society of America Northeastern Section Meeting,
recently held in Bretton Woods, NH, March 23-25, 2015. Nine posters, the top 5%
of 192 undergraduate poster presentations, were chosen as Outstanding. The
results were compiled from the comments and scores of 46 volunteer judges. The
citation for their poster follows.
Murphy, Heather, Shayna Bennett, Erika English and Elizabeth Dolci, 2015. Bacterial Adaptation To An Anthropogenically-Altered, Serpentine-Rich Aquatic Environment. Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 47, No. 3, p.78.
The Wednesday Group
Time was devoted to working with Excel scroll bars for modeling.
PowerPoint presentations regarding the FASTER and AQUA proposals were discussed in class.
The Wednesday Group
First-run practices of PowerPoint presentations were presented to the class.
Shayna and Heather will present on NCUR.
The remaining PowerPoint presentations regarding the grant proposals will be presented.
American Society for Microbiology
115th General Meeting
New Orleans, LA
30 May to 2 June 2015
http://gm.asm.org/
(Expected to attend: Shayna and Heather)
7th Annual Vermont EPSCoR Student Research Symposium
Sheraton Hotel in Burlington, VT
30 March 2015 from 3:00 to 8:00 p.m.
(Expected to attend: Les, Tania, Nasser and seven other non-START students from
JSC)
Vermont Genetics Network Undergraduate Student Career Day
15 April 2015 from 4:00 to 7:30 p.m.
DoubleTree Hotel, South Burlington, VT
Please RSVP to vgn@uvm.edu by 10 April 2015 if
you plan to attend (all VGN funded students must attend)
(Expected to attend: Liz, Les, ?)
National Conference on Undergraduate Research
Cheney, WA
16 to 18 April 2015
http://www.cur.org/ncur_2015/
(Expected to attend: Eliza, Shayna and Heather)
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