[staff-physics-and-astronomy-HL-UHD-UD] Fwd: [VWP-l] request for projects for 1st year BSc course

Fri Mar 17 09:10:47 CET 2023

Dear colleagues,

Following up Joost's reminder yesterday: right now our department has 
submitted a grand total of *one* description for a 1st year BSc lab 
project.

I think that missing out on the 1st year BSc lab project would be a pity 
and a lost opportunity to get Physics students interested in the 
research we do in our groups.

As mentioned at the staff lunch, a "lite" version of the 2nd year 
Research Practicum would be perfectly fine.

In case of questions, please get in touch with Clara and Joshua. 
Deadline is March 24th.

Best,
Juan

-------------------------------------------------
Prof. Dr. Juan Rojo
Professor of Theoretical Physics
(Hoogleraar Theoretische Natuurkunde)
----
Department of Physics and Astronomy, VU Amsterdam,
De Boelelaan 1081, 1081HV Amsterdam, and
Nikhef Theory Group, Science Park 105,
1098 XG Amsterdam, The Netherlands
----
Webpage: http://www.juanrojo.com/
Zoom: https://vu-live.zoom.us/my/juanrojo
E-mail: j.rojo at vu.nl
         j.rojo at nikhef.nl
-----------------------------------------------

-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject: 	Re: [VWP-l] request for projects for 1st year BSc course
Date: 	Thu, 16 Mar 2023 15:04:11 +0000
From: 	Joost van Mameren <J.vanMameren at uva.nl>
To: 	vwp.nat.few at listserver.vu.nl <vwp.nat.few at listserver.vu.nl>
CC: 	Joshua Dijksman <j.a.dijksman at uva.nl>, Clara Nellist <c.nellist at uva.nl>

Dear colleagues,

This is a reminder that we are still looking for Projects for the 1^st 
year students. There are eight days left to submit some. If you have any 
questions, please let us know.

Best regards, also on behalf of Joshua and Clara,

Joost

*From:*Joshua Dijksman
*Sent:* Friday, 24 February 2023 19:49
*To:* Clara Nellist <c.nellist at uva.nl <mailto:c.nellist at uva.nl>>
*Subject:* request for projects for 1st year BSc course

(apologies for duplicates)

Dear Amsterdam-based Physicist or Astronomer,

*tl;dr:*Please submit your proposals for 1st year projects in June at 
the following link: 
https://uva.fra1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0dlEPOf8wkgaq2y
<https://eur04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fuva.fra1.qualtrics.com%2Fjfe%2Fform%2FSV_0dlEPOf8wkgaq2y&data=05%7C01%7CJ.vanMameren%40uva.nl%7C548e2d01f24d4f36813508db25242859%7Ca0f1cacd618c4403b94576fb3d6874e5%7C0%7C0%7C638144609451836042%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=e2GpSnUYw2LFEjFAyPMHg0XSinNta9qrSjgdm%2FD3di8%3D&reserved=0>Deadline: 
*March 24th eob*

/huh?/

As you may have heard, the UvA/VU Physics and Astronomy BSc program is 
aiming to make the experimental research activities in the Amsterdam 
area (i.e. your work) more visible in its program. In this context, we 
have announced in several staff meetings that we will be looking for 
your help in this.

We would like to hear from you whether you can make time and capacity 
available in your research lab to supervise groups of students (*3-5 
students per group*) in the month of June. If you already know what this 
is all about, you can go directly to the Project submission form, where 
you will need to fill out some details for the project, among which:

   * Your name/email
   * Optional: intended (PhD/PD) supervisor name/email
   * Project Title
   * Project Description
   * # students per team
   * # teams
   * Optional: have some literature available to upload

/Project submission form: 
//https://uva.fra1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0dlEPOf8wkgaq2y/ 
<https://eur04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fuva.fra1.qualtrics.com%2Fjfe%2Fform%2FSV_0dlEPOf8wkgaq2y&data=05%7C01%7CJ.vanMameren%40uva.nl%7C548e2d01f24d4f36813508db25242859%7Ca0f1cacd618c4403b94576fb3d6874e5%7C0%7C0%7C638144609451836042%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=e2GpSnUYw2LFEjFAyPMHg0XSinNta9qrSjgdm%2FD3di8%3D&reserved=0>

*The deadline for submission is March 24th eob*

More background and practical information:

The students need to work about *two weeks fulltime* in the lab total, 
to be distributed over the first three weeks of June. They will spend 
the remaining time on training on how to perform teamwork, Github use, 
poster presentation and video communication. Training on teamwork will 
be provided by others. It is NOT needed to keep the entire team busy 
with lab work - they need to also read literature, make a poster, 
animation, do data analysis: dividing labor is a skill they need to 
learn as well.

In our course, which will run in the month of June ‘23, we aim to train 
students in (1) the scientific skill of “ownership” (2) team work (3) 
scientific group attitude (4) poster presentation and (5) animation. For 
a more detailed rubric draft, please see the following link; feedback is 
welcome.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/18pqYuDykzg6rXrjDXqg1UGeCBoduC1ai/view?usp=sharing 
<https://eur04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdrive.google.com%2Ffile%2Fd%2F18pqYuDykzg6rXrjDXqg1UGeCBoduC1ai%2Fview%3Fusp%3Dsharing&data=05%7C01%7CJ.vanMameren%40uva.nl%7C548e2d01f24d4f36813508db25242859%7Ca0f1cacd618c4403b94576fb3d6874e5%7C0%7C0%7C638144609451836042%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=Rg9bu1mxoN6%2BLk6dyO6%2F2l9kRHGyEis8UK%2B1KPuRLOM%3D&reserved=0>

You can see there is considerable flexibility as to what the students 
should do. Students can:

   * Get confronted with a simple experiment and let them
     describe/rationalize observations.
   * Repeat experiment from a PhD student/postdoc at slightly different
     settings
   * Perform data analysis on a (new) data set with (new) code and
     perform some systematic study
   * Build a necessary component in a slightly different way
   * Prepare a sample in a different way (if sample prep is reasonably
     involved)

In all these tasks, the idea is to *spark creativity, curiosity, 
ownership*. The project is best designed to have a fixed 1-3 day 
experimental part in the beginning to get going with the activity with 
something that you know will work. After this initial phase, the 
students are requested to come up with a research question by 
themselves, guided by the supervisor. *For examples of projects*, please 
see here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PAY-KV7MCnuxIVElT0-D1xhI8qCzoaMt/view?usp=sharing 
<https://eur04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdrive.google.com%2Ffile%2Fd%2F1PAY-KV7MCnuxIVElT0-D1xhI8qCzoaMt%2Fview%3Fusp%3Dsharing&data=05%7C01%7CJ.vanMameren%40uva.nl%7C548e2d01f24d4f36813508db25242859%7Ca0f1cacd618c4403b94576fb3d6874e5%7C0%7C0%7C638144609451836042%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=24aiIaGGWZ1i9NMiF%2FFyG%2F4VmaEydZ3Wn1bPMny7QgY%3D&reserved=0>

The project phases will consist of the students

   * Studying research literature (in April/May, before starting the
     project),
   * Performing some (basic) experiment hosted by a research group in
     early June
   * Presenting the research work in a poster and short video in the last
     week of June.

If this sounds familiar: one existing approach to expose students to 
research is via the second year BSc “Research Practicum”, in which 
students get to interact for one week with a scientist and work on a 
suitable project. *Our course will come before the “Research Practicum”* 
and you are encouraged to participate in both (with the same topic), as 
the learning goals for both courses differ substantially.

Note: we have probed the students' interests in research topics with a 
draft booklet with very brief topic descriptions. We have made a first 
grouping of research activities per topic and will so be able to use 
these preferences to build the teams. The booklet no doubt contains 
inaccuracies and statements you feel are not 100% to the point. The 
booklet was put together under time pressure and will in this form only 
be used once. We intend to use an improved version of this booklet next 
year, so please send us your feedback! Please find the draft booklet here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BPVX513a2vnkdbBO8yPHaUqgCKDb-8i1/view?usp=sharing 
<https://eur04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdrive.google.com%2Ffile%2Fd%2F1BPVX513a2vnkdbBO8yPHaUqgCKDb-8i1%2Fview%3Fusp%3Dsharing&data=05%7C01%7CJ.vanMameren%40uva.nl%7C548e2d01f24d4f36813508db25242859%7Ca0f1cacd618c4403b94576fb3d6874e5%7C0%7C0%7C638144609451992254%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=N9fOBG1n0dIpxRbKTO7FVu04nbaXXE4UgSOVtuw8N64%3D&reserved=0>

We will make sure that your project gets assigned to students who have 
indicated interest in the topic of your project.

Any further questions can be sent to:

c.nellist at uva.nl <mailto:c.nellist at uva.nl>

j.a.dijksman at uva.nl <mailto:j.a.dijksman at uva.nl>

Have a nice weekend!

Clara, Joshua
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