Chemistry Seminar Syllabus

Purpose

The purpose of the Chemistry Seminar is

to engage students in recent research in chemistry
to develop skills in the oral and written presentation of scientific research
to develop skills in scientific literature retrieval

Chemistry Seminar consists of a series of presentations given by current students and by outside researchers from other universities, industrial and government laboratories.

Procedure

Within the Chemistry Seminar course umbrella, there are three courses for which students may be enrolled: Chem 322, 421, and 422. All three courses have a common meeting time each week during the term, which is Friday from 1:30 to 2:50 pm.

Chem 322 is a semester course for juniors.
Chem 421 and 422 are semester courses for seniors.
Chem 322 is a prerequisite for Chem 421, and Chem 421 is a prerequisite for Chem 422.

On days with an outside speaker, we will meet in GSC-A001 (the Gottwald auditorium) at 1:30 pm. On days with student speakers, we may break up into separate sessions each week, some meeting at 1:30 to 2:05 pm and others meeting at 2:15 to 2:50 pm. You will be assigned to attend one such student section for the term. You may, of course, attend a session at the other time period as well.

Seminar Coordinator

The seminar coordinator is Prof. Samuel A. Abrash.

Office: C-208 Gottwald Science Center
Phone: (804) 289-8248
Email: sabrash@richmond.edu

Participation

Attendance

Attendance at seminar each week is expected. You should make every effort to avoid commitments that would interfere with your ability to be present on Fridays at seminar time. Unexcused absences bring the risk of grade consequences.

There are two types of speakers in the seminar series: outside speakers, who will give a presentation on their research, and students enrolled in Senior Seminar giving a presentation on their chosen subject, which may be a primary research paper or their own research. Outside speakers will begin their presentation at 1:30; most presentations will be about 50 minutes, followed by questions.

If no outside speaker is scheduled, there may be up to four student speakers in a given week. If there are two or more student speakers, they will be divided into two time slots: 1:30 – 2:05 pm and 2:15 – 2:50 pm. All students enrolled in Junior or Senior Seminar are assigned to a particular group, while one or more groups are assigned to a particular student presentation. You are encouraged to attend more if possible. Active participation is expected of all students in Junior/Senior Seminar.

We typically have at least a couple of seminar opportunities outside of the Friday times each year. Your attendance at these sessions is strongly encouraged. They can also be used to make up for excused absences (see below).

Excused Absences

Absences are considered excused for the usual reasons: obligation to a university function (e.g. participating in a track meet or a debate competition) or significant illness. Students who are interviewing at graduate or professional schools are also excused.

However, if you miss seminar for an excused absence, you will be expected to make it up by attending an extra presentation. (Note that a student cannot make up an unexcused absence in this manner.) On the days of student presentations, there may be multiple presentations that you can attend. Normally you would attend only one, but you may need to attend an additional presentation to make up an excused absence. It may not be possible to make up every excused absence, but you should make every effort to do so. If you do not, the Seminar Coordinator will reserve the right to deduct points from your grade.

Please note that if you anticipate going on trips (to visit graduate schools or to interview at professional schools) in the spring semester, you should try to schedule your oral presentation in the fall semester. Naturally, the converse is true: if those trips are in the fall semester, try to schedule the presentation in the spring.

Discussions

It is expected that students enrolled in the Chemistry Seminar course will be able to talk about science in an effective way. Implicit in this expectation is that you will be able to talk extemporaneously, illustrating your thoughts as appropriate with things you write on paper or on a chalkboard or a whiteboard if you are in a larger group. Accordingly, both those who present and those who attend should expect to be involved in the discussions that accompany seminar presentations, and individuals in either group should be ready to "go to the board" to illustrate or explain ideas. Clearly the presenter in any given week might be expected to know more than others in the room about the subject at hand, but it is our expectation that all those present will be involved in such discussions and that each person in attendance is therefore responsible for making his or her own contributions to the ideas and insights that emerge.

In order properly to prepare for involvement in these discussions, each student is expected to get a copy of the paper to be discussed in his or her session that week, and to spend some time reviewing it prior to coming to the seminar period.

Those who attend a seminar are as important as the person who speaks. It is hard to present a seminar without an audience! Active listening is an acquired skill and one that you can develop. As you listen, take notes. Even if you discard the notes as soon as the seminar ends, you are much more likely to retain something useful from the seminar if your hands are involved as well as your eyes and ears. Additionally, as you listen to the presentation, try to formulate at least one good question, and then in the question period that follows the talk, ask it. If several students in each section do this each week, on their own, the experience will be much more enjoyable. It is polite (and appreciated by the speaker) to applaud at the end of the talk and again at the end of the question period.

Junior Seminar

Requirements and Expectations

Students enrolled in Chem 322 are expected to attend each seminar session and to fully participate in the seminar experience. Participation involves reading the research paper before the presentation, attending the assigned presentation, and being involved in the discussion after the presentation.

If you are part of the chemistry and BMB community here, then you are encouraged to attend and participate in the seminar program every semester, whether enrolled or not.

Junior Seminar Grade

Chem 322 is graded on a Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory basis. Regular attendance and full participation are the major basis for the seminar grade. We expect that there will be no unexcused absences and that excused absences will be made up by attending an extra seminar session. Poor attendance may result in a failing grade.

Senior Seminar

Requirements and Expectations

Students enrolled in Chem 421/422 are expected to attend each seminar session and to fully participate in the seminar experience. Participation involves reading the research paper before the presentation, attending the assigned presentation, and being involved in the discussion after the presentation.

Every student in Senior Seminar must, with the guidance of a faculty mentor, prepare an oral presentation and a written report. The oral presentation and written report should involve significant exploration of related literature so as to develop a background and context into which the featured work is set.

The oral presentation is to be given to a group composed of other seminar students, chemistry and BMB faculty, and interested guests. Note again that the purpose of your presentation is to educate those in attendance about the nature of the work, its significance and context, and then to serve as a resource during a discussion time focused on the work you presented.

An electronic version of the written report, including a one-page abstract suitable for distribution to the audience, is to be turned in to the Seminar Coordinator on the Tuesday of the week in which your oral presentation is scheduled.

Students are expected to show initiative and take ownership of their work. They should work with their faculty mentor at the time of topic choice and in the weeks before they present to fully understand the material and how to best convey it to the respective audiences.

Senior Seminar Grade

Chem 421 is graded on a Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory basis with regular attendance and full participation as the major basis for the seminar grade. We expect that there will be no unexcused absences and that excused absences will be made up by attending an extra seminar session. Poor attendance may result in a failing grade.

Chem 422 will be graded on an A/B/C/etc basis. The letter grade is determined by the faculty evaluations of the oral presentation (45%), faculty evaluations of the written report (45%), and seminar attendance (10%). Thus the Chem 422 grade may be based on the written report and/or presentation done during Chem 421. If you have an excused absence, you are expected to attend an extra seminar or you may suffer a grade penalty.

Late submissions of the written report will result in grade deductions: there will be a one-letter grade deduction on the written report for each day the report is late.
Once you choose a presentation date (at the beginning of the fall semester), you are "locked in" to that date. You may petition the seminar coordinator to reschedule your presentation; such petitions are only granted rarely, and only if the faculty mentor agrees. The seminar coordinator reserves the right to make grade deductions, which may be severe, if the rescheduling is deemed avoidable and is done at the last minute.
Of course, failing to give a presentation at all will result in a failing course grade.

Topic and Mentor Choice

The topic for the oral presentation may be either an appropriate primary research paper or your own research, which may or may not have been published.

The topic for the written report may be the same as that of the oral presentation, or on an extensive and substantive literature review article.

A primary research paper (click here for some advice on locating one) should focus on research that is clearly chemical or biochemical in nature and which reports experiments conducted, results obtained, and conclusions drawn from interpreting those results. You should not expect approval for a paper that does not meet these criteria. It is very helpful for you to talk with a faculty member about the papers you are considering before formally selecting one.

You also need to find a faculty member and ask him/her if s/he would be willing to serve as your mentor in preparing your oral and written reports.

To get approval from the Seminar Coordinator, email the following information to the Seminar Coordinator:

the name of your mentor
if the topic for either the presentation or report is a primary research paper, then provide an electronic copy of the paper or a link to the document
if the topic for your presentation is your research, then provide a title for your talk and an electronic copy of either your published paper or attach an MS Word document containing an abstract with annotated references (i.e., with a one-liner describing how each reference is related to your research)
if you anticipate approval from the Seminar Coordinator, then you may also wish to request a date for your oral presentation (see below).

Oral Presentation

General Information

Student presentations will be given in one of two time slots: 1:30-2:05 or 2:15-2:50. The presentation itself should be around 25-30 minutes, followed by about 5-10 minutes of discussion involving both presenter and the audience.

More extensive advice for presenters is provided elsewhere.

Reserving an Oral Presentation Date

You must choose your topic(s)/mentor and submit your presentation dates by the end of the third week of classes.

Once you have a mentor and the Seminar Coordinator has approved your topic, you can choose a date for your presentation. Look at the list of available dates and email your top four choices (two from each semester), in order of preference, to the Seminar Coordinator. Please include the preferred time slot (1:30 or 2:15 pm) for each date. If you do not care which time slot, indicate that as well. Although you are not guaranteed to receive your top choice, requests will be handled in order (i.e., first come first served). When you request a date, also indicate whether you expect to go on interviews to medical school (usually in the fall) or visits to graduate schools (usually in the spring).

Keep in mind that the written report is due on the Tuesday before your presentation date. Late submissions will result in a grade penalty.

Grading Criteria

Presentations will be graded by faculty members who are in attendance. They will assign individual scores to the following criteria:

Understanding of the general subject matter. Did the presenter show an understanding of the material appropriate to an undergraduate chemistry major?
Context of the research paper. Why is the work important? Did the presenter place the work in its appropriate scientific context?
Depth of coverage. Was the subject treated in detail and not superficially?
Organization of the presentation. Was the subject presented in a logical sequence? Did the presentation flow smoothly from one section to the next?
Delivery of the presentation. Was the speaker smooth, confident, comfortable? Was the presentation well paced and at the appropriate volume?
Visual aids. Were they clear and legible? Did they help the audience understand the material? Were figures and tables taken from other sources appropriately cited?
Clarity. On the whole, was the material expressed very clearly by the speaker?

The faculty graders will also assign an overall grade (which may not be a simple average of the individual grades) and may add specific comments to the grading form. These grades and comments will be shared with you within a week of your presentation.

Written Report

Written Report Due Dates

The written report is due on the Tuesday before your presentation date. There will be a grade penalty for every day your paper is late.

General Information

The first page of your written report should be an abstract (your own, not the paper's) in a form ready to be distributed to the audience at your talk: be sure to include the title of your talk, your name, the date of your talk, a brief summary or abstract of material to be presented, and citations of supporting references people should consult who want to know more about your topic. Cite the primary paper first (and label it as “primary paper”) and, separately, the one or two most significant supporting references (label them as “supporting references”). If you list a book, be sure to provide a full citation and to note the page(s) on which relevant material is to be found. The “primary paper” listing will show who did the work; it is helpful to include a statement of where the work was done as well. You may follow any standard format for citations (see Journal of the American Chemical Society, for example), except that it is helpful to add the title of each cited paper.

There is no page limit, but 10-20 pages is typical. You may want to look at review articles such as those in Chemical Reviews or Accounts of Chemical Research for ideas about the format for the paper. If you include figures and/or graphs (and you should), it is best if you integrate them into the typewritten page rather than gathering them at the end of the review.

More extensive advice for report writers is provided elsewhere.

Grading Criteria

The written reports will be graded by two faculty members, your seminar faculty mentor and one other, who will assign individual scores based on the following criteria:

Understanding of the general subject matter. Did the student show an understanding of the material appropriate to an undergraduate chemistry major?
Context of the research paper. Why is the work important? Did the student place the work in its appropriate scientific context?
Depth of coverage. Was the subject treated in detail and not superficially?
Literature cited in the paper. Did the student provide an extensive review of the relevant literature? Was it cited appropriately?
Organization of the report. Was the subject presented in a logical sequence? Did the paper flow smoothly from one section to the next?
Mechanics of the paper. How was the grammar and spelling in the report? Were there typographical errors, evidence of inadequate proofreading?
Clarity. On the whole, was the material expressed very clearly by the student?

Speech and Writing Centers

If you have any concerns about your skills as a speaker, there is a support system in place for you. The UR Speech Center has a range of services to offer, all designed to make you a stronger and more effective speaker, and some of our majors take a speech course somewhere along the line, to build their skills in this area. You need not to have taken a speech course to use the Speech Center. The staff there offers support to students preparing oral presentations; students interested in having help from them can sign up for an appointment on-line. In addition the UR Writing Center is prepared to help with written assignments; and again, appointments for help can be made on-line.

Honor Code

The honor code applies to both written reports and oral presentations. The honor pledge is "I pledge that I have neither given nor received unauthorized assistance during the completion of this work.".

Although you will seek help from your faculty mentor, and perhaps other faculty members and students, all work submitted under your signature in this course is pledged as being your own work. All outside work should be cited properly in your written report. In your oral presentation, you should provide proper attribution for all research, figures, etc, that you did not generate yourself.