CHEM-465-011 SENIOR SEMINAR

Spring 1999

Dr. Steven D. Brown
105 Brown Laboratory
sdb@udel.edu, x-1247

Objectives: Provide undergraduate chemistry and biochemistry majors an opportunity to give a scientific presentation, become a bit more familiar with the chemical literature, and learn about new developments in the world of chemistry.

Format: All students will give a 15 minute presentation to the class, if possible on their undergraduate chemistry or biochemistry research project. If you have not carried out undergraduate research, you should plan to prepare a presentation based on an article from one of the journals listed below.

Schedule of the presentations will be determined by lottery, with two presentations per class period. Volunteers will be accepted for the first week 's presentations.

The tip sheet provided gives helpful hints and suggestions for organizing the talk and laying out transparencies.

You may obtain up to 15 transparencies free of charge from the Chemistry Storeroom for use in this course.

 Generally, a presentation will be organized in four distinct parts:
      1. Introduction – Here, you clearly define the problem being addressed in your presentation and provide sufficient background to highlight the importance of the results.
      2. Results - Describe the results using overhead and other visual aids as needed.
      3. Discussion - Critically discuss the results.
      4. Significance - Give the importance of the results and their significance and how the results contribute to our scientific knowledge. What are the prospects for the future?
The two students who are scheduled to present talks the following week will be discussion leaders for the talks given each week. The discussion leaders will be responsible for leading a 5 minute discussion following each presentation (i.e. questioning, commenting, evoking questions, etc. about the content of the presentation).

Each student will complete and turn in an attendance/evaluation form for each presentation.

If your presentation is based on a journal article, it must from one of the journals specified below. Also, the article that you choose for your talk must have been published after January 1, 1998. Presentations based on short articles from any of these journals will work best, as longer articles will take too much time to cover and you will overrun your 15 minutes and be stopped by the Session Chair (i.e., me). The topics (or articles) for each presentation must be approved by the instructor in advance.

On the Monday prior to a presentation, authors MUST submit to the discussant a hard copy of all transparencies to be used in the talk on Wednesday. This will permit the discussant to prepare for the question period.
 
 
 
 

Journals:

Journal of the American Chemical Society (Communication)

Journal of Biological Chemistry (Communication)

Journal of Organic Chemistry (Communication)

Journal of Physical Chemistry A & B (Letter)

Inorganic Chemistry (Communication)

Organometallics (Communication)

Analytical Chemistry

Applied Spectroscopy

Science (Report on a chemical or biochemical topic)
 
 

Schedule: 2/10/99 First meeting - discussion of syllabus and tips.  The seminar lottery will be conducted.

2/17/99 Topics are due. If you are reporting on a journal article, you must submit a copy of the article along with the title of the presentation.

2/25/99 to 5/19/99 Scheduled presentations. Excludes 3/31/99 - spring break

 Attendance: You should plan on attending all scheduled classes and presentations and on showing up on time. More than one unexcused absence during the semester can result in a "failing" grade for the course. See the instructor promptly with your excuse should you miss a class. Note that medical excuses will require a letter from the physician.

Grades: Grades will be based on the quality of your presentation (as judged by your peers in the course and the instructor), your performance as a discussion leader, attendance and punctuality. An inadequate performance in any of these areas could result in a failing grade for the course. The grading criteria are as follows:
         seminar quality:      80%
         discussion             10%
         attendance            10%

A grade of "pass" will be entered in C465-011 if a student earns 60% of the possible score or higher.