| Professor: |
Dr M-G
|
| Office: | 202B Love (in
which I hold office hours)
|
| Phone: | (850 64)4 2580
|
| Email: | mesterto@math.fsu.edu
|
| Web site: | http://www.math.fsu.edu/~mesterto |
| Course
page: |
http://www.math.fsu.edu/~mesterto/bp.html
(this
page—but
obviously, if you are reading a hard copy of it,
then you won't be able to
activate the links until you go online) |
|
Class meets: |
in 200 LOV, Tuesdays and Thursdays 3:35-4:50 p.m.
|
| Prerequisite: |
Professor M-G's consent |
| Credit: |
3 semester hours |
| Text: |
None |
| Course goal: |
This is a learning-by-doing course. The goal is
threefold:
- To improve both oral and written presentational
skills.
- To become a better criticizer of
science.
- To discover how to write a grant proposal for
the National Science Foundation (NSF).
So the doing is likewise threefold. You will be
required:
- To give three oral presentations on a project
of your choosing; to become proficient at
typesetting scientific documents, preferably with LaTeX; to
use LaTeX, or an equivalent, to write the project
description (Section d) for an NSF grant proposal
in
the required format; and to submit it to me in
timely fashion as a .pdf file—in draft form by
various agreed deadlines during the semester, and
in final form by April 23.
- To read and criticize the other students'
proposals, and to submit written evaluations of
them (again as .pdf files) to me by various agreed
deadlines. In effect the other students in the
class will serve as a mock NSF review panel for
your proposal.
- (a subset of 1.) To draft an NSF grant proposal
in
the required format. NSF limits you to 15 pages
(excluding references, including pictures), but
that includes space for describing results of
previously funded projects and other issues, which
probably do not yet apply to you. So aim for 10-12
pages (and remember that a really good picture can
be worth at least 1000 words).
|
| Tentative schedule: |
In a course of this nature it is important to
maintain a somewhat flexible schedule and adapt as the
semester progresses. For example, some of you may
already have chosen a project and be virtually ready
for your first presentation; whereas others may not
have chosen a project yet—in which case, choosing
a project is clearly the first priority. Nevertheless,
the necessary flexibility is subject to constraints
(most obviously, everything must be finished by the end
of the semester). So deadlines, once set, must be
observed. We probably cannot deviate much from the
following broad outline. In any event—throughout
the semester—I will discuss expectations for each
stage of the process in class, and at the end of each
period we will agree on an agenda for the following
period before adjourning.
| Weeks 1-3 |
|
Finalize your choice of project. Prepare
for your first presentation. |
| Weeks 2-4 |
|
Make your first presentation (of a length
to be determined, but somewhere in the range of
15-30 minutes). It should describe, in general
terms, your choice of project, your current
state of knowledge and the question(s) you
propose to answer. |
| Weeks 2-7 |
|
Work on the first written draft of your
project description. Keep in mind that this
document could be—although it does not
have to be—the basis of your Advanced
Topics or Candidacy exam. |
| Weeks 5-7 |
|
Make your second presentation. It should
identity the specific aims of your project and
describe how you propose to obtain preliminary
results. |
| Week 7 |
|
Submit the first written draft of your
project description (to me, as a .pdf file).
Aim for 6-10 pages. I will redistribute these
documents to the entire class. |
| Week 8 |
|
Submit written evaluations of the other
students' first drafts of their project
descriptions (to me, as .pdf files). Because
we would like to mimic the NSF review process
as closely as possible, these evaluations
should be anonymous (so don't sign): before I
redistribute them to the entire class, I will
incorporate them into a single .pdf for each
student. Nevertheless, be encouraging (as
opposed to negative). Good criticism is always
constructive and helpful. Your job is to help
your fellow students improve their proposals as
much as possible, and their job is to do the
same for you. (A good maxim is to criticize so
that, should you inadvertently reveal that you
were the author of an evaluation, then nobody
would be the least bit offended.) |
| Weeks 8-11 |
|
Work on the second written draft of your
project description. |
| Week 9 |
|
Participate in a classroom discussion of
how to improve each proposal, thus concluding
the first review stage. |
| Weeks 10-12 |
|
Make your third and final presentation.
It should describe your preliminary results. |
| Week 11 |
|
Submit the second written draft of your
project description. Aim for 10-12 pages. (This
guideline is intended less to suggest that you
will need only 2 pages to describe preliminary
results than to indicate that your preliminary
results may supersede a significant part of
your earlier draft.) |
| Week 12 |
|
Submit written evaluations of the other
students' second drafts of their project
descriptions. |
| Weeks 12-15 |
|
Work on the final version of your project
description. |
| Week 13 |
|
Participate in a classroom discussion of
how to improve each proposal, thus concluding
the second review stage. |
| Week 15 |
|
Submit the final version of your project
description. |
|
| Your grade: |
Will be based on attendance (10%) and the quality
of your written work: 60% for your proposal, 30% for
your (constructive and helpful) evaluations of everyone else's proposals. |
| Communication: | It is your responsibility to
register here for a
(free) FSU computer account so that I can send you email, which you are
expected to check regularly. If you prefer to read your email elsewhere
then you can arrange to have messages
forwarded, but you must still obtain an FSU account in the first
instance. |
| Your name: |
I don't know who you are, but because everything works so much
better when I do, I would like to learn your name as soon as possible.
Please take a sheet of paper, fold it in half, write your first name in
large letters on one side and stand it up on your desk so that I can
see it. (Write whatever you want me to call you—if you're a
William who likes to be called Dubya, write Dubya, not William.) Please
bring your name plate to class until I have finally learnt your name
(which will probably take significantly longer than it used to take
when I started out). |
| Etiquette: |
You are firmly bound by Florida State University's Academic Honor Code (briefly, you have the
responsibility to uphold the highest standards of academic integrity in
your own work, to refuse to tolerate violations of academic integrity
in the University community, and to foster a high sense of integrity
and social responsibility on the part of the University community).
Although you may—and should!—discuss your ideas with others,
the proposal you present must be your very own work. |
| Disabilities: | If you have a disability
requiring academic accommodations, then not only should you register with
the Student Disability Resource Center (SDRC), but also you
should bring me
written confirmation from SDRC during the first week of class. |