CHM4930 -
SENIOR SEMINAR, Section 1
Spring 2010
Instructor: R. Lopez de la Vega Time:
3:00 -4:50 pm
Place: GC 279A
e-mail address: lopezdel@fiu.edu
Office hours: To
be announced
Course objectives: To build professional skills,
including writing a resume, interviewing, searching of chemical and biochemical
databases, reading and comprehension of the chemical and biochemical
literature, selection of a lead reference(s) and an appropriate topic,
preparation and presentation of a seminar, and writing a paper conforming to
It is strongly recommended that this course be
taken during the final semester of enrollment towards completion of your
chemistry degree at Florida International University. It is a “capstone course”. During this course you will take nationally
normed examination in order to compare yourselves with other students at a
national level. The grade for this
portion of the course will be based on your national ranking and your ranking
within the results normally obtained by students graduating from this department.
Grading: Resume 10%
Seminar
presentation 30%
Paper 30%
Attendance 15%
Exit
exam 15%
Forms and links you may find useful:
American
Chemical Society Publications
Description
of Exit Examination
Exit
examination sample questions
Determining
percentile ranking (comparative data)
Notes:
1)
Write and submit a working resume via e-mail as an attachment to Dr. Lopez de
la Vega by Wednesday February 10, 2010. Guidelines can be accessed as follows by
clicking on the link Resume
services. Please note that Career
Services has a “walk-in” resume review service that is free of charge:
1:30-4:30 pm daily except for Tuesdays, GC 230. Please utilize the latter
service and ask the Career Services representative to “sign off” on your resume
before submitting it for credit. All
finalized resumes should be handed in to Dr. Lopez de la Vega by February 10.
2) Your seminar should be
no more than 30 minutes in length: 25 minutes for the talk with 5 minutes for
the question and answer period. Your
seminar and paper may be focused on a topic in chemistry and biochemistry that
highlights at least one article or full paper (no communications, notes,
letters, short articles, perspectives, or reviews) published in January through
January 2010 issues of one or more of the following journals: the Journal
of the American Chemical Society, Biochemistry, Journal of Organic Chemistry,
or Journal of Medicinal Chemistry.
We urge you to consider papers that are from 5-8 published pages. Alternately
your seminar may be about the research you have been carrying out during your
stay at FIU.
You can begin the search for a topic by
electronic profiling of the titles and abstracts of articles provided in the
Table of Contents of the January 2008 through January 2010 issues of the
journal of interest. To initiate this process, go to http://pubs.acs.org,, select the journal of interest,
specify the year (2008 - 2010), and open the Table of Contents for the issue(s)
of interest. Note that you can also
access HTML or PDF versions of entire articles at this site. Alternatively, you
can use a database, such as SciFinder Scholar, to
search for papers on topics of interest to you.
SciFinder Scholar may now be accessed from
home as long as you use the proxy server provided by the FIU library.
Your seminar and paper topic and lead reference(s) must be approved as a
result of a meeting with Dr. Lopez no later than 4 pm on
3) Dates and times for the
seminars will be assigned on a random basis.
If you are unable to give your tal
4) PowerPoint slides are
preferred for the presentation of your seminar.
You will need a laptop computer for your seminar. Please make sure to arrive in the classroom
sufficiently early on the day of your talk to set up the laptop and make sure
that you can access your PowerPoint slides.
5) You must submit an
abstract for your talk to your Dr. Lopez at least one week prior to the day of
your seminar. Also, please provide your
lead instructor with a hard copy of your PowerPoint presentation or your
transparencies on the day of your talk.
6) You must submit a paper
before the beginning of finals week. The
text of your paper should be 5-6 pages in length (single spaced); additional
pages will include figures, tables, photos, and references. The paper should conform to the
7) You will be allowed to
miss one day of seminar presentations without penalty. Additional absences will be penalized up to
5% of your final grade per absence.
8) Failure to take the exit
exam will result in a 15% penalty in your final grade. Failure to score above a threshold level
will result in the same 15% penalty.
9)
Cheating or assisting other students in cheating is a violation of University
policy and will be punished. For further
information please refer to the University Code of
Academic Conduct.
10)
As per University policy, a grade of incomplete will only be given “…for work not completed because of
serious interruption not caused by the student’s own negligence.” An incomplete will only be given after
consultation with me and the preparation and signing of a written agreement
outlining the reason for the incomplete and a timetable for making up the
missing work.
Schedule of Meetings and Other Significant Dates
|
Monday |
Wenesday |
Friday |
Comments |
|
Jan 4 |
Jan
6 Organizational
meeting |
Jan
8 |
|
|
Jan
11 |
Jan
13 |
Jan
15 |
|
|
Jan
18 Martin
Luther King Holiday University is closed |
Jan
20 |
Jan
22 |
|
|
Jan
25 |
Jan 27 There is
no meeting today. Next meeting is on |
Jan
29 |
|
|
Feb
1 |
Feb 3 Deadline
for approval of topic and lead references Meet at GL
245 for a meeting with Meeting with Patricia Pereira Pujol
Information Services Librarian GL 280
“Searching Databases” Attendance is required. Deadline
for formal approval of topic and lead references |
|
|
|
Feb
8 |
Feb 10 Meet in GPA
117 – Need to discuss future scheduling DEADLINE for submission
of resume; please utilize Career Services “walk-in” resume review service
before submitting your resume for credit.
Hand in the critiqued resume and the final version |
|
|
|
Feb
15 |
Feb
17 Exit
Examination Room NHS 205 (nursing building). ATTENDANCE IS MANDATORY |
Feb
19 |
|
|
Feb
22 |
Feb
24 |
Feb
26 |
|
|
Mar
1 |
Mar
3 |
Mar
5 |
|
|
Mar
8 |
Mar
10 Student
Presentations Jessica Zayas Linda La
Paz |
Mar
12 |
|
|
Mar
15 – 19 Spring
Break |
|
||
|
Mar
22 |
Mar 24 Student
Presentations Okechkwu Aniagoh Herman Autore |
Mar
26 |
|
|
Mar
29* Jonathan
Pappas Kevin
Korah Felipa
Urdaneta |
March
31 Student
Presentations Krystle
Rios Hassel
Rojas Bernardo
Vellon Joanna
Villar |
April
2 |
|
|
April
5* Isis
Sosa Joan
Carlos Chavez Camila
Monteiro Leidy
D’elia |
April
7 Student
Presentations Federica
Hulett Alejandro
Conde Perez Patrick
Desamours Adelheid
Pena |
April
9 |
|
|
April
12* Randy
Morales Sahdi
Beshai Adei
Shaqra Richard
Waithe |
April
14 Isel
Suarez Carolina
Valdez Wentworth Ana
Vega Elizabeth
Duran |
|
|
*You are required to
attend the Monday or Wednesday meeting for that particular week. You do not need to attend both.