Physics 485: Senior Honors Seminar Fall 2016

Syllabus

• The aim of this course is to provide you with an opportunity to learn in more depth about a topic in physics that interests you, and at the same time gain experience in doing literature research, preparing a scientific presentation, and writing a scientific article. My role as instructor will be to help you choose an appropriate topic, help answer questions that come up as you research this topic, and provide feedback on the drafts of your paper and your presentation.
• I intend to provide feedback on the scientific content of your paper and its style and use of language. I will give you comments on your initial draft and then reread the revised version. The paper should be submitted as either a PDF file or put up as a web page. It should be "scientific" in style, with an abstract, introduction, the body, and then a conclusion and references.
• Presentations should be created with slides. They will be 20 minutes long, with 10 minutes for discussion (subject to scheduling). You should practice your talk beforehand.
• The final papers, as well as presentations, will be posted on the class web page as they are completed.
• Papers should be 10 pages double spaced. Write all the text yourself, plagarism will not be tolerated.
• I will be on travel for a few classes. I will have a substitute present for the presentations, and I will also to arrange to have the presentations recorded and evaluate them

Assigmnents

1. Propose a topic with a one paragraph abstract, and a list of resources to be used in the research.
2. Give a presentation to the class on the topic
3. Submit a paper on the topic by the 8th week of class on the topic
4. Attend most of the other student's presentations and participate with questions and discussion

Course Grade

Abstract

Presentation

Participation

Paper