Chemistry 4011/8011

Mechanisms of Chemical Reactions

[Syllabus] [Schedule] [Lecture Notes] [Exams] [Problem Sets, Workshops, and Section Questions] [Group Presentations] [Grades]

Group Presentations (8011 Only)

Students registered for Chemistry 8011 are required to give a brief, 15-minute oral presentation that reviews a topic of current scientific interest in chemical thermodynamics and/or kinetics, and gives examples of some science on that topic. Students will prepare and present these in groups of four. In addition, students will choose to complete a quiz question from one of the sessions they've attended.

Detailed Instructions:

1. Form a group of four students. You all must be able to attend at least one of the presentation periods together as a group (Wed, Dec 6, 6-8 pm; Mon, Dec 11, in class; and Wed, Dec 13, in class), and at least two sessions individually (see #7 below).
2. Think about a presentation topic. There are some examples to choose from below, but you are encouraged to make up your own. In general, your topic must illustrate some principles of thermodynamics or kinetics we covered in the course. Feel very free to talk with Andy, the TA, future/present research advisors, or other graduate students about this.
3. Register online here. This link will take you to a webpage to fill out. You'll need to input the schedule/availability of each group member and your research topic choice at this site--make sure you know all of that info before you go to the site.
4. Check this page soon after to see if you've been registered. Scheduled presentation times will be posted on the same chart in a week or so.
5. Prepare your presentation as a Microsoft PowerPoint file. In addition, prepare a title and 1/4-page abstract in Microsoft Word that can be distributed to the class at the beginning of the presentation period. E-mail the the abstract to Andy by 5 pm the day before your presentation. You can transfer your presentation to Andy's laptop by CD or USB memory stick in the ten minutes before the presentation period begins, or e-mail it by 5 pm the day before.
6. Give your presentation. (See the guidelines below.) The TA and Andy will evaluate you using this gradesheet. Your presentation will be worth 120 of the 150 total points for the presentation assignment.
7. On December 13, one quiz question from each presentation period will be posted to the web. Choose one of these questions to answer and turn in your written answer at the Final Exam. Because you won't be able to answer a question based on your own topic, you should plan to have attended at least one presentation session in addition to the one you present in. (And, of course, the more you attend, the more choices you will have for the quiz.) This quiz will be worth the other 30 of the 150 total points for the presentation assignment.

Guidelines for Preparing and Presenting:

• Your presentation should include a conceptual overview of the topic (~5 min), followed by a review of one to three examples from the literature of how the idea has been applied, demonstrated, or even refuted (~10 min).
• The central goal of your presentation is not to show how smart you are, or how well you've researched your topic. It is to illustrate a few ideas to an audience of fellow students in a clear, concise way. Don't aim to impress. Aim to communicate.
• You should expect to read 4-8 articles in preparation for the presentation, though I don't expect you to show figures or data from them all. Simply searching the web is one way to prepare, but a better way may be to search for reviews or articles in high-profile journals (like Science, Nature, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, or the Journal of the American Chemical Society) in CAS' Scifinder Scholar, ISI's Web of Knowledge, or if your topic is biological or health-related, PubMed.
• Prepare your presentation in PowerPoint, with the understanding that the slides will be posted to an internal website. Ordinarily, copying images or figures from sources and publishing them somewhere else is a violation of copyright; in this case, however, we will not be making the materials public, and because we are using them for educational purposes, cutting and pasting images into your slides will be considered "fair use". Slides should still attribute the source of any images or ideas at the bottom of each slide.
• Your presentation will be judged on a number of criteria:
  -What makes this topic important to us as a class? In general, how does this specific subject illustrate something that we can all understand using the tools we've learned in the course? How do principles of kinetics and/or thermodynamics play roles in your topic?
  -Are slides clear and concise? Use figures and simple words, and not text, to show what you are trying to show.
  -How well is the material presented? One mistake presenters sometimes make is to read the presentation to the group. Instead, you should be prepared to say things spontaneously that are not on your slides or in your notes to yourself. Preparation is certainly valuable, but be ready to connect with your audience.
  -How do the examples you've chosen to review illustrate the general topic? Put less emphasis on technical detail, and more on how the specific examples show concepts.
• Any number of people from the group can present.
• Your whole group will be assigned a single grade. There is not really an effective way for us to grade group members individually.