Course Objectives:
To prepare you to speak in front of an audience on chemical
subjects.
Assignments and Tentative Schedule:
Jan 16 Distribute evaluation sheets,
schedule, define rapporteur,
Piaget's
theory of learning,
Bloom's
taxonomy,
Perry
stages of cognition.
Jan 23 Discussion of J.F. Bunnett J.
Chem. Ed. 1995, 72, pg 1119, and Beall
& Trimbur, Chapter 9.
Review evalution form, SII assessment,
rapporteur report.
Practice demonstrations.
Friday, February 15 Select Accounts of Chemical
Research paper
Feb 20 Prof. Sam Niedbala Lehigh University Chemistry/Orasure Likely topic: Diagnostic tests for Tuberculosis
Feb 27 Student talks and written summary, Accounts of Chemical Research. 15 min. Written outline.
March 6 No class--Spring Break
March 13 Turn in rapporteur report, evaluation
conference, discuss article assigned.
Friday, March 22 Select papers from ACS Journal, written summary including two references
March 27 Prof. Alan Goldman Rutgers University Chemistry Functionalization of Carbon-Hydrogen Bonds by Transition Metals Complexes
April 3
April 11
Evaluation:
Written Summaries
15%
Evaluation and Rapporteur
reports 15%
Two 15 minute
talks
40%
30 minute
talk
30%
Papers selected for student presentations must be no more than
"one year old"; that is, they must have been published after
January, 2005. The final 30-minute talk must be based on a
paper from either J Amer Chem Soc or the ACS publication
that is the premiere journal of the subdiscipline, for example,
Inorganic Chem or J Org Chem. Some non-ACS
publications that have historical significance can be used, such
as J Chem Phys and J Biological Chemistry.
Responsibilities:
Each member of the audience must come to the seminar
room with enough evaluation forms for all talks. The first
page of the evaluation form must be initialed and dated.
With every talk the speaker must distribute
to each member of the audience a written outline that includes
the title of the talk, date of the talk, name of the speaker,
and journal article (author, title, and citation). The
outline will also indicate how the speaker used ideas
about learning (Piagetian learning/Perry's levels/Bloom's
taxonomy) in preparing the talk. (For the second and third
talks one copy of a written summary of the article must be also
submitted.) The speaker is responsible for arranging all
audiovisual materials and hand outs. The speaker must plan
the talk to fit the allotted time; talks that are too long or
too short will be receive lower evaluations! After the
allotted time for the talk there will be a brief question and
answer period. Then the speaker and the professor will
leave the room.
An envelope bearing
the speaker's name will contain the name of the
rapporteur. The primary job of
the rapporteur is to gather the
evaluations of the audience and write the rapporteur
report, which is a summary of comments, criticisms, and
suggestions for the speaker. After the rapporteur
is identified, the rapporteur will lead a discussion of the
talk, roughly five minutes long, going over the items in the
evaluation form. The audience members may write new
comments on the form based on the discussions. When the
rapporteur is satisified, he or she gathers the evaluation forms
(and written summary) and places them in the envelope. The next speaker summons the professor
and speaker to return to the room.
The rapporteur should evaluate the content
and presentation of the talk, its appropriateness for the
audience, how well it reflected the material in the article, and
how well the speaker followed the outline in giving the talk.
The report should include suggestions for future talks.
The rapporteur report should be one-page long,
singled-spaced; it must include the name of the speaker, the
title of the talk, and the date of the talk--it must NOT contain the name of the
rapporteur.
One week after the talk the rapporteur
submits two copies of the report .
The rapporteur meets for roughly ten minutes with the
professor to discuss the rapporteur report. The rapporteur
returns the written evaluations and summary. After the
meeting with the rapporteur, the professor meets with the
speaker for roughly ten minutes to present the speaker with his
or her copy of the rapporteur report; they review the report and
evaluate the talk. The professor retains one copy of the
rapporteur report and either an outline or summary for his
records. The professor returns to each audience mmeber the
first page of the evaluation form.
Variations: For
outside speakers a rapporteur team will be appointed to write
the rapporteur report. The seminar students will meet
briefly following the talk to review the evaluation, and the
team will collect the forms. At the next class meeting the
rapporteur report will be read and discussed.