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The Senior Year Experience
To pull together the many elements which make up the senior year in our physics major, the department requires students to participate in a seminar, Physics 399. At the approximately biweekly meetings, students and faculty gather around a table to discuss topics running the gamut from scientific ethics to how to give a scientific talk or write a scientific research paper. Our goals for this course are twofold. We would like to give students a "capstone" experience in which they have an opportunity to talk with the faculty and with each other about important aspects of physics culture. We also wish to hone our students' communications skills, in particular their ability to give a scientific talk and write a solid scientific paper.
As an example of the first goal, this seminar gives us a natural venue for discussing the current job climate in physics and alternative career paths. We provide students with advising about graduate programs, but we also encourage them strongly to consider alternative career paths. The latter is achieved both by providing them with an extensive list of careers pursued by alumni/ae of the College, and by a series of approximately three class visits from our graduates. Recent visits have included alumni working in engineering, high school teaching and policy analysis. Students also conduct phone interviews with alumni who are not practicing academic physicists.
We also hope the senior seminar provide students with a way to connect more informally with visiting scientists and speakers. For example, our Philips Visitors meet with students in several informal interactions in addition to delivering colloquia (which are required for senior majors.) Majors can participate in lengthy informal disucssions with eminent physicists (such as Joseph Taylor and Steve Chu) either at lunch, dinner or in a classroom setting. Several students have gotten important contacts for graduate study or job-searches from these interactions.
The most important part of the senior seminar remains the senior paper and the senior talks. The latter is a series of approximately half-hour presentations (twenty-five minute talks plus five minute questions-and-answer periods) conducted by the seniors for an audience of their peers and faculty. We have a preliminary session early in the year in which we instruct students on how to give a scientific talk, then each student works with an on-campus advisor on refining his or her presentation. Most students practice their presentations once or more in front of their advisors, and the majority take the planning and delivery of the talk quite seriously. The format resembles a standard research seminar, but students are requested to pitch the level so that their fellow majors can understand the entire talk. Students use transparencies or other visual aids as is appropriate. At the end of each presentation, a lively discussion often ensues, with both faculty and students asking many questions, and the student speaker making a valiant attempt to answer them.
The senior paper is called paper rather than a thesis because not all students perform original research in physics or astronomy; the paper may be on a library-research topic approved by the department. The primary research supervisor can be located off-campus, but we require students to have an on-campus advisor for the purposes of preparing their paper and presentations. The paper conforms to the usual format for a short scientific paper, and we explicity instruct students in suggested writing styles, appropriate bibliographys and citation formats, the use of equations, and the proper inclusion of figures. The assembled final version is very similar to a manuscript properly prepared for journal submission.
Research Opportunities in Physics and Astronomy
We both encourge and offer the opportunity to all physics and astronomy majors to get involved with meaningful and potentially publishable research. Students interested in a research career can explore the depth of their interest, and try out a particular subfield. We also feel it is important for students interested in other careers to get a taste of what research is really like. For example, some real experience with scientific research would aid the decision making of a graduate who went into government, or assist a teacher who might counsel students on career choices. Also, not infrequently, students discover a real love of research and revise their career plans.
In physics, most of the student research experience is connected with the senior paper and talk, which form the backbone of Physics 399, our Senior Seminar course. All physics majors must complete such a project; about 80% base the paper on original research they have performed (either at Haverford, or elsewhere in the summer), and about 10% write a paper summarizing the research literature on a particular topic. The remaining 10% consists of students working toward a teaching certificate, who are required to put in a very substantial effort in student teaching at local schools. Their experiences and observations, together with readings in the literature on education, often form the basis for their paper. In astronomy, where a senior paper is not required, student research is still strongly encouraged, and enters the students' curriculum as a course (Astro 404). This course is open to Bryn Mawr students: they like their Haverford peers may also do astronomy research as their senior project in physics.
For those doing original research, about 70% begin work with a Haverford professor for 10 weeks in the summer before the senior year, and continue it for academic credit during the school year. In physics, about 10% perform research off-campus (e.g. at an REU site) during the summer before their senior year, and then develop this into a senior thesis under the supervision of a Haverford professor, with continued input from the summer reserch supervisor. The proportion is larger in astronomy because a higher proportion of off-campus opportunities are available, including those at other colleges which are part of the Keck Northeast Astronomy Consortium. About 10% of our students begin original research with a Haverford professor in the senior academic year. The remaining 10% begin original research during their senior year, but in an area outside the direct expertise of any of the faculty. A faculty mentor supervises this research, which must usually be supported by a significant literature research project in order to make a meaningful thesis.
There are also summer research opportunities at Haverford for rising juniors and sophomores, Each year, we encourage students at all levels to discuss their interests with any professor they may wish to work with. Students who wish to pursue summer research then submit ranked lists of the professors they wish to work with. As a department, we consider these lists, and attempt to make the best matches between students and faculty. All rising seniors who wish to do research here are essentially guaranteed a summer position. However, there is no preference given to rising juniors over rising sophomores. In general, we have been able to accomodate the majority of juniors and sophomores applying for summer research, although there are variations due to class size.
During a typical summer, there are about eight students doing research in physics here, of whom six are rising seniors. We have ample funding for summer student stipends. All the tenure-track faculty have outside grants, which generally include funds for stipends. Some students working in biophysics receive stipend support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute through Haverford's Hughes scholars program. Finally, the College has monies to support summer students for projects which are not yet externally funded.
We also strongly encourage students at all levels to apply for off-campus research positions. We rely largely on announcements from REU sites and the like, or summer research opportunities which arise through our professional contacts.
Research opportunities for students in physics differ from those offered in astronomy in one important way. In physics, all members of the faculty perform the bulk of their research on campus, and fold students into these activities (as you will see when you visit labs in Stokes). The astronomers, like most of their colleagues at other colleges and universities, generally use remote facilities. To involve students in astronomy research, then, means taking them with us, and we do. Scores of Haverford students have participated in observing runs at KPNO, the VLA, the Wyoming Infrared Telescope, etc.
We are proud of the quality of research our students complete. It is frequently of quality to merit publication in good journals (Astrophysical Journal, Nature, Physical Review Letters, and the like).