Welcome to Senior Seminar

"Why are you here?", you might ask.  Hopefully today will answer all of your burning questions about Bio 495.

Of course the easy answer is this class is required.  But it is required for a reason (we hope).  One purpose for this course is to discuss and practice a vital skill not just for biologists, but really for any professional field - the ability to communicate.  To get us started read the following for next week:

• pages 1-47 in Don't Be Such a Scientist
• this article from the Chronicle on Science Communication

Please also take this Zoomerang survey by the end of this week.  And add at least two items to our Google Docs list of what we think every biologist should know.

And lastly, check out this short video made by Randy Olson, whose book we will be reading this semester:

Wrapping up the semester

With less than three weeks left in the semester I wanted to sum up the projects left for our class:

Video Projects
We will have popcorn and movies for our last class on Wednesday, April 27th.  You will need to submit your video to me before that class, or bring it on a thumb drive that morning.  Because of the size of video files, do not depend on emailing it to yourself.  Next week we will spend some time in class dealing with any technical issues you may be having with your video.

Powerpoint slides
Your individual Powerpoint slides will be due on Friday, April 29th.  You should have 3-5 slides that tell some story about a topic covered in our assessment test that you want to learn more about.  Your slides should be useable for a 5-minute presentation on that topic.  Use this project to practice some of the Powerpoint slide design techniques you have read about or that we have talked about in class.  And remember the story telling tips we have covered in class this semester.

In addition to your slides, you should add a final blog post that describes what you would say if giving a presentation using these slides.  You can use your slides as images in your blog post, or deposit your slides as a Powerpoint file on our course Angel page.

As always, let me know if you have questions.  I can't wait to see your videos.

Start drawing those storyboards

Here is a quick reminder of your assignments for next week's class:

1. Develop the concept for your group video project and be ready to pitch it to the class
2. Start working on your storyboards, which will diagram the shots for your video
3. Read appendix 2 in Randy Olson's book
4. Decide on a topic for your powerpoint slides
5. Read over these "Top Ten Slide Tips"
6. Be sure to read and comment on each other's posts.  And listen to those audio projects

See you Wednesday

Presentations and videos

We have two primary projects left this semester - your group videos and individual powerpoint presentations.  We will not meet in class this coming Wednesday because of the student research and scholarship symposium going on all day that day, but I would like you to do some preparation for both of these projects prior to our next class on April 6th:

1. Write one blog post on some topic that challenged you on the assessment test.  Use this as an opportunity to learn more about a topic in Biology that you think you should know better.  This post is due on April 1st.
2. Check out the science communication page on our AU wiki, and watch the Talking Science video by April 6th.  There are also lots of other good resources on this page for designing powerpoint and poster presentations.
3. Take notes on two presentations from the CAS symposium on March 30th indicating what you thought was done well and what could be done better.  The talks you critique can be from any discipline - they do not have to be science talks.  Be ready to discuss your observations when we are back in class on April 6th.  You can find the schedule for symposium talks here.
4. Work with your video project to decide on a topic for your project and discuss initial plans.  Be prepared to discuss this on April 6th.

See you at the Symposium.

Get busy recording

Here is a quick reminder of your upcoming assignments:

• Email me a current script/outline/plan for your audio recording by this Friday
• Fill in a title for your project on the google doc sign up page
• Sign up for a time when you need a recorder as well

Audio projects are now due on Wednesday, March 23rd.  You should have all of your needed audio by March 16th and have tried some editing so that we can discuss any technical issues.

Good luck and have a great break.  Check back with the blog over the next week or so as I may throw some reading/listening at you.

Let's start recording some audio

In this week's class we will be touching base briefly about your audio projects and then spending most of our time learning how to tell stories with video.  Tim McCarty from the Journalism/Digital Media Department will be joining us again to conduct a workshop on camera technique.

You should come to class with a script for your audio project.  And when you are ready to record some audio use this link to reserve a time with one of our TEAC recorders.  I will post a short video soon showing how to record and download your video to a computer.  You'll find that the TEAC's are very easy to use.

Our assessment test will be available on Angel for you to take soon.  This will include 75 multiple choice questions and you will need to complete it by midnight on Tuesday, March 15th.

Story structure analysis, planning audio projects

Script from Office Hours

In this week's class we will take some time to talk more about story structure and plan for your audio projects.  To prepare for class:

• Choose one of the class blog posts from the past week that you think did a good job of following the three act story telling structure we talked about in class (do not pick your post).  Take notes on how that specific post followed this story structure and be ready to share this information with the class on Wednesday.  Your notes should explain how each act is reflected in that post.  I will not collect these in class, but be sure they are detailed enough for you to walk the class through the post you are analyzing.
• Work with your audio project partner to come up with your project idea, or at least develop a short list of ideas.  Be ready to share this in Wednesday's class.
• If you have not emailed me with the name of your audio project partner, add this information to the audio project sign-up google document using the link that I emailed to you.

I would like to push the final audio project due date to after spring break - March 16th.  We will talk more about the technical aspects of doing this project in this week's class.