The St. Olaf Catalog
lists as one requirement for the chemistry major, the "Attendance at 12
departmental seminars after declaration of major.” This means 12 seminars from the time you
declare a chemistry major until you graduate. Our goal in this
article is to explain the reasoning behind this requirement and to share with
you some tips that will help make this experience a good one for you, your
professors, and your invited seminar speaker alike. First the why, then the how.
Seminars are educational.
Speaking for the faculty in the chemistry department, we strongly believe that
all of us—students and faculty—benefit from taking the time each week to listen
to the story of science being told by someone from beyond our local environs.
It’s simply impossible for a group of about a dozen faculty members in a
department to cover all of the various perspectives of chemistry. By bringing
in speakers from other academic departments, various companies and
chemistry-related governmental agencies, we try to gain insight into what
chemistry is like "in the real world." We want to learn about areas
with which we aren’t very familiar. By setting aside this time and
encouraging you as a student to join us, we are saying to you, "Learning
chemistry is a life-long endeavor. Keep it up!" In addition, just
as anyone learning to write should read, those hoping to better their
own speaking skills should listen to others speak. Listening to
seminar speakers do their thing (some of whom will be great) gives us useful
tips for making effective presentations ourselves. If nothing else, it gives us
an appreciation for how hard it is to get up in front of a group of strangers
and say anything meaningful.
Additionally, quite
frankly, the reason we have the requirement of seminar
attendance is that it’s necessary. We all have the same tendency to do only
what we need to do to get the job done. In the case of earning a
chemistry major, that means taking the courses and getting the grades, right?
Seminars are a bit like brushing your teeth. Their benefit may not be
immediately obvious, but, done regularly, listening to seminars will really produce
results. Seminars are such a different sort of experience—one
few high school students ever have—that it takes some time to understand how
much can be gained from them. By requiring twelve seminars, we figure that you
will either (a) realize how important (and difficult!) speaking and
communicating science is, or at the very least (b) learn a little about the
world that you never would have learned listening to the bunch of us rattle on
in class about how cool chemistry is.
Now for the How:
Virtually all of our seminars will occur in rooms that have doors at the
front of the room (RNS 310, 390, 150). This is problematic for speakers and
listeners alike. Here are a few tips for handling a late
entry to, or early exit from, a room where the doors are at
the front. First, it’s OK to come late or leave
early. We all have busy schedules. But, what should
you do in order to remain as
unobtrusive as possible? For a late arrival: take a peek
in the window of one door and see where the action is—usually projection
will be happening in the center of the room, but check to be sure before
sneaking in. Also, while
peeking in the window, be looking for which door gives easier access to a
seat. Turn off your cell phone while still in the hall. Dig
through your backpack for paper and pen before coming into the
room. Quietly enter the room from the door that interferes
least with the presentation and
find a seat with as little commotion as possible. The doors close rather
noisily when left to their own devices; try to minimize the noise by staying
just inside the door and helping it close gently. Do not stop
to get a treat to nibble...you’re late...just find a seat! Especially if your entry brings more upheaval
than you planned, it would be polite to apologize to the speaker for your late
entry, after the seminar is over. It can be unsettling
to a speaker to be processing major upheaval in the audience and trying to
maintain their train of thought.
What about leaving
early? This is often a bigger problem. Our seminar
speakers are asked to keep their presentations to 45 minutes plus the
ever-present question and answer session. This does not mean that
they all manage to wrap things up in a timely fashion. Common
courtesy requires that the audience stay present and attentive until a
speaker is finished AND while others are asking questions. If
you know in advance that you will need to leave early it is most polite to
introduce yourself to the speaker before the seminar and
simply say, "Hi, I'm Bonnie Hills. I just thought I'd let you
know that I may have to leave early in order to catch my ski team bus for
practice this afternoon, but I didn't want to miss your
talk." EVERY speaker appreciates this. Now,
follow this up by sitting at a place from which a quick and easy escape can be
made and help the door close gently once you are in the hall. There's
simply nothing more unsettling for a speaker than to have people sneaking out
of a seminar half-way through. What did I say? Is my
presentation that boring? Not pleasant thoughts
when you are up in front of a crowd of
strangers. Faculty members often forewarn seminar speakers
about our schedules, needing to keep tabs on lab students, running to a meeting
in another building, etc. We hope you’ll join us in trying to make every
speaker’s visit to our department as pleasant as possible.
What about asking
questions of the speaker? Please do! It's a good idea to
always plan to ask at least one question. Always plan to stay for
the question/answer period and make it more fun and educational by asking your
question. The question/answer period won’t be shorter if you don’t
ask your question, because faculty members will step in with questions of their
own. It’s actually polite to ask a few questions...the speaker will feel
better connected to the audience. The more questions students ask, the
fewer questions faculty will ask. Questions
can be about the science, how the science fits in to other topics, or about the person's career
or institution, etc. One easy question to ask is how the speaker
became interested in the topic, whatever it is. Speakers love
students who ask questions. You'll be surprised to find how pleased
you'll be with your efforts. Some speakers invite questions during their
presentation. If this is the case, raise your hand, wait to be
acknowledged, and ask a question pertinent to the current topic of the presentation. If
the speaker doesn’t notice you and moves on, lower your hand and save your
question for after the presentation. If your question will be asked
after the presentation, it is a good idea to jot it down (there is space on the
seminar attendance card for this) and make a note about the current slide,
if appropriate to the question. Be thinking
about questions during the whole seminar.
If the question/answer
period has already gone on for some time and you have a really important
question to ask, consider keeping it to yourself to allow the seminar room to
be dismissed, and then approaching the speaker with your question (introduce
yourself first) after the room has emptied. You will have the
benefit of the speaker's full attention and your colleagues will be free to
pursue their other commitments.
Now, a note about
seminar attendance cards. These cards
are pretty straight-forward to fill out but we want to call attention to one
particular section: you may suggest
future seminar speakers or topics. We
take these suggestions seriously, looking through piles of cards before sending
out invitations to prospective seminar speakers. So, keep the ideas coming! Where does your card end up? A faculty member collects these cards and
delivers them to the Chemistry Department office (RNS 336). Your attendance is then tallied in the
“Grades” section of the Moodle course called “Chemistry Major.” You can see your total seminar count and the
dates of each seminar attended. Students
who have declared a chemistry major automatically get enrolled in this Moodle
course. Rarely has a mistake been made
in tallying these cards, but if you want to protect yourself, take a photo of
your filled-out card before turning it in.
We will be happy to look for an un-tallied card if you can show us a
photo of it!
Did we mention
lunch? Very often our seminar speakers are here for lunch and are
most interested in being accompanied by students. You can explore
their area of science or their area of the country. You can get
their take on what courses are most important for your
interests. You can find out what they like most about their jobs or
what jobs their graduate students seem to prefer. There's a
lot to learn about the world out there and this is a great opportunity
to perform a bit of research for your future. If you are
interested in an occasional lunch-time chat with a seminar speaker, just let Laurie
Prior (RNS 336) know. It’s fun to eat at the King's Room
instead of Stav Hall from time to time (and the desserts are fantastic)! Most
of our seminars are on Thursdays or Fridays; so if you are free at lunch time
on either day (or both), volunteer to take speakers to lunch.
See you soon, enjoy
the donuts!
