Physics 399 -- Senior Seminar - Fall 2008/Spring 2009

Fall Syllabus

Spring Syllabus

Meetings will be held Wednesdays 2:00-3:30 in KINSC L205, except for talks as noted.

All course readings and guidelines are posted on Blackboard

FALL TERM

Suzanne Amador Kane (office: KINSC L103, X1198, email: samador)

The physics faculty welcomes you to Senior Seminar! In this course you will practice writing a scientific paper; learn how to give a scientific presentation; hear lectures by eminent scientists and interact with them; learn more about careers available to you when you finish at Haverford; get into contact with alums who have gone in career directions of interest to you; learn about graduate school and how to go about selecting and applying to schools; and participate in discussions on topics relevant to science.

The course meets on many Wednesdays (2:00-3:30) throughout the semester, but with several other special events. Copies of all readings assigned in the course and other useful stuff as well are available in the Physics Lounge in the black binder marked Senior Seminar. A second binder contains listings of Haverford physics grads from years past, their present job titles and contact information. That binder also contains reports on some of those alums written by senior seminarians from previous years. You will find these to be very interesting.

Course Requirements (Fall)
• Attend all scheduled meetings of the seminar.
• Attend Philips visits and department colloquia. We hope you will also attend the informal meetings with our visitors. They enjoy talking with students and these informal gatherings are a great way to find out more about speaker and what he or she is up to.
• Read assigned selections and participate in class discussions.
• Contact two Haverford physics grads who are in non-academic jobs (you may include no more than one grad student), discuss their careers with them and prepare a one-page report and a brief (5-10 min.) presentation for the rest of the class. Reports will be graded only on a credit/no credit basis, but hand them on the date of the presentations for full credit. Also keep in mind that they will go into the binder, so following cohorts of physics seniors will be reading them. The presentations are scheduled for November 12, so you should begin the process of selection and contact as soon as possible.
• Write a short paper consisting of a preliminary version of the introduction and background sections of your senior paper (4-5 pages typically), a short (one page) progress report on the actual status of the project, and a bibliography that puts your work in its proper scholarly context. This is due at the end of the semester.
• Give a brief (10 min.) informal presentation to the seminar about the intro/background part of your senior paper project in early December.

Grading

You will receive one grade at the end of the academic year for Phys 399 as a whole. (The grade of CIP, course in progress, will besubmitted at the end of the fall semester provided all fall requirements were met.) The physics faculty working together assigns grades in the senior seminar according to the following approximate weighting factors:

A reduction of 0.1 grade point will be applied per unexcused absence if more than one occurs per semester. (This includes attendance at required colloquia and senior talks.)

Approximate Fall Schedule

SPRING TERM

Spring: Steve Boughn (office: Observatory, X1146, email: sboughn)

The physics and astronomy faculty welcomes you back to the spring semester of Senior Seminar!

In this semester, you will complete writing your Senior Paper, with feedback from two faculty members, and deliver your Senior Talk.

You are expected to participate in any departmental colloquia, and are encouraged to interact with our speakers through the luncheons, dinners and other opportunities for conversation.

Course Requirements (Spring)

• Attend all scheduled meetings of the seminar.
• Attend the department colloquia and student Senior Talks
• Read any assigned articles and participate in class discussions.
• Carefully prepare and deliver a 30 minute Senior Talk.
• Write your Senior Paper according to guidelines posted on Blackboard.

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DRAFT SPRING SCHEDULE - Physics 399

January 21	First organizational meeting
January 28
February 4
February 11
February 18
February 25
March 4
March 11	BREAK
March 16-20	APS March Meeting
March 18	Senior Talks (astronomy & physics double majors)
March 25	Senior Talks
March 27	Visit of Alex Rudolph (Astronomy talk);  Bruce Partridge Symposium on March 28
April 1	Senior Talks
April 8	Senior Talks
April 15	Senior Talks
April 18	Saturday 5 p.m.; Firm deadline for first draft
April 23	Thursday: First reader returns revised first draft to student
April 29	Wednesday: Revised version of Senior Paper to first and second readers, noon
May 4	Monday: Check to see if additional changes are needed for the final version
May 7	Thursday: Final version submitted to first reader by noon

Senior Paper Readers:

Here are the first and second readers for your Senior Papers (draft):