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Summary: This handout describes the process of mentoring graduate students’ PowerPoint presentations in a graduate-level seminar course at Rice University. Although it was specifically written for the Biochemistry/Cell Biology graduate seminar class at Rice (BIOS 581/2), it could be adapted for any course in which student presenters are paired with mentors who coach them on their oral presentations.
Seminar Mentors are postdocs and upper-level graduate students from the Department of Biochemistry & Cell Biology who have been selected by faculty to advise BIOS 581/2 speakers. Mentors help speakers prepare effective seminars by meeting with them a few days before their seminars and reviewing their slide presentations. Mentors then attend the seminars and provide feedback to the speakers afterward. Mentors comment on the speaker’s slides, delivery, and handling of questions, thereby helping students understand how to improve their seminars in the future.
Whenever possible, a speaker is paired with a Mentor who is a semi-expert in the speaker’s area of research. With this kind of pairing, mentors can provide the best possible feedback on scientific explanations while also being attentive to the needs of the diverse BIOS 581/2 audience.
Mentors focus their attention on students with less experience giving presentations, although students with more experience may have the choice of working with a mentor. Requirements for students are outlined below.
You are required to meet twice with a Mentor (once before and once after your seminar). A Mentor assigned to you will contact you by email approximately two weeks before your scheduled presentation. Four to seven days before your seminar, you will meet with your Mentor, show your slides, and “talk through” your presentation (this is not a formal rehearsal with projected slides; you may sit at a computer together). If you have little experience with presentations, you should schedule this meeting well in advance of the seminar—you may wish to revise and meet again with your Mentor before your scheduled seminar date.
Your mentor will attend your seminar and meet with you the following week to discuss your presentation.
You are required to meet with your Mentor just once, before your seminar, to talk through your slides. Your Mentor will attend your seminar and email you feedback afterward.
You are encouraged but not required to meet with a Mentor. Consult the BIOS 581 website at http://www.bioc.rice.edu/bios581 for the names and contact information of this year’s Mentors. Please contact the Mentor you wish to work with at least one week in advance of your desired meeting date.
Students in 6th year of study or higher will not work with a Seminar Mentor.
You are highly encouraged to give a copy of your presentation to your advisor a week before your seminar. Your advisor can provide feedback on key details of your slides.
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This work is licensed by The Cain Project in Engineering and Professional Communication under a Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY 2.0), and is an Open Educational Resource.
Last edited by The Cain Project in Engineering and Professional Communication on Jun 10, 2008 1:57 pm GMT-5.
