Cain Project Support Material for BIOS 581/ BIOS 582- Fall 2007

Summary of the Course
The purpose of the Graduate Seminar in Biochemistry & Cell Biology is two-fold:

• For each student to share information about the work being undertaken in his/her thesis project and receive scientific feedback;
• For each student to practice and improve communication skills for giving seminars, lectures, job interviews, etc., and receive feedback on his/her presentation.
  
  

Course Website: http://www.bioc.rice.edu/bios581/

Schedule of Talks
Microsoft Word format | PDF File

Sample Evaluation Form
Microsoft Word format | PDF File

Graduate Seminar Mentoring in BIOS 581/2 for 2007/08
Welcome back to another year of BIOS 581/2: Graduate Student Seminar. Speakers in this seminar course will again have the opportunity to work with a peer Mentor. The Mentors are senior graduate students and postdocs from your own department. Speakers will be paired with Mentors who are semi-experts in their area of research. The Mentors will assess presentations using the criteria established in the BIOS 581 Speaker Evaluation Form. As a result of their training with the Cain Project and their own experience with oral presentations, the Mentors will advise speakers in the areas of scientific content, delivery, use of visuals, and the handling of questions.

The Mentoring Process
If you are in your 2nd or 3rd year of graduate study, you are required to meet twice with a Mentor (once before and once after your seminar). Your Mentor will contact you by email approximately two weeks before your scheduled presentation. Four to seven days before your seminar, you will meet with your Mentor and “talk through” your presentation. Your Mentor will attend your seminar and schedule a time afterward to give you feedback, using the defined criteria for evaluation.

If you are in your 4th year of study, you are required to meet with your mentor just once before your seminar. If you are in your 5th year of study, you are encouraged but not required to meet with a Mentor. Consult the BIOS581 website at http://www.bioc.rice.edu/bios581/ after December 1, 2007 for the names of this year's mentors. Please contact the mentor you wish to work with at least one week in advance of your desired meeting date. Students in their 6th year and above will be mainly focusing on their thesis and can avail themselves of the thesis help, thesis defense and presentation advising functions of the Cain Project as desired. Please contact Mary Purugganan at maryp@rice.edu.

Advisor input
It is highly encouraged that students give a copy of their PowerPoint presentation to their advisor a week before their talk. This will allow scientific input on the broader scientific perspective and key details of the talk.