Syllabus BI491 J – Pulver Science Scholars First-Year Seminar and Beyond
Fridays 1-1:50 PM in LJ100 or via Zoom or other locations as announced
This 1-credit seminar will meet once per week on Fridays at 1 PM (activities on other days/times may substitute). The goal is to foster a community of science scholars through shared readings, discussions, visiting speakers, Colby faculty speakers, etc. The seminar is 1 credit per semester, running both Fall and Spring semesters, and will be graded based on participation and contribution.
Participation includes:
- Attendance at regularly-scheduled Friday 1 PM classes
- Contributing to class discussion (including asking questions of seminar speakers)
- Completing assigned reading
- Completing various “set-up” tasks (ex. interviews with Trisha, getting a photo to me, others…)
Pulver Science Blog: We have a Blog on the website that will be a voluntary activity, not a mandatory one (at least for fall – we can revisit in spring). I’m hoping we’ll populate the blog with various things over the fall and spring: pix of activities, writings, reactions to events/situations, etc… Just to get an idea of some things to consider, see these Buck lab examples (scroll down to “Recently Funded Projects” and these other longer Buck posts. I anticipate that this blog will become populated over the course of your 4 years with all sorts of things – summer/Jan Plan research projects, study-abroad opportunities, etc. You should note that all summer fellowships from all Colby-sponsored programs require an end-of-summer/Jan Plan report that may be submitted as a blog post.
Social Media: On the website, we can attach plug-ins to social media – Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, etc. This is a way to keep the community and people outside the community aware and involved in what you’re doing. Again, this is a voluntary activity, not a mandatory one. We will have an email address – [email protected] (not yet active) with which to set up those accounts.
Personal Style: Within the sciences, we encounter a variety of personalities and preferences that create a rich community – introverts to extroverts, those who enjoy social media and those who do not, those who enjoy writing and those who do not, those who prefer the lab to the field, astronomy to computer science, etc. You may also change your interests and level of engagement over time – lots will change over the course of 4 years! So there is plenty of time to discover your own preferred ways of contributing to the program.