First-Year Physics Seminar
PHY 1033
Spring 2015

Wednesdays, 11am - 11:50am
VH 180

Faculty

Dr. Laird Kramer
Laird.Kramer at fiu.edu
CP 211
305-348-6073

Dr. Caroline Simpson
simpsonc at fiu.edu
CP 217A
305-348-1565

Course Information

This weekly seminar course will introduce you to a variety of research fields in physics, especially those pursued here in our Physics Department. You will meet and talk with several physics faculty, as well as your fellow physics students and graduate students. There will be informal presentations by faculty and graduate students, and several senior undergraduate physics majors. You will learn how to make the most of your physics education at FIU, about physics career options, and how physics research is done.

One goal of this experience is to help you make the most of your physics degree. A second goal is to encourage scientific discourse throughout your life. We will ask for feedback throughout the course, but fee free to let us know anytime how to improve the course.

Blackboard Shell: We have created a Blackboard shell for the course. You will need to log in; go to online.fiu.edu and login using your MyFIU username and password. This syllabus is posted there, along with assignments and due dates. When we assign something, you will need to post your assignment to the requisite forum in the Blackboard.

Attendance: This is a seminar course and need your input to be successful. Attendance is therefore required and counts towards your grade. You may have one excused absence during the term.

Contributing to the Discussions: This is an informal discussion-based course, so you must not only come to the class, but you must also contribute to the discussions. Contributing includes posing questions, answering questions, and offering opinions, as well as several assignments that will be given out in class.

Seminar Surveys: We will encourage scientific discourse throughout the course by asking you to fill out one-page surveys when we have guest speakers. The goal of the survey is to get you to think about the topic, they should take only a short time to complete. Each survey will be graded on the following scale:

Assignments: During the semester, you will be responsible for the following assignments:

Other assignments may be also be made in class.

Student Presentation: The class will be broken into groups of 3-4 students. Each group will be responsible for one 10-minute presentation on a physics-related topic of your choice. The topic must be approved by one of the instructors. Ideas for topics can come from magazines, newspapers, the web, or your imagination. The goal is to pick a topic that you find interesting and think your fellow classmates will enjoy.

Interviews: One of the goals of the course is to meet people in the physics department. To encourage that, everyone will interview at least one person in the physics department and relay his/her story to the rest of the class. You may interview faculty, researchers, and graduate students. We'll provide a list of candidates; each person may only be interviewed by one person. To get credit, you must post a short (few paragraphs) write-up of your interview to the class in Blackboard.

Grading: The grade breakdown is:

Attendance

25%

Discussion / Assignments

25%

Seminar Surveys

25%
Presentation
12.5%
Interview
12.5%

How to fail this course: In our experience, the best way to do poorly in this class is to miss class and/or miss assignments. If you don't do the assignments (most of which are pretty simple and quick to do, we think) and/or the surveys, you're guaranteed a grade less than 75%, which is a C at best. Ditto for the presentation and interview. And come to class! It's just one hour a week, for heaven's sake!

Interesting Links: Here are links with useful information about careers, topics, meetings, recent discoveries...

American Physical Society: http://www.aps.org
American Institute of Phyics: http://www.aip.org
American Astronomical Society: http://www.aas.org
American Association of Physics Teachers: http://www.aapt.org
Physics Central: http://www.physicscentral.com
National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) sites: http://www.nsf.gov/crssprgm/reu/list_result.cfm?unitid=69
Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internships: http://www.scied.science.doe.gov/SciEd/ERULF/about.html
Society of Physics Students information on careers in physics: http://www.spsnational.org/cup/profiles/index.html

Representative Calendar*
The current semester's calendar is posted in the course Blackboard shell

Week Topic

1

Introduction

Assignment: send three interesting things about the syllabus to both Simpson (simpsonc @ fiu.edu) and Kramer (kramerl @ fiu.edu)

2

REUs: Summer Fun (with pay!)

Assignment: Post information about three REU programs you find interesting to the appropriate discussion forum in Blackboard 4 Color Universe

3

4 Color Universe
Bring a laptop to class

4

4 Color Universe
Bring a laptop to class

5

Guest Lectures: Summer Experiences

Assignment: Interview a "Physicist." Sign up to interview someone in the list posted in Blackboard. It cannot be one of your professors. First come, first pick!

Due date: Submit a short one-paragraph write-up of your interview to Interviews Forum in Blackboard by the due date listed there (usually ~1 month before the end of the semester)

6

Careers with Physics: I can make money HOW?

Assignment: Post information about 3 NON-academic jobs (that ONLY require a physics bachelor's degree) that you find interesting to the Jobs Forum in Blackboard

7

Graduate School? How does that work?

Assignment: Post information about three graduate programs you find interesting to the Grad School Forum in Blackboard

8

Faculty Talk

Assignment: email Simpson/Kramer with the topic(s) on which you would like to do your presentation.

9

Faculty Talk

10

Student Presentation Planning Day

11

Faculty Talk

12

Student Presentations

13

Student Presentations

14 Student Presentations
15

Student Presentations

*Schedule subject to change