The basic slot is THURSDAYS 10:30 - noon, through the whole
semester, starting January 17. This will be augmented
as necessary.
Need
Many graduate students (and many faculty, for that matter) have had little
practice in making rough estimates or order of magnitude assessments of
physical problems, and even less practice at "talking through" a
problem with others. The reasons for this are no doubt many and
varied, but a key problem is the tendency for rote memorization to take
precedence over understanding, presumably because it seems "easier" in
a narrow-minded way. All TAs and lecturers in Astro 110 know about
this problem with undergraduates but, amazingly, the same thing extends
all the way to graduate level classes and, perhaps, beyond. The
problem with this is that it leaves you with a diminished capacity for
understanding new things, or any things that have not already been
presented in a pre-packaged, class format. I don't like that.
Aims
The objectives in teaching this seminar are
To emphasize the importance of physical understanding and approximation in science.
To encourage you to "think on your feet" and "talk on your feet".
To encourage you to take a broad perspective and to be scientifically judgemental of others, and of yourselves.
Not coincidentally, the things we will do in Astro 735 will be of value
in your general exam (especially the oral part), where basic
understanding, simple calculations and broad knowledge are the main
things tested. In fact, this seminar was suggested by distressed members
of a recent oral exam committee after facing a number of nearly
content-free students.
Format
I am making this up as I go along, so the format of the seminar will probably change as I see what works and what doesn't. Here are my initial ideas:
It is a 2-unit seminar because there is too much to do in only 1-unit.
It must be interactive to be effective (i.e. you will do things, not just listen to me)
You must take it for credit to be involved. Auditors will not have
sufficient commitment.
The class size is limited by me in order to maintain reasonable
interaction with each person. Acceptance is tilted in favor of 1st and
2nd year (i.e. pre-exam) students.
This year, the class consists of
Vivian U, Geoff Matthews, Tian-Tian Yuan, Brendan Bowler and Sarah Sonnett
and Brian Stuart.
What We Will Do
In one part of the seminar we will solve simple problems
in an order-of-magnitude, physically-based way. We'll do this in-person,
in-class, interactively.
The purpose is to inculcate physically-based reasoning and also to promote
effective on-your-feet communication.
In the second part I want to do the following.
You are required to attend the IFA colloquium each week. After each
colloquium, you should independently email me your "grades" for the
speaker according to simple criteria to be discussed. I will combine
your assessments and we will talk about them in the next seminar meeting.
In addition, I will ask one of you, selected at random, to present a
5 or 10 minute off-the-cuff precis of the colloquium, which we will
also discuss as a group.
In this way, I hope to encourage your critical listening skills, as well as
provoke your judgement about the speaker's style and content.
In the third part, we will hold a simulated Time Allocation Committee meeting
based on the Keck I proposals from 2007B. In this, you will read
the submitted proposals and rank them according to criteria to be
developed in class. Along the way, we will encourage OOM-style
calculations to assess the science and discuss the presentation.
At the end of the exercise, the simulated TAC will allocate time
to the projects. Finally, we will compare those allocations with ones made
by the "real" TAC.
The purpose is to encourage critical reading skills and to develop
an appreciation for what lies behind a successful proposal. This
might help you write better proposals yourselves, in the coming years.
Preparation
OOM thinking won't work without a platform of basic numbers that
you should carry in your head. Over the xmas vacation,
you should have made sure that your brain carries the fundamental physical
constants. I use MKS units (kg m s) for everything.
