Week 1
- W Aug 19 First day of class. Introductions and introductions. Homework: check out The Great Brain Experiment. If you have a smart phone and feel like participating, download the app and play 6 games to completion. Be ready to talk about your experiences in class. If you’d rather be a bystander, read up on idea with this BBC article on the topic, this University College London report on its progress and read up on the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging that’s funding it.
Week 2
- M Aug 25 Let’s talk about The Great Brain Experiment (groupr write) and the Science it produces. One on Crowdsourcing for Cognitive Science, the other about “dissociating distractor-filtering.” Group 1 Summary. Group 2 Summary
Introduce Unit 1, writing the literature review: (“Cleft Palate Care in Resource Limited Settings.”
Homework: using one of UNC’s databases, WEB OF SCIENCE, find an article–a lit review is best but it can be ANY article (in the sciences) on a topic of your choosing. For instance, if I’m interested in looking at octopus intelligence I might search for the terms: octopus, intelligence, review, I might find this citation and abstract that offers one type of review. You can get the full article by clicking on the blue “find at UNC” button on the navigation page. - W Aug 27 Literature Reviews: history of a genre. Generating ideas, looking at science journals: find a solid topic. Doing effective library research.
Homework: find a topic and at least four articles on that topic. Make sure these articles cover breadth as well as depth. Write a brief summary of at LEAST one of these articles (two to four sentences).*Weekly Science Article: Check out science writer Maria Konnakova’s breakdown of the science of creativity. Note that her use of Galton is a little whitewashed. She emphasizes Galton’s search for positive inheritable traits–like genius–while obscuring most of his more questionable science, which formed the foundations for eugenics and the exploration of (what he called “typing”) the physical characteristics of criminals as well as the insane. Today, we call this type of activity is akin to “profiling,” and not the cool CSI type of profiling but the unjust profiling that informs most racial profiling incidents. A famous incident involving unjust racial profiling occurred in 2009, when police arrested Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr (a prominent African American intellectual) while trying to enter his OWN HOME).
Week 3
- M Sept 1 NO CLASS: Labor Day. While the first Labor Day parade took place on September 5, 1882 in NYC, Grover Cleveland essentially invented the national holiday in 1894 to appease a violent striking railroad workers who were being exploited by the Pullman factory in Pullman, Illinois. No kidding. Enjoy your long weekend and watch out for bad weather.
- W Sept 3 Annotated bibliographies + reading previous research and identifying trends and patterns.
Homework: complete your annotated bibliography
Week 4
- M Sept 8 Annotated bibliography workshop. Homework: Revise your annotated bibliography for submission
- W Sept 10 Annotated bibliographies due via email. Send to sarahboyd@unc.edu. I’ll send feedback by Friday, September 12. In class today we’ll be making connections: Making a Design Plan. panda lit review
Homework: write a summary of your topic based on your annotated bibliography. If you wish to begin shaping it into a Literature Review, feel free to start but all I want for monday is a summary of your topic based on the research you’ve done thus far.
Week 5
- M Sept 15 Summary Drafting Workshop and Talking about Integrative vs. Descriptive literature reviews. Homework: find one literature review on a topic related to your own. Read and write a review summary of your topic based on your annotated bibliography. Email it to me, sarahboyd@unc.edu by 2pm on Wednesday September 17.
- W Sept 17 UNC science trivia! And Help the Smithsonian with Transcriptions (optional!). Sign up and transcribe a page from a project of your choice. EMAIL me your responses to the trivia. If you decide to do the transcription, and a brief (two to three sentence) account of what project you helped transcribe and the page you transcribed. DUE: THURSDAY SEPT. 18 VIA EMAIL: sarahboyd@unc.edu
Homework: find ONE literature review. I recommend using the database, Web of Science. You can do a preliminary search using the main search engine, but then will want to specify the “document type” on the left-hand side bar to narrow your results to “reviews” or “literature reviews.” Read your lit review and prepare to discuss on Monday. Revise your summaries!
Week 6
- M Sept 22 Lit Reviews. Genre Conventions and Beginning and Ending. The perfect outline. Homework: complete a draft your literature review!
- W Sept 24 Literature Review Drafting Day. And guest science speaker, Matthew Revilla will talk about his work in cancer research at UNC’s medical school. Matthew is a social/clinical research assistant. Workshop. Homework: revise your literature review
Week 7
- M Sept 29 Literature Review Due. Uploaded in class to our website. Begin Unit 2. Calendar review and assignment expectations. Then we look into getting started. How to prepare for a SURF grant. No Homework.
- W Oct 1 Unit 2: Office of Undergraduate Research and Why it’s awesome: featuring, Donna Bickford. What is a SURF grant?Exploring possibilities. An analysis of past recipients and looking into undergraduate research possibilities. Begin preliminary search using the OUR’s Database of Undergraduate Research Opportunities. Homework: begin thinking about what type of project you might want to write for your SURF grant. Find at LEAST TWO that interest you.
Week 8
- M Oct 6 Sharing ideas: UR opportunities discussion. Tackling the list: CVs and email etiquette. Homework: create a CV geared toward your SURF research interest.
- W Oct 8 Unit 2 CV drafting Workshop. Today we’ll be looking at some sample CV templates from the UNC school of medicine and the Careerolina. And some real life undergraduate CV/Resumes: Computer Science BS resume
Public Health and Medicine resume
Music and Physics resume
Homework: Revise your CV
Week 9
- M Oct 13 CV due via email by 2pm. Writing the SURF grant: Sample Grant Proposal HIV intervention. Homework: Begin drafting your SURF application: Outline goals and significance.
- W Oct 15 Drafting workshop for goals and significance. The IRB and why it matters. Homework: revise SURF draft.
Week 10
- M Oct 20 Effective Speaking exercise. Critiquing the Grant Proposal. Consumer awareness grant proposal example
Homework: Revise your SURF application. - W Oct 22 Final SURF grant Drafting Workshop. Elocution exercises. Sign up for presentations. Homework: revise your SURF application! Prepare for presentations.
Week 11
- M Oct 27 presentations: Frank, Grace, and talking about stuff
- W Oct 29 presentations: Kat, Joe, Cath, Kenya, Deavyn, Nikki
Week 12
- M Nov 3 presentations: Jessica, Steven, Bryan, Kiana, Philip
- W Nov 5 presentations: Tommy, Samuel, Tay, Carter, Mary, Jon
Week 13
- M Nov 10 What IS popular science writing? A history of a genre.
homework: “This is a news website article about a scientific paper” & “On jargon, and why it matters in science writing” - W Nov 12 On jargon and the popular science format. Science through the genres: “Oxytocin promotes group-serving dishonesty” in an academic publication versus more hefty science journalism versus popular science blogging . Genre Analysis of a science blog.
Science Research. Finding the Perfect Article.
Homework: Find a VALID scientific study (lengthy, technical and published in an academic scientific publication like PNAS) that you wish to work on for this final project and read The Mouse Trap.
Week 14
- M Nov 17 Writing good summaries and discovering science
- W Nov 19 Science summary drafting workshop. Making Good on Science Blogging and Visualizing Science Blogging.
Homework: Revise your summaries based on feedback for the activities of our next class.
Week 15
- M Nov 24 Summaries due. EMAIL TO ME by 2PM. REVISIONS MEETINGS. SCHEDULE WITH ME BY FRIDAY Nov. 21
Homework: You’ll need to revise your summaries and craft them into rich, interesting blog posts using the visual tools and style exercises we discussed in class on Wednesday (Nov. 19). Finally, you’ll want to search the web to find useful hyperlinks to make your text hyper-rich. I’ll email each of you feedback by Wednesday, Nov. 26. I know, it’s a holiday, but try to block out at least 1-2 hours to review my comments and adding in those visuals and hyperlinks. A polished draft will be due on Monday December 1 when you return from break when we’ll have a final drafting workshop. - W Nov 26 NO CLASSES Thanksgiving Holiday Weekend.
Week 16
- M Dec 1 Final Drafting Workshop. Words, words, words. Revise your drafts.
- W Dec 3 Last Day of Class. Unit 3 Final Project due. To be uploaded in class. THERE IS NO FINAL EXAM. Best of luck on the rest of your exams and enjoy the break.