ASTR 500 - Spring 2017
Jon Holtzman

You can find this document online at: http://astronomy.nmsu.edu/holtz/a500. In the online version, I'll put electronic links to the papers.

Basic goals of seminar are some combination of delving deeper into specific topics than we might in a class (or delve into topics that are not covered in a class) and practice in making presentations.

To combine these, we will choose 3 topics, and have everybody do a presentation in each one. We will do 2 presentations a week; with 8 students, that is 4 weeks per topic, and 12 total weeks.

Candidate seminar topics were solicited and edited after some discussion to:

• science with MaNGA/integral field spectroscopy
• nucleosynthesis
• science with ALMA
• moons
• exoplanets
• planet formation
• disks
• binary stars
• AGN
• high energy
• supernovae

Everyone ranked these, and the 3 winners were: disks, nucleosynthesis, and supernovae. We decided to do these in the order: disks, supernovae, nucleosynthesis.

Papers and presentation schedule

For a Friday seminar, presenters must email to the class the paper they will present by Monday 5:00 of the presentation week. Presenters must email to the class a draft presentation by Thurdsay 5:00 (subsequent modifications are allowed, but it should be a mostly complete draft).

We are shooting for 20-25 minute presentations to allow some additional time for questions/discussion.

Date	Presenter	Paper	Presentation
Disks
2/10	Emma	A ring system detected around the Centaur (10199) Chariklo	ppt
2/10	Rebecca	GAS GIANT PLANET FORMATION IN THE PHOTOEVAPORATING DISK. I. GAP FORMATION
2/17	Jodi	How Prometheus creates structure in Saturn’s F ring
2/17	Trevor	THE MAGNETIC FIELD IN THE CLASS 0 PROTOSTELLAR DISK OF L1527
2/27, Monday	Rachel	FORMING EQUATORIAL RINGS AROUND DYING STARS
2/27, Monday	Sean	The winds from HL Tau
3/3	Drew	Cyclic variability of the circumstellar disk of the Be star ζ Tauri. II. Testing the 2D global disk oscillation model
3/3	Caitlin	On the fragmentation boundary in magnetised self-gravitating discs
Supernovae
3/10	Emma
3/10	Jodi
3/17	Rachel
3/17	Caitlin
3/24 (spring break)	NONE
3/31	Trevor
3/31	Sean
4/7	Drew
4/7	Rebecca
Nucleosynthesis
4/17	Jodi
4/17	Sean
4/21	Caitlin
4/21	Rachel
4/28	Trevor
4/28	Emma
5/5	Drew
5/5	Rebecca

What makes a good presentation?

From our class discussion and previous seminars:

• Content
  • plus: give take-away points, sufficient depth, goals, logical progression, context, physical interpretations, pictures, thorough background, good story, results tied to background, mastery and comfort of subject

  • minus: not too much technical details/techniques, weak conclusions, too much detail, talk too long (too much material? or stretching material out too much)

• Form
  • plus: clean background on slides, see labels (size) and points (color), speak at audience, use pointer, engaging graphics, speak loud and clear, speak well extemporaneously, good use of movement

  • minus: too much text on slide, poor color choices, extensive equations, extra slide for outline of talk, erratic laser pointer, repeated words, distracting mannerisms, over-apology, lack of movement or too much movement, over apology

• Nancy's tips

• Tip link recommended by Anatoly

Evaluation

General categories:

• Choice of material / quality (content) of oral presentation
• Mechanics of graphic presentation
• Mechanics of oral presentation

We will use a standard evaluation form for each presentation. Each student will fill one of these out for each presentation, as will I. I'll compile the results, and students should come and discuss these will me sometime relatively shortly after the presentation.

Seminar grades will depend on the weekly evaluations, and I will also keep track of the quantity/quality of participation of everybody in questions/discussion.